It’s common for people to blame officials for their team losing a game.
It’s less common for people to blame officials for losing a game by 29 points. But I found myself in a conversation on Facebook recently with a person who was arguing that officiating cost Ohio State that game.
I say this not to belittle that particular person but it made me think of society and how we approach failure.
Many people struggle with pride and never take responsibility. The problem with that is if you never admit your own mistakes and your own contribution to your life situations, you’ll never be able to grow. (more…)
501 years ago today, the history of the church, of Europe, and of the western world were forever changed in the town of Wittenberg Germany. Martin Luther wrote his 95 theses, a list of grievances against corrupt and unbiblical practices within the Catholic Church. The impact of this event continues to ripple throughout the Christian world.
Luther was not the first person to call for reform in the church. (more…)
Singer Michael Buble appeared this week on “Carpool Karaoke,” a popular segment on the Late Late Show where James Corden drives around with famous singers, sings their greatest hits with them and has a conversation.
In this episode, the conversation came to the subject of Michael’s son Noah and his two year fight with liver cancer. Fortunately, the cancer is now in remission but it is still understandably an emotional subject for Buble. (more…)
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons @Frank Licorice
I was reading an old sermon from Tim Keller, and was blown away by an observation he made regarding acceptance.
“Some of us are extremely accepting. People will come to you and talk to you about their problems because you are so accepting. You are so non-judgmental. The reason you’re non-judgmental is … You’re gentle. The reason you’re gentle is because you have no self-control in your own life. You’re always falling down, and you’re always lapsing. You’re always breaking your own promises. You’re always breaking promises to others. That’s the reason why you’re so tolerant and accepting. You have no discipline of your own. That’s why you’re so open.
In other words, your tolerance and your acceptance are not coming from humility and peace and joy. It’s just a way of dealing with your own conscience. Some people are incredibly unflappable. They seem to have peace, but they’re not gentle, and they’re not kind. Where did they get their peace from? They don’t care. They don’t care! That’s not real peace. These things will all break down.”
-Tim Keller “New hope, new family”
Acceptance and tolerance are popular ideas in our society. They’re basically the cardinal virtues of 21st century America.
No matter what people do, accept and tolerate it. We call that love.
I think Keller is onto something. We don’t want to acknowledge our own failures and sins and shortcomings and so we instead want to justify the actions of others so we can feel better about our own actions.
The problem is that it doesn’t make us feel better. On the outside, it might, but we know our sinfulness in our own hearts. We know we often don’t even measure up to our own standards, let alone those of God.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe!
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
I love preaching. I love everything about it. I love preparing to preach. I love behind the pulpit. I love evaluating a message afterwards. I love listening to sermons.
I think a lot about preaching.
In preaching, there are a lot of factors to consider in how to construct a sermon: genre of the passage, length of the passage, the audience, etc.
But four things that don’t change for me are certain goals I have in every message.
To be faithful to the text
You must begin by going to the text with reverence and not importing opinions onto the text, but prayerfully and carefully trying to understand the text for what it has to say.
The Apostle Paul addresses the temptation for people to be drawn to unfaithful preaching in 2 Timothy 4:2-4: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
To preach the gospel I’m reminded the word of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:2, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Sermons cannot lose sight of the gospel. No matter what else is covered in a sermon, it needs to always go back to Jesus and the grace the he offers to sinners, the life he offers to those dead in sin. No matter how practical a pastor wants to make a sermon, the most practical message of all is that you need Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father except through him (John 14:6).
To explain how the text applies to life When I started preaching, I think this was one of the things that came hardest for me. But it’s also essential to preaching. Without application, a sermon isn’t a sermon, it’s a lecture.
The Apostle James said to be doers of the word and not only hearers, adding: the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:25).
To be clear A sermon is useless if people can’t understand it. I’ve listened to many sermons and found myself thinking “what is he talking about?!” No idea is so brilliant that it can’t be comprehensibly communicated. I think lack of clarity is often a byproduct of a lack of preparation.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe!
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
