Free to Serve

What is an accountability partner?

One of the first, strange Christian terms I remembering hearing is "accountability partner"? What, exactly, is this? Frankly, the term can seem a little creepy.

But if you know your heart, you know there is absolutely nothing creepy about having a fellow Christian in your life to help you battle sin. Paul Tripp in his book, Instruments In the Redeemer's Hands has a great chapter on accountability and a great section that explains what it provides:

1) Accountability provides structure. Because life can be so busy, it is helpful to have a person or a group of people with whom you regularly discuss life's most important matters.

2) Accountability provides guidance. Practical, personal input is needed if we are to grow in Christ-like living. 

3) Accountability provides assistance. Sometimes we need more than "input." We need help. We need someone to literally  take us by the hand and walk us through a situation. Accountability can make that happen.

4) Accountability provides encouragement. It's not all about being rebuked. Sometimes it's about being reminded of ways the gospel is actively at work in your life.

5) Accountability provides warning. When someone is rebelling against necessary change, accountability is like a stop sign. To ignore that stop sign is to enter the danger zone.

Whether you like the term or not, do you have an accountability partner? If not, why not? Is it for lack of time, lack of interest, lack of conviction of sin? Look for someone that God may have already have put into your life who can encourage you to follow Jesus more closely.

More on the Resurrection

In his essay, "Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?" Christian philosopher William Lane Craig helpfully points out that the resurrection made (and makes) all the difference:

It is difficult to exaggerate what a devastating effect the crucifixion must have had on the disciples. They had no conception of a dying, much less a rising, Messiah, for the Messiah would reign forever (cf. John 12:34). Without prior belief in the resurrection, belief in Jesus as Messiah would have been impossible in light of his death. The resurrection turned catastrophe into victory. Because God raised Jesus from the dead, he could be proclaimed as Messiah after all (Acts 2:32, 36).

It is good to remember the importance of the resurrection, not just on Easter Sunday, but every day. Now, may we have the grace necessary to live in light of it.

"I'm a Sinner Saved" -- Gerry Chatham

A few weeks ago, one of our elders at MVBC was diagnosed with Leukemia. He immediately went on a round of chemotherapy in the hospital, and now visits a clinic each day for several hours for treatment. In a few days he will get the results of a test to see if he is improving or if the cancer is having its way.

Gerry is 73 years old. He grew up in Georgia, played baseball at Georgia Tech before majoring in journalism at Georgia State. After working as a reporter for what was then the Atlanta Journal newspaper, Gerry spent most of his life in publishing.

He married Carolyn in 1962 and they are getting ready to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Gerry came to Christ as a young man, and has been a member of Mount Vernon since 1999. In my brief time here, he has been a real encouragement. He is hungry to know the Word better, has organized evangelistic bible studies, and poured himself into dozens of boys through children's basketball. He has labored to see relationships built between younger and older members in the body. He is a faithful shepherd, one of our first elders.

At least for now, Gerry can't come to church--too many people carrying too many infections for his weakened immune system to tolerate. So at our last Church in Conference (a members' meeting) we decided to show a brief recording. In the following, three-minute video, Gerry says how he's doing, talks about the sufficiency of God's grace through this trial, the beauty of marriage, and the call for believers to rejoice in suffering. After all, as he put it, "I'm a sinner saved."

Gerry Chatham Interview from Mount Vernon Baptist Church on Vimeo.

 

 

"The suffering of Christ has become so mighty and strong" -- Martin Luther

Last Sunday I preached from 1 Timothy 6 on contentment. Paul tells Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain. It is hardest to be content in the midst of suffering. That's why I think this call to contentment is also a call to receive suffering; to treat our trials as a temporary treasure. They are temporary because, for the believer, they will not last. They are treasures since they magnify in our lives the magnifence of God and prepare us, through pain, for the glory of heaven. 

Suffering is, therefore, a temporary treasure.

On April 16, 1530, Martin Luther preached a sermon on the cross and suffering. It was the Saturday before Easter, and he wanted the congregation to understand that the believer can receive suffering as a temporary treasure. This is possible because, through faith, we share in Christ's suffering, a suffering that conquered sin and death and brings everlasting life, the true and lasting treasure:

If you are willing to suffer, very well, then the treasure and consolation which is promised and given to you is so great that you ought to suffer willingly and joyfully because Christ and his suffering is being bestowed upon you and made your own. And if you cn believe this, then in time of great fear and trouble, you will be able to say: Even though I suffer long, very well then, what is that compared with the great treasure which my God has given to me, that I shall live eternally with him?

Look what happens then: the suffering would be sweet and easy and no longer an eternal suffering, but only a modicum which lasts only a short time and soon passes away, as St. Paul [II Cor. 4:17], and St. Peter [1 Pet. 1:6], and also Christ himself says in the Gospels [John 16:16-22]. For they look to that great, immeasurable gift, which is that Christ with his suffering and merit has become altogether ours. Thus the suffering of Christ has become so mighty and strong that it fills heaven and earth and breaks the power and might of the devil and hell, of death and sin. And then if you compare this treasure with your affliction and suffering, you will consider it but small loss to lose a little property, honor, health, wife, child, and even your own life. But if you refuse to regard this treasure and to suffer for it, so be it; go on and let it lie. He who does not believe will also receive none of these unspeakable goods and gifts.

I don't want to suffer. But I know that when it comes, from the tiniest inconvenience to the deepest pain, it can be welcomed as a temporary treasure preparing me for "these unspeakable goods and gits."

Biblical Conviction

I'm enjoying Paul Tripp's book, Age of Opportunity about parenting teens. It's a companion to Ted Tripp's Shepherding a Child's Heart. The message of the book is really captured in the title. Every conflict or confrontation with your teenager is an opportunity to minister the gospel to his or her life. I am soon going to have a teen, so I'm preparing now for these "opportunities."

One of the most interesting and helpful sections in the book is about helping someone distinguish between what Tripp calls Clear-Boundary Issues or Wisdom Issues. Clear-Boundary Issues have to do with commands that are obvious from Scripture. "The call to speak the truth, to honor father and mother, to not steal or commit adultery or fornication are all examples." Most of the time, Tripp argues, believers wretle with wisdom issue. Areas where Scripture does not give a clear cut answer. He points this out because one of the jobs of parents is to help teenagers wrestle with wisdom.

But I want to go back to the Clear-Boundary Issues section for a moment. I think that Tripp's words are very helpful for those who fall repeatedly into sin. Is there an area of life where you are suffering from a pattern of sinful behavior and your are struggling to stop, but you seem to be failing? Could it be that you know what your are doing is wrong, but your knowledge is weak? Could it be that you have failed to develop a true biblical conviction. The concrete of your morality has been so-watered down whenever you are faced with temptation you just sink.

Tripp lays out six characteristics of biblical conviction. These are worth thinking about as you go to war against your sin.

1. A biblical conviction is always based on a study of, submission to, and application of Scripture.

2. A biblical conviction is always predetermined. In other words, you don't develop convictions on the fly. As you study the Word and find what God has determined is God's will for your life in an ethical area (e.g., cheating is never an option) even before you are faced with a particular temptation (e.g., the teacher leaves the answerbook open on the counter and leaves the room).

3. A biblical conviction will not change with circumstances.

4. Biblical convictions are inflexible.

5. True biblical conviction is bold.

6. True biblical conviction is always lived out. I like this. If you real do hold something to be a biblical conviction, time will prove it!

May the Lord help us develop and apply biblical convictions to our lives each and every day.

The Peace of Christ is Reasonable

In 1750, the Puritan pastor, Jonathan Edwards, preached a sermon entitled, The Peace Which Christ Gives His True Followers. Edwards took John 14:27 as his text, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you."

He describes the peace Christ gives to those who follow him. It is an eternal peace, a sweet peace, a holy peace, and, perhaps surprisingly, a reasonable peace.

Christ's peace is a reasonable peace and rest of soul; it is what has its foundation in light and knowledge, in the proper exercises of reason, and a right view of things; whereas the peace of the world is founded in blindness and delusion. The peace that the people of Christ have, arises from their having their eyes open, and seeing things as they are. The more they consider, and the more they know of the truth and reality of things--the more they know what is true concerning themselves, the state and condition they are in; the more they know of God, and what manner of being he is; the more certain they are of another world and future judgment, and of the truth of God's threatenings and promies; the more their concsciences are awakened and enlightened, and the brighter and the more searching the light--the more is their peace established.

Christians are exposed to the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In that light we see things more clearly. Our eyes are open. We see reality as it actually is. We know ourselves better. We see our weaknesses and our strengths more clearly. We can be honest about how we have failed in ways that an unbeliever struggles.

It is not that the unbeliver can never understand himself, but he can't fully understand himself without the light of the gospel in his life. He sees only a bit of his true self the way you can see only some of a dark room when the door to the bright hallway is just cracked open. Most importantly, the believer is able to know God, his character and his ways. This is a knowledge out of the reach of someone without God's peace.

Notice what Edwards preached happens when the unbeliever begins to ask hard questions about life, when he "allows himself to think": 

The worldly-man's peace cannot be maintained but by avoiding consideration and reflection. If he allows himself to think, and properly to exercise his reason, it destroys his quietness and comfort.

Part of the evangelistic task for believers is getting others to think:

• What is life all about?
• What are we here for?
• What will happen when you die?
• Why do you make the decisions you do?

When a person starts truly and deeply thinking about life and death and time and space and reality and eternity, he or she cannot help but become troubled. He may not be honest about these troubles with others, but he feels the trouble deep within.

We were made by God to be at peace. It is our own sin and rebellion that has blinded us. We need God to open our eyes and, when he does--by breaking into our hearts with the gospel--we can truly, fully, and wonderfully know a peace which transcends understanding.

Pastors don't listen very well . . .

So argued the late William Still, pastor of Gilcomston South Church of Scotland. He wrote in The Work of the Pastor:

The hardest thing ministers, who are great talkers, find to do is to listen. Don't be making up your next speech while the other is talking. Listen! You may hear something you have never heard before. Don't assume that this problem is like many others you have dealt with. It may seem to be, but as no two people are exactly alike, so no two persons' problems are alike. You will find that many of your fixed ideas, which you may think are thoroughly Christian and apply to all cases, will be upset if you listen carefully enough to begin to see what the solution to a particular problem may be.

And so Still goes on to say that the best course of action is to ask questions, lots of questions, and to withhold offering counsel until you have listened as fully and as carefully as you can.

This seems like a wise word to all of us. After all, the church is full of men and women and children talking and listening to one another all the time. There are some of us who do a great job of listening. In fact, truth be told, it would be good for those of us who fall into this camp to do a little more talking! But then there are others who just won't stop talking. Another person's sentence is just an opportunity for us to figure out what to say next. 

Into which camp do you fall? Proverbs 15:23 is a good reminder for both camps, "To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!"

 

Changing

Most of us want to change. We recognize that there are areas of our lives that need reformation. Paul told the Thessalonians that they were walking in such a way as to please God. Then he urged them to do this more and more. There is always room for growth.

Much of our lives are given over to growing--and that means changing. God designed us to do this together, in a church. In their book, How People Change, Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp point out that the biblical way to grow is in community, as we spend time with other people. Sounds easy . . . 

Yet this is not simple. Being involved with people is time-consuming, messy, and complicated. From our point of view it is inefficient, but from God's point of view it is the best way to encourage growth in grace. Our value system collides with God's, but this means for bringing about change in us is best. That means we will have to make time for these kinds of friendships to emerge and grow. We will have to be realistic, too. Close relationships make it more likely that you will sin against someone or that someone will sin against you. There will need to be times of confession and forgiveness. There will be times when you will need to serve someone, even though you feel you lack the resources. There will also be times when you will be served! That may not sound like a challenge, but if you are proud, it is the last thing you want!

Hiding Behind Words

Tony Judt was what some call a "public intellectual." That is, of course, a funny thing to call somebody. Public intellectuals, as I understand them, are smart people who apply their analytical gifts on public issues and in a popular manner. Judt started his life in a Jewish home, and as a young man he absorbed writings of Karl Marx and argued for the re-establishment of the nation of Israel. He went on to teach European studies at New York University.

Judt died in August of last year. A few weeks before he died, he wrote a short essay entitled, "Words." He lamented the modern decline in the quality of writing and speaking. He suggested it is a sign of poor thinking: "Shoddy prose today bespeaks intellectual insecurity: we speak and write badly because we don't feel confident in what we think and are reluctant to assert it unambiguously."

In the heart of his essay, Judt wrote about how people use words today to make people think they are close when, in reality, they are miles away. Read the following paragraph carefully:

Articulacy is typically regarded as an aggressive talent. But for me its functions were substantively defensive: rhetorical flexibility allows for a certain feigned closeness--conveying proximity while maintaining distance. That is what actors do--but the world is not really a stage and there is something artificial in the exercise: one sees it in the current US president. I too have marshaled langauge to fend off intimacy--which perhaps explains a romantic penchant for Protestants and Native Americans, reticent cultures both.

Judt argued that we can speak (notice he used the fancier word, "articulate") defensively--to feign or fake closeness while "maintaining distance," like an actor. He even explained that he was tempted to use words this way. Aren't we all? But here is what I find fascinating. He says one reason he has a "romantic penchant" for Protestants (that's us!) is because they, too, use words to keep people away. (By the way, I have no idea why he lumps Protestants and Native Americans together in this regard!)

Is this true? Is Protestant Christianity unusually marked by the use of words to keep people away? Are we part of an especially "reticent" culture. If so, this should not be. Those who have experienced the Gospel, whose lives have been radically transformed, who know that their heart is an open book before the Creator of the Universe, have nothing to hide.

As you go about your day, today, consider how Paul described his speech in 1 Thessalonians 2:8:

So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our selves, because you had become very dear to us.

Paul shared more than the gospel, he shared his life. This is every Christian's calling--to share not just our words, but to share our hearts with others, too. This takes great wisdom. It will not do to sit down with someone you barely know and unleash the flood of your inner thoughts. But most of us don't struggle with being too open. I think Judt is right. Most Protestants, most of us, marshal our language to "fend off intimacy."

Incarnation and Union with Christ

We celebrate today the birth of Jesus. The Word became flesh. He is God incarnate. It is hard to underestimate the significance of this. Pastor Sinclair Ferguson explains:

By his incarnation the Son of God became one with us, sharing our nature. he came 'made in human likeness' (Phil. 2:7), 'in the likeness of the flesh of sin' (Rom. 8:3). These are difficult words to interpret, but they appear to suggest that in his conception Christ really took hold of our nature in the womb of the virgin Mary, sanctified it through the Spirit, and lived out his life of obedience in the weakness of our flesh. He came truly to brother us, and to be tempted in all points as we are so that he might sympathise with us in our weakness (Heb. 4:15). Furthermore, he established this bridge between God and us in our flesh in order that he might come into contact with our sin, being 'made sin' for us (2 Cor. 5:21). We are united to him by divine covenant and also by divine incarnation. Our union with Christ is therfore based on Christ's union with us.

Merry Christmas!