Category: Preaching

What should happen on Sunday? The 8 “E’s” of the Lord’s Day.

by romans122life, posted in Bible, Christianity, Preaching, Worship

The Lord’s Day is special.  It is the only day of the week where most of us get a break from the normal rhythms of our life.  It is also a day when we get a small foretaste of eternity.  Richard Baxter provides a great reminder of this when he said, “What fitter day to ascend to heaven, than that on which He arose from earth, and fully triumphed over death and hell. Use your Sabbaths as steps to glory, till you have passed them all, and are there arrived.”  What a blessing that Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is. 

            When I think about what should take place on a typical Lord’s Day I find myself coming up with at least 8 things that should be present each week.    

Exalting  

            The Lord’s Day is the Lord’s day.  It is about celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.  It is about worshiping Him and Him alone.  This is how the day should begin and end.  It is an entire day that is set aside for this primary purpose; exalting the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  We must do it with our words, our actions, and our attitudes.  If you are not doing this primarily then you are not truly taking this day seriously.   The day must be a day of exaltation of our Lord. 

Exposition

            This word simply means “to expose.”  It means to comprehensively explain an idea.  Primarily this will be done through preaching.  Expository preaching is simple, but effective.  It simply means that you read the Word, explain the Word as it would have been understood in its original context by careful exegesis, and apply the original meaning of the Word to the listening audience of today.  Expository preaching may look and sound different according to the preacher, but this is what we should be listening to on any given Lord’s Day coming from the pulpit. It is through proper exposition that we find the bread of life and the living water that we need.        

Equipping

            Part of the pastor’s job is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4). While this can be done during a Wednesday prayer service or a Tuesday morning bible study, it should be a part of the Lord’s Day, as well.  In the hearing of prayers, it should equip us better to pray.  In the singing of songs, it should equip us for personal worship.  In the giving of offering, it should equip us to give sacrificially every day of our life.  The Lord’s Day should be a day of equipping. 

Edifying

            Edification should be part of our normal Lord’s Day as well.  To edify means to build someone up.  In the Christian life it has to do with building the character of a person.  This is typically done through teaching but it is also done by the ordinary means of grace.  It can also take place through good and godly conversation with a wiser brother or sister before or after church.  This, no doubt, can and should take place at time other than on Sunday, but the Lord’s Day provides a unique opportunity for it.  It is the one day when your closest brothers and sisters in Christ are gathered together.  It is when the things of God are at the forefront of our minds.  The Lord’s Day is a good day to be built up.  It is a good day for the work of edification. 

Exhorting

            Exhortation is what sets teaching apart from preaching.  Most often teaching is more about the transfer of information.  The preacher wants you not only to understand the information, but also has a deep desire for you to do what has been taught.  This is where exhortation comes in.  To exhort means “to urgently call the listener to respond.” A mother may exhort her son to clear his room before his father gets home.  A coach may exhort their athlete to push through with two more reps while bench-pressing, believing that those reps is what will push the team over the edge in victory.  Yet, for Christians, we should go to church with an expectation of being exhorted from the Word.  The Lord’s Day is a day for exhortation. 

Encouraging

            There should not be a more encouraging day on your calendar each week than Sunday.  When we go to church we get to meet with our spiritual family.  We get to fellowship, to serve, to worship in song on the Lord’s Day.  We get fed by the Word in Sunday school or small groups.  We get to pray for one another.  We get to feast upon the Word through preaching.  In all these ways, the Lord’s Day should be a day of great encouragement.

Evangelizing

              To evangelize literally means “to announce or declare the good news.”  This good news is that Jesus has come to set the captives free and to save all who believe in him.  He came to die for his bride, the church, by providing himself as the perfect, blameless, and righteous substitute.  He stood in their place and took the just wrath that his people deserved.  Yet, he didn’t stay dead.  He rose from the dead on the third day as our victorious and conquering King. The good news is that for all who profess Jesus as Lord and repent of their sins shall be saved.  The Lord’s Day is all about celebrating this.  It is a day where, through the proclamation of the gospel, those who have not yet bent their knee to Christ are evangelized.  Historically, it has been a day when many in the church have purposefully set aside time to evangelize their neighbors and friends. It is the one day when the evangelion (Greek for “the good news”) should be shared from the pulpit to the neighborhood park.           

Ease

            You may have heard that the Lord’s Day is supposed to be a day of rest.  This is a hold over for the seventh day Sabbath that we find rooted in creation and then codified in the law of God to Israel.  According to Hebrews 4:9-11, the Christian’s Sabbath rest is now ultimately in Christ and not the seventh day of the week.  We are not bound to the Old Covenant’s demands of Sabbath keeping as Israel was, although many of the principles still apply for the Lord’s Day.  Just as God rested on the seventh day of creation after working for six days, so man was meant for both work and rest.  Just as Israel was commanded not to work on the Sabbath but to rest and worship, man was meant to rest from his normal work and worship the Lord on it.  The Lord’s Day is the day set aside to do that for most of us (duties of necessity and mercy aside).  Sunday should not look like every other day.  This is not what the Lord intended for his people.  Matthew 12:8 teaches us that the Sabbath (and by extension, the Lord’s Day) was made for man’s benefit, not to enslave man.  It is made as a day for us to rest and worship to rejuvenate both our physical body and our spiritual soul.  Thus, the Lord’s Day, even if it is filled with morning worship, evening worship, and fellowship in between, is supposed to look different than the other six days the Lord has given us.  It is supposed to be a day of ease for the soul, even if the day tires the body at times.     

            The Lord’s Day is a gift to God’s people.  It is not to be a burden but seen as a blessing.    Remember that as you are preparing this Sunday: a gift, a blessing.  Be reminded of the 8 “E’s” of the Lord’s Day and enjoy (a 9th “E”) every second of it.  You will never regret it.      

Soli Deo Gloria,

Adam B. Burrell 

Is The Trinity Even Important?

by romans122life, posted in Christianity, Church, Life, Preaching

This past weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to attend a conference called G3.  Each year there is a different theological theme that is focused on over the 3 days of the conference.  This year the focus was on the doctrine of the Trinity.  For much of Christendom the doctrine, at least by name, is settled.  Most believe in it, even if they cannot explain it fully.  If the truth be told, almost every analogy falls short of actually explaining it, and some are just flat out heretical.  The reason is . . . we really don’t have much of anything to compare it to.

I believe the doctrine of the Trinity to be a foundational doctrine, and one that must be held to, for a person to truly be counted as one of the redeemed.  It is interesting to think that all of the major heretical religious perversions of Christianity (Jehovah’s Witness, Mormons, and you could count Oneness Pentecostals) agree on one thing: they all discard the doctrine of the Trinity.  While it may be hard to describe, the doctrine of the Trinity is crucial.  All the speakers at the conference did a superb job pointing out the importance of it in our daily life.  I was extremely refreshed, encouraged, and convicted over it all this weekend.

I believe that we can all do a better job of being more Trinitarian in our daily walk.  It is easy sometimes to polarize ourselves to one person in the God head.  However, we would be wise to make sure that we keep a balance in our thinking on God, and not drift off to one third of the God pie (wait…that’s heresy as well). Below are a few ways I think we can do a better job of worshiping and living out this Trinitarian belief.

In The Way We Pray:

Do you know that all three persons of the Godhead are involved in our prayers?  When we pray, the general process is that we pray to the Father (Matthew 6:9), in the name of the Son (John 14:14), in the power of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 6:18).  This does not mean from time to time that we cannot pray to Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to come.  They are all equally God, but the general process is to the Father, in the name of the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is part of the reason we say what we do at the end of our prayers, “In Jesus’ name we pray . . .” They all have different roles to fill, and if we want to get the Trinity right, our prayer life is one of the best ways to do it.

In The Way We Sing:

Theology matters.  R.C. Sproul once said, “Everyone is a theologian.”  Oh how true this is.  The problem is that often many are not good theologians, and bad theology leads to a wrong understanding of God and can easily lead to wrongful living.  Music and songs are such wonderful things.  It is in song that we can so easily be taught.  It is in song that so many people get their theology, because it is often easier to remember a song than it is to remember a passage of Scripture.  If the song is not written with a proper view of the Trinity, it can easily lead us to a wrong view as well.  For example, the Holy Spirit is God.  God is worthy to be praised.  How grateful we are for the Holy Spirit, but we should be careful how much we sing praise to Him, for in His role, He does not draw attention to Himself.  His role is to point glory to Jesus and to the Father.  We would be wise not to focus much of our words directed at Him, but instead to worship through Him (John 4:24).  When we sing, let’s make sure we do it in a way that honors the Trinity, which leads to true worship.

In The Way We Teach:

For those of us who have been blessed with the opportunity to teach or preach it is imperative that we do so with a right view of the Trinity in mind.  When the proper noun “He” is invoked in our English Bibles, let’s make sure that we point out who that “He” is referring to (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit).  Good doctrine should start with us.  Our people often get their doctrine from how we teach and preach.  We would be wise not to overlook these opportunities to teach about the Trinity.  After all, it is one of our responsibilities and privileges (2 Timothy 2:15).

The Trinity is a bit mysterious I know, but I believe the words of the Athanasian Creed best describe it.  It reads,

“we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity; neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit, but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, coequal in glory, and coeternal in majesty.”

We owe our life to the Trinity.  We owe our worship to the Trinity and because of this I was so encouraged this past weekend.  I hope maybe we can all be encouraged to pray better, sing better, and teach better to the glory of God in a Trinitarian way.  I believe that this is what we need, and I know that is what God desires.  So, does the Trinity matter?  Your life actually depends on the answer.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Adam B. Burrell

Do We Really Need The “Cursing Preacher?”

by romans122life, posted in Christianity, Church, Cursing, Preaching

When you hear the names Alice Cooper, Madonna, Marilyn Manson, or even Lady Gaga what comes to mind?  They all made/make their claim to fame by being Shock-Rockers.  They made their millions by selling people their devilish lyrics, seductive clothing (or lack thereof), and a broken needle on their moral compass.  This type of fame should come as no real shock to anyone who has a firm understanding of the doctrine of total depravity.  People sin; it is what sinners do best.  I was recently at a church service (that was geared toward youth) where a pastor chose to use some very worldly and vulgar language to drive home his preaching point.  At one point he chose to use a widely know curse word.  I am afraid it did not have the impact that he was hoping.  Most of the audience was under the age of 18, and many of them could not move past his choice of language to actually hear what he was trying to say.  Using this type of language from the pulpit is nothing new.  Over the past 20 years it has become more prevalent because of guys like Tony Campolo and Mark Driscoll.  Although it may have gained some popularity, is it really something that is helpful to the church?  Is it something that glorifies God?  Do we really need the “Cursing Preacher?”  In short, I don’t think we do, and here are a few good reasons why I stand behind the language of God, and not the language of the world.

The Gospel is Shocking Enough:

What is more shocking than the fact that all of humanity stands before a Holy God condemned for their sins, and are helpless to do anything about it?  The sentence for those sins is an eternity separated from God in a place called hell where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,”(Luke 13:28) and “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).  Hell is shocking!  However, God because of His love for His people wrapped Himself in flesh and came to earth to die in the place of all who would follow Him and confess Him as Lord by faith.  He who was just, died for those who were unjust.  He who was holy, dieing for those who were unholy.  He who is God, dieing for vile sinners.  The King in the place of the peasant.  If this truth is digested, there can be no word or words that we could use that is more shocking than this: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”(II Corinthians 5:21).  Why use worldly words when God’s are more shocking?

The Scripture Says Enough:

There are times when Scripture uses strong language.  Jesus called the Pharisees “Whitewashed tombs,” (Matthew 23:27) and a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 23:33).  John the Baptist called them snakes as well.  However, we need to be careful that we do not use these examples to justify worldly language.  Paul writes in Ephesians 4:29, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification . . .”  James wrote, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless” (James 1:26).  We are also reminded that older men are supposed to teach young men how to have “sound speech, that cannot be condemned,” in Titus 2.  While there may be times that we need to use strong language, it is clear that we are not supposed to use vulgar language.  There seems to be no room for a loose tongue in Scripture.

The Church Has Enough:

We are called to be “salt and light” (Matthew 5:13-16) to the world.  We are also called to “not conform to the patterns of this world” (Romans 12:2).  When a preacher brings worldly language into the pulpit he brings conformity to the world’s language there as well.  There is no need to bring the world into the church, but we should be taking the Word to the world.  When we dress like the world, look like the world, and talk like the world, it is hard to be salt and light to it because the world sees no difference in themselves and the Church.  The world has enough language for itself . . . the church does not need it in an effort to make their message more palatable.

In the end, I don’t see the need or biblical support, for vulgar worldly language from the pulpit.  God has given the preacher a job to “rightly divide the word of truth,” (II Timothy 2:15) and “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).  We are to be in the world and not of it as the old adage goes.  There is most certainly a time to say hard things in a prophetic voice to a stubborn-hearted people, but that does not give the preacher the right to drag the language of the bars into the place of the Bible.  So preacher, the next time you think about dropping that four letter word from the pulpit in an attempt to shock people, make sure that word is holy.  If you preach the holiness of God before an unholy people, you will get all the shock that you were hoping for.  And if you just really feel like you want to curse . . . preach Genesis 3.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Adam B. Burrell