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Jeff Kennon Posts

To Be The Means Of Saving A Soul!

Published by Jeff Kennon on October 8, 2014

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Charles Spurgeon wrote:

I would rather be the means of saving a soul from death than be the greatest orator on earth. I would rather bring the poorest woman in the world to the feet of Jesus than I would be made Archbishop of Canterbury. I would sooner pluck one single brand from the burning than explain all mysteries. To win a soul from going down into the pit, is a more glorious achievement than to be crowned in the arena of theological controversy…to have faithfully unveiled the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ will be, in the final judgment, accounted worthier service than to have solved the problems of the religious Sphinx, or to have cut the Gordian knot of Apocalyptic difficulty.

One of my happiest thoughts is that, when I die, it shall be my privilege to enter into rest in the bosom of Christ, and I know that I shall not enjoy my Heaven alone. Thousands have already entered there, who have been drawn to Christ under my ministry. Oh! what bliss it will be to fly to Heaven, and to have a multitude of converts before and behind.

(The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon by Steven J. Lawson)

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Beating The Gospel Into Our Heads

Published by Jeff Kennon on October 7, 2014

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“Most necessary it is,” wrote Martin Luther, “that we should know this article [the gospel] well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.”

Why would Luther say such a thing? Are we that hardened and forgetful? Milton Vincent, in his book A Gospel Primer, lists 31 reasons why we need to “preach the Gospel” to ourselves daily. For reason number 2, “My Daily Battle,” he writes:

The gospel is so foolish (according to my natural wisdom), so scandalous (according to my conscience), and so incredible (according to my timid heart), that it is a daily battle to believe the full scope of it as I should. There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel.

So why do we need to continually hear the gospel and have it “beat into our brains?” Because of the daily spiritual battle in which we are engaged. The soft whisperings of the enemy, the world, and at times our own conscience, speak loudly to our souls that we are just not good enough nor obedient enough to warrant God’s favor. As a result, we begin to waver and doubt.

Therefore, we need to fight back. The apostle Paul wrote for us to take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication (Ephesians 6:13-18).

As you read Paul’s words, I’m sure you noticed the bolded words “truth”, “righteousness,” “gospel,” “faith,” “salvation,” and “word of God” These words are basically synonyms for the gospel. So what Paul wants for his readers is for them to arm themselves with the gospel message. It is the good news of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that protects, guards, and allows us to stand firm.

According to Scripture, those who are “in Christ” are “delivered from the domain of darkness and [are] transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13). There is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” for we have “been set free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:1-2).

Because of the wonderful truths of the gospel, may we pick up and read, meditate, and memorize God’s word today and discipline ourselves to do so daily. I like what Jimmy Davis writes in regards to the spiritual disciplines (Bible reading, prayer, etc….): I don’t read my Bible to get the Father to love me. I read it to hear him say he loves me in the gospel of his Son, Jesus Christ. 

Let’s beat the gospel into our heads!

 

 

 

 

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Around The Web

Published by Jeff Kennon on October 2, 2014

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Small Groups and the Transformed Life – We don’t take community and relationship-based discipleship seriously enough.

Why We Neglect Our Bibles – Many Christians find it difficult to get into a daily habit of Bible reading.

How The News Makes Us Dumb – If you are going to read just one out of print book with a terrible cover this year read C. John Sommerville’s devastating little book How the News Makes Us Dumb (IVP 1999).

3 Ways To Love Negative Nancy – Negativity comes in many different packages and people; emails and phone calls, early coffee meetings and late night barn-burners — how will you deal with it? I’ve had a man stand in my office, look me in the eyes and say, “I don’t like that you are the pastor of this church.” Thanks for sharing!

Social Media and the Sensation of Missing Out – Social media is both a blessing and curse as we all know and have experienced. One curse is that it facilitates the sensation of missing out.

What Kind of Procrastinator Are You? – Procrastinators waste too much time, but to get over this bad tendency, you need to know why you procrastinate.

What Is The Gospel? – Good words from Tim Keller!

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Reading The Bible For Transformation

Published by Jeff Kennon on October 1, 2014

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“The purpose of knowing Scripture is not to help us get a 100 score on the heavenly entrance exam,” writes John Ortberg in his helpful book The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. “It is,” he suggests, “to help us become equipped for good works.”

Bottom line: We should not just read the Bible for information (though this is obviously necessary), but transformation. And according  to Ortberg, a great way to do this is by reading Scripture meditatively.

Ortberg suggests 5 ways by which to read the Bible in meditation that helps lead to transformation. I find these quite helpful.

1. Ask God to Meet You in Scripture

Before you begin reading, take a moment to ask God to speak to you. Then as you read, anticipate that he will do so.

2. Read the Bible in a Repentant Spirit

Read the Bible with a readiness to surrender everything. Read it with a vulnerable heart. Read it wisely, but understand that reading for transformation is different from reading to find information or to prove a point. Resolve that you will be obedient to the Scriptures.

3. Meditate on a Fairly Brief Passage or Narrative

It is important to be familiar with all of the Bible. In times of study we will need to read broadly and cover a great deal of material. But in reading for transformation we have to go slowly.

Some churches give people the idea that the only way to transformation is knowledge. There is an assumption that as people’s knowledge of the Bible rises, their level of maturity rises with it.

The goal is not to get through the Scriptures. The goal is to get the Scriptures through us.

4. Take One Thought or Verse with You Through the Day

Mediation is as slow as the process by which the roots draw moisture from the flowing river to bring nurture and fruitfulness. Find time therefore, throughout the day to think on a specific verse. This can be while waiting at a stoplight, eating lunch, sitting in a waiting room, etc….

5. Allow This Though to Become Part of Your Memory

Memorizing Scripture is one of the most powerful means of transforming our minds. What matters however, is not how many words we memorize, but what happens to our minds as we immerse them in Scripture.

(I encourage you to purchase and read all of John Ortberg’s book The Life You’ve Always Wanted as I have found it very helpful.)

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What Is True Spirituality?

Published by Jeff Kennon on September 30, 2014

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What is true spirituality? Is it some other-worldy type living that is disconnected from real life? In other words, does being spiritual result in us becoming more angelic? Or is true spirituality merely learning what it means to be truly human?

Consider the following words from Rodney Clapp and Richard Lovelace…

Christian spirituality is for people, not angels. Christian spirituality is the whole person’s participation and formation in the church–Christ’s body, the Spirit’s public–which exists to entice and call the world back to its Creator, its true purpose, and its only real hope.

Christian spirituality is for people: bodily, social, embedded in time.

-Rodney Clapp in Tortured Wonders

True spirituality is not superhuman religiosity; it is simply true humanity released from bondage to sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit. This is given to us as we grasp by faith the full content of Christ’s redemptive work: freedom from the guilt and power of sin, and newness of life through the indwelling and outpouring of his Spirit

-Richard Lovelace in Dynamics of Spiritual Life

According to Clapp and Lovelace, spirituality is not becoming so heavenly minded that you become no earthly good. Nor is it becoming so attuned to the world we live in that we forget we are citizens of another kingdom (see Phil. 3:20).

True spirituality is learning to be truly human. It is about being redeemed by God to once again, depend upon Him for life, goodness and happiness. And it is doing so in the midst of a world that is broken needing to hear and see what it really means to be human.

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Around The Web

Published by Jeff Kennon on September 25, 2014

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Friendless Millennials In A Digital Age – Whenever someone asks me what the hardest part the transition from college life to real life has been, one answer comes to mind: making friends.

Are We Using The Word “Brokenness” Biblically? – We often hear Christians today talking about “brokenness.” Is it being used correctly? 

How An App Revitalized My Prayer Life – I say it without hyperbole: PrayerMate revitalized my prayer life. It has been at least a couple of years since I made the move from organizing my prayers in a book to organizing my prayers in an app, and, at least for now, I don’t ever see myself going back.

A Pastor’s Reflection On Shyness – I can remember very distinctly how as a teenager I was mortified to meet new people. I was, and still am to a certain extent, a shy person. Give me a choice – stand before one thousand people to speak for an hour or lock me in a room with two people I’ve never met before, and I’ll choose the former.

Re-Creating Campus Ministry – “Our campus access challenges give this generation of students an opportunity to reinvent campus ministry,” said Greg Jao, InterVarsity’s National Field Director. “Even as we use new tools and techniques, we remind students that effective ministry is ultimately relational. It’s about students inviting other students to follow Jesus.”

The Transforming Power of Small Groups – When we preach the gospel to one another in close-knit community, there is spiritual growth that changes us individually and as a whole. We can also begin to position ourselves with an outward focus and encourage gospel transformation in the communities outside the church walls.

Tim Hawkins – Random Jokes

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Another Consequence of Self-Righteousness

Published by Jeff Kennon on September 24, 2014

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What’s another consequence of self-righteousness? We become judgmental. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Life Together, writes: “Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.” In other words, when we become self-righteous, that is, trust in our own goodness, we wonder why those who are not as good as us act the way they do.

Self-righteousness produces an attitude of pride instead of humility. It results in a life of condemning others as those who are self-righteous are quick to look at the sin of others before their own. The self-righteous tend to look down on others who have not attained their level of spiritual maturity.

Self-righteousness results in what Tim Keller calls “elder-son syndrome.” In the story of the lost sons in Luke 15, the older son’s heart towards his younger brother is hardened. And when his father forgives his younger brother for leaving home and wasting his portion of the family money, this older son becomes even more angry.

Why such anger? Because his self-righteousness has clouded his vision. His self-righteousness led him to feeling superior to his younger brother, and when one feels superior, it’s hard to forgive.

Do you see the dangers of self-righteousness?  Thinking that we are ok, we become blind to our need for God’s grace and thus, we become ungrateful to God and judgmental towards others. Jesus’ commands to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:37-38) are broken. And what’s even more detrimental, the self-righteous who break such commands are not even aware of their disobedience.

So what is to be done? Is there a cure for self-righteousness? Of course there is. The writer of Hebrews writes that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). God’s word convicts and kills in order to bring healing and life. It exposes self-righteousness in order to give true righteousness from God (2 Cor. 5:21).

But we must be careful, however, not to become self-righteous against self-righteousness. Tim Keller profoundly writes:

It’s simple: we can become self-righteous against those who are self-righteous. Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents’ conservative, buttoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of “older brother religion” with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of “younger brother irreligion” which screams, ”That’s right, I know I don’t have it all together and you think you do; I know I’m not good and you think you are good. That makes me better than you.” See the irony? In other words, they’re proud that they’re not self-righteous!

As I think about self-righteousness and how none of us are exempt from it, I am reminded of Paul’s struggle with sin as he writes,  For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. This led Paul to see himself as “wretched” and to ask, Who will deliver me from this body of death?  His answer? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:15, 24-25).

Oh how we need saving from self-righteousness! And praise God that we have one!

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The Danger Of Self-Righteousness

Published by Jeff Kennon on September 23, 2014

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What happens when we begin to view ourselves progressing so well in love and good deeds that we slowly lose sight of the need we have of God’s grace? What is the result of a life that begins to be lived not in view of the gospel, but in view of his/her own obedience to God?

Don’t think that I am writing that we should not grow in faith and obedience to Christ. We must and we should. But we must understand that pride awaits us at each point of our spiritual progress. And pride, once it goes unchecked, is prone to give birth to self-righteousness. And self-righteousness, once it takes root in the soul, moves one from the worship of God to the using of God. Just consider the Pharisees for a prime example.

The reason that self-righteousness diminishes worship toward God is because when we become self-righteous, we think we are ok. We don’t see our continually need for Christ. We begin to think that God owes us his favor because we are so good. As a result, singing “Amazing Grace” is not as sweet because we do not see ourselves as wretched, blind, or lost.

It may not be that the grace of God is completely forgotten for the self-righteous, it’s just that they don’t see the need for it as much. “After all”, a self-righteous person may think, “I’m doing pretty well…I haven’t missed a day of praying and reading my Bible in months, I serve my church, and I make sure I tithe each Sunday.”

We must realize the danger of self-righteousness. John Ortberg writes that in Jesus’ day, “the ‘righteous’ were more damaged by their righteousness than the sinners were by their sin.” Why? Because they couldn’t see that they were sick in need of a doctor (Mark 2:17).

Why did the outcasts, sinners, and destitute flock to Jesus? Why did the woman in Luke 7 wash Jesus feet with her tears?  It’s because they all knew that without Jesus, they had no hope. It was Jesus in whom their salvation was to be found and therefore, it was Jesus in whom they would worship.

“When our worship has grown cold,” write Matt Papa,  “it doesn’t mean we need to change the music up, or that we need new styles — it means we are standing in our own righteousness.”

Therefore, we do well to meditate on Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus and understand that without grace, we are dead. We can’t do anything but trust in what Christ has done for us. Our salvation is a gift of mercy, not a result of our works. Therefore, the only thing we have to boast about is God himself.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:1-9).

 

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