Tullian Tchividjian's Blog, page 8

Love For The Weary And Heavy Laden

A couple weeks ago my good friend Jean Larroux, senior pastor of Southwood Church in Huntsville, AL interviewed me about LIBERATE and the gospel. Jean has taken it on the chin (and in the groin) for preaching the gospel of grace without qualifications and footnotes…and I love him for it. I cheer him on from a distance and am happy and honored to be on his team. Semper Reformanda, amigo!

What is LIBERATE all about? Is it just a conference or something more?

Back in 2010 I was traveling around the country speaking about God’s grace and the radical truth that Jesus + Nothing = Everything. Regardless of where I was people would come up to me and ask two questions (often through tears): 1. Is what you just said true? and 2. If it is, why have I been in church my whole life and never heard this before?

They were trapped in a checklist version of the Christian faith where they heard 100 sermons about how to live the Christian life but precious few on the Christ who lived and died for us. As a result, they were weighed down and burdened by the mistaken notion that the focus of the Christian faith is the life of the Christian. I knew the church needed to get back to the robust and liberating doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone and what that actually means for life and relationships. We came up with “Liberate” which started as a conference but has now grown to much more—it is now an annual conference, a well-resourced website, publishing projects, a pastors network, partnerships with churches and a lot more. It’s growing faster than we know what to do. There are a lot of people out there (especially pastors) who are being awakened to the radicality of the gospel of grace and rethinking everything as a result. We want to resource the church universal in any and every way that we can. I feel like a paradigm shift back to grace alone is happening and I’m just happy that Liberate has been positioned by God to help lead that charge.

Isn’t all this emphasis on grace going to make Christians lazy and ignore holiness?

[Laughs] We hear that all the time, don’t we? I always want to ask people who say that, “So are you saying that love does not produce love?” Their question assumes that the law (instruction, rebuke, exhortation) has the power to produce love. But the Bible says just the opposite. Paul makes it clear in Romans 7 that the law shows you what love looks like but has no power to actually make you loving. It can show you what to do and what you’re not doing but it can’t stimulate loving action.

Think about it—what does it do to your heart when you’re persistently criticized for failing to do something? Does that criticism make you want to do it? Does judgment engender loyalty and love? Or does it produce relational distance and frustration? The only thing that produces true love and heart-driven loyalty is love. Sanctification is nothing more and nothing less than love for God and love for others (it is the life long process of being compelled by Christ’s love) and 1 John tells us how love happens— “we love Him because He first loved us.” It is right and it is our duty to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, but the command itself doesn’t produce the love that is commanded. The only thing that produces love for God and love for others is love from God.

Is LIBERATE just for professional Christians or can “normal” people go too? How do we connect?

Liberate is connecting God’s inexhaustible grace to an exhausted world. I’ve never met anyone who is not exhausted. I’m not talking about exhausted because we’re too busy raising children and trying to pay the bills. I’m talking about emotional exhaustion, relational exhaustion and living on a treadmill of performance to ensure that our lives are meaningful. All of those things are just our own frantic attempts at self-justification. Liberate is for weary and heavy-laden people like that. Therefore this message is not just for professional Christians or pastors. It is not just for old people, young people, married people or single people—it literally is for humans. All of us, every human being who needs the rest that only Jesus offers.

If you had to condense the Gospel into an “elevator pitch” how would you describe it?

The gospel is the good news that Jesus has come to do and secure for you and me what we could never do or secure for ourselves. And He has come to freely give to you and me what we could never get for ourselves. No one wants to live a meaningless life. Everyone wants to matter. Most of our pursuits are fueled by this thirst—this longing to validate our existence. To justify ourselves. To rescue ourselves. To set ourselves free. And the gospel is the good news that Jesus has come to set the captives free. The gospel is an announcement, a declaration that One has lived for us and died for us.

At Southwood we often talk about the Gospel redefining our identity. You are Billy Graham’s grandson. How does the Gospel free you to rightly rejoice in who you were born to be and concurrently reject some persona that people would falsely expect you to be?

Trying to do it all will cause an inevitable crash and burn. That happened to me just after coming to Coral Ridge. When you are flat on your back, you finally get honest with God and yourself. One of the greatest gifts that come when you reach the end of yourself is the fresh realization that your identity—who you are—is ultimately anchored in Christ’s performance not your own—His obedience, not mine. I am defined by His work for me, not my work for Him. So who we really are in Christ has absolutely nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with our behavior (good or bad), or our family background. What relieves me of the pressure to perform is the realization that I wake up every morning with something infinitely better than a clean slate. I wake up perfectly loved and perfectly accepted despite my unclean slate.

Monday Morning Music

For EDM lovers like me, Miami was the place to be this weekend. The City of Sound played host to the Ultra Music Festival, an annual event every March that started back in 1999. Every year it gets better and better. There is no way I could possibly explain the experience.

The best set of the whole festival (in my opinion) was played by Above & Beyond. A three man British DJ team consisting of Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki, Above & Beyond formed in 2000. They started the London-based electronic dance music labels Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep, and they also host a weekly radio show called Group Therapy Radio. I call their genre of EDM “emotional trance.” They are flat-out masters of moods. The way they blend sounds, beats, and vocals is emotionally spell-binding. Their set at Ultra this year was musically mesmerizing.

They played a song I hadn’t heard before and it immediately swept me off my feet.

So…without further ado here’s “You Got to Believe” by Above & Beyond featuring Zoë Johnston.

March Madness And The Mathematics of Grace

By instinct I feel I must do something in order to be accepted. Grace sounds a startling note of contradiction, of liberation, and every day I must pray anew for the ability to hear its message.

Eugene Peterson draws a contrast between Augustine and Pelagius, two fourth-century theological opponents. Pelagius was urbane, courteous, convincing, and liked by everyone. Augustine squandered away his youth in immorality, had a strange relationship with his mother, and made many enemies. Yet Augustine started from God’s grace and got it right, whereas Pelagius started from human effort and got it wrong. Augustine passionately pursued God; Pelagius methodically worked to please God. Peterson goes on to say that Christians tend to be Augustinian in theory but Pelagian in practice. They work obsessively to please other people and even God.

Each year in spring, I fall victim to what the sports announcers diagnose as “March Madness.” I cannot resist the temptation to tune in to the final basketball game, in which the sole survivors of a sixty-four-team tournament meet for the NCAA championship. That most important game always seems to come down to one eighteen-year-old kid standing on a freethrow line with one second left on the clock. He dribbles nervously. If he misses these two foul shots, he knows, he will be the goat of his campus, the goat of his state. Twenty years from now he’ll be in counseling, reliving this moment. If he makes these shots, he’ll be a hero. His picture will be on the front page. He could probably run for governor. He takes another dribble and the other team calls time, to rattle him. He stands on the sideline, weighing his entire future. Everything depends on him. His teammates pat him encouragingly, but say nothing.

One year, I remember, I left the room to answer a phone call just as the kid was setting himself to shoot. Worry lines creased his forehead. He was biting his lower lip. His left leg quivered at the knee. Twenty thousand fans were yelling, waving banners and handkerchiefs to distract him. The phone call took longer than expected, and when I returned I saw a new sight. This same kid, his hair drenched with Gatorade, was now riding atop the shoulders of his teammates, cutting the cords of a basketball net. He had not a care in the world. His grin filled the entire screen.

Those two freeze-frames—the same kid crouching at the free throw line and then celebrating on his friends’ shoulders—came to symbolize for me the difference between ungrace and grace.

The world runs by ungrace. Everything depends on what I do. I have to make the shot.

Jesus calls us to another way, one that depends not on our performance but his own. We do not have to achieve but merely receive. He has already earned for us the costly victory of God’s acceptance.

Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?

Monday Morning Music

Last Monday I confessed my addiction to House Music and all of its genres–an addiction I’ve been nurturing since I was 19. I also promised you that each Monday I would introduce you to a different song with the hope that you too might develop a taste for the sound and the emotion that it elicits.

Meet Eric Prydz–the Swedish DJ who has been creating delectable moods with his music for a long time now. His first break-through track “Call on Me” (which sampled Steve Winwood’s hit “Valerie”) came out in 2004. I’ll never forget first hearing it and being drawn in immediately. Well, since then he has become quite the trendsetter in the industry and last week he released his newest track called (drumroll please….) “Liberate”! I’d like to think I had something to do with the naming of the song Technically, this song would be considered “progressive house”, but I call it “happy house.”

I hope you like it as much as I do…

Two Favored Sons

Want to know how to read the Old Testament? Here’s a quick primer: Martin Luther said that everything bad in the Old Testament (and there’s a lot) is there to point out our sin, while everything good in the Old Testament is there to point us to our Savior. Remember this pithy little couplet, and you’ll be well on your way to understanding what can often seem to be an intimidating and inscrutable collection of books.

Consider Joseph, for example. His life, like all of ours, is a mixed bag: some bad, some good. There’s no question that we can learn a lot of good from reading about Joseph’s life. His refusal to sleep with Potiphar’s wife stands out. The Bible never tells us that, after all Joseph had been through, his faith in God wavered. In fact, it tells us just the opposite. When he finally encounters his brothers years after they sold him into slavery and lied to their father about him dying—and he now has the power and the authority to enact some serious vengeance—he extends tremendous grace saying, “What you intended for evil, God intended for good.” Amazing.

But Joseph wasn’t always gracious and humble. In fact, when we first meet Joseph, he’s a spoiled brat. He was his father’s favorite son, and he knew it. While his older brothers had to break their backs toiling in the fields, Joseph got to stay at home. When Joseph has two separate dreams which imply that his brothers (and even his mother and father!) will eventually bow down to him, he doesn’t hesitate to go out into the fields to share the dreams with his family. It’s no wonder that the Bible says his brothers “hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him” (Genesis 37:4). I certainly know what I would have done if my youngest brother had been so impertinent.

What Joseph’s brothers do is well-known: they drag him away, strip him of his clothes (a many-colored robe that his father had given him), and sell him into slavery. They dip the robe in animal blood and tell their father that they’ve found it, and fear that Joseph is dead.

Joseph’s brashness testifies to the fact he had built his identity on being his father’s favored son. To be the Patriarch’s favorite son was a big deal and Joseph derived his worth from it. It led him to believe he was better than his brothers and that gave him a sense of significance and pride. As long as he was the favorite, he was somebody: he mattered.

In this way, we are exactly like Joseph.

What are you building your identity on? Think of it this way: what do you wake up in the middle of the night worrying about? For many people, it’s their careers. If they’re not an adequate provider for their family, or a pillar of their community, they feel that they have no identity at all. For some, it’s their children. How well their children “turn out” (the grades they get, the college they get into, the career they choose) defines them as a person. Maybe it’s the way you look, or your reputation. Maybe it’s your marriage or the dream of one day getting married. Maybe it’s your health. We long to have meaning and purpose and lasting stability but so often we try standing on an endless catalog of God-replacements that end up sinking us into slavery like it did for Joseph. For example, I never realized how much I was depending on my kids for happiness until we had a difficult year with one of our sons last year. What’s that thing or who’s that person in your life that if taken from you would make you feel like life’s not worth living?

I’ve told the people at Coral Ridge this before (and it’s embarrassing to admit) but one of the reasons I work so hard in preparing sermons is because at some level I need them to think I’m a good preacher to feel like I matter. When I feel like I haven’t preached a good sermon it cuts me to the heart—because who am I if I’m not good at what I do? You ever feel like this? About anything? Anyone?

But the story of Joseph doesn’t end there. While the bad stuff in his life points out our sin, the good stuff points out our Savior—and how he works to rescue sinners out of slavery and death. Within the story of Joseph, we hear whispers and see snippets of a new and better Joseph. Over and over again Joseph’s story illustrates that life comes out of death. He gets thrown in a pit to die but comes out and is spared, rising through the ranks of Potiphar’s household. He gets thrown into prison—is forgotten and forsaken—but is eventually rescued by the King and put in a place of power and honor. He relives the pain of his brothers’ betrayal when they come to him for food years later, but uses his new power to save them rather than kill them—assuring them that what they meant for evil God meant for good. And as a result of his mediation, a world on the brink of death is saved. All of this points us to Jesus.

Years later, another favored son would be betrayed, sold, and mistreated by his brothers. He too would be falsely accused, thrown into captivity—the captivity of the cross—paying the price for sins he did not commit. And in the prison of that cross, he too was forsaken (“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me”)—but like Joseph, he didn’t stay imprisoned. Jesus did not get out of prison by interpreting the dream of God; his death and resurrection was the interpretation of God’s dream—a dream dreamt before the foundation of the world to do and be for us what we could never do and be for ourselves.

Like Joseph, Jesus was brought to life out of death and now sits at the right hand of King, forgiving those who betrayed him (all of us), and using his power to save rather than kill. By the time his brothers come to see Joseph, he is so powerful that there is nothing at all his family can do for him: his love is completely one-way. Rather than punishment, they get nourishment. Our new and better—and final—Joseph does the same. Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and when we come before the judgment seat, faces to the floor, expecting our richly deserved death sentence, he steps in. He was punished, not just for crimes he didn’t commit, but for our crimes. Our sins were placed on his shoulders and his righteousness was given to us. We, his hateful brothers and sisters, are welcomed home for safe-keeping. Just as in Joseph’s story, through one man’s mediation many are saved from starvation, so through the mediation of Jesus many are forever saved from a hunger we could never satisfy ourselves.

That’s good news.

Monday Morning Music

So…I’m starting a new weekly feature here that is intended to introduce you to my not-so-secret addiction–an addiction I’ve been nurturing since I was 19.

I’m an avid music listener. Music hits me in ways that I can’t fully explain. It unlocks chambers inside me that I didn’t know existed. And while I love almost all kinds of music (except Country, Death Metal, and “Christian contemporary”) my drug of choice is EDM (electronic dance music, for the uninitiated). EDM has a variety of different genres (house, techno, trance, dubstep…to name a few) and I pretty much like them all, depending on what I’m doing or the kind of mood I’m in. I can’t really explain why this music grips me the way that it does, but I’m a “junky” for sure.

The way that the best of these DJ’s/Producers are able to create moods and take the listener deep is nothing short of brilliant. They are maestros of emotion. The complexity and chemistry of sounds is magical, poetic, romantic and powerful. I know, it’s not for everybody (what kind of music is, after all?). I’m fully aware that growing up in South Florida where this music totally “fits” the sights, sounds, and smells may be part of the reason it is so ingrained in my heart and head. But try it. You may like it. It may loosen you up, chill you out, and make you dream of rooftops, ocean breezes, palm trees, city lights, and losing yourself in the one you love.

I often say about EDM, it’s kind of like the gospel in the sense that you either “get it” or you don’t. If you don’t “get it” that’s fine. You’re missing out, but that’s fine. If you do “get it”…welcome to the deep end of the pool.

Entry No. 1: The Maya Jane Cole Remix of Rudimental‘s song “Free” featuring Emile Sande. This would be considered “house music.” I’ve had this track on repeat for the better part of the last month. I hope you like it as much as I do. And make sure you come back next Monday for more.

Bioluminescently Yours,

Tullian

Romans

I’m currently preaching through the book of Romans. That’s right, ROMANS! Crazy, I know. I swore I wouldn’t even attempt to preach through Romans till I was at least 50 years old but I decided to do it now because it was reading through Romans last fall that rescued me from a season of doubt and discouragement.

My confidence in the radicality of the gospel was resurrected after waking up one morning and desperately grabbing my Bible from my nightstand and reading the first eight chapters of Romans in one sitting. I got out of bed that day much different than I went to bed the night before. I told the people I serve at Coral Ridge that I was going to preach through Romans just as much for me as for them.

I regularly confess to our church that I’m a desperate man. In fact, I heartily disagree with Robert Murray McCheyne who said, “The greatest gift I can give my church is my personal holiness.” I have the utmost respect for McCheyne, but that is ridiculous. The greatest gift I can give my church is the good news that Jesus has done for train-wrecks like me what I could never do for myself. The second most important gift I can give my church is my desperation. Don’t listen to a preacher who isn’t desperate.

As Paul makes clear throughout this letter (and as I say in the sermon below), if Christianity is fundamentally about our performance, we’re all in big trouble. If it’s about our purity, our strength, our cleanliness, our obedience, our anything…we are without hope! This whole thing is riding on the shoulders of Another: one who eternally succeeded where we perpetually fail, one who was strong for us, obedient for us, pure for us, righteous for us. The whole point of the verses I preach from below is that God is not the God of second chances–he’s the God of one chance and a second Adam.

Not long ago, my friend Jono Linebaugh wrote this note to me: “The theological plumbing in the church these days is fixed in such a way that if you try to pour the pure water of mercy down the pipe of people’s hearts it backs up and the theological plumber gets called to come clear the clog with the plunger of a few “ifs” and “buts”. I’m convinced the old plumbing has to be totally replaced, not repaired. And this only happens when it fully breaks–through suffering and failure–not arguments.”

Right on!

Romans is replacement plumbing. I dare you to read it. As Robert Capon so eloquently put it:

The Epistle to the Romans has sat around in the church since the first century like a bomb ticking away the death of religion; and every time it’s been picked up, the ear-splitting freedom in it has gone off with a roar. The only sad thing is that the church as an institution has spent most of its time playing bomb squad and trying to defuse it. For your comfort, though, it can’t be done. Your freedom remains as close to your life as Jesus and as available to your understanding as the nearest copy. Like Augustine, therefore, take and read–and then hold onto your hat. Compared to that explosion, the clap of doom sounds like a cap pistol.

Romans is theological therapy for the soul.

I’m not even half way through, but you can find all my sermons from this series here. Below is this past week’s sermon. I hope God uses it to set you free as he has used this series to set me free.

Romans: Part 7 | Tullian Tchividjian from Coral Ridge | LIBERATE on Vimeo.

All We Need Is (One Way) Love

All of the talks at Liberate 2014 were amazing, but this one by my good friend (and theological soul-mate) David Zahl was my favorite. If you love Jesus you’ll set aside an hour to watch it

Liberate 2014 – David Zahl from Coral Ridge | LIBERATE on Vimeo.

You can find the other talks here.

Liberate 2014: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World

Here’s my talk from Liberate 2014: “Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World”:

Liberated

The greatest apologetic for the intentionally myopic messaging of the Liberate Conference are testimonies like the one below:

I was overwhelmed with emotion as I left behind the sanctuary of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and stepped into the February Ft. Lauderdale sunshine. Today’s service with Pastor Tullian Tchividjian brought closure to Liberate Weekend and a conference designed around sharing the message of grace and God’s one way love. But for this girl, the one who’d only recently become reacquainted with God, it was so much more than listening to devoted, authentic speakers talk about how grace will change everything about us – and everything about how we view Christianity. On this warm Sunday, I was bathed in hope and comfort as the mild breeze brushed against my cheek and whispered in my ear like a long, lost love. “There is so much we need to talk about.” Indeed, there is, I thought. We’ll just have to take all this on the run.

Please read the rest here. If you can make it through without crying, you may not be human.

I’ll be posting my own reflections on the Liberate Conference next week. Still processing it all. Suffice it to say, I’ll never be the same.