Todd Linn's Blog, page 14

How Preachers Can Help Their Congregations Worship

I’ve written a few posts over at chucklawless.com in recent weeks; grateful to Chuck for his inviting me to provide a few “Thursdays With Todd Linn” on his terrific site. This post is similar in content.

Preachers may be tempted to focus solely upon sermon preparation and leave musical ministry entirely to others. But preachers are arguably in the best position to enhance congregational worship. Here are five ways preachers can help their congregations worship well:

1) Take Responsibility For Worship

Your church may have a minister of music or a similarly titled position, but if you are the lead pastor, then you are the primary worship leader. You are called to oversee the entire congregation and you bear ultimate responsibility for all that takes place during worship. Be sure to communicate clearly any expectations you have for ministers serving under your leadership and meet weekly with them to prepare for upcoming services as well as to review previous services.

2) Set A Good Worship Example

For different reasons, many people watch the preacher during the worship service. It may be they simply enjoy seeing their pastor worship. Or, they may be evaluating his level of interest and engagement. In any case, preachers model good worship behavior by giving their attention to whoever is speaking and joyfully singing with their fellow worshipers.

3) Don’t Review Your Notes During Worship

While this action could be placed under the previous heading, I believe it requires its own category. It’s one thing to glance quickly over a sermon introduction just before entering the pulpit, but it’s another thing to have our heads down during the entire worship service because we’re reading our manuscript. Good sermon preparation includes time spent reviewing the message before the service begins. Furthermore, a preacher’s disengagement from the service disheartens worship teams and choirs who may conclude the preacher doesn’t care about their musical gifts or leadership.

4) Frequently Teach About Worship

Preachers help their congregations worship better by being good teachers of worship. While a sermon series is helpful, frequently explaining unfamiliar terms or phrases used in worship is important. For example, not everyone knows “hallelujah” means, “praise the Lord” or the hymn lyric “Here I raise my Ebenezer” refers to a stone erected to commemorate God’s help (1 Samuel 7:12). People can’t worship properly if they don’t know what they’re singing about. Being a good worship teacher deepens their experience and makes it more meaningful.

5) Occasionally Work Worship Lyrics Into Sermons

The Bible itself illustrates how truth is taught in music, evidenced in 150 psalms and song lyrics memorializing significant events. Many traditional hymns, contemporary songs, and popular praise choruses provide great illustrative material to teach sermon truths. When preachers occasionally recite worship lyrics in their sermons, they not only teach the biblical text, but make worshipers aware of good worship songs that reinforce biblical teachings.

Preachers and worship leaders: what would you add to this discussion?

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Strengthened Through Suffering

Continuing our verse-by-verse studies through 1 Peter, we come to 1 Peter 4:17-18 and once again learn something helpful about Christian persecution: God strengthens believers as they suffer for their faith.

While these two verses may not at first appear to show how God strengthens Christians in suffering, a closer examination of the text suggests otherwise:

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)

Peter says God’s judgment begins “at the house of God.” That is, judgment begins with God’s people; with Christians. 

But what exactly is this judgment? 

Peter certainly cannot mean the “final judgment” or “judgment about whether our sins are forgiven.” Peter mentioned in the opening of his letter that the Christian has been saved “according to God’s abundant mercy” and that Christians are “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation,” a salvation ultimately “revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5).”

Peter doesn’t mean, then, the final judgment because our salvation is secure in the God who keeps us saved according to His abundant mercy.

Rather, Peter seems to have in view the periodic judgment of God with respect to our sanctification; our growth in Christ.

While God disciplines His children in the same way a loving father disciplines his own (Hebrews 12:7), Peter’s thinking here seems more along the lines of God’s purifying His children through periods of suffering.

That is, the judgment Peter describes here is not so much punitive as it is restorative. It is a purifying process Christians undergo which strengthens their faith and deepens their resolve.

We’ve seen this teaching before in the opening chapter:

In this (salvation) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:6-7

Like a skilled craftsman strengthening and purifying precious metals in a refining fire, God often allows fires of suffering and persecution in order to purify and refine our faith. We are strengthened through the process and emboldened in our witness.

In fact, when Peter refers to Christians as the “house of God,” he may well have in mind Old Testament images of the temple and God’s purifying and cleansing of His people as in Malachi 3:1-3.

Because God’s motives for our purification are good and right, we can endure Christian persecution knowing the Lord is cleansing us and strengthening us in the process.

We may even welcome periods of suffering as the antidote to our spiritual indolence or indifference. This desire seems to be at the heart of a prayer request of Robert Murray McCheyne:

“If nothing else will do to sever me from my sins, Lord, send me such sore and trying calamities as shall awake me from earthly slumbers. It must always be best to be alive to Thee, whatever be the quickening instrument.”

The Biography of Robert Murray M’Cheyne

That’s a bold prayer, isn’t it? 

In essence, McCheyne is saying, “I recognize my tendency to be lulled away by worldly interests. So do whatever it takes to draw me back to You.”

And that’s precisely what God does through His periodic judgment of Christians.  Again, His judgment is not punitive, but restorative. It is God’s way of strengthening us, purifying us, and deepening our faith–even as we undergo persecution and suffering.

Now if God’s children need continual purifying, what will be the end of those who have never experienced any cleansing, at all?

That’s the question Peter asks in the following verse, a quote from Proverbs 11:31:

“Now ‘If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?’” (1 Peter 4:18)

Put another way:

“If God’s children–those declared eternally righteous by their faith in Christ–if these Christians still need ongoing, regular purifying in this world, what then will be the end of those who have never experienced any cleansing, at all?  What will be the end of non-Christians?”

Peter’s question is rhetorical, of course. He knows full well what will happen to those who do not obey the gospel of God. He’s trying to encourage the Christians by reminding them that their suffering is normal.

It’s like he’s saying, “Thank God you’re not still lost! Your suffering may seem rough, at times, but it is nothing compared to the eternal suffering of the unbeliever.”

God’s periodic judgment upon the Christian is purifying, but His judgment to come upon the unbeliever will be punitive. 

God will judge all who “do not obey the gospel of God.”

There’s a similar teaching in Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians where he describes what Christ will do when He returns:

“in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9

Here is the ultimate end of all who refuse to follow Jesus Christ: “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

The righteous one, however, is “scarcely saved,” a phrase meaning “saved with great difficulty.” It has to do with the fact that being a Christian is not easy; suffering is involved. There is frequent pain God allows to strengthen believers.

But in the end we are stronger, purer, and more faithful…

…therefore, we can welcome times of suffering!

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Cheating On God

If you are married, imagine your spouse taking a few hours of each day to go over to another person’s home, a person of the opposite sex, and spending a few hours alone in intimacy with that person.  He or she comes back to you each day and says, “Oh, we’re just friends.”  You protest, “Yes, but you are with that person and you expect me to just be okay with it?!”  Nearly every one of us understands just how wrong that would be.  This sort of “friendship” with others is nothing less than infidelity and unfaithfulness.

God regards our friendship with the world as infidelity to Him.  When we are worldly, we are adulterers and adulteresses.  You might say we are “prostituting” ourselves.  We are sleeping around.  We are unfaithful to the One True God.

James teaches that worldliness is, in essence, spiritual adultery.  Like a trial attorney concluding his case, James thunders:

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:4

Equating worldliness with adultery is a concept rooted in the Old Testament.  God is regarded as the Husband of Israel and Israel as God’s bride.  To be unfaithful to God is to commit spiritual adultery. 

This is the same truth Jesus taught in Matthew’s Gospel: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other…(Matthew 6:24).”  You can’t be faithful to both God and the world.  Put another way: you can’t have two spouses.  

This truth is developed in the next verse: “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The spirit 1 who dwells in us yearns jealously”? (James 4:5)

The idea here is that God places within us an inner spirit that is properly satisfied only when we are reconciled to God and only when we find complete satisfaction in God Himself.  The NLT has: “God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to Him.”

James appears to be summarizing the teachings of the Bible on this matter when he refers to “the Scripture.”  It’s as though he were asking, “Do you believe the teaching of the Bible to be wrong here—the idea that God has created us for relationship with Him and that we should be faithful?”

When we compromise our convictions and we allow ourselves to be pulled away from God by the tug of the world, then we are committing spiritual adultery.  We are allowing the spirit within us to find satisfaction in other “spouses,” things other than God Himself. 

Verse 6 points us to the cure for worldliness, a cure, or correction to be developed more fully in the verses to follow.  James says, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” (James 4:6)

God is always ready to give grace to those who come to Him in humility.  When we come before God with a desire to be faithful to Him and to grow and to find satisfaction in Him, He gives us the ability to live in a way that both pleases Him and blesses us.

When we ask God to disentangle us from the ways of the world, He gives us the grace to be disentangled.  We have to ask ourselves, however, whether we really want to be disentangled from the ways of the world.

Do you really desire Him more than anyone or anything?  Or do you want it both ways: a little of God and a little of the world?  Do you really want a vibrant and committed relationship with God or do you want to “sleep around a bit?”  You’re glad to drink from the living water, but you’d also like to drink occasionally from the broken cisterns of muddy water.  Know the ease of becoming God’s enemy and beware.  

Don’t settle for cheap substitutes of the One True and living God.

**Excerpt from You’re Either Walking The Walk Or Just Running Your Mouth (Preaching Truth: 2020), pages 131-133, available in all formats here.

The Preacher’s Interactions After The Worship Service

I’ve written a few posts over at chucklawless.com in recent weeks; grateful to Chuck for his inviting me to provide a few “Thursdays With Todd Linn” on his terrific site. This post is similar in content.

Preaching is an activity involving the whole mind, body, and soul. Consequently, preaching is often both exhilarating and exhausting. But after the sermon is over, the preacher’s ministry continues. He interacts with others immediately after the service–and his behavior during these moments will either help or harm his ministry. Here are a few actions to consider when those moments arrive:

Be Available To Worshipers

Caring preachers make themselves available to others. Greeting people after worship honors them and strengthens the bond between pastor and congregation. While church tradition or building size may dictate where pastors stand, a spacious lobby or location outside (weather permitting!) provide areas better suited for meaningful interaction than crowded “greeting lines” that bottleneck at the exit.

Give Your Undivided Attention

When people take time to speak to us, we value them by listening carefully and maintaining eye contact. We must resist the temptation to look around or otherwise give the impression we are too busy. To be sure, this practice can prove challenging, at times. While talking with one person, we may feel another tapping on our shoulder. Or peripherally we see someone else waving at us. In any case, we should always endeavor to give our attention to those standing before us.

Be Careful Making Commitments

It’s surprisingly easy to forget commitments made after a worship service. Because we don’t usually have our calendars with us, or the ability to make a quick note, we may forget something we promised to do for someone. Rather than making commitments in those busy moments, consider saying something like, “I can’t write this down at the moment, will you please message me about this later?”

Receive Encouragement Wisely

Some members have a gift for encouraging us with kind comments about the worship service or other matters. Because pastors understandably want to give glory to God, they quickly direct those compliments upwards, often failing to receive (or remember) a blessing intended by the other. Instead, consider taking a moment to respond meaningfully, “Thank you. I really appreciate your encouragement!”

Receive Criticism Graciously

Unfortunately, not every word is encouraging! There are times others offer criticism. Perhaps they felt the service was too long, or the music was too loud. Maybe there was something about the sermon they didn’t like. It’s usually best at these times to take a deep breath and extend grace. Rather than becoming defensive, consider a simple and disarming response: “Thank you for that. I’ll give that some thought.”

Debrief Somewhere In Quiet

Once we have the opportunity, it is helpful to find a quiet place where we can review all the interactions we’ve had. It only takes a few moments to recall most conversations, visitors’ names, or special prayer requests. This is also a better time to consider prayerfully those words of encouragement and criticism. End the time in prayer, thanking God for the honor of preaching and for the privilege of shepherding His people.

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Witnessing Through Suffering

In our previous verse-by-verse studies of 1 Peter, we have noted that suffering for our faith means greater intimacy with Christ and God’s Spirit rests upon us. We come now to a third blessing upon Christians who suffer for their faith:

We Have Occasion To Witness

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. (1 Peter 4:15-16)

Suffering as a Christian is an occasion to witness to a watching world.  Suffering for Christ gives us the opportunity to glorify God, to point people to Him.  The last phrase in verse 16–“glorify God in this matter”–is probably better translated “glorify God in that name;” that is, the name of Christ. 

So the point is: suffering for our faith is a means by which we point people to Christ.  We show others we do not live for the passing pleasures of this world, but for God and His Son, Jesus Christ.  We glorify God; pointing people to Him through our suffering.  It’s an occasion to witness.

Each one of us is a witness, either a good witness or a bad witness.  Verse 15 talks about being a bad witness.  Peter says, “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters.”

We can almost see the Christians to whom Peter was writing doing the same thing many of us did just now as we read verse 15: “Murderer?  I’ve never murdered! Thief? Of course not! Evildoer? Never!”

How about “busybody?”

The word means “to meddle;” to stick one’s nose in the business of others; to gossip or spread rumors. 

Guilty? 

Being a busybody is a bad witness; extremely harmful to our Christian testimony. If we’ve been a busybody in any way, we will suffer for it when we’re found out.

So Peter says in verse 16, “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed.”  Peter again speaks from experience.  He himself had once been ashamed of following Christ (See Mark 14:68).

Yes, the rooster’s crow in the Gospels was a stark reminder to Peter of his having forsaken his Master.  (I’ve wondered whether Peter–in the future–still shuddered every time he heard the crow of a rooster?)

Peter learned from his experience.  Never again would he be ashamed of following Christ. 

Jesus says, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).

Don’t be ashamed of Christ.  And don’t be ashamed to suffer for His name. 

You’ll have the opportunity this week to take a stand for Christ.  At your workplace, or at school, or in your family, or as you talk about the news and world events, you’ll have an opportunity to bear witness to that name, the name of Christ. 

When you bear witness to His name, you may face suffering.  Yet Peter says in verse 16, “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God.”

Your suffering for Christ is an occasion to witness, an opportunity to point people to the Lord.  So suffer knowing you are doing a great work! You are directing others to the One True and Living God!!

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Sin Lurking Within

The New York Times published an article about the recent discovery of a bomb in Germany that led to the evacuation of 20,000 people in Berlin.  The people were evacuated so that the bomb could be disarmed.  The bomb was discovered along the Rhine River during excavations for a pipeline.  It was a bomb that had been dropped seven decades earlier by the Allies during World War II.  The article explains that there are many of these bombs lurking beneath the surface of places all over Germany.  In the previous year, in one of the most populous places of Germany, bomb squads defused nearly one thousand bombs alone. 1

In a similar way, every person has lurking within themselves the potential of an explosion without.  The Christian has been liberated from the power of sin, but not the presence of sin.  While sin no longer reigns, it remains.  To grow in holiness, Christians must correctly deal with sin every day of their lives.  If we don’t regularly confess our sin and turn from our sin, we may “go off” like a bomb that was previously lying dormant and has suddenly found ignition.  

The Apostle James teaches us how unhealthy cravings within lead to ungodly conduct without:

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war...

James 4:2

You lust and do not have (within), so you murder (without).  You covet and cannot obtain (craving on the inside), so you fight and war (conduct on the outside). 

Unhealthy cravings within lead to ungodly conduct without.

The key to keeping these “bombs” from going off is to defuse them regularly by finding satisfaction in healthy ways rather than unhealthy ways, by finding ultimate satisfaction in Christ and His perfect will for our lives.

Then James adds, “Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” (James 4:2)

Here is a reminder that Christians should ask God for the things they seek rather than allowing their unhealthy cravings to lead them into sin.  Of course, James is not teaching that God grants our selfish desires.  That is clear based upon what he says in the very next verse: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4:3)

Don’t ask God for things to satisfy your unhealthy cravings.  Don’t treat God as something of a divine “To-Go Window,” approaching Him hurriedly and “placing your order” thinking only of what you want.  Someone said this is like “using God as a means to your own end rather than seeking God as the end itself.”

Instead of seeking God to satisfy your unhealthy cravings, approach Him in humility, asking for things consistent with His will. Ask for things that bring glory to Him. Ask for things that He believes are best for you and others.  We must ask in accordance to God’s perfect will for our lives.  This is the kind of prayer that God honors and delights to answer!

We should note also that James is not teaching that all pleasures are wrong.  Only pleasures inconsistent with His will are wrong; pleasures that do not glorify Him.

Remember that the very last verse of the opening chapter of the Bible says: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good (Genesis 1:31).”  Everything God created “was very good.”

Not all pleasures are wrong.  Sexual intimacy, for example, is a pleasure given by God to be enjoyed within the sole context of biblical marriage, the union of one man to one woman.  The pleasure of sex is wrong only when used in a context other than biblical marriage.

Again, we are to come to God asking for things that are consistent with His will.  When we come to God in this way the very act of prayer itself has a sort of purifying effect upon us.  It calls into question the health of our desires.  It prompts us to consider: “are these things for which I am asking healthy cravings or unhealthy cravings?”

James goes on to provide the third warning sign of worldliness. We’ll consider that sign when we return to our study. For now…

Do you have any unhealthy desires of which you need to repent right now?  If so, confess, repent, and ask God to give you desires for Him.

**Excerpt from You’re Either Walking The Walk Or Just Running Your Mouth (Preaching Truth: 2020), pages 128-131, available in all formats here.

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Preaching In Times Of Tragedy

Recent tornado activity that swept across six states, bringing unimaginable death and destruction, reminds us we minister in an unpredictable and fallen world. How does the preacher respond to sudden disaster, suffering, and loss? Here are six suggestions to consider when facing your congregation in times of tragedy:

1) Be Sure To Address The Tragedy

Whether addressed in a sermon, a call for prayer, or some other manner, be sure to address the tragedy. This does not mean the pastor must speak to every newsworthy event, but he should be aware of those events especially unsettling to his congregation. He helps members by addressing the matter with compassion and wisdom informed by the Word of God. On the other hand, failing to address the tragedy may give the impression the pastor is either uncaring or uninformed.

2) Be Careful Of The Words You Use

Be sure to think through exactly what you will say as you interact with others and speak from the platform. Avoid simple clichés that tend to offer little help in times of suffering. Statements like “Everything happens for a reason” or “God won’t give us more than we can handle” can come across as dismissive, uncaring, or unreflective. Speak thoughtfully, biblically, and compassionately.

3) Preach Texts Offering Comfort And Hope

If you choose to preach a full message or sermon series addressing the tragedy, choose biblical texts especially helpful to hurting people. In my own ministry, I have found passages I used for funerals particularly useful. Psalms 13, 23, and 46, for example, are ideal texts offering comfort and encouragement in times of difficulty.

4) Pray Specifically About The Tragedy In Worship

Include a time of focused prayer during the worship service. A minister or volunteer can lead the congregation in corporate prayer or silent petition. However it is done, taking a few minutes to pray specifically for hurting people is a biblical practice that allows the congregation to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).

5) Suggest Ways The Congregation Can Help

Most congregations want to help victims and communities suffering tragic loss. Preachers equip members by pointing them to trusted charitable organizations and relief agencies taking donations or needing volunteers. Equipping members this way allows them to minister to hurting people and gives them practical ways to fulfill the great commandment to love their neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40).

6) Be Evangelistic

While every sermon should contain an evangelistic appeal, sudden and unforeseen tragedies present preachers with opportunities to be especially evangelistic. People tend to be more spiritually engaged in hearing how God’s Word addresses their circumstances. Without being manipulative, we will remind our hearers of the brevity of our lives and the judgment to come. In love, we will point them to Jesus Christ for salvation.

(Published yesterday at chucklawless.com; grateful to Chuck for his inviting me to provide a few “Thursdays With Todd Linn” on his terrific site.)

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Where Is God When We Suffer For Christ?

Continuing our verse-by-verse study of 1 Peter, we pause to consider 1 Peter 4:14, a verse that greatly encourages us when we suffer for Christ:

If you are reproached (insulted or reviled) for the name of Christ, blessed are you, [why?] for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.*

1 Peter 4:14

While this verse does not explain everything about God’s will in Christian persecution, it does tell us something about God’s presence in our suffering:

God’s Spirit Rests Upon Us

By way of the Holy Spirit, God rests upon persecuted Christians in the same way He rested upon the tabernacle in the Old Testament. His presence was a reminder to the ancient Israelites He was always there.

In the same way, God is always with us when we suffer for Christ. His Spirit rests upon believers, an especially encouraging reminder when suffering at the hands of unbelievers.

You may also recall what happened at Jesus’ baptism, shortly after Jesus came up out of the water:

“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him (Matthew 3:16).”

Think about this:

The same God who rests upon Christ rests upon His followers. 

When you and I came to faith in Christ, God “took up residence” within us. He indwelled us by way of His Holy Spirit. And His Spirit guides us through our journey of faith.

So when you suffer for your faith this week, be encouraged. Remember God’s Spirit rests upon you. 

And rather than wrongly concluding God has left you in your suffering, remember He is always with you and will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

He’s a good God and always does what is right. Every. Single. Time.

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*There’s a phrase in the KJV and NKJV of verse 14 not in the older Greek manuscripts: “On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.”  This is a true statement, of course, but it’s not in the oldest manuscripts and that’s why modern translations have omitted it.

Dangerous Desires

Many of us are familiar with the so-called “boiling frog metaphor.”  It is a graphic metaphor used to illustrate how change can occur over time.  The idea is that if you wish to cook a frog you cannot simply throw a live frog abruptly into a pot of boiling water.  If you were to try to do so the frog would feel the drastic heat of the water and immediately jump out of the pot.  On the other hand, if you place the frog in a pot of warm or tepid water, he’ll stay in the pot while you slowly and gradually turn up the heat.  Over time, you are able to cook the frog successfully because the frog has acclimated to his environment, totally oblivious to the fact that he is being slowly cooked to death.

Whether this actually happens to frogs is a matter of debate.  I have never tried it and don’t intend to!  Contemporary biologists have challenged the accuracy of the anecdote but most agree that the metaphor itself is helpful, if not powerful.  Change to a person’s environment is easier to accept when it is introduced gradually, incrementally, or subtly, over time.

It reminds me of the way a friend described the moral failure of a Christian.  We often speak of a person’s “fall into sin” and my friend said, “No one really falls into sin.  He slides into it.”  It is gradual, it is subtle.  It happens incrementally, over time.  One compromise leads to another compromise and then to another still.  Before long, like a frog in a pot of increasingly warmer water, we find ourselves immersed in a situation that may well end in death.

This is a helpful metaphor as we study our passage:

1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:1-6) 

James warns of the ease of becoming God’s enemy.  He declares: “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.”  Friendship with the world puts one in opposition to God.  James adds, “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

We often use the term “worldliness” to describe the kind of person James has in mind, a person who is more inclined to follow the ways of this fallen world rather than the ways of the Lord.  Worldliness is a lifestyle James describes in the previous chapter as earthly, sensual, and demonic.  

There is a real warning here in this text that applies to every one of us. Few of us would willingly jump into sin like a frog thrown into a pot of hot water.  No one wants to ruin his life.  I doubt any true Christian wakes up each day and thinks, “Gee, I think I’ll get arrested today.  I think I’ll commit adultery today and bring shame upon the Lord and His church, ruin my Christian testimony, and lose my family.”  Such thinking is ludicrous. 

On the other hand, we may give in to one “small” temptation that leads to another.  Then a second temptation leads to a third, then another, and so on.  And gradually, subtly giving in to smaller incremental changes over time, we allow ourselves to embrace the world and, before long, have “cooked ourselves.”  This is the ease of embracing worldliness and becoming God’s enemy.

Some of us may be in a pot of water right now and we don’t even know it.  We don’t realize it.  So, in an effort to help us recognize worldliness, and help us “jump out of the pot” if you like, let’s study the above verses, looking for warning signs of worldliness, indicators that we may be far more comfortable with a world opposed to the things of Christ than we realize. 

There are no fewer than three characteristics of wordiness in this passage.  We’ll consider just the first characteristic in today’s post.

Unhealthy Cravings (Self-Centeredness)

Deep within each and every one of us are desires.  And these desires can be either good or bad; healthy or unhealthy.  James is concerned about unhealthy cravings.  He asks, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?”

We recall from the previous chapter that James concluded his discourse on heavenly wisdom by describing it as, among other things, “peaceable (James 3:17-18).”  Now James describes the opposite of peace with reference to “wars and fights” among the Christian community.

The word “members” is best understood as “parts of your body” or more generally, “that which is within you.”

The New Living Translation is helpful here: “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?”  Here is the source of worldly divisiveness among Christians: evil desires, unhealthy cravings within. 

Specifically, James describes these unhealthy cravings as “desires for pleasure.”  The word “pleasure” here is the word from which we get hedonism, a self-centered focus or an unhealthy craving for that which merely satisfies self.  James teaches that these passions lurking within us have the potential to work outside us such that we find ourselves at odds with other people.  We “make war” with other people in the church. So the cravings within lead to conflict without.

We have noted previously that the way we act on the outside is driven by the way we think on the inside.  Unhealthy cravings within lead to conflict without.  Self-centeredness leads to divisiveness.  Self-centeredness leads to “making war” with one another in the church.

The King James Version translates verse 1 this way: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?”  

When we read the word “lusts” we often think only of sexual lust. To be sure, sexual lust is one of the unhealthy cravings within that leads to conflict without.  If you have an unhealthy desire to satisfy yourself, that unhealthy desire tempts you to look at others in an unhealthy way.  In the sexual realm, an extreme obsession with selfish and self-centered gratification can lead to an extreme case of physical “warring and fighting” such as rape or other abuse.  It begins with unhealthy cravings.  Cravings within lead to conflict without.

But James has more in mind than mere sexual lusts.  There are other lusts, other cravings within; lusts for power, or position, or wealth, or evil desire for status and recognition.  

A bitter and resentful inward focus, for example, can turn one into a hater of mankind.  Bitter people are often given to narcissism, an unhealthy focus on the pride of self and an expectation that others should regard them as superior.  When others do not, we may expect “wars and fights” of shunning, finger-pointing, whispering, and so on.

All of this, says James, is driven by “desires for pleasure that war in your members,” desires for the pleasure of self satisfaction, self amusement, self importance, self gratification, and more.  Unhealthy cravings within lead to conflict without.

We’ll consider two more warning signs when we return to our study of James. For now, consider:

Can you think of ways that the “boiling frog metaphor” applies historically to the people of God?Do you have unhealthy desires of which you need to repent right now?  If so, confess, repent, and ask God to give you desires for Him.

**Excerpt from You’re Either Walking The Walk Or Just Running Your Mouth (Preaching Truth: 2020), pages 124-128, available in all formats here.

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Why Preachers Can Be Especially Grateful For Their Work

I’ve written a few posts over at chucklawless.com in recent weeks; grateful to Chuck for his inviting me to provide a few “Thursdays With Todd Linn” on his terrific site. This post–originally published Thanksgiving Day entitled, “Why Preachers Can Be Especially Grateful On Thanksgiving–is similar in format.

There are several reasons preachers should pause to give thanks for the work to which God has called them. Certainly faith, family, and the abundance God’s provision are among the many blessings we enjoy, but I want to share a few reasons why preachers can be especially grateful for their work.

Our Work Is Deeply Meaningful

All work is sacred when we know the Lord is our ultimate supervisor (Colossians 3:23-24), but preachers enjoy a singular vocation especially meaningful in that they are regularly pointing people to the One from Whom all blessings flow; the Giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). God’s calling in our lives guarantees we will always be involved in especially meaningful labor.

We Experience The Joy Of Weekly Preaching

Is there any activity more life-giving than regularly proclaiming the good news? Thank God He has called you into a ministry where you get to preach the gospel weekly! When Paul wrote “woe is me if I preach not the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16), he was not suggesting preachers are motivated only by a fearful sense of judgment. While burdensome and challenging at times, the compulsion to preach is a divine call motivated primarily by joy (Philippians 1:18).

God Works Through Our Imperfections

Amazingly, God saves souls through our flawed preaching. That He does so is no excuse for indolence or lack of preparation, but rather calls for praise to the One Who superintends our preaching in order to accomplish His perfect will. We study, we pray, and we do our very best, but ultimately we rest in a sovereign God Who uses broken vessels to call souls to Himself.

We Get To See God Change Lives 

One of the greatest joys of preaching is seeing people come to faith in Christ. When we see lives transformed by the gospel, we are energized as nothing else can energize us. We may go many weeks or months before witnessing true, life-change, but when it happens, we bow before God and receive new strength for future ministry.

We Grow When Serving Others

A minister once joked, “God called me into ministry because He knew I needed to be in church three times a week!” While uttered tongue in cheek, the minister’s greater point was preachers benefit personally from work they do largely for others. Whether preaching, leading worship, or counseling others, pastors themselves are continually challenged by God’s Word and enjoy numerous opportunities for spiritual growth.

Our Work Allows Our Family To Join Us

Unlike vocations offering little opportunity for the presence of one’s spouse or children, our family gathers regularly with us as we preach the Word and serve the church. While being a ministry family can be difficult at times, the benefits far outnumber the challenges.

Preachers: what are some other reasons we may be especially grateful for our work?

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