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Jeff Kennon Posts

I Can Face A Monday!

Published by Jeff Kennon on April 8, 2015

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This past Sunday I had the opportunity to preach at a nearby church. One of the songs we sang was Bill Gaither’s Because He Lives. While singing it, I began to think about the first line of the chorus. Gaither writes, because He lives, I can face tomorrow. So when is tomorrow? It could be construed as some unforeseen day in the future, but for me, while sitting in church, I began to think about tomorrow being a Monday.

Monday. What is exciting about a Monday? True, Monday could be a day full of thrills but reality tells me that it will just be another day filled with routine. Staff meetings, creating “to do lists,” driving kids to school, sending emails, returning phone calls, working out, eating meals, and relaxing with family before bed. Some fairly ordinary stuff accompanies my Mondays.

So where does the resurrection fit in to all of this? Shouldn’t the resurrection push us to something bigger than watering the grass? Shouldn’t we be saving the world? Because He lives, I can face the mundane? That doesn’t sound very grandiose and yet while singing this Gaither song on Sunday morning, that’s what I was thinking about. Monday was headed my way.

The reality is that most people (actually I think all people) live ordinary lives. And for some this is a problem. There is a reason that TV shows such as American Idol are popular. We want to escape the humdrum days into a life of adventure. We are on a search for significance and think that the treasure of importance can only be found by doing something “big.” But is this true?

“What if ‘bigness,’” writes Michael Kelley in his book Boring, “is not an accurate measure of significance? What if the whole idea of ‘ordinary’ is a myth? And what if a life of great importance isn’t found by escaping the details but embracing them? What if God actually doesn’t want you to escape from the ordinary, but to find significance and meaning inside of it?”

The resurrection speaks a different word to us. The daily mundane activities are no longer just things to check off on our “to do list.” God is alive and working. He is beyond the mundane. Therefore, writes Kelley, “there really is no such thing as ordinary when you are following an extraordinary God.”

Paul, at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, which is an incredible chapter on the truth, validity, and implications of the resurrection, writes: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Because Christ has risen, continue plodding along knowing that what you do is not in vain. Your work and life while following Christ, though it may appear ordinary, will not be without purpose. “The reality of the future,” writes David Garland, “colors the reality of the present.”

So because He lives, I can face a Monday and every day knowing that because I serve a risen Lord, life is beyond ordinary!

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The Church Is Growing!

Published by Jeff Kennon on April 7, 2015

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The International Bulletin for Missionary Research has once again produced its global report on religious statistics. Krish Kandiah has noticed five trends of this year’s report that are quite interesting.

1. The Church is growing slowest in Europe and North America

The Church is still growing in Europe and North America, but the increase is small.

2. The Church is growing dramatically in the rest of the world.

Explosive growth has been seen in Asia, Africa, and South America. The growth of the African Church is particularly significant. In 1990 there were fewer than 9 million Christians in Africa. Now there are more than 541 million.

3. Christianity is easily the world’s largest religion.

There are more than 2.4 billion Christians worldwide which is just over a third of the world’s total population.

4. Christianity is ridiculously divided.

There are more than 45,000 different Christian denominations in the world today. In 1900 there were 1600 denominations.

5. How many atheists?

There are 136.4 million atheists in the world, which is about 1.8 percent of the population. Though info on atheists is hard to determine, atheists are the only grouping to see a downturn, though very small.

I encourage you to read the entire article. 

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The Crown Of Thorns

Published by Jeff Kennon on April 3, 2015

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Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.      –John 19:1-2

Frederick Leahy writes:

There he stood, his face bruised, swollen and bleeding, and that thorny crown upon his head. He was so alone, ‘friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all’. That crown symbolized what sinful man thinks of Christ. He was not to be taken seriously. He was only fit for a stage-play! They made him a carnival king and placed on him the stamp of derision. With this mock robe, reed sceptre and crown of thorns, he was made to look like a theatrical figure. Luther says that Christ was ‘numbered with the transgressors, crucified as a rebel, killed by His own people in supreme disgrace, and as the most abandoned of men’. Ah yes! ‘supreme disgrace’, the shameful crown of thorns woven by the hands of men and placed on the Saviour’s brow – man’s estimate of Christ. 

Certainly behind that crown of thorns worn for us we see invincible patience and invincible love–a love that we can never understand, but which, by God’s grace, we may experience. Only unspeakable love, unquenchable love, divine love could wear that crown of thorns; and that is the wonder of it. 

But now the brow that once wore the cruel crown of thorns is now adorned with the diadem of the universe, for all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. ‘We see Jesus…crowned’ (Heb. 2:9). ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ (John 1:29).

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Around The Web

Published by Jeff Kennon on April 2, 2015

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The Power Of Consistency – When we lead people in the way of discipleship, one of the issues we must deal with is the boring nature of it all. I mean, there’s only so many ways you can “spice up” the habits that characterize consistent growth in Christ.

How To Wake Up – In a sermon on How to Begin Every Day with God, based on the text, “My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to you, and I will look up” (Psalm 5:3), Matthew Henry gives eight reasons why we should wake up with prayer.

5 Resurrection Realities That Reorient Our Evangelism – Evangelism rises or falls based upon the reality of the resurrection. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, there is no good news to share: sin and death still reign, we worship a dead and decomposing deity, and Christians should be pitied because we are deceived and pathetic. On the other hand, if the resurrection is true, every Christian should be compelled to share this good news liberally and with great joy.

Increasing Humility – A clear indication of maturing in Christ is increasing humility. The closer we draw to Him the more we see our need for Him, because the closer we draw to Him the more we grasp His holiness and our sinfulness.

Some Unlikely Heroes – This is not the first time the garbage men have spread cheer through the Kroner home. It’s been ongoing. Every week, the garbage men show up. Quincy runs to the window, pulls up a chair, and looks through the window. They dump the garbage can, set it down, turn around and wave at Quincy. Sometimes they’ll honk, too.

A Clean House And A Wasted Life – If you do the things God tells you to do, messes will inevitably follow. But take heart: According to the wisest man who ever lived, these messes are not proof of a wasted life, but of a productive one.

Could This Be The Greatest Shot In March Madness History?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3_IT622Sbc

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A Hymn We Need To Recover

Published by Jeff Kennon on April 1, 2015

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Written by Henry F. Lyte in 1824, Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken is a hymn that we would do well to recover.

Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.

Let the world despise and leave me,
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like them, untrue.
O while Thou dost smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me,
Show Thy face and all is bright.

Man may trouble and distress me,
’Twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me;
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father,
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;
All must work for good to me.

Soul, then know thy full salvation
Rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine.

Haste thee on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer.
Heaven’s eternal days before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide us there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission,
Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

(Check out Indelible Grace for an updated musical version of this hymn.)

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Around The Web

Published by Jeff Kennon on March 26, 2015

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The Redemption Of Boredom – But whether you love chemistry or not, we’ve all been there. For you, maybe it was Shakespeare, or sitting on hold waiting for the cable company to answer your call, or one of those pointless, endless meetings at work that a two paragraph e-mail could have covered. Have you ever noticed how many boring moments there are in life?

Young People’s Greatest Problem Is… – At least, according to Matthew Henry. In his little book, Sober-Mindedness Pressed Upon Young People, Henry says, “I have seen more young people ruined by pride than perhaps by any one lust whatsoever.”

Can Your Congregation Answer The Questions Of A Post-Christian Society? – Christians are often stymied because they simply don’t know how to apply biblical truth to all of life. As a result, they are continually in retreat before competing ideas. The dominant theories in virtually all fields are secular, and sometimes explicitly anti-Christianity. In order to obey the cultural mandate, we need a strategy that empowers us to show where those theories are mistaken, and then to craft positive biblical alternatives.

4 Reasons To Write Down Prayer Requests – As I thought about this a bit more I’ve decided to always write down prayer requests. If you are one of those tech savvy dudes you can use something like OneNote to keep a record of these. I’m not one of the cool kids so I still use pen and paper and stick little notes in my Bible.

C.S. Lewis Said It: God’s “Goodness” Cannot Be Wholly Other – For years now I have been insisting that the main reason I am not a Calvinist (or any kind of divine determinist) is that, taken to its “good and necessary consequences,” Calvinism makes God morally monstrous.

Why Did Christianity Grow? – A few years ago I made my way through one of his best known books, The Rise of Christianity. Stark, in debunking a number of historical myths, tries to explain from a sociological perspective “how the obscure, marginal Jesus movement became the dominant religious force in the western world in a few centuries.”

Tim Hawkins – 8% Body Fat

 

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Created To Live For Something More

Published by Jeff Kennon on March 25, 2015

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We were created and designed to live for more than ourselves.

“There is woven inside each of us,” writes Paul Tripp, “a desire for something more—a craving to be a part of something bigger, greater, and more profound than our relatively meaningless day-by-day existence.” The difficulty however, is that this search for something more is hindered by our craving for personal glory. “In a fallen world” writes Tripp, “there is powerful pressure to constrict your life to the shape and size of your life.”

In Genesis 3, we are told of the story of Adam and Eve’s move from their allegiance to God to their trusting in their own decision making. As a result, they made the choice to eat from the one tree in the Garden in which they were forbidden. Hoping for new knowledge, they discovered the emptiness that results in abandoning the Creator. And now, in lineage with Adam and Eve, we all are on the quest for something more.

What we must daily realize is that this “something more” we are looking for will never be found from within ourselves.  We must not “shrink the size of [our] glory focus to the narrow glories of [our] own little selves,” writes Tripp. What we are looking for, and what “every human being quests for, whether he knows it or not, is not a thing; it is a person, and his name is God.”

The bottom line, writes Tripp, is that “it is only in communion with God and in submitting all other forms of glory to his glory that [we] will ever find the ‘above and more’ that [our] hearts seek. We were made to experience, to be part of, to be consumed by, and to live in pursuit of the one glory that is truly glorious–the glory of God.”

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31) and become completely satisfied and filled with the “something more” in which you long.

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Trusting In God Who Raises The Dead

Published by Jeff Kennon on March 24, 2015

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The fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead changes everything. It changes what we hope for and where we place our trust!

Paul writes:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

How vital it is to remember that just as Christ is made alive, so we will be made alive. And if God has the power over death, should we not trust him in all things? Since we serve a God who raises the dead, what have we to fear?

N.T. Wright writes:

If, then, we recognize the truth about the surpassing God, the God who raises the dead, we can trust him with every task that may come our way. He can be trusted with exams; he can be trusted with jobs, even when they don’t necessarily work out the way we thought they should. He can be trusted with marriage, both as we look forward to it with eagerness and trepidation and when we find ourselves within it and facing the stresses and strains that all contemporary marriages must expect. He can be trusted with money, even when it seems as though there is even less of it available than we had thought. He can be trusted with old age. He can be trusted with death itself. Of course he can; he is the God who raised the dead, who affirms the goodness of human life, who takes precisely the situation where there seems to be no hope in human terms, and brings new life exactly there. 

As we draw near to Easter, let it push us to follow Christ more fully knowing that he holds the power of life and death. Let us be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord [our] labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

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