Also, as always, I like to share my resources for this study:

ESV Online Study Bible

Audio Messages from Matt Chandler: “The Art of Prayer” & “The Reign and Rule of God”

Book “Evangelism and The Sovereignty of God” by J.I. Packer

Prayer, Evangelism, & The Sovereignty of God

God’s sovereignty in prayer:

Eph 1:3-11 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Prov. 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Ps. 115:3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Jer. 10:23 I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

Ps. 135:6 Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

•    He is sovereign over ALL things! Proverbs elsewhere says even the roll of the die belongs to God.
•    He predestines according to His council and will.
•    IF THIS IS TRUE… WHY PRAY??

There are two answers to this question, one short, one long. Long answer first.

•    All throughout the Bible God’s people are constantly asking Him for things… personally, for others, to change their circumstances, etc. AND… GOD LISTENS!
•    Ex. 32:9 – The Lord tells Moses to get out of the way, He’s going to kill everyone and start all over with Moses. Moses begs and implores God to remember His promise and spare these people, and God relents.

James 4:2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

•    Does this passage not imply that if we would ask, we would have?

Lk. 11:9-10 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be     opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
2 Chron. 7:14  if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all     unrighteousness.

•    If God has already sovereignly decided what He will do, then these verses put us in a bit of a theological quandary don’t they?
•    Is God truly sovereign over all things or can WE move Him by our prayers???.. YES! Back to this in just a minute.
•    Since we’re asking questions, take a look at Eph 2:8-9
•    Just a side note question while you’re looking that verse up: If you believe in the total free will of man, meaning that man’s choosing of Christ as Lord is all up to that person, then why pray and ask God to save them? If He answers your prayer, did He not violate the free will of the person He saved? Just something to think about.

Eph. 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on     the last day.

•    If God is completely sovereign and only He can open the eyes of men and draw them to salvation and change their heart… Why preach? Why study to teach? Why share the gospel at all?

Rom. 10:14-17 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

•    We preach, study, teach, and share because God has established, in His wisdom, that it is through the proclamation of the Word that He will open eyes, save souls, and change lives.
•    The same is true with prayer… Why pray?

ANSWER #1 Prayer becomes the means by which the purposes of God are accomplished and that in that way, prayer changes things!

Two ditches to watch out for when dealing with this quandary of theology:

#1  Since God is sovereign over everything, prayer gets pushed back out of the way into some corner that we rarely visit and the intellect reigns and rules. Prayer becomes a very small part of our lives.
#2  God becomes a genie in a lamp that gives us whatever we ant as long as we rub the lamp just     right.

ANSWER #2 Why pray? Simply… God has commanded that we pray!

God’s sovereignty in evangelism / missional living:

We’ve already answered the big question of why we preach or teach or share the Gospel with our friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Now we’ll talk a little more about how God’s sovereignty plays into us getting to be a part of the miracle of someone’s salvation.

•    Share the story of how God orchestrated my salvation experience.
•    The lady that shared her faith with me had it right. She set out to make a disciple of Christ and not just a convert. She gave up or devoted a season of her life to the goal of making me a disciple. She fulfilled the Text!
•    Evangelism, especially in the South carries kind of a negative connotation because in the past it has been somewhat focused on converts and numbers. Missional living or living your life on mission is about the reign and rule of God, not just making converts.
•    Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against evangelism, but it is NOT an event we do, it’s how we see the world.

Ps. 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of     them.

•    God formed not only your physical make up and appearance, but also your unseen characteristics and traits.
•    He did this on purpose. For us to take care of what He has for us.
•    I’m not the most gifted teacher, by far, but it is no mistake that I am here right now talking to you about this, or that you are reading this blog.
•    But WHY did He do this??

Acts 17:22-26 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

•    God knit you together in the womb with passions, likes, dislikes, skills, gifts, abilities, etc… And He determined where and when you would live… And the number of your days… Again WHY?

Acts 17:27-28 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

•    This means that your neighborhood, job, hobbies, the things you are drawn to… ALL of it is eternally significant!
•    We see this at work here all the time at Cove Creek!
•    Again, it means that evangelism isn’t just something we do, it’s the lens by which we see the whole world. Our whole lives are about the reign and rule of God.
•    It also means that we are going to have to start opening our mouths and proclaiming the Gospel to those people we just hope are seeing our lives and will get saved just because we are trying to live a “good Christian life”.

http://thegospelman.com/audio/index.html

Resources I used to help prepare for this message:

• Audio Message – “Wisdom” by Mark Driscoll.
• Audio Message – “What Is Adultery?” by Voddie Baucham.
• ESV Online Study Bible
• Blue Letter Bible

What is wisdom?  Dictionary.com defines it as “Knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgement as to action.”  i.e. “Knowing and doing what is right.”  Or even simpler… applied knowledge.

Where does wisdom come from?  True wisdom comes from God.  Prov. 1:7 – “… fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  James 1:5 – “If you lack wisdom ask God for it.”  And Prov. 3:19 – “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth.”

There are a few myths we have when it come to wisdom.

1. Age = Wisdom.  Theoretically this should be true because experience is one way we can learn wisdom.  But of course we know this isn’t always true or else the oldest people we know would always be the wisest people we know and we can feel safe going to them for council.
2. Intellect = Wisdom.  Some think that just because God has gifted someone with the ability to absorb knowledge and be very book smart, that that always translates into wisdom.  We all know people who are smarter than us, but don’t have very much common sense or “street smarts”
3. Education = Wisdom.  Lastly, some think that the more schooling someone has, the wiser they are.  Just because someone has a ton of degrees and knows more about a certain area than you may, doesn’t mean they are wise.  If that were true then people who had degrees that required the most school (doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.) would be the wisest people we know.  Not necessarily.

How is wisdom learned?  Through experience, the council of others, and the Bible.  The book of Proverbs teaches wisdom a lot of times by contrasting wisdom with folly.  ‘The wise man does this, but the fool does this’.  Sometimes it’s easy to see what we should do by seeing what is wrong.

What is folly?  Lack of sense, or lack of judgment.  Unwise.  But, folly is not necessarily sin.  There are a lot of choices that we make that wouldn’t qualify as sin… they’re just dumb!  Though folly can and sometimes does lead to sin.  It puts you in situations that are not good, right, or healthy.

Proverbs 6 1-19 gives us a few practical warnings against folly.

Warning against co-signing loans.  6:1-5

Again, it’s not a sin to co-sign a loan with someone, it’s just not smart.  It gives the picture of being caught in a trap. It doesn’t make sense to co-sign. The bank has all the money and based on the person’s history, doesn’t trust them with a loan. You have no money, (or else you would loan or give it to them), thinking you know better than the bank, you put yourself in a tough spot for someone else.

2 Lessons:

1. Don’t co-sign.
2. Don’t put someone else in that position

Warning against laziness. 6:6-11

Laziness isn’t necessarily a sin, it’s just not smart.  Paul says if you don’t work, you don’t eat.  Laziness could lead to sin if you are not providing for your family as you are commanded to do.  Statistically we are getting less and less sleep and yet still complaining about not having enough time in the day.  How is that?  The amount of time in front of the TV and internet is steadily on the rise. Maybe we have too much entertainment.  It’s not a sin to Sabbath.  Sin is neglecting the Sabbath to do the things you needed to do in the week, but were too busy with entertainment.

3 things that help me when I get out of balance:

• Plate – Know what I can and can’t do. Honestly assess how much I can handle. How big is your plate?
• Prioritize – Arrange the most important things on my plate in order of importance.
• Prune – If it doesn’t fit…Kill it.  Heb. 12:1-Throw off sin and everything that hinders… Whether it’s morally sinful or morally neutral, if it hinders your race, throw it off.

Warning against crookedness and discord. 6:12-15

2 Warnings here:

1. Watch out for those who are always looking for a way to twist every situation to their own benefit.
2. Don’t be that person.

What God hates. 6:16-19

Verses 12-15 and 16-19 flow together with the focus of v. 16-19 being on the seventh thing the author mentions. We read the first 6 and agree with all of them, but tend to look over the 7th or think it’s not quite as “bad” as the others. But the Bible says a person who stirs up discord among his brothers is an abomination to God. We in the church, don’t need to stir things up just because something isn’t working out the way we want. AND we don’t need to tolerate others who do so. It’s useless and harmful.

Warning against adultery. 6:20-35

Why does Proverbs mention adultery so much?

1. Because he is trying to reveal to us how our relationship with God is similar to a marriage covenant and when we worship anyone or anything else, it’s like we are committing adultery on God.
2. It’s mentioned so much because God hates it. He hates what it does.

To fully understand this we have to look at the Biblical purposes for marriage.

1. Procreation-Genesis 1. The first commandment God gave was to “be fruitful and multiply.” This is not just having kids, but raising them in the fear and instruction of the Lord that we might take dominion as He commanded. BE FRUITFUL, NOT JUST MULTIPLY! Adultery opens us up to illegitimate children outside of our covenant relationship, thereby denying one set or both sets of children the parenting God requires in order for us to raise them the way He has commanded.
2. Sanctification-1 Cor. 7:1-5. Not the Greek/Roman romantic love America is infatuated with. Our culture just has it wrong! God gave us marriage in order to satisfy those desires that He gave us within a relationship that glorifies Him. Adultery takes those desires and fulfills them in a relationship that is outside of the context and covenant God established. It is, in essence, saying, “God, I know best. I know you set this up to meet my desires, my desires aren’t being met and I’m not satisfied with what you have set up. I’m going to do my own thing because I know best how to meet my needs.” It’s idolatry.
3. Illustration.  Rev. 19:5-8. Illustrates the relationship between Christ and His church. We’re painting a picture of how Christ loves us and cares for us.

Adultery is a perversion of the gospel. This picture of Christ who is forever faithful to His bride, sacrifices adn dies for His bride…Adultery turns that on it’s head. We were never meant to be fully satisfied this side of Heaven. That’s why God hates adultery. That’s why Proverbs mentions it so much. It destroys families, works against sanctification, and perverts the Gospel.

Jesus takes it a step further and lets the people know what God was after when He gave the 7th commandment. They thought it was all about the “act” of adultery. Jesus says “no,” if you lust after another person you have already agreed in your heart to commit adultery, already given yourself to another. You just haven’t had a chance to consummate the relationship yet. The “act” just exposes your heart.

Toward the beginning of the book he lists out several problems that the emerging church crowd has with the traditional churches. The problems listed are legitimate concerns and I don’t think anyone, even in the traditional church camp, would disagree. The trouble that the traditional church has, Belcher says, is with the emerging church’s answers to these problems. So the rest of the book follows a similar pattern: Problem, emerging church answer, traditional church pushing back on that answer, how the deep church should think about things.

I really enjoyed the book, myself. It challenged a lot of my views and helped me understand the emerging church a little better. I crave the type of biblical community he lays out in the first chapter as well. The book was well written and easy to follow. I actually listened to the audio version, which was very well read. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to those of us who know something is missing in some of our traditional, bible-belt churches, and want an answer that doesn’t compromise the Gospel we believe.

What stood out most to me was his story about his daughter who struggled intensely with depression and felt awful all the time. Though his daughter was a Christian, she was in legalistic bondage and had sense that she was not good enough. If my memory serves me right, I remember him telling the crowd that he told his daughter to go out, sin, so that she would see her need as a sinner, and come to experience the beauty that the gospel is for sinners. His daughter shocked by what her pastor father told her, did not go out and sin big, however, she did come to realize the beauty of the gospel and came to appreciate it further for what it is.

When I became a Christian, I knew the gospel of course; however, it was so easy to submit to bondage without realizing it. For example, if somehow I did not study my bible that day, I would blame the bad day on not studying my bible, as I should. On the other hand, if I snapped at my family, I thought I should pray more and read my bible more. However, doing those things in that frame of mind made me so serious, and it caused a lot of distance and inability to empathize with the weaknesses and failings of others.

During that Christmas Conference in 2004, I picked up a book by Steve Brown, a professor of practical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, titled “Scandalous Freedom.” This book is about God’s grace. One of Brown’s talking points is how as Christians we are afraid of freedom, and that we are more comfortable with placing limits upon our freedom in Christ. Just in case you are wondering, Brown Does Not endorse antinomianism.

If you are a Christian who finds themselves at times “playing the part” or “wearing a mask” and thus not experiencing the joy, freedom, and authenticity according to the gospel I would recommend this book. If you are a Christian, however, you find yourself judging other Christians because they are not like you or your church, this book will help demonstrate how gospel fellowship can be worked out in the community of faith. If you are a Christian who lacks boldness and constantly feels like a failure, you may want to read what Brown has to say. This is truly a book worth reading and considering.

This letter is written to encourage believers in times of trial.  The author is letting us know that there is rest for our soul in God through Christ (Heb. 4:1), but sin and deceit will try to creep in and harden our heart, pulling us away from God and His rest.  I love the depth and practicality of this section (3:7 – 4:13).  He tells us to find and remain in that rest.  We know that the only way to have rest in God is through Christ and the grace and mercy He shows us in salvation.  But, sin in our lives can harden our hearts and pull us away from that rest.  The author will give us a few ways we can remain in that rest.  I have chosen the three ways that I see most clearly.

1. “Take care brothers…”  Take care of yourself!  Check yourself out.  Like Paul says “examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith”.  Pray, ask God to reveal to you if there is any area of your life where you are walking in sin.  Then take an honest look at you life (thoughts, actions, speech, etc.), repent and walk in the truth.
2. “But exhort one another every day…”  Neither of these are suggestions.  They are commands.  You are your brother’s keeper.  It is our responsibility, if we see one of our fellow believers wondering about in sin, to lead them back to the place of rest for their soul.  There are two large ditches on the sides of this road though.  You have the non-confrontational coward (which I have to battle in my life), who doesn’t say anything and hides behind the mask of “well, I don’t want them to think I’m judging them or I’m better than them”.  And you have the proud referee who goes around blowing the whistle telling everyone else to get right because they “have this thing figured out” and they’re just being God’s little helper.  If we truly love our brothers and sisters, like the Word tells us to, it would be unloving to just sit back and watch them drown in their sin.  Exhort means to encourage.  We should prayerfully, lovingly, gently (at first) show them, in the Bible, where they are wrong and ask them to repent and return to rest in God.  If they do not, then lovingly proceed with Mt. 18:15-20 in hopes that brokenness will lead to repentance.  We need each other, that’s just the way He set things up!
3. “For the Word of God is living and active…”  Read the Word!  Simple, I know, but most of the times we find ourselves in the “wilderness” it’s because we have followed our own directions.  When you read the Bible, read it in such a way that you allow it to read you.  Allow it to cut and carve away wrong thoughts, motives, doctrines, actions, etc.  Don’t pray and ask God to “fix” you and then not do what He says.  Lay your life on top of the Word of God and see where it doesn’t line up.

“…and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” Hebrews 2:2b-3a ESV

If we neglect what Christ accomplished on the cross, what other means of salvation do we have to turn to?  Jehovah, the God of the Bible, has shown Himself throughout history and the Bible to be the one true God.  That cuts out all other religions, gods, philosophies, or belief systems one may look toward to satisfy the longing of the soul to receive forgiveness and rest.  Since this book was written most likely by a Hebrew to Hebrews, the focus of this passage is dealing with the supremacy & sufficiency of Christ over the Law or some outward display of morality for salvation.

Deut. 17:2-7 and Num. 15:30-31 among countless others display the overwhelming detail and consequence of the Law.  The Law or moralism brings with it a feeling of hopelessness and despair.  We begin to feel as if we can never be or do good enough… But that was the point of the Law!  That was God’s way of revealing His standards to us, knowing we would fail the moment we were born, revealing to us, as well, how utterly hopeless and helpless we truly are.  We are sinners by birth and by choice.  We can’t work our way to God.  We need mercy!  We need forgiveness!  We need Christ!

If no other religious or philosophical system can deliver us, and we can’t be good/moral/ethical/strict enough… ever… “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”  Where have you placed your faith?  Turn to Christ.  Receive grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  Find rest for your soul!

With the holiday season fast approaching, I thought it would be a good time for us all to take a look at how the Bible says we are to live in light of God’s overwhelming generosity toward us as Believers and Americans. I feel that a lot of times, we, in “American Evangelicalism,” fall into the trap of believing that God’s blessings to us are “for” us. We are part of the whole body of Christ! When we fail to realize that, we fall into some kind of cultish, selfish, “bless me”, “take care of me and mine”, pseudo-Christianity that is only concerned only about us as we use Jesus to get what we want. This is still an area of my life that God is working on as He pries my hands more and more off of material things. I put together a list of audio messages that have had a huge impact on how I see our finances and giving throughout all of life, not just the holiday season.

Click here for the “Biblical Stewardship” series.

Click here for ALL audio messages on this site.

Download audio file (testimony.mp3)

Download

What Owen wrote centuries ago, is still relevant today. It is relevant because the same human nature and sins that existed then, still exist now. The same sins that reeked havoc then, do so now.

Sin is so insidious that it will tempt us to fall for things that are extremely unhealthy for us. For example, pornography is one of those things that seduce the minds of men, however, it is one giant illusion that promises fulfillment, yet it delivers only mud in your mouth.

Regarding killing our sin, whether its lust towards women, or being lazy, or harsh with our wives, as Christian men we should direct our anger elsewhere. Particularly, towards our sin. We should put our sin away we much violence. We should be hostile towards our sin, and gentle to those around us, especially our wives. We should hate our own sin and repent of it, while bearing with others and showing mercy towards them.

All the while, we should remember that putting our sin to death, being gentle with others, and bearing the faults of others can only be accomplished by God’s abundant and sufficient grace.