Fun Kitchen Project with My Girls

This is an easy and fun recipe that I remember doing when I was a little girl. My girls and I tried it and had a wonderful time together cooking and eating!

Bird Nest Pizzas

Ingredients

1 can of biscuits (we used Great Value version of Pillsbury Grands)

your favorite pizza sauce

shredded mozzarella

your favorite toppings (Hormel makes mini pepperoni that worked great for us)

On a cookie sheet allow kiddos to smash and spread the biscuits to about 1/2 inch thickness. We didn't always get ours flattened out enough and they puffed up. Adults or older children can put a spoonful of pizza sauce in each biscuit, then add cheese and toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. My girls loved making them and loved eating them. Hope your crew enjoys them too!

My future chefs! Piper kept trying to sneak a taste when my back was turned. :) She looks like she's up to something here doesn't she?

Remembering Jill and Offering a Great Resource

Today marks one year from a moment that our lives were forever changed. This has been the toughest year our family has ever been through. God has been merciful and has not dealt with us as we deserve. I feel so silly even mentioning our pain in light of Scott's.

The influence of Jill lives on in so many ways. There is a scholarship funded by the annual SOAR conference in her memory. There will soon be an endowed scholarship at our church in memory of her. The bookstore at our church bears her image as a disciple-maker. Our hearts have been indelibly affected by her dedication to Jesus Christ, her husband, her child and her church.

Please remember, this day and every other, her faith and let that be an encouragement and challenge to you. More than that let her, like a ray of light, lead you back to the Sun which was (and is!) the source of her light.

One book that helped her and many others is "Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist." I believe that I recommended this book in the days following the tragedy, but today you can get this book in audio format for free here . Be sure and follow the instructions as you add it to your cart and put in the coupon code NOV2009. Check out this site every month for a free downloadable resource.

Adjusting to Life with Three

Just a short note to say we are still here! :) Things have just been a little bit crazy since our last post. Adjusting to life with three has been a fun adventure. I hope to be back on the blogging wagon soon. Until then, here is a video of our little man. He is such a wonderful blessing and sweet addition to our home. Enjoy!

Haddon at 8 weeks

Haddon at 17 weeks

The Girls Meet Haddon

 

 

 

 

Some pictures of Haddon Jonathan

 

 

Haddon meets his Maimee!

 

 

Mama's little man

Our Day at the Park Before Haddon's Arrival

Here are some shots from Tuesday. Jonathan took off from work to spend time with us girls before the baby came. We played at the park and then had a picnic. We had the girls' favorite...Chicken McNuggets from McDonald's! Yum!

 

 

 

Mama's Turn at the Camera

Daddy's fingers needed a rest from all the texting, emailing, facebooking and picture taking. We are resting at home waiting on the girls to come home. Jonathan woke up as I was taking the picture, but I was trying to get him back for the picture he took of me during my nap. :) Notice Haddon's hands are up in surrender to some much needed sleep. 

 

Just got discharged. On our way home!

Mama and Haddon Taking a Much Deserved Nap

Haven't been able to write much the last 24 hours, but just wanted to give a quick update.

Emily is doing really well, just ready to go home. Her doctor hasn't come yet, but we expect her soon.

Haddon has had his hearing screen and got the snippy snip this morning. They will do the PKU test after 11.

Hopefully we will be home in time for lunch.

Thanks to everyone for the presents, visits and well wishing(s).

Emily is resting now, we are in room 118. Thanks for all the congrats etc.

Maimee is holding Haddon! He's doing well.

The tides are turning in the baird household.

Its a boy!

Docs here bout to start pushing.

Go time. 10 cm.

7 CM

Update on Emily and Baby

They just came in and gave her an epidural, she is dilated to a 5 or 6. Won't be long now probably.

Jon

The water is broken.

Standing in waiting room with adam and dad. Adam got me iced coffee' now I'll be wired.

Still waiting on doc to come break her water, should be anytime now. Her contractions are a little more intense and closer together now.

Vicki was the first visitor at 705 am.

We are starting the day 2-3 cm dilated 70% effaced.

Just walked into the hospital.

On the road to eldo.

I've got my blogger account set up through text on my phone. This is my backup in case Facebook is unaccessible by my ipod.

Sometimes We All Need Perspective

I know, I know. All politicians do stuff like this. I just wanted to make sure you know Obama is not above doing it either.

Update:
Just to put this in a better context... guess how much $100,000,000 is to $3.5 trillion. I know that's pretty tough so let's reduce the Obama budget to $35,000. So what kind of a reduction in a $35,000 budget would you have to do to achieve the same reduction Obama is talking about? Yep, you guessed it, one whole dollar. So basically Obama is talking about reducing the budget by 1/35,000. It's like my family reducing our budget by $2 in a year. Hardly newsworthy. He could have easily picked a bigger number like $1 Billion, but that wouldn't have sounded as big as $100 Million! Unfortunately this type of crap wins uncritical and ignorant people. "Wow, Obama is really working to reduce our government's expenses!" Yeah right.
I would be slightly impressed with a $100 Billion dollar reduction, but $100 Million is chump change.

Plagiarism

See my update to my post on my sermon text from the other night. I apologize publicly for misleading anyone, and to John Piper.

Anytime you see something profound on here, you should probably assume it is from someone else!

I Hope There Will Be More News Like This...

Phil Levy:

"For the second time in a week, the Obama administration has discarded a major campaign pledge on international economic policy. In its decision last week not to name China a currency manipulator, and now to forswear renegotiation of NAFTA, the administration avoided two potentially costly mistakes."

Thank you Mr. President!

HT: Greg Mankiw

Great Quote By C.S. Lewis

"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." - C.S. Lewis

This is a great corollary to Romans 8:28.

The Text From My Sermon Tonight

Romas 8:18-39

Our Predicament
Vs 18- The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us. I cannot imagine what kind of joy would make today and 5.5 months ago seem like nothing. Even though I can’t imagine it. That is really good news.

Vs 19- 22 The creation waits with longing for redemption. Something is not right. Babies shouldn’t be born prematurely. People shouldn’t be thrown from their vehicles. Tornados shouldn’t wipe out towns. Tsunamis shouldn’t sweep away 250,000 people. The whole cosmos is broken and waiting for redemption.

Vs 23-25 Not only the creation but we as Christians who have the Spirit groan. Times like these really cause us to groan and look forward to our redemption. God will one day make everything right. We will also know why all of the things that happened have happened.

Our Promises
Vs 26-27 In all of this talk about pain and suffering and how the glories of heaven will be so much more than the present sufferings, the Bible doesn't minimize the real pain that we feel now. The Bible is a very honest book and that is refreshing. Another promise here is that the Spirit knows perfectly how to intercede for us. Even when we don't know what to pray, we can trust that the Spirit is interceding for us.

Vs 28-30 This is one of the best promises in all of the Bible. This is a firm foundation that we can rest on.

Our Provision
Vs 31- God is "for" us. Who can be against us. How? vs 32
Vs 32- He gave us Christ, how will He withhold any good thing from us.
Vs 33- We have been justified so who can bring any charge against us? We are aquitted- no double jeopardy! Any pain that we have is not punishment (see verse 1) but for our good.
Vs 35- Who shall separate us? Answer: no one, nothing.
Vs 36- Even though we are being killed all the day long
Vs 37- IN: tribulation (catastrophe), distress (abandonment and fear), persecution (people physically or psychologically harming you), famine (no food), nakedness (no clothes), danger (risk to your life), or sword (death by slaying). Paul says "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul does not say instead of all these things, as though Christians will escape physical harm. Neither does Paul equate the love of God with physical sustenance, but with Jesus Christ.

We are more than conquerors- literally we "super conquer." To super conquer means that not only do you defeat your enemy but you make it your slave. Therefore death is not only defeated but is made our slave.

CHRISTIAN:

Hello, Death, my old enemy. My old slave-master. Have you come to talk to me again? To frighten me?

I am not the person you think I am. I am not the one you used to talk to. Something has happened. Let me ask you a question, Death.

Where is your sting?

DEATH, sneeringly:

My sting is your sin.

CHRISTIAN:

I know that, Death. But that's not what I asked you. I asked, where is your sting? I know what it is. But tell me where it is.

Why are you fidgeting, Death? Why are you looking away? Why are you turning to go? Wait, Death, you have not answered my question. Where is your sting?

Where is, my sin?

What? You have no answer? But, Death, why do you have no answer? How will you terrify me, if you have no answer?

O Death, I will tell you the answer. Where is your sting? Where is my sin? It is hanging on that tree. God made Christ to be sin—my sin. When he died, the penalty of my sin was paid. The power of it was broken. I bear it no more.

Farewell, Death. You need not show up here again to frighten me. God will tell you when to come next time. And when you come, you will be his servant. For me, you will have no sting.
Vs 38- Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Update:
I need to give credit on the hypothetical dialogue between Christian and Death above: This was done by John Piper in a Good Friday meditation. You can read the post here. I gave him credit in my sermon, just not in my notes. I'm normally more careful about giving credit. Plagiarism is one of my pet peeves.

Lilly Just Passed Away

Just wanted to give everyone an update that Lilly passed away at 8:47. Please pray for the Sandifers.

It's hard to process all of this, and we will never understand while we are in this life but Katie and Whit are trusting in our good and sovereign God.

Update on Lilly

To catch you up on the latest (if you don't know):
After taking Lilly up to Children's Hospital at Little Rock they did some tests to find out how severe her internal bleeding was a 4 (which is the worst rating). They decided to helivac Lilly and Whit back here to El Dorado so that Katie could spend some time with Lilly before they took her off life support.

Katie's father just came out and told everyone what was going on. Katie and Whit were able to spend some time together with Lilly and they will be taking her off of life support soon (if they haven't already). Katie and Whit are spending some time together now. I talked to Jake about Whit and he said he has been able to spend a lot of time with Lilly and has been very strong for Katie. Katie is obviously upset and is still very weak.

Please be in prayer for the Sandifers, in specific, pray for Katie's health she is still having high blood pressure and platelet issues. Pray for grace to be able to deal with this situation emotionally. Pray for the decisions they will have to make in the coming hours.

Consider Lilly

This twit just came through on Twitter from Jake or Whit.

"Lilly will be with Jesus soon, free from wires and tubes and medicine and sin and pain, and she will live with him forever."

Please pray for the Sandifers. Our church knows heartbreak so please pray for our church that we would be able to be there for them as we were there for Scott, and the Hymers before.

I'm preaching tonight on Romans 8:18-39 (really I'm going to read it and allow it to minister to us) but I'm going to interject this hypothetical dialogue between a Christian and death by John Piper.

CHRISTIAN:

Hello, Death, my old enemy. My old slave-master. Have you come to talk to me again? To frighten me?

I am not the person you think I am. I am not the one you used to talk to. Something has happened. Let me ask you a question, Death.

Where is your sting?

DEATH, sneeringly:

My sting is your sin.

CHRISTIAN:

I know that, Death. But that's not what I asked you. I asked, where is your sting? I know what it is. But tell me where it is.

Why are you fidgeting, Death? Why are you looking away? Why are you turning to go? Wait, Death, you have not answered my question. Where is your sting?

Where is, my sin?

What? You have no answer? But, Death, why do you have no answer? How will you terrify me, if you have no answer?

O Death, I will tell you the answer. Where is your sting? Where is my sin? It is hanging on that tree. God made Christ to be sin—my sin. When he died, the penalty of my sin was paid. The power of it was broken. I bear it no more.

Farewell, Death. You need not show up here again to frighten me. God will tell you when to come next time. And when you come, you will be his servant. For me, you will have no sting.

Baby Lilly

For those who don't know, our good friends Whit and Katie Sandifer had their daughter Friday. She was 11 weeks premature. Everything was looking ok until last night when Lilly's condition worsened. They took her to Children's Hospital in Little Rock. We are waiting to hear the latest news but please be in prayer for Katie, Whit and Lilly.

Wyatt Auction

Go here and visit the Wyatt Baptist Church auction for missions.

There are some good items on here. Just don't bid on anything that has J. Baird as the high bidder!

http://www.grinalittle.net/wyatt/auction.php

The Insidious Nature of the Prosperity Gospel

I believe most solid evangelicals can recognize the full-blown prosperity Gospel when they see it. "Send me a seed gift of $100 and God will multiply it 10 fold!" "We've got to have a prosperity mentality, not a poverty mentality." "God wants you to be wealthy!" etc. The common thread in this philosophy is that God's blessing will be given in the form of financial gains to those who are faithful. Therefore, if you are a "have not" you do not have faith. While the Hinny Benns, Oel Josteens, Dreflo A. Collars (the names have been changed to expose the guilty and protect the innocent) are easy to spot, there are subtle yet just as wrong-headed ways of communicating the same message, that most Christians don't detect.

Here is what I'm not saying:
1. God does not give financial blessing.
2. God does not give financial blessing in response to your giving (or other faithfulness).
3. It is wrong to attribute God with the credit for receiving financial (or physically sustaining) blessings.
4. It is wrong to give "in faith" that God will supply your needs.

I hear people say all the time "You can't out give God." or "God has always been faithful in supplying our needs." or "God came through with provision for a need while I was on my way to pay the bill!" All of this is fine, and I believe God does all of those things. We just must be careful not to equate God's faithfulness with the satisfaction of our physical needs. If God is obligated to fulfill our physical needs if we are faithful to Him, then there would be no such thing as a Christian starving to death. There would be no such thing as a Christian dying from a disease. No Christians would ever suffocate (because God will always provide oxygen). There would be no such thing as a Christian being late on a bill. God has certainly promised blessings to us if we remain faithful to Him, and those blessings may include physical sustenance, but He is never obligated to give us all that we need to live. Sometimes we sell God short on the type of blessings that we expect from Him. If we equate God's blessing with merely physical blessings, we may be missing out on God's greatest blessing- Himself.

Through pain, suffering, sickness, lack, and even death God has designs for the suffering of His people. He meets them in their worst suffering, and gives them Himself. IN: tribulation (catastrophe), distress (abandonment and fear), persecution (people physically or psychologically harming you), famine (no food), nakedness (no clothes), danger (risk to your life), or sword (death by slaying). Paul says "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul does not say instead of all these things, as though Christians will escape physical harm. Neither does Paul equate the love of God with physical sustenance, but with Jesus Christ. If your faith in God is based on the fact that you have always had your physical needs satisfied and all of the sudden you don't anymore, you are at risk of abandoning your faith. Of course if your faith is in a cosmic genie who always provides for your physical needs, I hope he lets you down so that you can trust in the real God of the universe. He will not let you down, He will always give you everything you need, even at the moment that the guillotine slices your head off, or when the tumor on your lung prevents you from breathing and causes you to suffocate, or when your children are taken from you by an oppressive government, or when you lose your job, or when you are thrown from your vehicle and never regain consciousness.

Question: If you have never been without food and water, can you deduce that God has blessed you?

Answer: Maybe. There are many rich pagans who have never been without who have gone to their grave treasuring their full bellies more than God. Was their bounty a blessing from God? I would say it was judgment, or at least the fact that they did not give God glory for their bounty increased their condemnation. Christians who love God more than His gifts who have always had enough to eat, never suffered physical illness, never lost a child or a close friend early in life, always had enough money to pay the bills, who die in their sleep when they are 97 all the while treasuring Christ more than all of these physical blessings are certainly blessed by God.

Question: If you have had a life of suffering in which you have constantly been in poverty, sickness, a broken financial situation, can you deduce that God has cursed you?

Answer: Not necessarily. One of the main problems with prosperity theology is that God's blessing is equated with ease, abundance, and lack of suffering. If we have faith, we are promised that we will have these things. Therefore the presence of stress, lack, and pain means that we don't have enough faith. Some of the greatest Christians in the history of Christianity endured the most suffering- John Bunyan, Richard Wurmbrand, Charles Simeon, Adoniram Judson, John Paton, David Brainerd, David Livingston, and many others. Did these men suffer because they didn't have enough faith? Was God punishing them for not believing as they ought? Did they lack a "prosperity mindset"? No, God works all things together for good to those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose.

Question: Should you give tithes and offerings with the idea that God is obligated to bless you with physical blessing?

Answer: No. God may indeed bless you financially, but He is not obligated to. You should give money joyfully and sacrificially. The system of tithes and offerings is not some kind of money making scheme that you can exploit by giving. Again, we have a tendency to sell God short on His blessings by equating them with physical blessing when He wants to give us Himself.

Question: What if you cannot afford tithing should you anyway?

Answer: You should give joyfully, sacrificially and regularly. If you cannot afford to give much, give what you can and make intentional sacrifices in order to give. While the New Testament doesn't explicitly teach tithing I believe it is a good place to start, or a good goal for people to set. For most of us in America tithing is a way to rob God. I assure you that most of us can give far more than we do, and that we make decisions everyday that keep us from giving what we ought. The problem is that we see it as an obligation- "I've given my 10% now I can buy my toys!" All this does is show where our true treasure lies. If we ultimately see our income as a way for God to bless us we have a wrong view of God's priorities. Our incomes are a way that God blesses us with the things we need, but I find it hard to believe that He is honored when we spend our money on boats and 4-wheelers while people starve around the world, are killed for their faith in Christ, and die without hearing about Christ even though there are missionaries ready to go, but lack the funds.

Stewart versus Cramer

Jim Cramer just went on The Daily Show with John Stewart. John Stewart is super sharp, Cramer is not a complete idiot. You may be wondering why I care about this, but it has a lot to do with what I do vocationally, and I believe that what Jim Cramer and his ilk does is very harmful to investors. Before I hear the commentators I wanted to give my perception of this match up.

In short, I thought John Stewart absolutely destroyed Jim Cramer. If people react like they ought, he will be fired from CNBC, and nobody will listen to him anymore. John Stewart nailed Cramer to the wall. I would have done it a little differently, but he brought out very clearly the main point that all of this hype and "stock picking" does not help individual investors, but hurts them and pads the pockets of the people who benefit from all the trading.

I think Cramer knew that he had to come on Stewart's show and defend himself. He was also trying to minimize the damage. Stewart would have none of that. Cramer wanted to get in and out without a big scene, but Stewart brought him down. His voice was shaking and the interview was very uncomfortable. He spanked him and talked to him like a child. That was one of the most humiliating things I have ever seen, and it couldn't have happened to someone who deserved it more. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the media and in specific for CNBC.

Green and "Green"

Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries are a great product. You can recharge them approximately 1000 times without losing capacity, and they work very well.

Right now Amazon has 4 Sony AA NiMH batteries on sale for $8.98. That is a little over $2 per battery, but when you think that 1 NiMH battery replaces literally hundreds of non-rechargeable batteries.

Having a good stock of these will save you a lot of money. Especially Wii owners!

10 Ways to Build Wealth

I had a question submitted about ways to build wealth. These are 10 simple things you can do to save money and build wealth.

1. Never Buy a New Car- New cars depreciate the most they will ever appreciate the first year. The second biggest year of depreciation is the second year. The third biggest year of depreciation is the third year, and so on. My general rule is, buy a car that you can pay cash for or that you can pay off within a year. Buy the oldest car you can stand taking into consideration use, and necessity of reliability. I have done extensive research in this area and buying good used cars rather than new cars every three years can save you millions of dollars in a lifetime.

2. Don't Buy Drinks At Restaurants- This may sound petty, but depending on how much you eat out this could add up to thousands and thousands of dollars over a lifetime. Considering that at Pizza Hut a carbonated drink costs $1.99 plus tax. This could be up to 30% of your bill. Water will work just fine. You Lufkin folks are excluded from this rule because the water is horrible there!

3. Shop Rates On Insurance and Other Monthly Recurring Expenses- Including ways to cut your cable bill, phone service (consider going "cell only") etc. This is important, you need to shop rates and find ways to reduce monthly recurring fees. If you can reduce your insurance bill by $20 a month, that is $240 a year, which is almost like putting $2400 in your pocket.

4. Live Below Your Means- This may sound outdated and boring, but if you don't have the money to buy something, don't buy it.


5. Save 10-15% of your income. This is a good goal to make for saving for retirement. Especially for people below age 35. Social Security will not exist in it's current state (unless we make some serious cuts in other places, which is unlikely). My generation cannot count on Social Security being sufficient to have any kind of standard of living. Bottom line, you need to plan on providing for your own retirement. To go along with this, take advantage of any company retirement plan offered at your place of employment, especially if they offer any kind of matching on money you invest.

6. Watch Your Taxes- Take advantage of tax credits, and deductions. This can save you big money.

7. Watch Your Investment Advisor, not just your investments. You cannot consistently and without great risk pick winning stocks, and neither can I (and neither can anybody else.) You cannot consistently time the market just right on when to get in and out. You should never ever pay an investment salesman a commission to invest your money. You should find a "Fee-only" financial planner with the CFP(R) designation to advise you and take care of your financial planning needs. CFP(R) Professionals have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients, meaning they have taken on a standard of care enforcing them to put the interests of the client before their own. They are held to the highest ethical standards in dealing with their clients, which has been and will be very important going forward.



Disclaimer: I don't agree with everything Jon Stewart says but I love it when he rips on CNBC.

8. Do a Budget- Know where your money is going. Be in control of it, this is half the battle.

9. Don't Buy Toys- I don't just mean for kids (let relatives get toys, buy them books), but also big toys like boats, or Jet Skis, or 4-wheelers. If you borrow money you lose interest, depreciation, and you will have to put insurance on these types of items. All of these costs add up to major bucks. The resale value on these things is very low as well. Borrow or rent, if you don't use these things consistently or if you don't have the cash to pay for them.

10. Buy in bulk if possible. If you can save 10% on something that you consume over a six month period by buying in bulk this is tantamount to a 20% return! What kind of investment do you know of that would give you that kind of guaranteed return. For that matter, realize the power of time value of money. This is one of the most important laws of finance that if everyone knew, they would act drastically different than they do. For instance if you thought about that $2 dollar Coke actually costing you $70 in 50 years you may think twice about buying it today.

There are any number of other things that I could put in this post, but this ought to be enough food for thought for the time being.

Girl's Night Planned To Remember Jill

From the Wyatt Baptist Church Website:

Attention young ladies (13-40ish). Were you impacted by Jill's life? Would you like a way to celebrate her devotion to Christ with other girls who knew Jill? On Friday night, March 20, you are invited to gather with other girls from Jill's life for a "Girl's Night" at Wyatt. The evening will begin at 7pm in the choir and include guest speaker Marian Jordan. Marian is the head of Redeemed Girl Ministries and was a childhood friend of Jill's. The night will also include special gifts for everyone attending and a dedication of the new girl's resource section of the Wyatt bookstore in memory of Jill. Please come and remember Jill while honoring Christ. Facebook users, click here.

Separation of Church and State

This subject makes me nervous. I'm a pretty opinionated person (for those of you who have never read any of my blogs) but this subject seems to be a very controversial issue. There are Facebook groups about putting God, Christ, and prayer back in schools, and a call for us to return to our Christian roots as a nation. There is a notion that because prayer came out of school, it precipitated our great moral decline. That somehow the ten commandments being prominently displayed on the walls of our public places will transform our culture.

All of these sentiments come from people who love their country and love their Savior. They put some energy into these types of efforts, but we must be careful not to waste our precious time on things that, while full of good intentions, are not transformative in nature.

Separation of Church and State is a very controversial topic, and one that is not simple. I disagree with the rank secularists who want to put "faith" in a category completely separate from reality. Some extreme secularists want to say that your "faith" should not inform your ideas about public policy and legislation, and therefore anyone whose faith informs those things, is automatically excluded from participating in those processes. This issue gets into matters of public education and in particular the teaching of evolution and or intelligent design. The issue of public education is another issue altogether, as are the other issues that separation of church and state influences.

I also disagree with some in the religious community who see no value in the separation of church and state, or at least claim that it is harmful. While the ideas of some of the rank secularists mentioned above are harmful to liberty and religious freedom in general, the separation of church and state as instituted by our founders was not at all. Think about the circumstances under which our country was born. We were escaping religious oppression when our forefathers came to this land. In their minds it was not a good thing for the state to decide what you believe or where or when you go to church.

The Founders of our country had the idea that while the church and the state should not mix, we should also be free to allow our religious views to affect our stance on matters of public policy.

I think separation of church and state (as stated by our country's founders, and as practiced and defended by early Baptists like Roger Williams in Providence Road Island) is an excellent idea. I believe the government has a role to defend it's people and protect us against outside threats, and to provide a system of justice so that criminals can be prosecuted in a fair way. The government's job is to protect our freedom and therefore I think government should strive to allow the maximal amount of freedom to it's constituents without those freedoms impinging on others. Freedom is what our country was founded on. That includes religious, economic, and individual freedom.

The government has a responsibility and so does the church. The church's responsibility is to be the prophetic voice in the culture. The church's role in a society like ours is not to try to force our views on others, but to proclaim, persuade, and plead with those around us to turn from their sin and trust in Christ. Trying to force them to participate in our religious practices will not transform, but alienate. One of the fundamental differences between Islam and Christianity is that a Muslim can win converts at the tip of the sword, at the barrel of a gun, or at the proclamation of the state. A Christian cannot win converts at the tip of a sword, at the barrel of a gun, nor at the proclamation of the state.

The church is most effective not when we have the government in our pocket but when individual believers and churches take a stand in the public square and prophetically call other individuals to faith in Christ, and live lives that display that radical change that comes only through a vital relationship with Him.

I realize this is controversial, so if you have an opinion please feel free to share it, but try to be civil and gracious.

What say you?

When I Don't Desire God

I had someone email me the question about how to persevere through times of spiritual lethargy. To some degree we will all struggle with this daily. Until we are perfected we will have to deal with our laziness. The person who has been most helpful to me in this area has been John Piper. He writes often about it and even wrote a book called "When I Don't Desire God." You can read this online here.

Here is a little list of things you can do to fight for joy in God from Piper.

How Shall We Fight for Joy?

By John Piper January 1, 1995


1. Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.

2. Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly.

3. Resolve to attack all known sin in your life.

4. Learn the secret of gutsy guilt - how to fight like a justified sinner.

5. Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see God for who he is.

6. Meditate on the Word of God day and night.

7. Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.

8. Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.

9. Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.

10. Be patient in the night of God's seeming absence.

11. Get the rest and exercise proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.

12. Make a proper use of God's revelation in nature.

13. Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.

14. Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (witness and mercy).

15. Get a global vision for the cause of Christ and pour yourself out for the unreached.

Love, Sex & Mammon

"We are not, we pray, on the verge of another Great Depression. Still, we see signs of economic failure all around us. Stores in the strip malls we drive past every day advertise “going out of business” sales. Those of us who are pastors know church members who have lost jobs, and we weekly see the faces of others who fear that the next pink slip belongs to them.

Some Christians, on the Left and on the Right, would tell us that economic matters are of paramount concern right now. They would assert that we’ve no time for the “luxury” of “culture war” discussions about “abstinence” or divorce or “gender roles” or other such matters. Instead, they tell us, we should concentrate on tax cuts or economic stimulus projects or Wall Street bailouts or home ownership.

They’re wrong."


In this article Dr. Moore (one of my teachers in seminary) talks about priorities for families. For the rest of this great article click here.

Why Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace Represent and Important Genre

In short:

The "worship wars" are based on the faulty assumption that the church is a producer and attendees are consumers, and that the job of the church is to please the consumer by producing what they want.

There is nothing inherently sinful about traditional worship with hymns, and there is nothing inherently sinful about contemporary worship with new music and lyrics. There is also nothing inherently sinful about preferences for types of music. There is something inherently sinful about members of churches drawing lines between themselves based on externalities that are secondary to the gospel. When we create new churches or divide old churches into groups based on a style of music or even a social group, we do damage to the gospel. One of the implications of the gospel is that we can look past our skin color, our age, our socioeconomic status, and certainly our preferences to love, worship with, and fellowship with other believers. When we raise preferences to be primary (something about which we will divide from other believers), we believe and spread the lie that Jesus and His gospel lacks the ability to bring us together under His name.

All of that to say that movements, like Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace represent, that make the gospel central to our worship should be applauded and supported by Christians who are concerned with the divisions that we are so vulnerable to in our churches.

Other thoughts?

Concert Tomorrow Night at Wyatt Baptist Church!

Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace at Wyatt Baptist Church in El Dorado.

You can get directions here

We also have a Facebook Page set up for the event where you can RSVP and find out more information about the concert.

Later, I'm going to post an article about why Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace's ministry is an important response to bad philosophies that are prevalent in our churches today.

The Third Brother

This is a very interesting way of thinking about the parable of the prodigal son. Tim Keller has written a book on this parable called "The Prodigal God" exposing this wonderful parable.

Oh to be a third brother like Jesus.

Read the article here.

Why We Shouldn't Resort to Violence In the Fight Against Abortion

I had never heard this question addressed until now.
Here is the link.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/AskPastorJohn/ByTopic/47/3504/

I Know What You're Thinking....

"That's John Mayer!" Well, you may or may not be right. Come to Wyatt Baptist Church on February 24th at 7 PM and find out. Here is the Facebook page to RSVP.

The cost to attend will be a suggested minimum donation of $5, there will be a box at the door for those who have the means to give more.

Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace

This guy, along with the Indelible Grace band, will be playing at Wyatt Baptist Church on February 24th at 7 PM. This is one of my favorite bands. They take old hymns and set the lyrics to new music.

Visit the Facebook page and RSVP. If you are a youth leader or a pastor at a church, please tell your people about this. It is a great opportunity to bring together the younger generation and the older generation.

If you have questions please email me or call.

Thanks,

Thoughts on the Stimulus Bill

Observations from last night's television address by our President on the stimulus bill.

1. He seems to want to push this thing through without debating it much. I heard him say over and over again something like- "We must do SOMETHING. If you say we should do NOTHING, then we are never going to agree. The American people want us to do SOMETHING. We need to get this thing through. etc." It almost seemed like he wanted the Republicans to just fall in line without debate and without discussion and vote for this huge bill.
Uhhh... this is $800 Billion, you know, $100 Billion here and $100 Billion there and you're starting to talk about real money. This is an unprecedented amount of money to spend, and we need to get it right. Waiting a few days or a few weeks is not going to make or break it. Why in the world should we trust the government to spend this money responsibly? If we're going to pass something, which it looks inevitable that we will, we need to hash it out. His efforts to hurriedly push this through makes me nervous.

2. I have heard Obama come down hard on the corporate waste of Banc of America, Merrill Lynch etc., and rightly so. The ferocity of his attacks on them is fine, but for him to turn a blind eye to the Billions and Billions of dollars in pork that are in this barrell is a double standard, the likes of which can hardly be understated. He blasted John Thain for his $2 Million dollar spending spree that he actually paid back, but doesn't care that $650 million of this bill is earmarked for the switch from analog TV to digital, or the $50 million earmarked for the National Endowment for the Arts??? Please...

3. Speaking of pork, this bill has more of it than Hormel. Here is a partial list of the pet projects of the Obama Administration. By publishing this list I'm not saying that OBAMA IS USING THIS BILL AS AN EXCUSE TO PUSH HIS AGENDA!!!! but if he is truly trying to be bipartisan and enacting a new era of governmental responsibility, he is getting off to a terrible start.
Here's the list of some of the projects and their price tag:

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
$6 billion for university building projects
$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24
$1 billion for community-development block grants
$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities”
$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”
$150 million for the Smithsonian
$34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters
$500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities
$44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters
$350 million for Agriculture Department computers
$88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building
$448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters
$600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
$450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”)
$600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”)
$1 billion for the Census Bureau
$4.5 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
$850 million for Amtrak
$87 million for a polar icebreaking ship
$1.7 billion for the National Park System
$55 million for Historic Preservation Fund
$7.6 billion for “rural community advancement programs”
$150 million for agricultural-commodity purchases
$150 million for “producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish”
$79 billion for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund

By listing these I'm not saying that all of these things are bad, but this is a stimulus bill, not a "fund your pet project bill." It is supposed to create jobs, not fund Pell Grants, and fund poor artists who take pictures of crucifixes upside down in glasses of urine.

That last item, the $79 Billion dollar State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, goes to balance the budgets of states who have spent money like crazy. Basically they are taxing the fiscally responsible states and giving money to the states that spend money like John Edwards in a beauty salon. Hmmm... now which states are in financial ruin? California is the worst offender along with other left leaning states.

4. He said something like "I'm not going to take any lip about fiscal irresponsibility off of a bunch of people who Presided over the largest budget deficits in the history of mankind." As if to say "Our fiscal irresponsibility is excused by their fiscal irresponsibility." They wasted no time in balancing the books on that perceived inequity. We are set to have a $1 Trillion dollar deficit this year, which dwarfs any of Bush's deficits. It's as though I was at a strip club, pointing to the guys leering at the Victoria's Secret store to excuse my lap dance... give me a break.

5. Finally, the economics behind the proposition that spending massive amounts of money is suspect at best. I doubt even Keynes would agree that this is what we need to do in this case. Obama said that the party of spending is "over." I guess he meant after this one last party.

Needless to say, I don't think this stimulus bill is a responsible way to accomplish what they are trying to accomplish. It looks more like an effort to push an agenda. I hope I'm wrong but this is likely to either prolong the recession we are in or at least retard the rebound that is likely to happen soon. The market may recover, but I doubt it will have much to do with this bill. One reason they may want this bill to be pushed through is so that they can take responsibility for the recovery, and they will have been able to push through their spending projects. I hope I'm wrong about Obama on this and that he gets out his line item veto pen cutting hundreds of billions from this bill. I put that likelihood at about 15%.

Signs: Legitimate or Illegitimate?

A question came in about signs- "Are they a legitimate thing to ask for?"

As with many good theological questions, the answer is yes... and no.

Here are a few relevant texts:

"false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24)

"the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10)

"An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign" (Matthew 12:39; 16:4)

"Jews demand signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified . . . the power of God . . . " (1 Corinthians 1:22-23)

"And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." Acts 4:29-30

I see five truths about signs from these texts:

1. Signs can be done by demonic power. Matt 24:24, 2 Thess. 2:9-10

There is power in demonic forces to mislead people. We must be careful not to be deceived. Some people will be deceived into believing false things. This begs the question: "What is finally authoritative?" There must be a way for us to determine what is true.

2. Signs can become idolatrous and can be asked for with bad motives. Matt 12:39, 16:4.

You can be so rebellious that you will begin to find "signs" giving you the permission to do what you want to do, even if it is unbiblical. If you ignore clear biblical directives and instead seek out physical signs to determine a course of action, this is a sign of rebellion.

John Piper says

"...seeking signs from God is wicked and adulterous when the demand for more and more evidence comes from a resistant heart and simply covers up an unwillingness to believe. If we are carrying on a love affair with the world, and our husband, Jesus, after a long separation, comes to us and says, "I love you and I want you back," one of the best ways to protect our adulterous relationship with the world is to say, "You're not really my husband; you don't really love me. Prove it. Give me some sign." If that's the way we demand a sign, then we are a wicked and adulterous generation."

3. The Word of God, the gospel in specific, is a higher order of revelation than signs. I Cor 1:22-23, II Tim 3:16

The Word of God is the highest and most authoritative revelation given to mankind. All other forms of revelation must be seen as subject to the Bible. Therefore, the responsibility of Christians is to know the Bible and allow it to determine what we do, and not primarily physical signs, or feelings.

4. Signs are done by God to demonstrate His authority. Acts 4:29-30

The primary purpose for signs in the New Testament was to establish authority. There are no clear examples of physical signs being a means to determining a course of action between multiple options. There is no example of something like someone saying "God please make that chair fall over if you want me to go to the store today." There are some examples of people casting lots in the Old Testament but it is never prescribed as a legitimate option for decision making.

The examples of signs in the New Testament are primarily for demonstrating authority. Jesus healed people because He loved them, but there was also an overall purpose in His miracles to establish and display His authority. The apostles performed signs and wonders so that people would know that what they were saying was authoritative.

5. Signs should be prayed for. Acts 4:29-30

Here's John Piper again:

"...if you come to God with a heart aching with longing for vindication of his glory and the salvation of sinners, and that's why you long to see him stretch forth his hand to heal and do signs and wonders in the name of Jesus, then you are not wicked and adulterous. You are a faithful wife, only wanting to honor your husband, Jesus."

God is authoritative, what He says goes. God sent Jesus as His most clear revelation. Jesus came and changed the world through twelve ordinary men, many of whom were inspired to write the New Testament. The Bible today is the revelation of Jesus Christ and therefore has authority in our lives. Most decisions we make should be pressed through the objective, and authoritative Word. There are other issues that are not directly addressed in Scripture, but there may be principles or implications that would give us our answer.

There are yet other issues for which we have neither principles nor implications. The classic example is- Bob likes two girls and they are both godly women, and nothing would rule them out as a suitable match for him. All things being equal, who should he pursue, and how should he determine which one? He should pray about it, asking God to direct his desires and then pursue the one he likes the most.

Discernment takes discipline, and trying to figure out physical or even emotional signs can be frustrating. The vast majority of difficult decisions we make should be done through understanding what the Bible says, and seeking to apply it to our lives. This is not to say that God can't speak, but it will always be in accord with the revelation of the Bible.

It is legitimate to ask for signs:
So that others will seek after God.
So that God's authority will be established.

It is illegitimate to ask for signs:
When you want to find a reason to do what you want to do.
When you put more stock in a feeling or a physical sign, than in the Bible.
When you require more direction on an issue that is clearly addressed in the Bible.

War With Sin Part II: Romans 8:13

War With Sin Part II: Romans 8:13

Introduction:

Two men are bound and are pushed into the ocean from a ship. One of the men is dead and the other one is alive. What is the difference in the way the two men act? The dead man is peaceful. He is just as content in the water as he was on the boat. The change in geography has had no effect on him. The man who is alive, on the other hand, fights and struggles. He recognizes his surroundings are going to kill him if he doesn’t fight against his bonds, and fight to get back to the surface where he can breathe. Fighting against sin is like the live man who fell in the water. Because he was alive, he fought to live. Dead men don’t fight in order to be alive. Alive men fight because that’s what you do when you’re alive. In other words, the man’s fighting didn’t make him alive, he was alive and therefore he fought. So fighting is evidence of life. That is what is being taught in this text. This shows the nature of living as fighting.

If there were barriers or people who were preventing you from seeing your children or your spouse, you would fight to get to them. The reason you would is because you see them as lovely, they are valuable to you. If you see Jesus as lovely you will fight against anything that prevents you from being in close fellowship with Him, whether that is “service” (as we saw this morning) or idolatry, or covetousness, or lust, or any other thing that is not the greatest thing, which is fellowship with Jesus. To say it another way, new life in Christ means that you recognize what is truly valuable, and what is not. You will fight against what is not valuable in order that you may see and savor what is truly valuable- Jesus. This shows the nature of living as treasuring Jesus.

Romans 8:13 If you live by the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

IV. Put to Death the Deeds of the Body By the Spirit- This is going to be an answer to the question "What does it mean to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit?"

1. The Nature of the Christian life as war- Not "let go and let God"
Here's what Ed Welch says about the warfare Christians are called to:
. . . there is a mean streak to authentic self-control. . . Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. . . . The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. . . . There is something about war that sharpens the senses . . . You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little of no sleep, war keeps us vigilant.

This is where I ended last time, and this is where I pick up again this week. Warfare in the Christian life is not optional. There are no conscientious objectors to fighting sin. Conscientious objectors get slaughtered.

We identified our enemy last time, and that is “the deeds of the body” which is anything in us that is against God. Not other people. As Christians we don’t fight against other people, but against anything in us that would cause us to hurt other people.
a. Texts on fighting- I Timothy 6:12, Philippians 2:12,
b. Present and Active- The first “live” and “put to death” are in the present active tense. “Die” and “Live” are future tense- yet another argument for this death and life being eternal and not temporal.
c. Part of the new life given to us by the cross is that we are aware of our surroundings and aware of our own sinfulness. In other words the Spirit opens our eyes to see our own sinfulness and to see it as something to be fought against. This is part of what the new life looks like.
2. The method: Fighting Sin "By the Spirit"- Not "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps."
a. The world says the answer is inside of you and Christianity says the answer is outside of you. Not asceticism, not self-help, not will power. There are people in many religions that put to death the deeds of the body, and they are successful in some ways. There are monks who empty themselves of all desire. Achieve nirvana, but this is by emptying the mind through meditation. What is different about Christian meditation?
b. Texts that indicate God behind our fighting- Philippians 2:13, Gal 3:3
c. I Peter 4:11- The way we fight should cause God to get the credit.
d. The offensive weapon of Christians- Ephesians 6:17. Wielding the word in the fight against sin. If what I said was true last time, that sin (at it's root) is unbelief in the promises of God. Then one of the primary ways to fight by the Spirit is to use the Sword of the Spirit to do battle with sin.

So which is it? Do we fight, or does God do the fighting for us? Well, I guess I would say that God’s Spirit enlivens us initially and continually empowers us to fight the fight of faith. God’s work in us to cause us to fight against sin is primary, our effort in the fight against sin, while necessary, is secondary. Romans 8:13 calls us to do, what we can’t do, but must be done for us- that’s the logic of Scripture.


3. The Goal of our Fighting and The Means of our Victory: Faith in God’s Promises
a. Fight to hear- Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17). (Romans 10:14),
b. Fight to See, (I Corinthians 13:12- I John 3:2, II Corinthians 4:4)
c. Ultimately you are fighting to rest in God. The goal is that you would be so satisfied with Christ that sin becomes unthinkable. Resting in Him makes being at ease with sin unthinkable.
4. Practical Strategies to Fight the Fight of Faith By the Spirit: Just because our fight is “by the Spirit” doesn’t mean that the Spirit doesn’t use means to accomplish His good work in our lives.
a. The necessity of the word in the fight. The Spirit works through the word to conform you into the image of Christ.
b. Fight fire with fire- Sins offer you pleasure, God offers you superior pleasure.
c. Fight with confidence- Because you desire to fight against sin, be encouraged and confident that God will complete what He started in your life.
d. Put yourself under the preaching of the word- God did not make us to thrive in a vacuum, but to thrive in community. Putting yourself under the preaching of the word is how faith is cultivated and matured.
e. Preach to yourself- Adam wrote a helpful note on this this past week. He quoted Martyn Lloyd Jones.
Psalm 43:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you . . ."

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: "Why art thou cast down" -– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: "Hope thou in God" -– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.”

f. Accountability- Again, just like the method of putting yourself under the preached word, we weren’t made to thrive by ourselves, but to depend on others. Accountability is a difficult thing to subject yourself to because you have to be honest, but the Spirit uses other believers to encourage and exhort us.
g. Fleeing- Yes, it would be nice to be able to face all of your sins and stare them in the face and say “no” but we must realize that because of our frailty, in a lot of cases the best thing to do is run like Joseph did from Potiphar’s wife.
John Piper:
“The great error that I am trying to explode in these messages is the error that says, faith in God is one thing and the fight for holiness is another thing. Faith gets you to heaven and holiness gets you rewards. You get your justification by faith, and you get your sanctification by works. You start the Christian life in the power of the Spirit, you press on in the efforts of the flesh. This is the great evangelical error of our day. The battle for obedience is optional, they say, because only faith is necessary for salvation.
Our response: the battle for obedience is absolutely necessary for salvation because it IS the fight of faith. The battle against lust is absolutely necessary for salvation because it is the battle against unbelief. Faith alone delivers from hell and the faith that delivers from hell delivers from lust.”
If you find yourself in a situation where you do not put to death the deeds of the body and never have. If you are the dead man in the sea who is perfectly content with his surroundings, wake up. Look to Christ. He is your only hope. Do not try to put to death the deeds of the body because you are going to do it in a way that does not honor God. Run to Christ, flee to Him. Hope in Him. Trust in Him. Seek after His righteousness. Give up on yourself.
If you are a believer, fight the fight of faith by the Spirit with confidence, knowing that Christ has won for you what you could never win for yourself. Leave the fleeting pleasures of sin and run to the deepest and most lasting pleasures that Christ has purchased for you.

Life By the Spirit

This is a sermon I preached about a month ago at Wyatt.

Romans 8:12-17 "Life In the Spirit"

Introduction:
A few months ago I preached on Indwelling Sin in believers as we looked at Romans chapter 7. In that passage we learned that as believers we all deal with the sinful nature that we have always had. We do what we don’t want to do, we don’t do the things that we know we ought to do. Before chapter 7 in Romans 1-6 we see that in our natural state we are in rebellion to God Romans 1:1-3:20. In Chapter 3 vs. 21-4:25 Paul shares God’s plan to rescue us from the sinfulness that we all find ourselves in. In chapter 5 we see another turn and that is the hope that we have as a result of God’s effort to save us. Chapter 8 describes the Christian life by the Spirit.
Jordan preached chapter 8 verses 1-11. Now I’m going to preach chapter 8:12-17. Next week I will zero in on verse 13.
I’m picking up tonight where Adam left off this morning, and talking about Life by the Spirit. Once we come to know Christ and therefore God the Father by the Spirit certain things will begin to change about us.

I am going to talk about three characteristics of Christians (those who live by the Spirit):
1. Christians are at war with sin.
2. Christians are heirs of God and therefore identify themselves with God as their Father.
3. Christians suffer with and for Christ.

I. Christians put sin to death. Vs 12-13 We are no longer debtors to the flesh. “So then” this goes back to what has previously been said.
a.12 a- Since we are no longer under condemnation and are in the Spirit, we are no longer debtors to the flesh to live by the flesh.
i.You owe the flesh nothing. So many of us are walking around as though we have debts to the flesh that you are trying to pay.
ii. The problem is that “paying the flesh” results in death. It’s like paying for the bullets that someone puts in their gun to shoot you with.
b. 12 b-We are dependent on the Spirit. We work to rest and depend on the Spirit. A big part of the Christian life is understanding what it means to rely on the Spirit. It is not a “Let go and let God” mentality, as though we are not engaged, but it is also not a “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” kind of life either.
c. 13 a- Living by the flesh kills. John Owen put it best “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” This is a matter of fact, if you live according to the flesh you will die. This is a real warning, and we should take heed lest we find ourselves in this category as one who “lives according to the flesh.”
d. 13 b-Living by the Spirit means putting to death the deeds of the body. This necessarily implies that there will be “deeds of the body” to kill. Therefore it is not the absence of sin, but the fight against indwelling sin that we learned about in chapter 7. The big idea that we should learn is that true Christians have sin to kill.

Next week we will zero in on this verse and answer a few questions about it.
1. What does it mean to live according to the flesh?
2. What are the deeds of the body? How does this apply to believers?
3. What does it mean to put to death the deeds of the body?
4. How do you do this by the Spirit?


II. Christians are identified and identify themselves as children of God. Vs 14-16
a. This is the second in this sections’ description of true believers. It seems like anytime Paul writes to churches He assumes that unbelievers, and merely professing believers are present. It’s as though Paul is saying. “Test yourselves here brothers, those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God, and those who are led by the flesh are not the sons of God. Which are you?”
b. How do we know we have received this Spirit? You say ok, the question about whether or not we are led by the Spirit is a little too subjective for me. I get that believers are those who fight against sin, but how do I know I am a son of God?
c. Paul goes further and says that this Spirit that we are led by, causes us to apprehend our adoption as sons and causes us to cry out to God “Abba, Father.” As opposed to a slave/master relationship, this is a Father/son relationship. The way you view your relationship with God determines how you will act toward Him. If He is merely your slave master, you may be tempted to fall back into fear. In slavery, your master could snap and kill you. How many of you fear that your father might kill you? There is a fundamental difference in God being your slave master and being your Father.
d. Believing that God is your Father is the work of the Spirit. The Spirit testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God- This is not a sentimental “feeling” but an earnest biblical assurance that comes from deep biblical meditation and understanding of what the Bible says about true believers. There are three main ways that we know we are God’s children:
i. The declaration of Scripture- Believe and you will be saved.
ii. The fruit of obedience- If you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
iii. The third way is verse 16. The Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are sons of God. Dan Wallace puts it this way. “I know I’m a child of God not just because the Bible tells me so, but because the Spirit convinces me so”
e. We cannot pull this one verse out of its immediate context and try to turn this into some kind of very subjective warm and fuzzy feeling inside. If you are not trusting in Christ, and have no fruit of the Spirit who supposedly lives in you, you cannot have any assurance if you just have some warm and fuzzy feelings that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

III. Christians Suffer With Christ Vs 17
a. The third description of a Christian in this passage is that Christians suffer with Christ.
b. How do we know we are heirs? We suffer with Christ. What does this look like in America?
i. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we suffer in persecution for bearing Christ’s name, though that will come in some way if we truly believe (sooner or later our faith in Christ is going to tick someone off).
ii. We can also suffer “with Christ” if when we have the cancer, or when we lose a loved one, or the degenerative disease leaves us crippled, we react in such a way that shows Christ to be sufficient.
iii. It is sometimes hard for us to think about suffering for Christ in any other way than persecution. How do you separate the pain of persecution for your faith that may be accompanied with getting beat up? Pain is pain, in one sense, and all pain in believers should be experienced “with Christ.” That is, the way you act under pain should make Christ look good, and should point to the fact that Christ is sufficient for you. Your joy in Christ should be more than the horror of whatever is causing your pain- whether it is a mob with sticks, a family member with a sharp tongue, or cancer. Christians suffer with Christ.

Children of God are not:
Debtors to the flesh
Passive about our sinfulness
Living by the flesh
Slaves to sin
Suffering with no reference to Christ

Children of God are:
Dependent on the Spirit
Active in the fight against sin
Living by the Spirit
Sons and heirs of God
Suffering With Christ

The call of the text this evening is to cast yourself on Christ. Seek out the kind of relationship in which you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Seek out the kind of relationship with God where you see Him as “Daddy.” Don’t waste your suffering, whatever kind it might be, and use it as an occasion to honor Christ by showing that He is more valuable than whatever you lost.

Talking to yourself isn't Crazy, it's Biblical

I have been reading the book Spiritual Depression by "The Doctor" (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones). I have only read the introduction, but have already found it very helpful. One thing Jill often wrote about in her journal was about "Preaching to Herself". Here is what "The Doctor" says about this concept. He quotes Psalm 43 as an example of a struggling believer talking to himself.

Psalm 43:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you . . ."

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: "Why art thou cast down" -– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: "Hope thou in God" -– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.”

Romans 8:13 War With Sin Part I

This is a sermon I preached at Wyatt a couple weeks ago. The spacing and bullets are kind of weird on here, but hopefully it is clear how the points flow.

Romans 8:13 War With Sin

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Introduction:

Get to know your enemy: Some of the greatest warriors in history were those who knew their enemy the best. You may have brute strength, but brute strength focused in the wrong place, or underestimating your enemy can cause you to be defeated. In the movie “We Were Soldiers” Mel Gibson’s character Colonel Moore was an expert in war. He did not go into the jungles of Vietnam without knowing his enemy and his surroundings. He was always one step ahead of the enemy. If we are going to be successful in our war against sin, and it is a war, we have to know the enemy and how it works.


In my next two messages I am going to answer at least 4 questions about this text:

1. What is the flesh, and what does it mean to live according to it?
2. What death/life is being spoken of in this text?
3. What are the deeds of the body?
4. How do you put them to death “by the Spirit”?

In this message I’m going to answer the first 3 questions and in the next message I will answer the final question.


1. Life by the flesh
1. “For”- This hearkens back to the previous verse. Since we are not debtors to the flesh, we need to know that paying debts to the flesh will kill us. It’s like saying- You owe nothing to the flesh, because if you live as though you owe the flesh, you will die. To put it another way- This was the best illustration that I could come up with. It’s kind of like cigarettes. Living as though you owe something to cigarettes will kill you. Smoking cigarettes does nothing but kill you, why would you live as though you owe something to them? That is the same logic that Paul is using here. Why would you serve a master that has no other intention but to kill you?
2. “If You Live according to the flesh”- Here are the things living according to the flesh means (according to verses 5-9 of Chapter 8). A warning- If you see yourself in any of these things, you ought to repent. Being in the South, and especially in this area, is one of the most dangerous places to live in the world for a Christian. Everyone thinks they are a believer, and it is therefore easy to fool yourself, and easy to be fooled.
1. You set your mind on the things of the flesh- This is anything that does not have God as the reference point. You can set your mind on “church” and have a fleshly mind. Church minus God is fleshly. Marriage minus God is fleshly. Family minus God is fleshly. I don’t think Paul has specific things in mind when he says this. He is talking about a frame of mind or a way of thinking that is fleshly.
2. You are hostile to God- Those who live according to the flesh are hostile to God. You have no interest in subjecting yourself to God. When the Law of God comes to you, you reject it. You want your way, and you say no to God’s way. You know He is there, and you know what He wants, but you reject Him anyway. Because you don’t subject yourself to God and don’t want to, you cannot subject yourself to God. You have a moral inability to subject yourself to God which is why we are completely dependent on Him to give you a new heart.
3. You cannot please God- Because you do not set your mind on the “things of the Spirit” and because you are openly hostile to God, therefore you cannot please God.

2. The Death You Will Die
1. There are questions about what death this is referring to. You may be tempted to say that this cannot mean spiritual death because, “What if a believer lives according to the flesh?” Paul is talking to Christians in this text and therefore, Paul is intending for believers to hear this. Therefore he cannot be talking about Spiritual death, but something else. This is Spiritual death because:
2. People live physically all the time, who live according to the flesh.
3. People die physically all the time who put to death the deeds of the body.
4. Unbelievers who automatically live according to the flesh live long and healthy lives. Believers who put to death the deeds of the body live short, painful lives.
5. It seems from Paul’s letters that he assumes that there will be at least three groups of people hearing the reading of his letters:
1. True believers
2. The openly unbelieving/ skeptics
3. Merely professing believers- If Paul does not have in mind this category, we need to rethink our doctrine of security and assurance of salvation.

3. The Deeds of the Body- Think venue, where does this battle take place?
1. The world tells you that your problem is outside of you, and the answer to your problems is inside of you.
1. All of secular psychology and our therapeutic culture are making all kinds of things a result of environment, or our genes, and hormones.
2. Everything is a “condition”- alcoholism, drug addiction, kleptomania, are all conditions that we suffer from, not sins to be repented of.
3. I’m not saying that there is nothing to depression or chemical imbalances or genes, but you cannot extract the spiritual dimension and the problems caused by our rebellion from life.
2. While the world says the problem is outside of you, Christianity says that your problem is inside of you. We to put to death the “deeds of the body.”
3. While we do not just battle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, we must also not underestimate our own flesh and our own sinfulness. You can’t say “The devil made me do it.” And expect to get off the hook. Paul is not talking about demonic power that forces you to do something you don’t want to do. My problem is not other people, and is not primarily the devil though he can exploit our weaknesses, we must have preexisting weaknesses for him to exploit.
4. The deeds of the body are sins that we all commit. When we sin we believe the lie that sin tells us.
1. Idolatry- You believe that whatever you put before God will be better for you than to put God first. Money, stuff, power, respect
2. Lying- You believe that by lying you will be better off, than if you trust God and speak truth. Do you see how this is rebellion against God. Lying is atheism in practice, you control your own destiny.
3. Stealing- You believe that by stealing you will be better off than by using the legal means of gaining wealth and possessions that God has ordained, and by trusting God to provide for you is a second rate way to live.
4. Lust- You believe that by indulging whatever illicit desires you may have will be better for you than following God’s plan of healthy sexual expression in the confines of a monogamous, heterosexual, Marriage between a man and a woman.
5. These deeds are just symptoms of the deepest problem of our rebellion against God. We do these deeds because our minds are set on the flesh.


The first part of this text is a warning to us, and a description of what the enemy is. The second half of the verse tells us how to kill it which is what we will turn to next time.