T4G Reflections: My Broken Prayer, All I Have is Christ

I forget who said it.  Honestly, I forget what they said.  All I remember is asking myself asking one question. What am I unwilling to lose?  Quickly rising up in my soul was the answer: my life.  Of course that means a ton of different things.  It means I have had a death grip on trying to attain a certain outcome for my life.  It means I have foolish, yet tight fisted, reign on what I am willing to do and not do in my walk with Christ.  I struggle with pride, self-righteousness, and just outright complacency. 

All of this was simmering in my heart for a day.  Wednesday evening during the first song Bob Kauflin said, “all I have is Christ” in one of his songs.  This jolted my heart.  I had trouble focusing on the next couple of songs because I let (rather was prodded to let) these words toss around in my soul.  Then he played this song:

That video was from a NA Conference not T4G.  But the lyrics are the same. 

Then John Piper preached essentially what this song meant.  You can watch the sermon if you like, but I will attempt to summarize.  Piper’s text was Luke 18.  He pointed out the self-righteousness of the Pharisee.  It was not that he was trusting in his own works and merits.  The Pharisee was trusting in a God wrought righteousness in his own life.  The problem, said Piper, is that he was not trusting on Christ—the tax collector was.  He brought out Philippians 3 and Paul essentially was the Pharisee and now he is the tax collector.  Piper further gave the example of the Rich Young Ruler—one thing he lacked: let go of money, let it fall to the poor, and cling to Christ.  The one thing he lacked was Christ.  In other words the song of the believer truly is All I Have is Christ.  Watch the Piper video if you want, but please do not neglect to read my closing comments:

T4G 2010 -- Session 6 -- John Piper from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

God used this song and this sermon to renew a spark of the gospel in my heart.  During this time I found myself praying that the Lord would break me.  Break me of every vestige of self-righteousness that I may cling to Christ alone.  Break me of a foolishness that wants to cling to my life. 

If you follow this blog, or are my friend and read this, remind me in a couple of months when I’m “broken” about this prayer and where my brokenness stems from.  Lord make me a gospel man!

Newton: The Danger of Following Preachers Instead of Christ

What I have observed of many, who run about unseasonably after new preachers, has reminded me of Pro. 27:8, "As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is the man that wanders from his place." Such unsettled hearers seldom thrive: they usually grow wise in their own conceits, have their heads filled with notions, acquire a dry, critical, and censorious spirit; and are more intent upon disputing who is the best preacher, than upon obtaining benefit to themselves from what they hear. If you could find a man, indeed, who had a power in himself of dispensing a blessing to your soul, you might follow him from place to place; but as the blessing is in the Lord's hands, you will be more likely to receive it by waiting where his providence has placed you, and where he has met with you before.

When this gets posted, Lord willing, I will be attending the final day of Together for the Gospel.  The men that have spoken are some of the most gifted ministers of the gospel in our day.  It would be quite easy to begin following men as well as following preachers instead of Christ.  Newton’s wise counsel here bears following. 

In our day and age you can spend hours listening to many really good sermons.  But it may be wise for you to heed this counsel from Newton as well:

In the first place, be cautious that you do not degenerate into the spirit of a mere hearer, so as to place the chief stress of your profession upon running hither and there after preachers. There are many who are always upon the wing; and, without a due regard to what is incumbent upon them in the shop, in the family, or in private devotion—they seem to think they were sent into the world only to hear sermons, and to hear as many in a day as they possibly can. Such people may be fitly compared to Pharaoh's lean cows; they devour a great deal; but, for lack of a proper digestion, they do not flourish: their souls are lean: they have little solid comfort; and their profession abounds more in leaves than in fruit.

There are others gems in this letter, you might want to read the entire letter: On Hearing Sermons

Quotes from T4G

On his blog, Matt Schmucker gave his three favorite quotes from John MacArthur at Together For The Gospel

"1. "Soft preaching makes for hard people."
2. "Preachers are the only ones in the world who can take no credit for everything we do (except the mistakes)."
3. "It's not about how cool you are, but how clear you are."

If I remember correctly, MacArthur also pointed out that "Hard preaching makes for soft hearts/people."

Borrowed Light: This Week in Blogworld

Perhaps you've noticed the change in title. Instead of doing a "Today in Blogworld" we will now be moving to a "This Week". If something is pressing then I will provide a link throughout the week. As of now, we will be posting all of our links on Friday or Saturday of every week.

Michael Patton charts four views of God's sovereignty? Where are you on the chart? I am in between meticulous sovereignty and providential sovereignty. I'm probably a little to the right of John Piper.

Pulpit Magazine offers us a series on ministry to children. They consider When to Baptize Your Children, Proverbs and Parenting, Evangelizing Your Children Part 1 and 2.

Jared hits the nail on the head with his post on The New Legalism

Erin Sutherland continues the New Attitude series on applying the gospel to every day life. She discusses The Gospel and Relationships (for Girls)

Phil Johnson's final entry on Acts 17: Paul and Charitableness

Many bloggers went to the Together 4 the Gospel Conference (Hence, the small number of links). I was not one of them. I could link to all of their notes, but instead I will only point you to the audio for all the sermons. This should keep you busy.

This is also from T4G:
(HT:Challies)