Sunday – Matthew 5 – Continued
“New creatures must do new things but the working out of that takes a lifetime.”
This session I frantically took down 8 ½ pages of notes because I didn’t want to forget anything. There was SO much that made me think hard and in new ways about the truth of God’s word and I wanted to be able to come back to it and spend some more time interacting with what I had heard.
When we arrived in the Chattanooga Choo Choo meeting center this morning we were very surprised to hear rather loud rap music pouring forth from the speakers. This was quite a change from the subdued praise music we had been accustomed to at previous sessions! When Paul began to speak, he explained that a year ago, he would have asked to have that music turned off – that he had little regard for Christian rap. That was until he met these guys from inner-city Chicago – a group called “Flame.” They are rappers fighting “easy believism” and rap the Westminster Confession, and doctrine. When he got together with them they sat around and discussed supralapsarianism (I had to look that one up!). They call him “P-Dog” and they like “Johnny Mac” (figured that out yet?).
He never did make it through the Beatitudes. Unfortunately, he left 28 pages of notes untouched. There is such urgency to this man. You sense, when he gets to the end of his allotted time, that it hurts him physically to leave the podium because he has so much more to say. It’s like he wants to take ever person in the room by the shoulders and look them in the eye and say, “Pay attention to what God says in His word! Quit fooling around! We’re wasting time!” He tells stories of his time as a missionary in Peru and of his time of work in the inner city. But there is a sense that his personal “1040 window” is now the American Evangelical church. As he said yesterday,
“People are going to hell not because of Hollywood, but because of Evangelicalism in America.”
He wants to wake the sleeping American church that has embraced easy believism; that wants to start with regeneration and skip right to glorification without passing sanctification along the way. He says,
“If you look like a world that hates God, do the math.”At the same time, he wants to balance that with a deep, deep love for Christ and his word. He said if he could re-do his Christian life he would spend more time knowing God and being like his son and less time in Christian activities. He also had strong words about self-righteousness:
"A godly man never looks at a fallen brother and says 'how could you?' He says, 'Why didn't I?"
This is not a man who says things to spare your feelings – he is blunt and says the hard things. Ryan, my 16-year-old, put it this way,
“He doesn’t hide the pill in the peanut butter.”
Exactly. He speaks with a clarity that is very rare in the times we live in. I’m sure in some circles it would not be appreciated and perhaps it would seem harsh to some. But let’s be honest - being obtuse is not a virtue for a pastor. Someone expositing God’s word and claiming to speak His truth should never be unclear or “hide the pill in the peanut butter.” When a preacher utters, “Thus saith the Lord,” he should not follow it with, “Did God really say…?”
So when Paul Washer says,
“At age 17 some young men have conquered nations or put on backpacks and goneand he proceeds to tell them how dumb he thinks that is, it is a harsh rebuke, but not inappropriately so. He says,
over the mountains and preached the gospel. And you sit there with your video
game?”
“No one has had the privilege to serve Christ like we do. Now do you want to keep playing with your X-Box and going to the mall or do you want to grow up?”Harsh? Yes. Self-esteem building? No. I mean, yes. I mean, conforming you to the image of Christ if you take it to heart, which is Christ-esteem building, which is better than “self”-esteem building, right? Is self-esteem even biblical?
I think the point of his rant against X-Boxes and “boys with flippy hair” and girls trolling the malls for “fishing lure earrings” was not to say that any of these things in and of themselves are bad. The message wasn't legalism, but rather dying to self. He was admonishing the kids in the audience to examine their lives and telling them to “man up.” Is there anyone who thinks that the 20-year adolescent period that is now common in America is healthy or pleasing to God? I think that he is echoing what John Piper is saying in Don’t Waste Your Life,
Same message, different generation. Much better to hear it at 15 than at 59. My kids play video games and they weren’t offended by it (except to the extent that the Holy Spirit may have pricked their consciences). I know it made me think about how I spend my time. It's good to evaluate how much time we are about our father's business and how much time we are about......absolutely nothing of value.“I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader’s Digest: A couple ‘took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and
she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. . . .’ Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: ‘Look, Lord. See my shells.’ That is a tragedy."
I think one of the most valuable aspects of a conference like this, in contrast to a traditional youth conference, is that it didn't have the huge emotional appeal and "mountain top experience" that you often get. That may not be a huge selling point to some who seek that out or think they need that kind of experience on an annual basis, but to me, this seems much more healthy. In my nearly 20 years being involved in youth ministry I've seen "mountain top experiences" come and go with little lasting fruit. Kids come back so pumped up and "high" from some of these ramped up conferences and more often than not, come crashing right back down when they get home to "reality." Because this conference was more subdued in nature and more contemplative (in the thoughtful sense, not the medieval sense), the effects and the fruit will be more lasting. It was based on solid expository teaching of God's word rather than appealing to entertainment and emotion.
I also appreciated that although it was billed as a "youth" conference, none of the speakers talked "down" to the kids in attendance. I think it was on Voddie Baucham's site I read that in our culture we tend to treat teenagers like "large children" instead of the young adults that they are. There was none of that here. It was clear that all of the speakers expect a lot out of these kids - have confidence that they can do great things through and for Christ - and they shouldn't wait until the are 30 years old to do. I think that is a great and worthy message for teenagers to hear.
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What
is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider
them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:6-8)
I did come away from the conference with a sense of hopefulness about the American church. When you start putting the pieces together of groups that are calling for solid biblical reform in the church such as Anchored in Truth (with their True Church conference), IX Marks, T4G, NA, etc. you can’t help but have a great sense of anticipation to see what God will do through these men.
