I talked with my young friend here the other day about how to handle sermons that don't rightly divide God's Word or proclaim Christ clearly (both mandates in the New Testament). She was very discouraged by what she was sometimes hearing from another chaplain. I encouraged this dear sister to focus--not on any falsehoods being taught--but on the truth that those falsehoods more clearly reveal and dwell on those.
She then wrote another person with the following thoughts, and I hope you are blessed by her ownership of this principle (and excellent presentation of the Gospel). Students and youth, please notice the following: (1) Her attention to what was being said (not creating a strawman or misrepresenting what was said), (2) Her general avoidance of critiquing the person, (3) Her critical engagement and interaction with what was said, (4) Her time spent on the positive alternative as opposed to the critique, and (5) Her tone toward the gentleman she is addressing.
I was talking to a godly friend afterward about this and
he helped me to see that you can take a bad sermon and still be encouraged by
critiquing it and reminding yourself of what is true. So, I practiced last night, giving me notes,
not so much on what he said, but on what is true. So here goes!
What is the dual of this sermon? (Sorry, duel is an ORSA
term. It means the opposite view.)
He speaks of the gospel, but never defines it. What is the gospel? God is the Creator of all things, and as
such, He is the King. We all owe
everything to Him. But, we wanted to be
King and so we rejected God, rebelling against His rule. God, being holy, had no other option but to
crush this rebellion and pour His righteous wrath out on our sin. He would have been just to obliterate
us. But, He did not do this. He sent His perfect and beloved Son to become
sin for us and He crushed His Son in our place.
Now, we can not only be reconciled to our King as His subjects once
more, but we can be adopted into His family as His beloved children. Never do we need to question His love and
acceptance. The only thing we have to do
to receive this is to respond in faith and repentance to what He has already
done. And amazingly, these are not our
own actions, but are also a gift from God.
Now our future is sweet, intimate relationship with God now and even
more fully when we see Him face to face for all eternity.
CH (name omitted) stated that our choices define us. This is NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER
true!!!! If this were true, we would be
in Hell. But praise be to God that HE
CHOSE US!!!!! We are defined by the fact
that we are in Christ. There our
identity will forever rest in Jesus' finished work on the cross, where He took
our record of sin and gave us His record of perfect obedience.
CH (name omitted) stated that John the Baptist was worried that
with him being in prison, the gospel would not be preached and people would not
be taken care of. Also, that Jesus
declared he was taking care of the poor, healing the sick because that was His
mission. So terribly false! John did not preach the gospel. He preached repentance in preparation for
Jesus' coming. The gospel had not
happened yet. Praise God that John's
message was not continued, but graduated into the gospel! Jesus responded to John by quoting
Isaiah. He was healing the sick and
preaching good news to the poor. But not
just for the sake of making people happier here. It was a sign that He was the Messiah and had
come to fulfill all the promises that God had given regarding salvation. We are not saved from social problems and
sickness, we are saved from our sin and the terrible judgment that our sin has
earned!
So, plenty to rejoice in!
It takes more work to rejoice in a (name omitted) sermon, but please, I beg
you, don't let him lull you to sleep with his passionate preaching of
fluff. Pursue truth and strengthen your
grasp of the gospel. Nothing else will
satisfy you and sustain you. There are
glorious things awaiting us in Heaven, don't settle for any less!
Ok, rant over.
Thank you for listening! This is
really important to me!
Clinging to the cross,
(Name Omitted)
