Sermon Index Revival Conference Live Feed

You can watch the live feed of the Revival Conferences from Dublin, Ireland (Nov. 13-14) and Wales (Nov. 17-19) here. We'll post the schedule (in their local time) once it becomes available. Featured speakers include Paul Washer, David Legge, Will Graham, Walid Bitar, Alan Bartley, Yorrie Richards, David Guzik, and Dyfrig Griffiths.

Fort Worth Kiss-in: Another Perspective

On Saturday, we went down to the Fort Worth Kiss In to preach the gospel with a couple of friends from Australia. For the record and speaking only for us, we weren't there to protest. We were there to simply preach the gospel. Why preach at a GLBT protest\event? Because people are there. And the one requirement for open-air preaching is that you preach where people are gathered. It's a simple concept, but worth pointing out since whenever you preach at a GLBT event, you're branded as being a "hater".

One question anyone who watches (and believes) the slanted coverage in the D\FW area should ask themselves is this: "If the evangelical Christians who were there were expressing so much hatred towards homosexuals, then why didn't the TV cameras catch images of screaming Christians yelling "God hates you!"? They got plenty of film of those of us who were actually preaching. Why didn't the broadcasts air it?

Because there wasn't any. What happened was a beautiful thing. Christians from across Fort Worth came to take a stand for morality while expressing genuine love to the homosexual community. The whole gospel was preached. At the end of the day, members of the Missionary Baptist Church that were there sang Amazing Grace while two lesbians stood in the middle of the circle vying for a photo opportunity. If they felt so much hatred, as one of them professed on TV, then why did she do her best to stand in the middle of a group of Christians?

When I first started preaching, I didn't even mention the sin of homosexuality. I did preach about lying, stealing, blasphemy, lust\adultery, but didn't touch the issue of the moment. This drove a couple of the homosexual hecklers batty. It was as if they would have preferred that I preach against homosexuality and screamed hatred. But because I was preaching the love of God for sinners as expressed at the Cross, they were disappointed. Even the news crews seemed disappointed because they left when it became apparent I wasn't going to sound like Westboro Baptist or any of the other sandwich board wearers.

The best Channel 11 could do was get a clip of me responding to a man who asked, "Did you say that unless I repent I will perish?" to which I respectfully and calmly said, "That is what the Bible says, sir."

Since this was the text of Jesus' first sermon, I guess I was in pretty safe company.

Some Christians will read this and say, "But how effective was this?" In our present day pragmatic evangelical malaise, this is the big question. Did it work?

A friend of mine who was at the event reports that one of the GLBT demonstrators came across the street to speak to her and the pastor of the Missionary Baptist Church. I saw them chatting as I left. She reports that this young man said that he wanted to leave the homosexual life and prayed to repent and trust Christ there on the spot.

Whether or not homosexuals get the right to marry (they probably will), can express public displays of affection (they do), or get the same benefits as married couples really does not matter as much as the salvation of one soul. Jesus said that there is great rejoicing in Heaven over the one sinner who repents. Praise God that He still uses His Word and the foolishness of preaching to save sinners.

Weeping over the State of Evangelism

When Sport becomes a god

This article will appear in an upcoming edition of The Justin Texan:

Football season is in full swing. This means that high school, college and NFL teams are doing battle on the gridiron and fans are buying tickets, merchandise, paying for special packages on their cable and satellite services to see more games, and starting fantasy football leagues. Athletes are training, some are taking steroids, and parents are carting their first graders to football fields to don pads and helmets and learning how to crash into each other like miniature torpedoes.

I like football. I watch it now and then. I’m originally from Buffalo, NY and used to go to a few Buffalo Bills games a year. I’ve been to a few playoff games in sub-zero weather. I’ve even been to a home opener here in Dallas (which is tough for a die-hard Bills fan) when we got tickets for chump change. I used to be involved in a couple of fantasy leagues and even won a league once.

Here’s my question for myself and everyone else who likes football: at what point does our enjoyment of the game become idolatry? When do we cross the line from healthy enjoyment to outright obsession? Is it when we skip church to go to a game? When we pay more money for merchandise or football equipment than we give to a local church? When we care more about not missing a practice than whether or not our friends know Christ? When you know your team’s playbook better than you know the Bible? Where is that line?

I’ll leave the specific answer to that question to everyone who names the name of Christ and is involved with sport. But generally speaking, theologians agree that idolatry happens whenever something or someone becomes more important than God Himself. I think it’s safe to say that comparing the time, money, and energy we give to the Lord (lit. “Master”) and sport would be a good place to start.

Why do we do this? Why are we content with so little? We find more joy in watching a millionaire run across a chalk line carrying the skin of a pig than we do in the one, true living God! Isn’t there something wrong with this picture? We care more whether our kids, whose ages are measured in single digits, can hit, shoot a gap, throw a ball and make a play than we care whether they know Christ! We’d gladly trade their soul for a Super Bowl ring! “Dereliction of duty” does not begin to describe the father who would settle for such a trade. It’s spiritual child abuse.

Even while you are reading this, if you’ve read this far and not tossed this paper out in a fit of rage, you are accusing me of taking my Christianity too far. Oh really? How far are we supposed to take it? I seem to recall something about Jesus saying that if anyone wanted to come after Him, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Him! In other words, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “He bids us come and die.” Pretty extreme, I know, but I don’t write the mail, I just deliver it.

What really mystifies me is that professing Christians idolize a false god. Could it be due to the fact that they can “see” football, games, sport and can’t physically see the living God that they claim to love, serve and adore? Augustine was once approached by a heathen who showed him his idol and said, “Here is my god. Where is yours?” Augustine replied, “I cannot show you my God; not because there is no God to show but because you have no eyes to see Him.”

Do you have eyes to see Him? Or are you blind to the beauty, the magnificence, the power of this living God that we claim to serve? Are you dazzled with Friday night lights or the glory of God?

Declaration of War

Saints, please watch this and be moved. Life is not a game. It is not designed for your personal comfort or amusement. This is a war.

Texas Revival Series!!!

Please register today at www.TexasRevivalSeries.com.

The Glory of God

This article will appear in an upcoming edition of The Justin Texan.

Last time we considered the holiness of God and what that means to us as sinners. He is entirely separate from us and sinless. As such, He is different from us and there is a great gulf fixed between the character of God and the character of man.

Today, we finish this part of our series with a consideration of the glory of God. Just as with the term "holy", "glory" in our vernacular means something much less than what it means with God. We speak of the "glory days" of our youth: victories and accomplishments that we have attained for ourselves or a team. We also talk about the term in the sense of patriotism: a nation being glorious in its ideals and accomplishments. Our flag is even called "Old Glory."

But what is the glory of God? According to Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology (page 220f.), it has two senses: 1) honor or excellent reputation and 2) the bright light which surrounds the presence of God. They are closely tied together because the bright light which surrounds God is symbolic of the excellence of His reputation. In the first sense, the Bible says that God created mankind "for my glory" (Is. 43:7). In the latter sense, the Bible says that He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:15-17).

The honor of God is of infinite more importance than our puny, feeble attempts to exalt ourselves. Whether it is through physical fitness, plastic surgery, cosmetics, clothing, possessions, reputation, job position, ad infinitum; our attempts to exalt ourselves and get others to recognize our importance or worth are ridiculous. Why? Because God is the only One who is worthy of praise. Only His reputation is worthy to be known. As we've already said, all of mankind was created for His glory (not ours) and any time we deviate from that plan to seek after our glory, we sin against a powerful, holy, glorious God.

This is the essence of the first of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:3). Here in the Bible belt, it's not common to see temples to false gods with altars and incense burning (although there are some). But it is common to see self-made reputations presented as reality to those who might come and worship at our own altars of self promotion. This is as common as pennies in evangelical churches where pastors and other leaders are elevated on pedestals and his public image worshiped. The tragedy is that in places of worship, God is not worshiped, but a carefully crafted public relations image IS.

Whatever this is, it is not Biblical Christianity. A.W. Tozer said, "...everything God does is praiseworthy and deserves our deepest admiration. Whether He is making or redeeming a world, He is perfect in all His doings and glorious in all His goings forth". Friend, is this what your life looks like? Does it continually give praise, credit and glory to God or are you chasing after the applause of men for yourself? Do you deeply admire God and long to make Him appear to be great amongst others or are you living for your own accolades? If you live for yourself, please repent. Give up everything for His glory. He is worthy.