Transparent Freedom

“One very simple thing we want to do is encourage people in our congregation to talk about evangelism. It seems like Christians feel awkward talking about that. Talk about evangelism openly. Talk about evangelism with your non-Christian friends. Be open about what you are doing.”  (Mark Dever)

Mark goes on to say that some of his best evangelistic conversations with non-Christians have been conversations about evangelism.  Non-Christians know what you’re doing when you try to share the gospel with them. Mark says that he will often plainly tell the person: You know I’m a Christian, and that I think the gospel is the greatest and most significant news.  Is there any particular way I can talk about it with you that would be most helpful for you? 

The success of evangelism is not measured by the response of the hearer; that is, by whether the person repents of his sin and places his faith in Christ for his salvation.  Rather, it is measured by the faithfulness of sharing the gospel.  If you are talking openly about sin and the Savior, you are successfully performing your role as God’s tool. 

A definition is helpful here:

Q: What is “evangelism?”

A: “Evangelism is a word used to describe the different ways God uses us, along with His Word and Spirit, to transform unbelievers into people whose great delight in life is to know and trust in him. Therefore, under God, our goal in evangelism is to be his instruments in creating new people who delight in God through Jesus Christ and who thus bring us great joy.” (John Piper)

Men, talk openly about the gospel (the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes), and work with all His strength to see people regenerated and renewed.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  (Proverbs 22.6)

Training children is difficult.  Foolishness is bound up in their hearts. (22.15)  Don’t be fooled by their unbelievable cuteness.  Don’t be fooled by the incredible affection you have for them.  Their hearts are riddled with the life-sucking, poison of foolishness.

Therefore, chasten your son while there is hope, and do not set your heart on his destruction.  (19.18)  There is more hope for training a young boy than there is for breaking the rebellious will of a teenage boy-man.  Use your shaping influences, namely the rod and rebuke, while he is green and flexible.

The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. (29.15)  Correct your son, and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul.  (29.17). 

Whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.  (3.12)  There is no lack of love in the act of correction.  There is hardly anything like love in a father’s selfish neglect, passive permissiveness, or abusive, anger-driven retaliation. 

The Bible reminds us, men, of these Proverbs from God so that we are encouraged to love our children well.  It is much easier to overlook our children’s sin and sinful nature.  But it’s not biblical.  Be zealous in the accuracy of your “Heavenly Father”-representation to your children.

This is the promise of the Christian life:

suffering today … glory tomorrow

Standard procedure for self-justification: attack.

If you want to be godly, you don’t have to try to make enemies.

When you have enemies persecuting and slandering you, you are called to rejoice.

This is hard to comprehend, but Jesus tells us this is the case.

Please listen to this sermon on suffering by J. Piper.

“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” -2 Timothy 3:12 (ESV)

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” -Matthew 5:11-12 (ESV)

Jesus, the one who was reviled and persecuted and spoken of falsely of to the point of being murdered more unjustly to an infinite degree than any other persecution in history, says – in the midst of your intense discomfort, rejoice … you are sharing in my sufferings; you will share in my glory.

He is not downplaying the pain and hurt and sorrow associated with suffering.

Rather, he is exalting the power of his blood, the power of his Spirit, the power of the gospel, the hope of future glory.

Your hope is not in this life, your name, your status, your legacy…your hope is in a bloody cross and an empty tomb.

So when reviled, we do not revile in return, instead we love and pray for those who will one day receive the full wrath of God if they continue to place their faith in anything or anybody other than Jesus.

God is the righteous judge with every perfect precept – let us trust him to make everything right in his time.

“For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)

Men,

How would you answer your son if he asked, “How do we know there is a God?”  or “How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?” or “What is prayer?”

Do you have clear answers on hand?  Are they supported by Scripture?

Please click this link, and more importantly download the PDF at the bottom of the post.  Learn and Teach Well.

Below is an excerpt from a sermon by John Piper. The link to the full text is at the bottom of this post. He is speaking primarily about loving people of different races, but the lessons are not limited to racial differences.

Ephesians 6:4: “Fathers, . . . bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Part of that instruction is the Lord’s truth about racial differences and how we should think and feel and act about them. So fathers are put there by God, among other reasons, to help their children love people of different races. That’s my assumption in this message, and the rest of what I want to do in the rest of this message is give some examples of how to do that.

1. Help the children believe in God’s sovereign wisdom and goodness in creating them with the body that they have.

2. Help the children believe in God’s sovereign wisdom and goodness in making other people with the body that they have.

3. Help the children believe that they and all other children and adults are made in God’s image.

4. Teach the children that God tells us to do to others as we would like others to do to us.

5. Teach the children and model for them that their own sin is uglier than anybody they think is physically unattractive.

6. Teach the children that God loves them in spite of the ugliness of their sin and that he proved this by sending his Son to die for our sins and give forgiveness to all who would trust him.

7. Teach the children that because Jesus died for them and rose again, he becomes for them an all-satisfying Friend and Treasure.

8. Teach the children to love others who are different from them, not in order to be accepted by God, but because they already are accepted by God because of Jesus.

In order to teach all these things, you must model them and you must speak them. Model and affirm. Practice and preach.

I pray that you would embrace these 8 lessons, live them out for your children to see, and teach them how to do the same for their kids.

For the whole sermon, see http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/help-the-children-love-the-different-people

A.W. Tozer:

“God has no origin and it is precisely this concept of no-origin which distinguishes That-which-is-God from whatever is not God.  When we think of anything that has origin we are not thinking of God.  God is self-existent, while all created things necessarily originated somewhere at some time.  

To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside all of our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him. 

Few of us have let our hearts gaze in wonder at the I AM, the self-existent Self back of which no creature can think.  Such thoughts are too painful for us.”

So here is the challenge: Take pains to get your mind set upon the Almighty.

It is difficult. So what?!  Make war! 

Don’t give in to the shortness of your attention span.

Think about His self-existence for longer than 10 seconds and you will be different forever.

He is worthy of our thoughts!