The Four Sermons Our Marriages (Should) Preach

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Dana Dill

image-from-bakery-fantacy-dot-comGod has designed marriage to primarily be a living picture of the gospel (see Ephesians 5:22-33 and read this free online book or buy it here). Marriage is not ultimately designed to be about us, our kids, or our world, but it is ultimately about Jesus Christ and His love for the Church (if that’s a foreign idea, seriously, read this now or listen to this sermon). Therefore, when we look at a marriage, God is teaching us about what He has done and is doing through His Son Jesus for the Church.

But how is marriage a picture of the gospel. In what ways has God designed marriage to be an acted out picture of His Son’s love for the Church? What does marriage preach? Here are four sermons that marriage preaches.

Marriage preaches…

Jesus’ Immense Sacrifice to Obtain His Bride. Becoming a husband isn’t cheap. When a man desires to marry, he will (rightly) have to pay for it. He will be responsible to buy a ring and sacrifice to provide for all the needs of his bride (food, shelter, clothes, etc.). Wedding someone is costly business. In obtaining the Church, Jesus paid a costly sum. He did not cough up a few K for a nice diamond or put a hefty down payment on a new home, but He opened His veins for the Church’s salvation. He didn’t take from His resources to obtain the Church, He gave His life. Like Peter said, “You were ransomed…not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Sacrificing to obtain a bride pictures Christ’s sacrifice to obtain His Bride. Like a Good Husband, He went all out for His Love.

Jesus’ Faithful & Loving Work to Beautify His Bride. A good husband doesn’t simply work to provide for His wife, but He strives to make her more like Her Savior. He doesn’t just want her to be a good wife and mother, but he yearns for her to be a good worshiper who reflects the character of Christ. The husband who does this faithfully gives the world a picture of Jesus who works so that the church, “might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). Jesus ceaselessly works to build up His church up (Colossians 2:7) until she shines like the Bride she was destined to be (Revelation 21:1-2). After providing for the Church all she needs, Jesus tirelessly, faithfully, and lovingly works to make her become more beautiful. Jesus loves His Bride not because she is lovely, but to make her more lovely each day.

Jesus’ Loyal Love for His Bride. Husbands are never supposed to leave their wives. Although that sounds radical in a day of rampant and casual divorce, it’s a basic part of the gig. At the wedding, after the husband is asked:

Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep yourself only for her, so long as you both shall live?

The expected and obvious answer is, “I will,” and the expectation from there is that he lives up to his word. Husbands aren’t supposed to leave their wives. Why? Most ultimately, because Jesus will never leave His Bride. Just as a husband is to promise his loyal love through sickness and health until death does them part,  Jesus has assured His Bride, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5-6). However, with Jesus, there is this flooring truth: He will never die again. So, when Jesus promises His Bride, “I will never leave you or forsake you and death will never do us part.”

Jesus’ Union With His Bride. This one is marvelous. So, when two people become married, God teaches us that they become one. They become one in heart, mind, desires, and purpose. Also, what they used to own as separate individuals, they now share together because, to repeat it, they are one. This pictures what happens when one turns to Jesus for salvation. The Scriptures teach that when someone puts their faith in Jesus they become one with Christ (1 Cor. 6:17). Through faith, the Christian life is lived “in Christ.” So, when a believer becomes one with Christ, all that was Jesus’ (His righteousness, His grace, His mercy, His truth, His salvation, etc.) becomes the possessions of the believer. Further, what was the believer’s (his sin, his failures, his judgment, his condemnation, his debts, etc.) becomes Christ’s. By the grace of God through the work of Christ, our sinful debt is swallowed up in the ocean of His righteous riches. In the gospel, the infinitely rich King chose to marry the stuck-in-debt peasant woman. His riches paid for her debt and its infinite overflow became her possession in full. What was His paid for her debt and all His riches became hers. Oh, how rich the Church is in Christ; more than she knows.

There’s more to say and meditate on for how marriage preaches, but those four sermons are more than enough for fruitful reflection. May God raise up marriage that preach these truths so that the world not only hear the gospel from our mouths, but also see glimpses of it in our marriages.

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The Rest Jesus Offers (Or, Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously)

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Dana Dill

wearinessOne time, Jesus preached this:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Have you ever thought, “How does Jesus grant us weary-wordlings rest?” The answers to that question are legion, but one will suffice for today. Jesus grants us rest by taking away our throne and sitting upon it Himself. Jesus gives us rest by taking away our pride.

A.W. Tozer explains:

There is the burden of pride. The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.

Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward him self a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, “Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before -you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.”

The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In, himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values. He will be patient to wait for the day when everything will get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own. Then the righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father. He is willing to wait for that day.

In the meantime he will have attained a place of soul rest. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings. (Taken from The Pursuit of God, Chapter 9. You can read it for free here).

Jesus takes from us the anxieties of playing god and gives us the rest of a worshiper. He helps us let God be big and ourselves be small.

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It’s Good That You Struggle With Sin

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Dana Dill

struggle“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Galatians 5:17

Have you ever been frustrated or disheartened by your struggle with sin? Do you find yourself fighting off the same temptations you have been fending off for years? Does your life with Christ seem more like war rather than rest?

Good.

If you have a hard time seeing that as a good thing, then allow the words of J.C. Ryle sink deeply into your soul. In one of the most helpful sermons I have ever read, Ryle says:

Take comfort in your soul, if you know anything of an inward fight and conflict.  It is not everything, I am well aware, but it is something.  Do you find in your heart of hearts a spiritual struggle? Do you feel anything of the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that you cannot do the things you would?  (Galatians 5:17).  Are you conscious of two principles within you, contending for the mastery?  Do you see anything of war in your inward man?  Well, thank God for it!  It is a good sign.  It is evidence not to be despised.  Anything is better than apathy, stagnation, deadness, and indifference.  You are in a better state than many.  The most part of so-called Christians have no feeling at all.  You are evidently no friend of Satan.  Like the kings of this world, he wars not against his own subjects.  The very fact that he assaults you, should fill your mind with hope.  Reader, I say again, take comfort, the child of God has two great marks about him, and of these two you have one.  HE MAY BE KNOWN BY HIS INWARD WARFARE, AS WELL AS BY HIS INWARD PEACE.

Struggling against sin is a powerful evidence that you are alive in Christ. Dead things don’t fight off death; only the living. Dead fish float peacefully down the river, but it is only the living ones that struggle up through it. It is not those struggling with sin who should be concerned about the state of their soul as much as those who are completely unconcerned with their sin at all.

The Christian life is war. Be ready to fight. Rest will come later.

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The Saturday Post(s)

Posted on January 24, 2015 by Dana Dill

Saturday PostIt’s gonna be a little light today, I am up at Running Springs preaching at Ponderosa Pines Christian Camp.

7 Principles of Sabbath Rest. Do you have trouble resting. This will help immensely.

Understand the Same Sex Marriage Issues. A great collection of important articles that will help you understand the underlying issues in the same-sex marriage controversy.

If You Go to Heaven & Back, Here is a Guide on How to Speak About it. Some great thoughts from the Apostle Paul.

Dear Jerusalem. One fella wrote a blog to the church about why people where leaving her every day. This is a thoughtful (satirical) response on how this blog would sound if it were written to the Israelites in the Old Testament. Sometimes things are much clearer when put in a different context. It’s good to read back and forth things like this every now and then. Helps sharpen the ol’ mind.

Amazing, Ancient Archery. Two things. First, this guy is amazing at archery. Two, this is a great example of how modern technology doesn’t always make us better at things.

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A Quick Way to Know If You Worship Idols

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Dana Dill

golden-calf-idolatryIdolatry is the root of all sin. Essentially, all of our sin is deciding to trust, love, and obey something else instead of God. As I have said before, our disobedience to God is actually obedience to something else.

So how can we identify the idols in our lives (1 John 5:21)? I’ve already answered that question in a past post, but today I’d like to offer one more short, but very powerful question.

Is there anything God could take away that would make me stop worshiping Him?

Your answer to that question will reveal what you love the most and what you love the most is your idol.

Think On These Things

What in your life is “off-limits” to God? What would be unacceptable for Him to take from you? To help you tease this out, think about the following:

If God allowed you to be beaten and robbed,would you still love, honor, and worship Him with everything you have?

If God took away all of your wealth and earthly materials (see Job 1:13-17), would you still love, honor, and worship Him with everything you have?

If God took away your health (Job 2:7-8), would you still love, honor, and worship Him with everything you have?

If God called you to a life of suffering (Acts 9:16),would you still love, honor, and worship Him with everything you have?

If God took away your wife (see Ezekiel 24:15-17), would you still love, honor, and worship Him with everything you have?

If God took away all your children (see Job 1:18), would you still love, honor, and worship Him with everything you have?

If God didn’t save your children or your closest friends (Romans 9:3), would you still love, honor, and worship Him with everything you have?

Idolatry is not bowing down to little action figures or doing odd, spiritual practices. Idolatry is believing the lie that something else is more beautiful, trustworthy, satisfying, and worthy of our lives than God as He is revealed in Jesus. Idolatry is putting something else in the place of God.

Is Jesus Your Bell-Hop?

Idolatry is something that can be committed by the church goers and non-church goers alike. There are many sitting in pews every Sunday “worshiping” Jesus with their lips though their hearts are committed to something else (Matthew 15:8).

Many claim Jesus is Lord not because they love Him more than everything else, but because He gives them what they truly desire. As long as He keeps doing that, they’ll honor Him as “Lord.” But this isn’t worship, this is an exchange of services. In this picture Jesus isn’t loved and honored as Supreme Treasure, but He is treated as the cosmic bell-hop who brings us what we really want. Do you desire Jesus or what He gives you?

My friends, what idols live in your heart? What do you love, trust, enjoy, or obey more than God Himself? Even more, what will you do with them? I suggest the instructions of Moses: “The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire” (Deuteronomy 7:25).

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When An “A-” is an “F”

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Dana Dill

follow-me-no-im-not-talking-about-twitterThis past Sunday, one of the pastors at our church preached a powerful and encouraging sermon from John 1:35-51 about following Christ. As I listened, I was reminded about how radically different following Jesus is compared to other things we may “follow” in life.

We may follow a sports team by watching them play and keeping up-to-date on their roster.

We may follow various people by enjoying their Instagram pictures or Twitter posts.

We may follow certain celebrities by scouring magazines for juicy bits of gossip.

We may follow particular authors or journalists that we agree with on significant issues.

We have a sense of what following means in our culture, but none of these things comes close to what Jesus means when he says, “Follow me” (John 1:43). Jesus isn’t calling us to enjoy his pithy quotes, learn fun facts about His life, or even ascribe to His various teachings on life and morality. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He is demanding that we no longer think of ourselves as the authority of our own lives and to give that position to Him alone. When Jesus says “follow me,” He is equally saying to unfollow yourself. When Jesus says, “Follow me,” He is telling us to bow to Him as Master in everything; Lord of all.

J.D. Greear illustrates it well:

Imagine if I proudly announced to my wife that during the next year I would be 95% faithful to her. Now, that is an A- at even the strictest colleges. My wife, however, would not be excited. That means out of one hundred girls I know, I plan to be sexually involved with five of them. That is not an “A-” faithfulness rating; that is wholly unfaithful.

You don’t follow Jesus like you follow someone on Twitter, where you are free to take or leave their thoughts at your leisure. Following Jesus is not letting Him come into your life to be an influence, even if it’s significant influence. Following Jesus means submitting to Him in all areas at all times regardless of whether you agree with what He says or not.

Jesus comes into our lives as “Lord,” or not at all. (Taken from Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Hearts, p. 61).

When spoken from the mouth of Christ, the two words, “Follow me,” will change everything.

 

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My Kind of Seeker Sensitivity

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Dana Dill

7.20.SeekerSensitiveWorship_315989494If this is what people meant by being a seeker sensitive church, then I’d be all in.

Paul Washer:

Our churches have plenty of strategies for becoming more seeker friendly, but we ought to realize this: there is only one Seeker, and He is God. If we are striving to make our church and message accommodating, let us make them accommodating to Him. If we are striving to build a church or ministry, let us build it upon a passion to glorify God and a desire not to offend His majesty. To the wind with what the world thinks about us. We are not to seek the honors of earth, but the honor of heaven should be our desire. (Taken from The Gospel’s Power & Message, p. 52).

May God fill our land with churches that are most sensitive to the Seeker.

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The Saturday Post(s)

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Dana Dill

Saturday Post

8 Responses to Friendly Fire. Intended for pastors specifically, but easily applicable to everyone who knows the hurt of being attacked by friends. “No New Testament pastor had his character assaulted and sabotaged more than Paul. Time after time, those he sacrificially served, attacked him, accusing him of being in ministry for impure, self serving reasons. It goes with the territory of ministry. When you find yourself in those crosshairs, here is a simple strategy for responding to and recovering from personal attacks…”

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Christ. A good word. “Jonathan Edwards’s famous sermon, ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,’ needs a companion: ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Christ.’ The Scriptures leave us in no doubt about the love of God and Christ. But those same Scriptures also do not leave us guessing whether God and Christ will execute judgment upon the impenitent…”

15 Cool Things About the Simpsons You May Not Have Known. This will be interesting to those who watch(ed) the Simpsons. No one else, though.

Does God Need to Shatter Your Dream? “When a person becomes alienated from a Christian community in which he has been placed and begins to raise complaints about it, he had better examine himself first to see whether the trouble is not due to his wish dream that should be shattered by God…”

Making the Church a Safe Place for Mental Illness. “Church should be the safest place for those who struggle with mental illness. It should be a place of refuge amidst the constant misery. Don’t you agree? So how can we make the church a safe place for those who struggle with mental illness? Here are a few suggestions…”

The Best of CBMW from 2014. A list of the most popular articles from the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood from 2014. Don’t miss out. The articles are excellent and relevant.

Hell & Hemorrhoids. “Like sex and hemorrhoids, Hell is a topic unmentionable in polite company. So why write a book about it? Why raise Hell?”

God May Oppose Your iPhone. Some good thoughts for using phones in service “Jesus, it’s so wonderful to be with you! Thank you for all you’ve…oh, hold on for a sec. I just posted this really funny photo of a dog wearing a sombrero and a lot of people are liking it. Okay, what was I saying? Right. You’re really worthy of…dang it! Sorry, my friend has been texting me all morning. He wants to know if I’m coming over to watch the game. Now, where was I?”

Reverent, Heart Worship. I really appreciated the simple focus of this piece. “Reverence is not necessarily being still or somber. Neither is it being exuberant and joyful. It is not a matter of worship style or building decor. Reverence has everything to do with the attitude and bent of our hearts.”

What Sloth Does to You. “One day I woke up and realized that I was stressed out about the chaotic state of my life.  There was no relaxation, EVER.  But, it wasn’t because I never sat around.  It was because I was sitting around too much.  I was avoiding what I didn’t want to do, and it was making me miserable. I believed the lie that I am not cut out to be a housewife.  But, the truth is that I had let the sin of sloth scramble my life in the smallest ways, and the result was that I felt like a failure.”

Heaven is For Real, But the Books About Going There Probably Aren’t. I think this is probably more common than not.

The World’s Toughest Job. Mom’s are bomb.

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Love the Church More Than It’s Health

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Dana Dill

i-love-the-churchOh man, this is so good and so needed by so many; including myself.

Jonathan Leeman:

This one goes out to the doctrine guys. The guys with ecclesiological opinions. The pastors and elders who think the Bible addresses the practices and structures of the church.

Wait a second, I’m talking about myself, and maybe you. I thank God for you, and I rejoice to consider myself a co-participant with you in working for Christ’s kingdom.

Yet there’s a temptation I have noticed that you and I are susceptible to: we can love our vision of what a church should be more than we love the people who compose it. We can be like the unmarried man who loves the idea of a wife, but who marries a real woman and finds it harder to love her than the idea of her. Or like the mother who loves her dream of the perfect daughter more than the daughter herself.

This is an implicit danger for all of us who have learned much from God-given books and conferences and ministries about “healthy churches.” We start loving the idea of a healthy church more than the church God has placed us in…

Later, Leeman goes on to explain what it looks like to love a church more than its health:

To say that we should love the church more than its health means this: we should love people because they belong to Jesus, not because they have kept the law of a healthy church, even though that law may be good and biblical. It means we should love them because of what Christ has done and declared, not because of what they do.

If you love your children, you want them to be healthy. But if you love your children, you love them whether they are healthy or not.

Certainly you can rejoice when a brother or sister grows in theological understanding. You rejoice in the greater unity of truth you now share (see 2 John 1). But your gospel love—your “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners” love—should extend no less to the brother who is theologically, ecclesiologically, even morally immature, because such love is based on Christ’s perfection and truth, not the brother’s.

Read the whole article here.

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Why Does God Demand a Payment for Sin?

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Dana Dill

original“For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why are the wages of sin death?” Why does God have to pay us back for our sins? Why can’t He simply forgive and forget?

Jonathan Leeman gives a helpful and needed answer:

The wages of sin is death because God’s glory is weighty and infinite, and we have fallen short of it. The wages of sin is death because God is worthy of all honor, worship, and praise, and we have brushed him off. When His glory is not appropriately honored and valued, that is, when we fall short of His glory through sin, we become judicially guilty, and a payment is required.

To say that no payment is required is to say that His glory really holds no value. Break something that’s cheap and no one will care. Break something exquisite and precious, however, and its value is demonstrated – in part – in the fact that a payment is required. God, who is jealous for His glory and Name, would have demonstrated that He’s weightless and worthless shoudl He have chosen to save sinful humanity without demanding a just payment for their transgressions against His glorious person. (Taken from The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love, p. 72).

A payment is demanded because the value of God’s glory is weighty and unthinkably glorious. Our sin is evil not because of the nature or degree of our sin, but because of the greatness of Whom we sin against. But praise be to God that there is a second half to Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The demanded payment has been made. The unthinkable debt has been cleared by the precious blood of God’s One and Only Son.

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