The Bible is clear, but that doesn’t mean that it is easy to rightly interpret it. Interpreting the Bible rightly is one of the hardest things in the world to do. And if interpretation is difficult, proclamation is even harder. We move beyond the meaning of the points made in the text to questions like: What is the best way to proclaim the gospel from this text? What are relevant contemporary illustrations of this text?
One of the most helpful things to have when thinking about preaching a text is a sermon done by someone you trust to get the message of the text right, to surprise you with applications or illustrations that stimulate your thinking, and to show you strategies for undermining unbelief you haven’t thought of yourself. Because reading this kind of thing is so helpful, I am very thankful that Crossway is publishing Mark Dever’s sermons.
Anyone trying to get their head around how to do expository preaching should read Twelve Challenges Churches Face. Anyone preaching through 1 Corinthians will want to add this book to the things used in preparation to preach. Anyone teaching a Sunday School class on 1 Corinthians could study this book along with their “teacher’s curriculum.” Anyone leading a Bible Study on 1 Corinthians will gain from this book. Anyone who has decided to study 1 Corinthians over the course of a month or a semester or for the whole year will be helped by this book.
Have I mentioned that I like this book and am glad to recommend it?
The perfectly sanctified people who are totally unselfish and have their whole lives running smoothly and efficiently for the love of God and neighbor don’t need this book.
The rest of us do need this book because we are selfish with our time and resources, organizationally challenged, and so concerned about what people will think of our homes or food that we don’t risk having them over to lower their opinion of us. Moreover, the organizationally challenged nature of our experience which keeps us from cleaning up also serves as a hindrance to hospitality because it makes the whole process so much work.
The authors write: “The answer to the question, ‘What makes a person or home hospitable?’ is the purpose of Practicing Hospitality” (17). The two great strengths of this book are (1) that it is practical, and (2) that it focuses on our attitudes toward hospitality.
The practicality is thorough and thoughtful. Reasonable recipes and strategies to become more hospitable. I encourage you to check it out!
And I am so relieved to find these words in this book: “Remember there are seasons in life. There will be seasons in our lives when we will be able to spend more or less time practicing hospitality” (77). Thank you, Pat Ennis and Lisa Tatlock, for helping those of us with small children and/or newborns and everything else to deal with the guilt we feel for not being hospitable!
And they give good ideas for how to be hospitable in spite of these constraints, as well.
Best of all, throughout this book the authors encourage us to consider our attitudes toward hospitality. My legalistic heart loves to make lists of things I need to do to be righteous or meet qualifications and then take pleasure in checking off the boxes, and Practicing Hospitality’s focus on our attitude calls us back to the recognition that we are to be humbly serving and loving others (not grumbling about these lousy duties on the list we’ve made for ourselves). The authors encourage us to practice hospitality as a way to live out and share the gospel with others. Amen and amen.
Pick up a copy of Practicing Hospitality (mother’s day is just around the corner) and may we all obey God’s word (Heb 13:2) by faith in Jesus in the power of the Spirit as we show love for God and others.
In addition, for a good article on hospitality, see Jonathan Leeman’s essay here.
How can evangelicals best influence the United States of America?
I submit that there is a better answer than the one that would be given by either Chris Matthews or Rush Limbaugh.
The greatest influence evangelical Christians can have upon American society and politics will not come by lobbying Washington, getting out the vote, or doing anything overtly political. The greatest influence evangelical Christians can have upon American society and politics will come through investing themselves in a local church where the gospel is proclaimed, where the Scriptures are faithfully taught, where people understand what regeneration is, and where church discipline draws a clear line between those who live as though they have been born again and those who do not (and when people don’t repent of sin, they live as though they are unregenerate).
At the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2006, I presented a paper entitled “The Church Militant and Her Warfare: We Are Not Another Interest Group.” That piece has now appeared in the latest issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.
My article can be accessedhere, and the table of contents of the current issue, on the theme of “Church and State” can be accessed here.
The SBJT, edited by Southern Baptist theologian Stephen J. Wellum, is an excellent resource for pastors and church leaders. . . . You can (and should!) subscribe here.
People who are great teachers love their students and they love the truths they teach. For an example of a teacher doing something altogether unexpected on behalf of his students, see below.
Dr. Jim Orrick, professor of Literature and Culture at Boyce College (Southern’s undergraduate school), expresses himself in this rap he wrote and performed during Great Books class in a discussion of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy.
Anyone trying to get their head around how to do expository preaching should read Twelve Challenges Churches Face. Anyone preaching through 1 Corinthians will want to add this book to the things used in preparation to preach. Anyone teaching a Sunday School class on 1 Corinthians could study this book along with their “teacher’s curriculum.” Anyone leading a Bible Study on 1 Corinthians will gain from this book. Anyone who has decided to study 1 Corinthians over the course of a month or a semester or for the whole year will be helped by this book.
