Category Archives: Sanctification

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January 31, 2017

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Hebrews, Pastoral, Sanctification

The Contented Life

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Here are some notes from my sermon on Hebrews 13:5-6.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

The sin mentioned here is internal, not external. It is about what we love, not what we have or don’t have. This is important because we like to look at the externals. We like to draw boxes with sin in the box. Everything in this box is sin and guess who is outside the box; me. The wealthy Christian says, “Oh, God called Abraham and he was wealthy so I have nothing to worry about. Look at those poor people who worry about money all the time.” The simple and frugal say, “Oh, I don’t have a lot of stuff. I watch what I spend. I don’t buy all those luxury items. I must be free from the love of money.” Those who  have paid off their mortgage and have a large savings account say, “God tells us to be wise with our money. I have been wise with my money. Therefore I must be free from the love of money.”  Our hearts are experts at confronting sin in someone else and ignoring it in our own lives.  But the verse does not focus on how much or how little we have or how fat our paycheck or much we have saved or how much debt we have. It focuses on what we love. We can love money and be poor, rich, frugal, free of debt, in debt, live simply, etc. Is our heart gripped by the love of things and stuff? Do we find security in our possessions? Are we content?

Here are some questions to help evaluate our contentment:

  1. Are we always looking to get more stuff? This is the pretty obvious one. That stuff can vary from books to clothes to electronics to fill in the blank. Are we content with the things we have?
  2. If our financial situation never changed would we be happy? A lot of us count on God improving our financial situation. We assume it is going to happen. What if it didn’t?
  3. What if God took away some of our possessions? What if we lost our job or our pay was reduced?
  4. Do we find ourselves dreaming of ways to get money quickly outside of years of hard work? A discontented life is often a lazy life. Proverbs 13:4 says the lazy man craves and gets nothing. We love to imagine wealth coming to us outside of slow, steady labor.
  5. On the flip side do we find that our work is never done? We work and work and work, never taking a true break, not slowing down for the Lord’s Day. We have this nagging guilt that we must do more.  A discontented life can be lazy, but it can also be very active, but active for the wrong reasons. A busy person can have discontented heart.
  6. Does it bother us when God prospers someone else? When we don’t get that raise and our friend does how do we feel? When our neighbor gets a new car and we are still driving a ten year old beater does that bother us?  Are we jealous of God’s gifts to others?
  7. Do we find that when God gives us something good our joy in that good thing is short-lived? We get a new outfit, new book, new TV, or new car and we are excited for a moment, but then we move on and begin to covet something else. Our gratitude for the gifts from God is quickly overrun by our desire for more.
  8. Finally, is our gratitude for all things from God increasing?  A contented life is a thankful, grateful life. A discontented life is characterized by grumbling and complaining. Later in Hebrews 13:15 we are told to “continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.” Discontent is killed by praise and thanksgiving. When we pray, is thanksgiving to the Lord a large part of our prayers? Do we thank the Lord for His daily benefits or just for the big things? Do we thank Him for his kindness in sending Christ? Do we find ways to praise Him even in the midst of hard and painful things? Whenever the Scriptures tell us not to do something it always implies the opposite virtue. We are told to not love money (ESV) or to keep our lives free from covetousness (NKJV). What is the virtue this negative command implies? It implies gratitude.
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January 26, 2017

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American Culture, Parenting, Sanctification

Don’t Be the Stupid Cat

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One of the more difficult things in life is honestly looking in the mirror. We all want a mirror that distorts our true self, that makes us thinner and better looking. Yet seeing ourselves as we are, not as we wish we were might be the single biggest key to growth, maturity, productivity, and wisdom.   If we are to grow we must know who we are, not who we think we are. To be productive, we must understand our skills and not think too highly of them or too lowly of them.

But most of us are like the cat in the picture above. We look in the mirror and what looks back is not reality, but our pride telling us we are better than we are. This is dangerous. Take our feline friend, since he thinks he is a lion he is going to out and attack the rottweiler next door and get torn into pieces. Most Americans think how they feel dictates how things really are. It is hard to imagine a more foolish way of living. Here is  why you have a bunch of fools running around thinking they are wise, middle aged men believing they are sixteen, a twenty-two year old believing she has the wisdom of a sixty year old, fifty year old women thinking they are 25, and internet readers believing they know better than trained doctors. Just like that cat in the picture, when you are all by yourself it seems right. But then reality sets in. You are not a lion. You are small domesticated tabby cat. You are not that hip. You are really a slightly overweight middle aged man whose life is half over. You are not a sexy 25 year old. You are forty with wrinkles and sagging body parts. You are not that wonderful mature person who everyone should listen to. You are really a fool with little wisdom to offer.

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December 26, 2016

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Christian Living, Evangelism, Food, Pastoral, Sanctification, The Christian Home

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Pursuing Hospitality: Introduction

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Hospitality is a lost art in Christian circles. Despite the priority it has in the Scriptures and the wonderful picture we paint of God as we do it, hospitality is largely ignored by the people of God. Yet it is one of the great privileges, obligations, and joys of every Christian. Christ has invited us to be guests at his table. The Lord, who made heaven and earth, is an excellent host who feeds and cares for this world (See Psalm 104). As disciples of Christ and subjects of the Kingdom of God we are to imitate Christ by doing the same. Our tables are to be surrounded by guests. We are to wash the feet of the saints, which is a picture of hospitality. We are to entertain strangers. Paul says we are to be given to hospitality (Romans 12:13). The word “given” means to pursue with all our heart. Hospitality is an essential part of our love for Christ and His church and our witness to the world. I want to take this week after Christmas to encourage you to practice hospitality.  Below are a few verses, which provide the Scriptural foundation for hospitality.  We begin with what God has done for us in Christ and then move on the specific commands of Scripture.  Later in the week I will post some principles of hospitality.  Continue reading →

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December 21, 2016

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Baptism, Sanctification

Baptism is about Sanctification

baptism-1Pierre Marcel makes a good point here about the focus of the Apostles when they discuss baptism.

It is significant that all the principal texts referring to baptism in the Epistles were not written with a view to informing us of the conditions necessary for admission to it, but with the purpose of describing the fruits which ought to follow for those who have already received it,  and to define the ends to which it should conduct those who are careful to preserve the memory of the baptism they have received.

Here is the Westminster Larger Catechism on how Christians should improve their baptisms:

Q167: How is our Baptism to be improved by us?
A167: The needful but much neglected duty of improving our Baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others;

  • by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made therein
  • by being humbled for our sinful defilement, our falling short of, and walking contrary to, the grace of baptism, and our engagements
  • by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed to us in that sacrament;
  • by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace;
  • and by endeavoring to live by faith, to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness, as those that have therein given up their names to Christ; and to walk in brotherly love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.

Finally here is the Second Helvetic Confession on the obligation which baptism places upon us:

THE OBLIGATION OF BAPTISM. Moreover, God also separates us from all strange religions and peoples by the symbol of baptism, and consecrates us to himself as his property. We, therefore, confess our faith when we are baptized, and obligate ourselves to God for obedience, mortification of the flesh, and newness of life. Hence, we are enlisted in the holy military service of Christ that all our life long we should fight against the world, Satan, and our own flesh. Moreover, we are baptized into one body of the Church, that with all members of the Church we might beautifully concur in the one religion and in mutual services.

We tend to focus on regeneration and baptism or justification and baptism. But in the Bible, especially the Epistles, baptism is about our sanctification.

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December 14, 2016

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American Culture, Podcast, Sanctification

S&S Podcast 2016.32~The Inner Ring

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The audio is not that great on this podcast. Sorry about that. 

C.S. Lewis’ address titled The Inner Ring, which he gave at King’s College in 1944, is one of the more important essays for our day. He describes how the lust to belong to an inner circle makes scoundrels of us all. With the advent of the Internet there are all these inner rings we can belong that were previously inaccessible. All of the sudden we can belong to Facebook pages, Instagram groups, websites, and other groups that even 25 years ago we would not have even known about, much less been able to join. The lust to belong it stoked daily. In this podcast I discuss this address and why it matters for Christians today. Here are two quotes:

Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.

We are told in Scripture that those who ask get. That is true, in senses I can’t now explore. But in another sense there is much truth in the schoolboy’s principle “them as asks shan’t have.” To a young person, just entering on adult life, the world seems full of “insides,” full of delightful intimacies and confidentialities, and he desires to enter them. But if he follows that desire he will reach no “inside” that is worth reaching.