Josh Benner

Category: Theology

  • 4 goals in every sermon I preach

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    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.

    1. 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.

    2. 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).

    3. 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).

    4. 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.

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  • State of the Church: Jesus is not a created being

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    This week, Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research released their “State of Theology” survey. In the study, 3,000 American Christians were surveyed on various theological and moral positions.

    Many of the results were troubling. However the one that I found to be perhaps the most signifiant point of disagreement was with the question “Jesus is the greatest and first being created by God.” 78% of survey respondents agreed.

    I’d like to think some of them might have gotten confused by the wording of the question (and perhaps some did). (more…)

  • Proverbs: we can never be right when we disagree with God

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    No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel
        can avail against the Lord.
    -Proverbs 21:30 

    God created all things and he knows all things. All truth is God’s truth. God is a God of truth. In the gospels, Jesus is THE truth (John 14:6). God’s word is truth (John 17:17). The Psalmist said, “The sum of your word is truth,and every one of your righteous rules endures forever” (Psalm 119:60). 

    We can never be right when we disagree with God, when we go against God, when we decide we don’t like a teaching that the Bible makes. There is no “agree to disagree” with an all-knowing, holy, righteous God. God is not our peer, he’s not our college. Our views of morality, salvation, the world, and reality are not equally valid to God’s truth.

    There will be teachings or situations in the Bible where our initial reaction is to not like them or to disapprove. Because we’re sinful, because it might be exposing an area of sin in our own heart. Or we might disagree with God’s righteous application of justice. But because we’re sinful people, it makes sense that we’d have times where we disapprove or disagree. Tim Keller says, “If your God never disagrees with you, you might just be worshipping an idealized version of yourself.”

    We must approach the Word of God with humility. Maybe we have something in our life that we’re doing and the Bible commands otherwise. Conversely, maybe we have something that we’re not doing and the Bible teaches that we should. In either case, follow God’s way. No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.

    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.

    Let’s connect!
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Instagram

  • Survey reveals pervasive heretical beliefs among American Christians

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    Working with Lifeway Research, Ligonier Ministries recently released the third installment of their “State of Theology” survey.

    Part of the goal is to find out what American Chrstians “believe about God, salvation, ethics, and the Bible.” Lifeway polled 3,000 Americans in the survey.

    The results were troubling.

    Many people in the poll have unbiblical views on moral issues. For instance, 46% of people ages 18-34 believe that gender is a matter of personal choice. 38% disagreed that abortion is a sin.

    But what is even more concerning than views on moral issues is views which are heretical. For the question, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.” 78% agreed with that statement.

    The problem?

    Jesus isn’t a created being! The heresy that Jesus is a lesser being than God the Father is a heresy that is essentially as old as Christianity.

    Other key doctrines where people disagreed with Biblical teachings included undermining that humans have a sinful nature. 53% of respondents agreed with the statement “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”

    51% of respondents believed that a person can be saved who follows a religion besides Christianity. 58% believed that “worshipping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church.”

    Churches must be committed to teaching sound biblical doctrine. We too often shy away from sound doctrine because we’re afraid it’ll be too advanced for people in a culture that is often not well versed in the Bible.

    But there are catechisms for little kids. Surely adults can learn basic Biblical teachings, such as that Jesus is not a created being.

    But I’ll also say that it’s not all on churches either. A person can be taught correct doctrine but choose to believe that which is unbiblical. I especially think of this in terms of beliefs that water down the penalty of sin or that try to find backdoors for people to get into heaven without having faith in the gospel.

    We must take the word of God seriously.

    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.

    Let’s connect!
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Instagram

  • Faith that works

    Originally published January 4, 2017

    The Bible is clear that we are justified by faith. Jesus died on the cross. Jesus’ life was enough, his death was enough, the blood that he spilled was enough, his body that was broken was enough, the life he was resurrected to was enough. We could not earn God, we could not be Godly, and from his mercy and goodness, Jesus came for us, to live for us, to die for us, to save us from our sins. And all you have to do is to trust in that, to have faith in that.

    And when you do, God gives you his Spirit. Like the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (more…)