Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: Chad Hall identifies “Three Reasons We Should Not Share the Gospel” — insecurity, arrogance, and narcissism. “What do all of these poor motivations have in common? Each one places the needs and interests of the evangelist ahead of the needs and interests of the other. Evangelism should always […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: “Take Care How You Listen,” a free ebook from John Piper. Good preparation for listening to tomorrow’s sermon. When one man asked his pastor, “What Can I Do to Save My Marriage,” this is how that pastor responded. First of all, 1. Decide if you are going to […]

God has many people

When reading Scripture, it is possible to understand and interpret a passage correctly and apply it inappropriately. The result is that while we may be “encouraged,” we are encouraged by a wrong idea or by a right idea in a wrong way. For instance, one might read God’s words to Paul in the vision in […]

Evangelistic attitudes

Yesterday, Ken Currie wrote this over at Desiring God: Evangelism is counter-cultural. It’s true everywhere on the planet, but perhaps it’s especially so in our increasingly post-Christian Western society. We live in a polite culture, for the most part. Talk about religion? You just don’t go there. Talk about how many tornadoes have come through, […]

Evangelism resource

Ligonier’s current Tabletalk magazine has evangelism as its theme. Several of the articles are available online: Evangelism for God’s Glory by Burk Parsons To borrow a theme from John Piper’s classic book Let the Nations Be Glad!, evangelism isn’t the ultimate goal of the church: worship is. Evangelism exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, […]

The simple gospel

Ask the question, “What is the gospel?” (even in the church) and you will get almost as many answers to that question as there are people. There just does not seem to be much consensus on that question. In his book, What is the Gospel? Greg Gilbert recounts some of the more common responses to […]

The problem of trivializing sin

How often have you begun sharing the gospel with someone and when talking about sin had the person interrupt you and say something like, “I’m not a bad person…I mean, I’m not a murderer or anything…” By inference, the person is suggesting that he has an ability to stand before God self-justified because of his […]

Witnesses of the gospel

Jesus’ last command to the disciples also was a commission — “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The disciples would go to […]

Two words of grace

Grace has been defined as “undeserved blessing freely bestowed on man by God…” If that’s true (and I believe it is), the opening verses of Acts 8 do not appear to be very gracious. “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church […]

The great commission

It was in the 1960’s, during the time when the Green Bay Packers were the National Football League’s perennial champions that on one particular week they suffered a humiliating loss. It was the contention of Vince Lombardi, the coach, that the Packers never lost a game, but some weeks the clock just ran out on […]

Impatient or urgent?

In his sermon this morning, Pastor Keith offered a helpful distinction between impatience and urgency as those attitudes relate to evangelism. IMPATIENCE — a prayerless, fear-oriented anxiety of heart which results in pursuing the believer in reckless and overbearing ways that are inconsistent with biblical love and grace, all without submission to or trust in […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the couple of weeks: Greg Lucas offers “Seven Lessons from the Disability Community:” God is both sovereign and good. You have been brought into this community for a purpose. Disability magnifies our vision for joy in the smallest things. Community brings much needed perspective Outspoken men are often minorities. When marriage […]

Evangelism and God’s sovereignty, part 2

Continuing yesterday’s quotation from J. I. Packer’s, Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God. Today’s quote centers on how God’s sovereignty relates to our duty to evangelize. The sovereignty of God in grace gives us our only hope of success in evangelism. Some fear that belief in the sovereign grace of God leads to the conclusion […]

Evangelism and God’s sovereignty, part 1

Last Sunday’s message was about what we do and what God does in evangelism. The best work on this subject is J. I. Packer’s book, Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God. The last chapter of the book ties together the two themes of our work and God’s work in the process of evangelism. The entire […]

Sunday Leftovers: the Gospel and Evangelism

Few topics produce guilt in the mind of the believer like evangelism. We know we should be more attentive to evangelism, but too often we see it as a dutiful obligation and task instead of a joyous privilege and honor. Over the past three weeks, we have spent time considering principles relating to evangelism in […]