Tribute to Challies

Every morning in my inbox I can expect to see an e-mail update from Tim Challies blog. Honestly, I don't know how he gets any work done.
Pretty frequently he has a section titled A La Carte with a few interesting articles, book reviews or insights that he shares with his readers. So, in Challies-style, here is my attempt at an "A La Croft":

• Caped Savior?: Plugged in Online's Paul Asay has a new book out on the topic of how Batman and God are a like. As a superhero fan and a bigger fan of God, it sounds like it's worth checking out. For a free sample check out God on the Streets of Gotham.

• Traditional understanding of Baptist Salvation: There has been much hoopla about the new article written by some Southern Baptist about a traditional Baptist belief of salvation. One of their arguments is that a traditional history of Southern Baptist teaching is based on non-Calvinism or even Arminianism. Cape Coral Pastor Tom Ascol had some interesting thoughts on SBC Salvation statement.

•  Speaking of Tim Challies, he recently wrote an article for the Answers in Genesis magazine. In it he answers the question how could you believe in a God who would send people to hell? His answer: How could you not believe in that God?

• Vice President of mobilization and equipping for the North American Mission Board Aaron Coe recently wrote an article about the need for church planting in North America. I found a very similar article on the NAMB website written by Coe titled Why we need more church plants.

The Gospel Project

Since our church is looking to expand our children's department for this upcoming fall, I've been perusing through some different curriculum. Here is a brand new resource from LifeWay (Go SBC!!) called The Gospel Project for Kids. It was developed under the leadership of Ed Stetzer and Trevin Wax and  has an advisory council that includes D.A. Carson and Matt Chandler (I know, who would have thought Matt Chandler was Southern Baptist?!)
Personally, I would like to see more of this curriculum. I am a big fan of telling the whole picture of Scripture, which is that every single story from every single book can point to the saving work of Jesus Christ our Lord. Not only should our children be learning these truths, but adults as well.

Sovereignty on Sundays

I had a hard decision to make. It was my first official Sunday as the pastor of my church. I had been voted in two weeks prior and now we had moved from Lakeland to North Fort Myers on Saturday and now Sunday was my first day on the job. To make things more complicated, it was Mother's Day, which of course a Mother's Day message would be expected. Couple this with my belief in expository preaching through a book of the Bible and I was now in a real dilemma. Then it hit me… 2^nd Timothy. The introductory verses of 2^nd Timothy were perfect for a Mother’s Day sermon. Paul speaks to Timothy as a beloved son, a spiritual son. And then Paul reminds Timothy of his rich, godly heritage starting with his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. Not only would it work for a good mother’s day message, it would be a wonderful book to preach through as my first sermon series at my new church. So we began marching through 2^nd Timothy.

 And then lo and behold another significant Sunday was upon us – Father’s Day. And what was the scheduled text for that day? Second Timothy 2:22-26. If you don’t recall 2 Timothy 2:22 says “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (NKJV).

I do not find it a coincidence that God, in all His Sovereignty, would put an idea in my heart to begin preaching straight through 2^nd Timothy on Mother’s Day and the Father’s Day message came from the text in which the Apostle Paul is exhorting his spiritual son to flee from youthful lusts. There is no other message I’d rather preach to fathers in my congregation than to flee from youthful lusts. And yes, I do understand that there are other types of lust other than sexual sins. And I did address a few of those on Sunday, such as pride, desire for wealth and power and even jealousy. But I believe the most pervasive youthful lust in our society today is that of sexual sin. And that is what I taught.

I was a little apprehensive before the sermon. The seriousness of sexual sin is hardly preaching on a Sunday morning. It is still too taboo and impolite to talk about. Also, my church is a very traditional church comprised of mainly senior adults. It could have been taken the wrong way. But I believe that the passage in 2^nd Timothy required due diligence, so it was presented with honesty and, hopefully, clarity. The response was amazing. I had mothers thanking me for the message followed by men nearly in their 80’s telling me how that message was needed for today.

I am so glad that nothing is by chance or luck. God knew what He was doing the whole time, just as He always does. I am always amazed by our Wonderful God.