“So Matt – what are your thoughts on what is happening at the Awakening Meetings at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City?” I’ve  been asked… so let me tell you.

But before I get to that question, allow me to give a bit of background to my thoughts on it.

I get a lot of emails. That probably isn’t terribly surprising. But what might be surprising is the incredible variety that I get. With the advent of the internet and bloggers, we have unprecedented and immediate access to the thoughts of preachers and “spiritual pundits” all over the country and all over the world. Some of these are men and women that are known and respected in the Body of Christ. Others are somewhat anonymous people, either unfamiliar to us or ones who are actually utilizing online aliases to conceal their identity.   I get a lot of emails from people who forward the comments and thoughts of these bloggers and preachers. And yes, the variety is quite interesting. I get several email forwards from those in the prophetic/charismatic circles that draw attention to the unique things that God is doing in Toronto or Pensacola or Lakeland or Kansas City – and why we all need to go there and get what’s to be gotten. However, these will often do so with very little discernment and a recognition that we need to test things, sift through it, and determine what is of God and what is not. On the other hand, I get lots of email forwards that also talk about some of these same places where God is “supposedly” moving. They are quick to point out the sins (or past sins) of the teachers or leaders, the false-teaching (or past false-teaching) of these men or women. They highlight the strange manifestations of the meetings or the preachers. One that I recently read made the case that the manifestations that we see in some of these so called centers of renewal or revival bear more resemblance to a weird sect in Hinduism than New Testament Christianity.

There is one critical problem that I keep running into with almost all of these emails. Both sides suffer from the same false assumption when they look at these so-called moves of God. The one side says, “If any of it is of God, then all of it is of God.” Therefore discernment is unnecessary. The other side says, “If any of it isn’t of God, then none of it is of God.” Therefore total avoidance and warning others to do the same is the way forward. Although this might be offensive to some, I believe both of these responses are examples of immature ways to respond. Maturity recognizes that when God genuinely moves, there will be often be a mixture. Not because there is a problem with God – but because we are broken people who respond in brokenness. Both in the leaders and in the participants. God may genuinely be moving but there is some brokenness and some self that gets mixed in. Is that surprising? It shouldn’t be. That is why we are commanded to test things and to be discerning. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 says, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” Immaturity disobeys this instruction by failing to test things and be discerning. Immaturity also disobeys this instruction by quenching the work of the Spirit and despising true prophecy because God doesn’t come in a manner that they expect or understand. I don’t want to fail on either point.  I don’t want to quench the Spirit by moving from a discerning spirit to a critical one. I definitely don’t want to be guilty of attributing something to Satan that is genuinely of God.  (Jesus had some strong words for the Pharisees in Matthew 12 about that.) It doesn’t surprise me that there will be this mixture because I know my own heart. When I preach, when I teach, when I give, when I offer hospitality, when I pray – there is mixture that shows up in my own heart at times. So when the Spirit is genuinely moving, there is going to be a mixture in the way ministry is lead and in the way in which it is received. Maturity, I believe, recognizes this mixture and wades into the messiness to discern what is truly of God (and worthy to be held onto) and what is not (and needs to be avoided.)

So in this range of the emails that I get, I tend to have problems with both sides. Many are way too undiscerning and unwilling to say when something is not right. For many more though, I believe they are overly critical and fail to acknowledge God’s wonderful work – in the midst of the messiness – to save and heal and set free and deliver and to communicate aspects of God’s heart. The reality is that their critique cuts in both directions. Frankly, many of these preachers and bloggers are from churches and spiritual communities that have meetings that bear more resemblance to a meeting of the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia in 1970 than the New Testament Church. There is some fellowship and socialization. There is some care and concern for one another expressed. There is a recruitment of others into their group. There is some teaching. There is some instruction for their children. There are some planned activities to better the community.  There is even some singing – and financial contribution. But when was the last time they saw somebody healed or delivered of a demon or a prophetic message from the Lord given or a tongue with an interpretation. (Read Mark 16:16-18 and 1 Corinthians 14:26.) But I wonder why there aren’t bloggers and pundits exposing these “false teachers” and leaders for their failure to represent New Testament Christianity. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul warns us that in the last days there would be men and women “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people…. (they are ones who are) always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” From my evaluation, most of these bloggers and pundits seem to fall in that category. Many of them speak and write in a manner that seems to have wisdom – but fail at what James tells us is “true wisdom” in James 3. He says in verse seventeen, “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” Most of these bloggers and spiritual pundits fail on this account as well. But you know what… even that’s okay with me. In the same manner, I can recognize they are also broken people who are allowing their brokenness and flesh to get mixed into some of what they are speaking and representing as well. In a similar manner, I try to wade into the fleshly messiness of their “expose” and receive that which is good and avoid that which is evil.

So that brings me back to my thoughts on what is happening in Kansas City. For those of you who do not know, there has been a rather significant move of God that began in one their student classes at the International House of Prayer and has lead to a series of nightly Awakening Services. Earlier this month, I went to IHOP with a few other leaders from Bethany Church and we had the opportunity to be in some of these services. So what do I think?

1. I believe it is a genuine and true move of God. I know and trust many of the leaders. There have been countless powerful testimonies of God’s saving, healing, and delivering work. The fruit of it has been so good in so many ways. Personally, I received a couple of powerful things from the Lord during these services – and frankly, experienced some spiritual “manifestation” stuff that I wouldn’t have ever asked for and really didn’t want. But you know what? Thankfully, God sometimes gives you what you need and not what you want. I personally needed to experience some of the things that I did to break me free from the fear of man, from control, and from a religious spirit. I needed to experience some of what I did to break me into a greater place of joy in the Holy Spirit. (That is a fruit of the Spirit’s work in our lives by the way.) Looking back on those days, the fruit in my life has been tremendously good. I love God more. I love people more. I am more deeply committed to God’s purposes in my life. That is the store that I tell – not the specific kind of manifestation that I experienced, etc.
2. However, there are some ways in which I believe sin and brokenness creeps into these meetings and gets mixed into the good things that God is doing. Definitely on the part of the participants but possibly even with leaders. I saw some things that my discernment told me were people getting caught up in the moment or just trying their best to get in the flow of what God was doing – but had their eyes on people and not on God. But again, that doesn’t surprise me or cause me to demonize the whole thing as some have. God chooses to work through people. And the flesh gets mixed in. But don’t be mistaken. Flesh can look very different. The flesh can show up on a Sunday morning in a church that has none of these manifestations but has bowed to the altar of “control” and religion – a church that only allows God to do things in a manner that is comfortable or makes sense to their rational mind. But yes, the flesh does show up in these meetings and manifestations. Perhaps at IHOP, where their ministry philosophy is such that it allows “anyone who loves Jesus” to minister to others, this has created an environment that contributes to greater messiness. Perhaps not. But that is one way that I would do things differently. I would prefer to have a recognized ministry team that is known and trusted in the context of praying for others.
3. I am not going to be one who will judge very quickly manifestations and determine which ones are from God and which ones are not. Just because I think it is goofy or weird, that isn’t reason enough for me to say that God wouldn’t do it that way. Read your Bible again. If we followed this premise, most of the prophets would be offensive to us and rejected, and many of the things that Jesus and the apostles did wouldn’t fit our criteria. Micah and Isaiah both prophesied naked. Isaiah did it for three years. (He didn’t live in Minnesota.) Elijah laid himself on top of a boy three times to bring about his healing. Elisha called on two bears to maul and kill forty-two children who were mocking him for his bald head. David brought two hundred foreskins of the Philistines to Saul as a gift. Yep. That’s right – foreskins. How about the New Testament? John the Baptist wore camel’s hair and ate locusts and honey in the desert. Did you catch that – locusts? Coo-coo. Jesus rebuked a fig tree and commanded it not to bear fruit anymore. A fig tree? Weird. He healed a guy’s eyes by spitting into the dirt and making some mud. Paul was healing people through handkerchiefs that had simply touched his skin. The Bible is full of strange stuff. God is God. He gets to do what He wants. Discernment is needed – but if He wants to give gold teeth, gold dust, feathers, holy laughter, or whatever – I’m not going to tell Him how He should do His stuff. I wouldn’t have recommended the prophets in the buff. But what do I do? I’m going to be discerning but I’m not going to reject it – or especially not mock it – just because I don’t like it or understand it.

I suppose I am one of those who is radically hungering for that elusive middle. Those are my thoughts… feel free to give me yours.

Earlier this month, I spent a few days at the International House of Prayer to attend their annual Leadership Summit. One of the speakers at the Summit was Billy Humphrey from the International House of Prayer – Atlanta. He spoke on the subject of building a culture of praying in the local church. It was one of those messages where you find someone giving clarity and language to a bunch of thoughts that had been jumbled up in your own mind for a while. Billy shared about the importance and necessity for the church to become reoriented around the place of prayer – and practically what that might look like for a church to take this step. More specifically, he shared with us that he and other leaders are becoming convinced that one of the Lord’s primary strategies for raising up the prayer movement at the end of the age will not be in “Houses of Prayer” (like IHOP, etc) but to call local churches back to the place of prayer and to rediscover their identity “as a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7, Matt. 21:13). That has led many different prayer networks to come together and introduce something called “The Praying Church Initiative” – to help raise this banner, connect those seeking to make this transition, and to provide practical tips and resources to help. While it is still in its infancy and the site is still being developed, there are already several great blog posts on their website that I’d encourage you to take a look at. You can find that website here.

We at Bethany Church have heard this call and are asking the Lord what it means for us to become radically committed to the place of prayer. By and large, the Church in the West is graciously being confronted with our barrenness by the Lord. We have the best resources, technology, techniques, and methodology – and yet we are seeing a church that is producing very little true spiritual fruit. The Lord is mercifully allowing us to come face-to-face with our barrenness, as painful as it is, to bring us to a place where we return to Him and cry out to Him for His presence. There is rather well-known story of a group of American pastors who were visiting Dr. Cho’s church in South Korea – the largest church in the world. As good Americans generally do (with pens and notepads ready), they asked “What is the secret of this church’s growth?” The Koreans responded by saying that it was fasting and prayer. After a brief pause, the Americans asked again… “Yes, but besides that what are you doing to make this church grow?” Of course, there has to be something else? There is an offense to prayer. There is a huge mental obstacle to fasting. It seems too simple and unsophisticated for our culture and for our generation. But that is the very nature of the Mustard Seed Kingdom. The mustard seed seems so small and insignificant, easily over-looked. Prayer is easily overlooked. It seems insignificant. But it is the primary means by which the Lord is going to establish His purposes in and through His people. Men and women who are deeply rooted in a place of intimacy with the Lord, who truly operate at the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and who have learned what it means to lean on His strength and His anointing. Praying is the means by which the Lord is going to enable His Church to both thrive and survive in the last days. That is why we are seeking to see the Lord bring about this transition in our midst… to make us a Praying Church.

In his book “Why Revival Tarries,” Leonard Ravenhill says, “The man who can get believers to praying would, under God, usher in the greatest revival that the world has ever known.”

Amen. Make it so.

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My friend and colleague Rich Parks posted this prayer on his blog. It is from a few years ago when Allen Hood (from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City) was preaching at Bethany Church… before he got to preaching, he prayed a powerful prayer over our congregation. My faith was stirred again as I listened to it – and was reminded of God’s fervent pursuit of Bethany to be a people of prayer.

Here is that prayer…

Some time ago, the Lord began to speak to me about leading Bethany Church into a season of studying the Minor Prophets – not in an in-depth manner but an introductory level that will orient us to these powerful books and hopefully awaken a hunger to dig into them for ourselves. We will start that journey together this Sunday – as we begin to “Major on the Minors.”

There are twelve minor prophets – not “minor” because they are less important than what we know as the “major” prophets but “minor” because they are shorter than the others. The fact is that these books – difficult to pronounce, difficult to find – are extremely important for us to become familiar with. As a people living at the end of the age, it is critical for us to wrestle with the truths contained in them and the implications for our lives and the days ahead. Specifically, these prophetic books contain important truths to bring clarity to the events surrounding the Day of the Lord and the Second-Coming of Christ.

Between now and Easter, we will be giving ourselves to the study of these books. Each Sunday, I’ll hope to introduce you to the writer, the context of their writing, the recipients of their prophetic messages, the general outline to the book, and the major themes that are highlighted. I also hope to focus in one of these particular themes each week – a theme that I believe might have special relevance and importance to us at Bethany. Here’s our order… and yes, for you observant ones, I’m skipping Obadiah.  I don’t have anything against the guy. But I want to fit it in before Easter and can’t do them all. Obadiah drew the short-straw because it’s only twenty-one verses – you can study it yourself!

January 10th – Joel

January 17th – Jonah

January 24th – Micah

January 31st – Amos

February 7th – Hosea

February 14th – Nahum (Nothing says Valentine’s Day like Nahum.)

February 21st – Habakkuk

February 28th – Zephaniah

March 7th – Haggai

March 14th – Guest Speaker Mark Nysewander

March 21st – Zechariah (Full of so much good stuff! You’ll be blown away.)

March 28th – Malachi

I’m totally pumped – it’s going to be a great journey! Looking forward to kicking it off with you all at Bethany this Sunday!

I suppose I am a pretty reflective guy… that is, when my schedule and life are not so out of control that I only have the opportunity to think about the next thing on my calendar! There have been few things more valuable to me than the simple but powerful discipline of slowing down to reflect – to look back over the past month or quarter or year and allow the Lord to speak to me about that season. This enables me to walk forward with greater focus and greater intentionality, carrying those truths and the lessons of the past in how I chart my course in the future.

The New Year has always been one of the greatest opportunities for me to embrace this discipline of reflection. I know it is just another day, just another week – but the turning of the calendar, the challenge of writing 2010 instead of 2009 on my checks (who am I kidding – when was the last time I wrote out a check??) gives me a great opportunity to consider my life. Where am I at with my relationship with the Lord, with my calling as a husband and a father, as a friend, as the leader at Bethany Church, etc. This year, I have the tremendous opportunity to be away from the office for a few days to do some of this reflecting.

So – looking back over 2009… what are some of the key lessons at Bethany Church that I’m carrying forward with me?

1. Eschatology matters in a profound way. The study of the end-times and clear theology about how things are going to go down at the end of the age has a practical and powerful impact on how we live. You hear about pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, etc… I was your classic “pan-tribber” -  believing that it doesn’t really matter because it is all going to pan out in the end. But in 2008-2009, the Lord began to call me to the diligent study of the end-times. And as I have gained clarity about the end-times and the reality of the return of the Lord,  it has radically impacted my life – and will, I believe, radically impact my message. Revelation 1:3 gives a unique promise… “Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

2. Nothing can atone for a lack of prayer. 2008 and 2009 was a season of being confronted with our barrenness as the people of God – in my life and ministry, at Bethany Church, and in the American Church as a whole. Although it continues to be a battle for me personally, I have been asking the Lord to radically reorient my life around the place of prayer. Beyond me personally, on January 3rd of this past year, God gave me a powerful dream that spoke to the critical nature of establishing prayer at the core of who we are as a people at Bethany Church. I believe 2010 will be a year where we gain clarity into what that means and takes steps towards seeing this become a reality. In his book “Why Revival Tarries,” Leonard Ravenhill says, “The man who can get believers to praying would, under God, usher in the greatest revival that the world has ever known.”

3. God is really, really smart. It seems that we are constantly seeking to improve on God’s pattern for growing the church and developing a fruitful life of ministry. The simple and unsophisticated patterns and principles that we see in Scripture (a deep life of prayer, diligence in the Word of God, loving and caring for the poor, authentic loving community, the simple proclamation of the Gospel and the reality of a Coming King, and the demonstration of signs and wonders to confirm that message and the age to come) – seem a little too simple and unsophisticated to be successful in our modern and sophisticated age. So we are forever seeking to improve with our own ideas of how to grow the church – and our barrenness is becoming glaringly visible! I am not saying that we never innovate and allow the Holy Spirit to breathe creativity in how we function as a Body and how we communicate the message to our culture. Amen to that…. But I am hopeful that we will begin to return to a place of dependence upon the Holy Spirit – and that we won’t be offended by the simple “mustard-seed” nature of the Kingdom of God.

What lessons are you carrying forward with you?

This past Sunday at Bethany, I concluded our fall sermon series studying the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. This week, we studied the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7:13-20 in which he teachers on the Wide and Narrow Gates and his warning to beware of false teachers. I’ve had a few people ask me to summarize some of the thoughts I shared about false teaching in the church – and decided to blog that brief summary here.

It is interesting to note how Jesus describes false prophets and teachers… they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” In other words, they are not only dangerous to the sheep but they are also deceiving to the sheep. They aren’t immediately recognizable. We often have the idea that false teachers and prophets are going to be obvious – preaching from the Book of Mormon or handling snakes or talking about comets that are going to take us to heaven. Those are wolves in wolves’ clothing. “Wolves in sheep’s clothing” are ones who quote and teach from the same Bible that we do, who have degrees from prestigious divinity schools, who are popular and appear successful – both in life and in ministry. So how do we recognize false teachers… Jesus says that we need to examine their fruit. It might not show up immediately – but there is a law in the natural world that also shows up in the spiritual world. There is a definite connection between the tree (the teacher) and the fruit. We can’t look at the heart of the person, ,what is unseen to us – but we can look at the fruit, that which is visible, and determine whether this is a teacher or prophet that we ought to listen to. What might this fruit be that Jesus is talking about?

• Their character – do we see the “fruit of the Spirit” in their lives?
• Their conduct – how do they live and does it line up with the kind of conduct that the Lord expects of leaders in the Kingdom?
• Their teaching – does their teaching line up with Scripture? I don’t believe that Scripture is exhaustive of all of the revelation and truth that God could give… but it should serve as the standard by which all other claims of truth or revelation are evaluated. Is there anything in Scripture that contradicts this teaching or revelation.
• Their impact – what is the fruit of their lives, teaching, and ministry? Are those who are under its influence inspired to love God more and to love others more deeply?

If these false teachers are “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” I believe it also the responsibility of leaders in the Body of Christ (under-Shepherds) to help protect the sheep from these false teachers. For my part, there are four areas that I am very cautious with respect to so-called teachers/prophets in the Church today. I would encourage you to be cautious of those teachers who have a tendency to focus on their own “hobby-horse” theology or spiritual emphasis – and fail to teach the full counsel of God’s Word. What might that look like? Specifically, I’d encourage you to be be cautious of the following:

1. Those who minimize or outright deny the holiness of God and the promise of His judgment on sin. This is very common in what I call the “Christian motivational speakers” circuit – so called pastors and teachers who will focus on God’s love and His acceptance and fail to mention the conditions of His acceptance. It reminds me of the prophetic message of Jeremiah 23…  ¹⁶Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’ ¹⁸For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?… ²¹ “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. ²²But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.

2. Those who minimize or deny the authority and the supremacy of Scripture as the standard for truth, life, and for conduct. We begin to see this tendency creeping in some liberal and/or emergent circles in the church… In fact, many of the problems that we see arising in the Episcopal Church or the ELCA began years ago with a distorted view of the rule and the authority of Scripture in our generation and in our culture.

3. Those who point people to the material and temporal blessings of this age – and undermine their ability to embrace difficulty and hardship in this age for the promise of eternal reward and blessing in the age to come. We obviously see a lot of this in the prosperity circles within the church today. I think it’s high time to have another “church council” of old and declare this teaching what it is… good old fashioned “heresy.”

4. Finally, those who respond to the people above (or another others) – and there is no hint of grace, mercy, or humility in their tone – only anger and self-righteousness. They purport to be full of wisdom – but their wisdom is unspiritual, of the devil because of what James says in James 3:13-18. “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”

Just some thoughts… give me  yours…

Great Quote from CT Studd – “Christ’s call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture men from the devil’s clutches and the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Just read a great article from John Piper that ties in very well with this “Life: On Target” theme that I’ve been thinking about. The big question that I’ve been wrestling with is related to the idea of nutritional content. Just as we look at the nutritional content posted on the side of the boxes of food that we eat, we ought to be looking at the nutritional content of the stuff that we expose ourselves to – including (in a very big way) the area of movies, TV, entertainment. John Piper discusses why he doesn’t have have a TV in this article from his website “Desiring God.” Good stuff. He’s got me thinking… again.

Why I Don’t Have a Television and Rarely Watch Movies – by John Piper.

Now that the video of the Q&A at Advance 09 is available, I can look at it and feel bad all over again. Here’s what I regret, indeed what I have apologized for to the person who asked the question.

The first question to me and Mark Driscoll was, “Piper says get rid of my TV, and Driscoll says buy extra DVRs. How do you reconcile this difference?”

I responded, “Get your sources right. . . . I never said that in my life.”

Almost as soon as it was out of my mouth, I felt: “What a jerk, Piper!” A jerk is a person who nitpicks about the way a question is worded rather than taking the opportunity to address the issue in a serious way. I blew it at multiple levels.

So I was very glad when the person who asked the question wrote to me. I wrote back,

Be totally relieved that YOU did not ask a bad question. I gave a useless and unhelpful, and I think snide, answer and missed a GOLDEN opportunity to make plain the dangers of the triviality you referred to. . . . I don’t know why I snapped about the wording of the question instead of using it for what it was intended for. It was foolish and I think sinful.

So let me see if I can do better now. I can’t give an answer for what Mark means by “buy extra DVRs,” but I can tell you why my advice sounds different. I suspect that Mark and I would not agree on the degree to which the average pastor needs to be movie-savvy in order to be relevant, and the degree to which we should expose ourselves to the world’s entertainment.

I think relevance in preaching hangs very little on watching movies, and I think that much exposure to sensuality, banality, and God-absent entertainment does more to deaden our capacities for joy in Jesus than it does to make us spiritually powerful in the lives of the living dead. Sources of spiritual power—which are what we desperately need—are not in the cinema. You will not want your biographer to write: Prick him and he bleeds movies.

If you want to be relevant, say, for prostitutes, don’t watch a movie with a lot of tumbles in a brothel. Immerse yourself in the gospel, which is tailor-made for prostitutes; then watch Jesus deal with them in the Bible; then go find a prostitute and talk to her. Listen to her, not the movie. Being entertained by sin does not increase compassion for sinners.

There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.

I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.

I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). What the eyes see really matters. “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Better to gouge your eye than go to hell (verse 29).

Brothers, that is serious. Really serious. Jesus is violent about this. What we do with our eyes can damn us. One reason is that it is virtually impossible to transition from being entertained by nudity to an act of “beholding the glory of the Lord.” But this means the entire Christian life is threatened by the deadening effects of sexual titillation.

All Christ-exalting transformation comes from “beholding the glory of Christ.” “Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Whatever dulls the eyes of our mind from seeing Christ powerfully and purely is destroying us. There is not one man in a thousand whose spiritual eyes are more readily moved by the beauty of Christ because he has just seen a bare breast with his buddies.

But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.

One more smaller concern with TV (besides its addictive tendencies, trivialization of life, and deadening effects): It takes time. I have so many things I want to accomplish in this one short life. Don’t waste your life is not a catchphrase for me; it’s a cliff I walk beside every day with trembling.

TV consumes more and more time for those who get used to watching it. You start to feel like it belongs. You wonder how you could get along without it. I am jealous for my evenings. There are so many things in life I want to accomplish. I simply could not do what I do if I watched television. So we have never had a TV in 40 years of marriage (except in Germany, to help learn the language). I don’t regret it.

Sorry again, for the bad answer. I hope this helps.

Pastor John”

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

This past Sunday, I continued our sermon series “Life: On Target” with our week two focus on our relationship with the Lord. I’ll take a few minutes to summarize yesterday’s message here – and will be doing a couple of blogs over the next couple of days to talk a little bit further about some of the stuff that I shared on Sunday. There are a few great questions and comments that have come from some of you that I’d like to discuss further.

When we talk about living our lives on-target, we are recognizing the simple fact that six months from now, one year from now, five years from now, all of us are going to be somewhere in our lives. But what would it take to not just be somewhere but be somewhere on purpose? In order to see that happen, we have to begin to with a much greater level of intentionality and give careful thought to how we are living and the simple choices that we make, day-in and day-out, decisions that will determine what our future is going to look like. This past Sunday, we focused in on a particular couple of Scriptures – Philippians 3:12-17 and 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. In Philippians 3, Paul had a vision that was before his life – a vision that caused him to continue to press forward in his life, forgetting what was behind him, so that he might win the prize that was before him. His goal in life was to know Jesus – not just information about him. His goal was not to be religious or to be moral. His goal was “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” That vision caused him to continue to press forward, recognizing that he had not yet arrived or taken hold of this goal in his life. In 1 Corinthians 9, he talks about the level of intentionality and discipline that governed his life and the choices that he made. He did not live randomly or by default – but he lived with incredible precision and purpose in the choices that he made because he had this goal and this prize continually before him. He lived his life “on-target.”

Six months, one year from now, we are all going to be somewhere in our relationship with God. But it is the choices that we make today that is going to determine whether we will be “somewhere” or whether we will be “somewhere on purpose” in our spiritual walk. Some of these same principles need to govern our lives as well if we want to grow in our relationship with the Lord. What would it take for us to experience growth in this area of our lives? We need to embrace three simple but powerful principles:

1. Live With Clear Vision. The Scripture tell us that “without vision, the people cast off restraint.” Paul lived with clear vision before him, and it enabled him to live and to choose differently – to embrace a level of restraint in his life. We need to have clear vision of what we want to see in our relationship with God. This means that we need to be willing to slow down and consider honestly where we are at in our relationship with the Lord – to take some inventory in that area of our lives. Where are we at now? Where would we like to be?

2. Make a Plan in our Lives. With that vision clearly before us, we have to begin to consider what it will take to move us from here (where we are at currently) to there (where we would like to be.) In other words, in my relationship with the Lord, what hinders my pursuit of the Lord – what are the distractions that get in the way? What are the things that spoil my hunger for the Lord? Just as Paul disciplined himself to win the prize before him, we have to seek to eliminate those things that hinder our pursuit of the Lord – “throw off those things that hinder and the sin that so easily entangles us” as Hebrews 12 talks about. But we also need to think about the things that are going to help us in our pursuit to “know Him” better. What causes my hunger for the Lord and my relationship with Him to grow. I need to embrace those things and make them a priority in my life. Spending time in the Word. Committing to a life of prayer. Being in relationship with other people who are also passionately pursuing the Lord. Journaling. Fasting. Serving. What makes my heart come alive for him – I need to commit myself to prioritize those things in my life.

3. Schedule My Time. It may not sound terribly spiritual – but with the vision clear in our minds and understanding what it will take to accomplish that vision, we simply have to make the choice to give ourselves to the lifestyle that will move us from here to there, to help us to be somewhere “on purpose.” We begin to live with intentionality. What that simply means is that we need to take control of what we give ourselves to and determine that we are going to live our lives by design – choosing how we are going to spend our time at the beginning of a week, at the beginning of a day – and ensure that we are giving ourselves to those things that are going to help us grow in our pursuit of the Lord. For me personally, it means that I have to take out my calendar, identify those times of my week when I have time available to me, and determine with this vision clearly before me how I am going to use my time – and prioritize those things that are going to cause me to grow in my relationship with the Lord. Those free two hours on Tuesday night – instead of waiting until then to decide “what I feel like doing,” I am not going to be one who runs aimlessly as Paul talks about. I am going to choose and commit that my free evening will be spent in the Word or in worship or listen to a podcast sermon or with a couple of other believers talking about the Lord, etc. If I am going to commit to spend twenty minutes with the Lord at the beginning of the day, I am going to commit in my schedule to go to bed at a reasonable time so that I have the ability to wake up when the alarm goes off the next morning. Those simple choices make all of the difference in determining whether we end up somewhere or end up somewhere “on purpose.”

As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be doing a couple of other blog posts this week to develop this theme a little further – and even answer some of the questions that a few of you have already asked. Until then… gotta get to bed so that I can wake up early and start my day “on target.”

We started a new series at Bethany last week called “Life: On Target.” It is really a pretty simple idea that is behind this series. No earth-shattering new revelations here! What is the big idea… six months, one year, five years from now – we are all going to be somewhere! But what would it take to see our lives end up where we would like them to be. In our relationship with God. In our marriages. In our friendships. In our finances. With the calling that God has on our lives. It requires taking the time to get God’s vision for each of these areas of our lives and to begin to live with intentionality, with purpose, “on-target” to see that vision come about. It is never going to happen on accident – but with the right vision and the commitment to discipline ourselves, there is really no limit to what God can and will do in our lives. We have got to be willing to deal with the reality of where we are at currently in each of these areas of our lives, gain a vision for where we would like to be, and then make the tough choices to embrace the lifestyle of what it will take to move from here (wherever we might be in these areas of our lives) to there (where we would like to be.)
I’m in a season right now where I want to live with an entirely new level of intentionality with my life and the choices that I make every day. I am tired of making excuses and minimizing the seemingly insignificant choices that I make with my time and my commitments day in and day out. So this is one of those sermon series where I feel like I am preaching to myself – and the people of Bethany just get to come along for the ride. The truth is that there have been many in the church who are also seeking to gain a greater vision for what the Lord would like to do in their lives, in our church, in our city. And are willing to embrace the discipline that it is going to take to see that vision come about.

So… here’s three cheers for getting from “here” to “there!”