My main take-away from T4G 2012 is nothing new or earth-shattering. It’s not even something that I didn’t already know. It’s something I’ve known and believed my whole life but which needed to be reinvigorated. The pursuit of holiness won’t happen by accident. I’m not going to be conformed to the image of Christ by osmosis. If I am to be sanctified, it will be a fight to the death. And that means much work, labor, and effort. Fie on passivity and quietism. The effect of God’s grace in me will be effort on my part. Where that effort is absent, so also is grace.

You would benefit from all of the fine messages delivered at T4G, but the key sermons on this particular theme for me were from DeYoung and Piper. Here are the key texts that will become the focus of my prayer and meditation in days to come. Maybe they will be for you too.

“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24).

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

“I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

“Keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life” (Jude 1:21).

The first time I heard John Piper preach I didn’t like it. It was about sixteen years ago. Someone had given me a cassette tape of Piper speaking on the topic of the supremacy of God in preaching, and in this particular message he stressed that the preacher’s delivery must be done with great passion and feeling. I disagreed with Piper. As far as I was concerned, the Bible was the point of preaching not the preacher’s delivery. I thought that Piper was promoting an anthropocentric view of the preacher’s task. I didn’t understand how Piper could be so wrong. Continue Reading →

Jim Hamilton is my pastor and fellow elder at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Jim just shared his 7-year old son’s sermon notes from last week’s sermon, and it is classic. I think he’s about ready to preach. Here’s the photo and transcription below. Read Jim’s post here. Continue Reading →

I flew to Chicago Tuesday morning to attend The Gospel Coalition conference, and I took a cab from the airport to my hotel. As I was sitting in the backseat formulating my strategy for sharing the gospel with my Nigerian driver, the driver starts singing.

“What are you singing,” I asked.

He replied, “I’m singing to my God. I must always sing to my God!”

It turns out that this was his strategy for sharing the gospel with me! The rest of the trip was a delight. We talked about life, the gospel, and the nature of true Christianity. We prayed for each other, and then he gave one final exhortation at the end. You can see it below. Continue Reading →

Here’s the Psalm that we read in family worship last night. Happy Thanksgiving! Continue Reading →