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November 23, 2012  David Murray   0 comments

It takes courage and raw physicality to keep the lights on for the rest of us
Wish lots of young people would read this: “In a world that seems increasingly dominated by politicians, pundits, community organizers, professors, lawyers, marketing managers and others who mostly specialize in the production of words, there is often little understanding of what it takes to produce an essential product or service that we frequently take for granted.”

Giving Thanks for C S Lewis
Yesterday was not only Thanksgiving Day, it was also the 49th anniversary of C. S. Lewis’ death.  Joel Miller’s piece relates some touching dIetails of the last days of Lewis’ life.

The unbearable lightness of being Shannon
RC Sproul Jr. continues to edify through his rare God-glorifying transparency.

Leaders tell the truth
An extract from Al Mohler’s new book on Leadership, together with two short videos which pack a lot in to a few minutes.

A lot of pastors love crowds and hate people
Didn’t think I’d be linking to Rick Warren, but this is really too good and too sadly true to bypass.

This is priceless

Foolish Resistance and Invincible Grace

November 21, 2012  David Murray   4 comments

One of the churches I regularly preach in has been doing a series on The Doctrines of Grace, otherwise known as the Five Points of Calvinism. On Sunday evening I preached on the fourth point, Irresistable Grace. As beginning preachers have told me how helpful it is to see how other preachers write out sermon notes, I’ve made the fuller notes available here, and you can find the one page summary notes here.

I used to go straight to a one page summary when preparing, but more recently I’ve found it helpful to write out in full and then summarize. The fuller notes make me think things out more clearly in advance, and they also help my old memory when I maybe have to preach that sermon again at a later date and the summary notes are indecipherable even to me!

In one part of the sermon we considered the differences and the similarities in the way the Father draws sinners to Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Differences in the Father’s Drawing

1. Different ages: The Holy Spirit works on young hearts and old hearts. However, the majority are younger as their hearts and wills have not grown so hard and so skillful in resisting the Spirit.

2. Different time periods: Sometimes the drawing can take place in a few minutes; sometimes it can be over many years.

3. Different forces: The Holy Spirit is sometimes “violent” (e.g. Saul of Tarsus), but often gentle (e.g. Lydia).

4. Different expectations: Sometimes we are not surprised by who the Spirit draws to Christ. They have looked promising for many years and we have been almost waiting for them. At other times, the Holy Spirit picks out the least predictable and most unexpected.

5. Different means: The Holy Spirit may use a sermon, a Scripture reading, a tract, a book, a witness, even an argument to draw sinners to Christ.

Similarities in the Father’s Drawing

1. The Holy Spirit uses the Word: This is not some kind of mystical mid-air experience. There’s a mystery to it all right, but it’s always rooted in the Scriptures. It’s not just some fizz of feelings or emotional manipulation.

2. The Holy Spirit works through the mind: This is a rational experience. The Holy Spirit persuades and reasons with the sinner using the Scriptures. He explains his situation, exposes his need, exhibits him the solution, outlines what he has to do, encourages him with promises, beats excuses, and overcomes obstacles. “And they shall all be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” (John 6:45)

3. The Holy Spirit changes the will’s direction by changing its passions: As the reasons and arguments pile up, the will begins to change from South to North; it is turned 180 degrees and re-directed. It was going against God by going away from God. But now it is going towards God with love and happy expectation.

You cannot experience the Holy Spirit without emotion. Although He works through the mind upon the will, it is not an emotionless experience. There can often be deep and powerful emotions as the sinner’s mind, will, and heart are changed. There is usually a painful sorrow as the sinner looks back at his past resistance. There is joy over the grace extended and the forgiveness enjoyed.

4. The Holy Spirit draws to Jesus: The Holy Spirit directs the sinner’s attention to Jesus Christ in particular. It is not a general theism that is spoken of here. The Father draws to Jesus. We come to Christ. We see a beauty in Him we never saw before. We develop a fascination, even an obsession, with Him. We are more than attracted to Christ: we are impelled. And when we come, he receives. He has never cast our or driven away any sinner drawn to Him by the Holy Spirit (John 6:37).

5.  The Holy Spirit always wins: Although there is a general, or common, work of the Holy Spirit that is successfully resisted, when the Holy Spirit sets out to save, He saves. He has never been defeated. A big fat zero is in His losses column. “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (John 6:37). We’re not talking possibility or probability but certainty. And we are not talking just of coming but of staying…forever.

As the Shorter Catechism (31) put it: “Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.”

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November 21, 2012  David Murray   0 comments

Post Election Rant
A friend sent me to this blog, The Minority Republican, which seems to be a blog written by African American conservatives. It gives some fascinating insights that you will rarely find in the media. In this article Providence Crowder explains why she left the Democratic Party. She has two other articles on The Gospel Killers, including this one on The Prosperity Gospel.

Four reasons men don’t read books (with a practical suggestion)
Tony Reinke on reading is always worth a read.

God in our Midst
Danny Hyde’s excellent book on the Old Testament Tabernacle is only 99c!

One of the most important things we do as a church
From what I can gather, this is an increasing problem and maybe this is one part of the solution.

Our Confession
A group of Scottish Presbyterians are working towards greater unity among their sadly splintered churches. They have provided a number of thought-provoking articles on church unity here.

Ragged Theology
Staying with Scotland, my friend Andrew Murray has started a new blog that he describes as follows:

Living as a Christian husband, father, son and leader in 21st Century Scotland is tough going but I have found tremendous help in the lives of other great leaders particularly my great hero Thomas Guthrie (1803 – 1873). His statue stands resplendently in Princess Street Gardens, Edinburgh as a memory to one of the greatest preachers and social reformers Scotland has ever seen. It is sad that such little is known about Thomas Guthrie today even in Edinburgh where so much of his influence was felt in the 19th Century.  Hopefully this blog will do a little to change that!

Why Ragged Theology?  Thomas Guthrie was the ‘Apostle’ of the the Ragged School movement (as Mr Smiles in ‘Self Help’ called him) which opened its first school in 1847 in Edinburgh.  Inspired by the Industrial Feeding School of Sheriff Watson in Aberdeen which had been operating from 1841 Guthrie used all his skills as an orator, writer and organiser to turn the idea in to a national movement.  Called from a rural parish in Fife, Guthrie came to Old Greyfriars in Edinburgh as an assistant from 1837-1840 when he established a new church called St John’s in Victoria Street.  Guthrie was appalled by what he saw around him an pioneered what would now be called ‘early intervention.’  His vibrant theology was no ivory tower teaching but Biblical truth set on fire with activism and engagement.  Social intervention and sound doctrine were not enemies to Guthrie but the very essence of Biblical theology.

Faithful Sermon Preparation in Busy Ministry (4)

November 20, 2012  David Murray   0 comments

The last in the series looks at the place of commentaries and prayer.

Faithful sermon preparation in busy ministry…

7. PAUSES before using commentaries

When ministry gets busier and busier, it is very tempting to stop thinking and start collating. Instead of meditating on the text to understand it for ourselves, we simply start cutting and pasting others’ thoughts and ideas together from commentaries, etc.

That’s certainly one way to prepare sermons in a busy ministry, but it sacrifices “faithful.” Faithfulness must involve some measure of personally wrestling with the text, wrestling with God, and wrestling with congregational application.

Personal meditation on the text lends freshness, relevance, and depth to our sermons. That’s why we should wait until we’ve milked the text dry before opening a commentary. We ask it lots of questions from lots of angles. We use the mind that God has given us for our time, place, and people and work hard to understand the text in our context before resorting to what God has taught others.

Meditation might seem as if it’s a waste of precious time – it might only yield one or two insights or profound thoughts, whereas you could be cut and pasting paragraphs from the latest expository commentary. But two thoughts that God gives you is worth more than 100 from someone else. We must not measure our sermons by length or density. A little blessed by God is worth more than anything else.

8. PRAYS without ceasing.

Most books and lectures on preaching will emphasize the necessity of a long period of time in prayer before preparing to preach. When I first started preaching, I would not put pen to paper or finger to keyboard without praying for at least an hour. However, this self-made rule became increasingly legalistic and almost superstitious. I increasingly found little or no pleasure or profit in the practice and it became an immense burden and even an obstacle to sermon preparation.

One day I asked a godly old minister about his own practice. He said that he too used to feel that he could not prepare a sermon until he had prayed for hours. However, God had taught him two things over the years.

One was the importance of a prayerful life and spirit throughout the whole week. Secondly, instead of praying for one long period, he began sermon preparation with brief prayer, and frequently called on God throughout the preparation process.

“Often and short” rather than “once and long” was his theme. He said that this helped to keep him in a devotional spirit throughout the preparation day. I also have found this to be a most helpful practice. I try to ensure that I stop frequently to thank God for His help, to seek his help with difficulties, and to give me efficiency, concentration, perseverance, understanding, etc.

Prayer is not an excuse for laziness, but it is a tremendous comfort when we regularly have to preach sermons that are not what we would like them to be. If we have been busy yet faithful, we can pray the Lord to bless our loaves and fishes and multiply their effect far beyond what logic expects.

Previous posts in the series

Faithful Sermon Preparation in Busy Ministry…

1. Is PAINFULLY realistic

2. Requires PERSONAL preparation

3. PRIORITIZES sermon preparation

4. PLANS ahead 

5. Follows a regular PATTERN

6. Is PRAGMATIC in the use of biblical languages

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November 20, 2012  David Murray   0 comments

Late Update: Precious Puritans
Jeremy Walker with an amazingly creative response to the Precious Puritans controversy. Wish I could ask him to rap it!

Things you won’t hear often in graduate counseling programs
A summary of an address by Dr Diane Langberg.

Healing for the Holidays
Bob Kellemen with some welcome help for those who are reminded of their losses this Thanksgiving.

Preaching and Application
Peter Mead’s five part series is well worth a read (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5).

Don’t Sanitize the Psalms
Steve Cornell fears that King David would not be hired as a worship leader in many churches.

What are three common areas of neglect in a pastor’s life?
Brian Croft answers: Lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and lack of spiritual concern for one’s own soul.

How rejection breeds creativity

Faithful Sermon Preparation in a Busy Ministry (3)

November 19, 2012  David Murray   1 comment

Last week we proposed four ways to continue faithful sermon preparation in a busy ministry (Part One and Part Two). Today we’ll look at how regular routine and a pragmatic use of biblical languages will help us achieve what seems to be impossible at times.

Faithful sermon preparation in a busy ministry…

5. Follows a regular PATTERN

How Sermons Work is not the most devotional or heart-warming book on preaching – there are lots of those around; it’s more like a mechanical instruction manual that guides the reader through the sermon preparation process step by step, taking nothing for granted. There are lots of checklists and practical guides.

My aim is that as the preacher gets used to the exegetical pattern I set out, he will no longer need the book. It will become second nature to him, part of his mindset, a way of thinking that is automatic and instinctive.

Each time I went up a level at Tae Kwon Do, I used to think, my legs or arms will never manage that. It felt so awkward and unnatural even when done at 1 mph. However, after we repeated the movement a thousand times – and believe me it was at least a thousand times – it felt so normal and even boringly easy. The brain and muscle tissue had learned the pathways and patterns and it became second nature, even instinctive.

Similarly when we get into a sermon preparation pattern, the moment we settle into our office chair, the brain knows it’s time to start whirring, and knows what to whir and when.

The more routine we build into our sermon preparation, the more routine it will become. There is a supernatural element to it, of course, but there’s a lot of routine as well, basic mechanics, which if we learn and practice, the brain gets into the usual groove, allowing more space and opportunity for the supernatural as well.

I’m not saying that the How Sermons Work routine is the best for everyone, but I do believe everyone should have a basic pattern of reading text, translating, word studies, structure/outline, exegesis, commentaries, illustration, application, into, outro, etc.

6. Is PRAGMATIC in the use of biblical languages

I teach Hebrew exegesis. I want preachers to use Hebrew in their sermon preparation. However, I also want to be realistic.

When I started in the ministry I used to spend hours parsing verbs, looking up lexicons, etc., for 10 or more verses. I ended up with lots of lovely pages of Hebrew study, but not a sermon.

I’ve therefore adopted a method which I believe still places great importance on the study of God’s Word in the original languages, while at the same time increasing my time-efficiency.

So, I am very much against abandoning Greek and Hebrew. However, I am for re-positioning them, especially in the early days of our ministries, as we grow in knowledge and ability. I would not want any of us to kill our ministries or ourselves by trying to be a Lambdin or a Wenham while trying to preach three sermons to lost souls every week. If we try to persist in this we will soon give up on the original languages altogether – as many, sadly, have done.

My more realistic approach to the original languages has five components:

  • I read the text in various English versions first of all, to familiarize myself with the various translation options and differences.
  • I limit my original languages study to the 2-3 main verses. If I’m preaching OT narrative or a NT parable, I try to identify the few key verses and focus my study on them.
  • I study the Greek or Hebrew text, parsing and translating, with a particular focus on what my study of the text in the English versions highlighted. For example, if 4-5 mainstream translations agree on 90% of the text but differ on 10%, then I focus on the 10%. I don’t see the point in reinventing the wheel.
  • I make use of the many electronic helps to parse and translate my text. My preference is for Logos Bible Software.
  • I try to get time throughout the sermon preparation process to meditate on the text in the Greek or Hebrew. Apart from the subconscious and spiritual effects, such meditation will often yield thoughts and ideas which may not have been suggested by studying only English translations. God honors and rewards study of His Word as He originally gave it.

This is not the ideal, but almost everyone I know who has tried to reach for the ideal has fallen far short, got discouraged, and has given up all language study.

I prefer a more realistic approach that will maintain contact with the original languages, and will, over time, actually increase skill in them in a way that the “ideal” approach rarely will.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the last two strategies for faithful preparation of sermons in a busy ministry.