Tag: Christian Life

book quote of the week
How Do You Know If You Love Jesus?

How Do You Know If You Love Jesus?

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“If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:22. Jesus after He rose from the dead asked Peter three times in John 21 “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” These are heart-searching and serious verses. Loving Christ is not an optional part of Christianity. Therefore, there is no better question to examine the state of your heart than simply asking “do I love Jesus or not?” Yet I have often found in my own life that this question can quickly become very abstract. How do you know if you love Jesus? Are there any objective tests to help you assess the state of your soul?

As is so often the case, J.C. Ryle in his book “Holiness” gives a clear and helpful answer on how you can know if you love Jesus or not. His words are worth your time and represent an excellent set of ways to examine yourself to determine if your love for Christ has gone cold. I quote his 8 marks of love below and for the rest of this post, I want to think through how these marks can help you know if you love Jesus. In fact, what Ryle gives below summarizes the Christian life itself powerfully and concisely.

If we love a person, we like to think about him.

If we love a person, we like to hear about him.

If we love a person, we like to read about him.

If we love a person, we like to please him.

If we love a person, we like his friends.

If we love a person, we are jealous about his name and honor.

If we love a person, we like to be always with him.

From “Lovest Thou me?” in Holiness by J.C. Ryle

You know what love looks like on a human level

Ryle’s goal in this section of “Holiness” is simple: if you know what love looks like at a human level, then you already know what it looks like to love Jesus. Each of the 8 marks Ryle gives are based on the simple fact that if you love a person, you behave a certain way towards them. Likewise, if you don’t behave a certain way towards a person, chances are you don’t truly love them. If you love a person, you think about them, talk with them, want to be with them. You are concerned to please that person, you care about that person’s reputation. In short, your love for that person is demonstrated in visible outward behaviors.

Therefore, Ryle in these 8 marks wants you to simply ask “are these things true of me with regards to Jesus?” Do you think about Jesus? Do you long to hear from Him through daily Bible reading and the preached word? Are you concerned with pleasing Him and His opinion of you? Do you love the people He loves and died to redeem? When others speak poorly of Jesus, are you bold enough in your love for Him to defend His reputation? If the answer to these questions is “no” then perhaps your love for Christ has grown cold. You might say “of course I love Jesus!” but if that love is not seen in any of the ways Ryle lists, perhaps you love Jesus in word only.

How do you know if you love Jesus? Examine your life

Asking whether you love Jesus isn’t a trick question or an impossibly abstract inquiry. Love for a person shows itself in inward delight and external expressions. If you have affection for a close friend, you enjoy their company and you might express your enjoyment by making time in your schedule to see them. Love for a spouse is demonstrated in the true delight you take in who they are and also in acts of sacrifice, gifts, and a host of other external expressions of that delight. What Ryle does a great job of in “Holiness” is reminding you and I that love for Christ does not look entirely different from the love we have for friends and family members.

If I told you that there was a person I took no delight in being around or who I was content to give my half best with, you would infer that I do not love that person very much. Similarly, if you want to know if you love Jesus, ask yourself if you truly have any inward delight in Him and whether that inward delight overflows in acts of worship and obedience. Both parts of these are crucial: Jesus said if you love me, then you will keep my commands. This means that there is a necessary connection between love for Christ and obedience to Christ. One is not the same as the other, but both must be present in the life of the Christian.

I think the reason it is so “difficult” to answer the question “do I love Christ?” isn’t because the question is hard to answer. It is difficult because when you truly have even the smallest indication of Christ’s worth or have read enough of Scripture or Church history to know how Christians of the past have loved Christ, you realize that your love for Jesus is infinitely colder than what He deserves. Answering whether you love Christ is difficult because the answer is so often painful. But it is in this moment that you must remind yourself that your love for Christ will never, at its best moment, come close to matching His love for you. Your love is only in response to Christ’s infinite love towards you.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We love because he first loved us.

Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:19

Implications

1. Remind yourself that Christianity is about knowing Jesus, not about religious activity

Christianity is not about seeking some abstract “God”. It is founded on faith and love for Jesus. Your good works may adorn the Gospel as Titus says, but you doing good works is not the gospel. When the Holy Spirit starts working in the heart of an unbeliever, He opens their eyes to see the glory of Christ so that they can say truly “Jesus is Lord.” And it is impossible to see the glory of Christ, His value, His supremacy, His significance, without truly loving Him. Why? Because Christ’s glory was displayed most clearly when He, out of love for you, died to pay the penalty for your sins.

Religious activity can make you feel “Christian”, at least for a little while. But if your Christianity is founded on you doing something for God, it has no root and will die in due time. A true, deeply rooted faith is founded in love for a person: Jesus. Anything less and you will either abandon the faith when trials or persecution comes or other desires will end up choking your faith. Don’t become distracted from the main thing: before you go “do something big for Jesus” or “go to Church” or “live for Jesus” start your day by simply asking “Do I love Jesus? Has my love grown cold for Jesus? Have I spent time with Jesus?”

Love for Jesus is the foundation, the root, the fountain of all true Christianity.

2. Use these 8 marks as a daily or weekly barometer by which to ask yourself “do I love Jesus?”

A marriage that never asks itself “how are we doing?” is a marriage headed for disaster. Life is complicated, difficult, and, despite our best intentions, our affections can change at a moment’s notice. Any serious relationship, like marriage, requires regular check-ups to ensure both husband and wife can correct their behavior or lifestyle as needed. How much more than should you and I ask ourselves “how am I doing?” with regards to our love for Christ? No relationship is more important. Our eternity depends on it and, in our flesh, our love grows cold, our attention is diverted, and sin blinds us to Christ’s value.

What is the solution? Regular check-ups. Don’t become so proud as to assume just because you feel a strong love for Christ today that tomorrow your love will be just as fervent. You are daily faced with external temptations and inward sinful desires that would draw your love away from Jesus. Use these 8 marks that Ryle gives as a structure for examining your heart towards Jesus. Keep a daily or a weekly journal where you quickly jot down how you are doing with regards to these 8 marks. Just as consistent communication and reflection improves a marriage, regularly contemplation “do I love Jesus?” will deepen your relationship with Christ.

Such reflection is painful at times. But no reflection is more important for your life and eternity. Ask yourself frequently “how do I know that I love Jesus?”

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Responding to God’s Glory with Glory

Responding to God’s Glory with Glory

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Recently, I preached a sermon on Revelation 4:11. What initially intrigued me in this text was the fact that at the very end of the Bible, God is still being worshiped because He is the Creator. As I progressed in my study, however, I was stunned by the all-consuming worship and exaltation of the Lord pictured in Revelation 4. Because of this, I did a word study of some of the key words in the verse, including the word ”glory”. This idea of responding to God’s glory with praise and exaltation has occupied my mind the past few weeks, and I decided it was time I started working through my thoughts by writing them out.

In this post, I want to think through the sense in which the Bible describes God as glorious and the sense in which glorifying God is our proper response to that reality. I want to think through responding to God’s glory with glory: understanding who God is inherently and then how that drives your response to Him. Right off the bat, I am indebted to Jonathan Edward’s The End for Which God Created the World for engaging my mind on this topic and for influencing what I write in this post.

A brief word study

The word “glory” or “glorify” is used so frequently in good Christian conversation and preaching that I sometimes find it difficult to remember what exactly “glory” means. In the Old Testament, the word most often translated “glory” is the Hebrew word “kabod“. The word’s literal meaning is “weight” but clearly in Scripture this is a metaphor for the significance of something or someone. If something is “heavy” it is inherently more important and significant than something that is “light”. Other ways of understanding this idea of “weight” include splendor, reputation, and honor.

When you come to the New Testament, the word translated glory is “doxa“. You likely recognize this word from the English word “doxology.” This word was used outside Scripture to refer to someone’s reputation i.e. an opinion or estimate of someone. The greater a person or object is, the greater it’s “doxa” or it’s reputation. In Revelation 4:11, this word appears next to a word “time” which is translated “honor”. This word means “a value” or esteeming something. So, in both the Old and New Testaments, it seems that “glory” refers to the significance, the reputation, the value of something.

“Glory” is who God is

What does it mean when the Bible talks about “the glory of God?” Theologians answer this by distinguishing between God’s inherent glory and His ascribed glory. God’s inherent glory refers to the reality that God is, in and of Himself, the greatest, most valuable, and most significant of beings. Exodus 34 famously connects God’s glory to His attributes or who He is:

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

Exodus 33:18-19 ESV, emphasis added

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[b] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

Exodus 34:5-8 ESV, emphasis added

You see from the above passage that God reveals His glory, His value, His reputation to Moses by declaring who He is and what He does. This is God’s inherent glory. God, by the very nature of who He is and what He does, is the most valuable and significant. Notice also that God connects His glory to His name as well as His goodness. This passage is worthy of a much more extensive exposition, but for our purposes today, it is enough to see that God is inherently infinitely valuable because of who He is.

“Glory” is our response to who God is

“Glory” is not only used to refer to who God is inherently. Glory is also used to refer to humanity’s response to God’s inherent glory. Theologians refer to this as God’s ascribed glory. This is what you refer to when you talk about “glorifying God”. If you notice, Moses illustrates what it means to respond to God’s glory in the passage above: immediately after God reveals His inherent glory of Moses, Moses makes haste to worship in response. This pattern of “revelation then worship” is repeated throughout Scripture when humans are confronted with a revelation of God’s inherent glory.

So what is ascribed glory then? I think in the most basic sense, it is agreeing with God’s evaluation of Himself. God declares through Scripture and creation that He and He alone is the most awesome, great, valuable, and significant being. He is ultimate, the “alpha and the omega”. Therefore, the most basic response a human can give when confronted with this reality is to simply say “amen”! It is so. What God has revealed about Himself is true. “Ascribing glory” means you agree with God’s revelation of Himself by faith and attribute to God all the attributes and worth that He declares are true of Him.

The idea here is when you truly grasp God’s worth, gravity, and reputation, you respond in some way. Worship. Exaltation. Singing. Rejoicing. Obedience. The list goes on and on. Each of these actions “ascribe” glory to God when they are motivated by an understanding of and a desire to display God’s glory. There is much that could be said here, but for the remainder of this post, let’s consider how responding to God’s glory with your mind, emotion, and will occurs in your daily life.

Responding rationally to God’s glory

How can you display the worth and gravity and reputation of God in your mind, heart, and will? How can you respond to God’s infinite value, supreme reputation, and greatest significance properly? Starting with your mind, responding to God’s glory means first and foremost holding this high view of God in your mind.

Your mind is constantly assaulted by a culture that elevates humanity and their autonomy while demeaning the reality of God and His glory.

If you want to display God’s worth, value, and importance, you are going to have to guard your mind from internal thoughts and external voices that would de-value God. Internally, pride, sin, and your own flesh will push you to either think less of God or think of God less. By thinking less of God, I mean you will be tempted to lose a mental grip on the sobering reality of God’s inherent glory. And thinking of God less means becoming so distracted or disinterested in the Lord that you never stop to contemplate God’s value.

External assaults to your mental focus on God’s worth come in a myriad of forms. But they all typically have the common factors of elevating mankind by substituting subtle or overt lies about God. The key for fighting both internal and external temptations to belittle God is given in Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

A mind renewed by God’s word and prayer is a mind ready to remember God’s value.

So positively, how can you value and honor God with your mind?

  1. Daily go to His word to mentally understand who God is revealed to be. Memorize verses like Isaiah 40:21-23 which extol God’s greatness.
  2. Meditate throughout the day on God’s inherent glory. A mind that does not think of God’s greatness is not actively glorifying God. In the clutter of your own thoughts and the voices around you, dedicate mental energy to contemplation of God’s glory.
  3. “Take captive every thought” that comes from within or without that would elevate self and dethrone God or Christ in your mind.

If you would glorify God with your mind, you must be active and vigilant. If you wake up assuming you will naturally glorify God with your mind, you will no doubt fail. You must work to get your mind fixed on God and to keep it fixed on God.

A mind fixed on God and a mind that prefers contemplating God over worldly things displays the value, the greatness, and the importance of the Lord.

Responding affectionately to God’s glory

How do you love the Lord with all your heart? How can your emotions, feelings, and affections show that God is supremely valuable? Jonathan Edwards and John Piper have both expounded this point extensively, but I’ll add my own reflections to the mix. Emotions seem to me to be both responsive in nature as well as volatile. By responsive I mean that almost every emotion you have is attached to an object. That object can be an event, a person, a circumstance etc. Emotions are also volatile in the sense that they seem to shift at a very rapid pace depending on what object you come in contact with or sometimes they seemingly shift on their own without an object.

As Piper and Edwards have written, the proper emotional response to God is joy. Delight. Satisfaction. When you truly grasp the gravity, goodness, and greatness of God, your heart should overflow with delight. Why is this often not your experience practically? I think it is because you and I let other objects besides God grip our hearts and thereby shift our emotional response delighting in God to something lesser. The fight of glorifying God with your emotions is a fight to keep your heart continually delighting in who God is. This is easily said, but hard to do practically.

Responding to God’s glory with affectionate authentic joy requires anchoring your emotional faculties to who God reveals himself to be.

The goal is not to conjure up some sort of fake, excessive, emotional response. Emotions, because they are volatile, come and go rather rapidly. What you can control, however, if the consistency and fervor with which you pursue delight in the Lord. A good analogy would be feeling affection and delight for your spouse. Your emotional response to your spouse is not always proportional to their value. But as you spend time with them, think over their attributes in your mind, talk with them, prioritize them, oftentimes a proper affection follows. The hope is that over time, your emotions become less volatile with regards to your spouse and you enjoy more consistent times of extended delight. By consistently returning again and again to the desired object or your affections, you will likely experience more frequent moments of love and delight and joy in that object.

A heart overflowing with love and delight and joy in who God is shows God’s inherent greatness, worth, and importance.

Responding volitionally to God’s glory

How can you display God’s infinite value with your will? Actions? Lifestyle? This is a big question and a whole post could be written on answering this question in each area of life. But I think at a fundamental level, displaying God’s worth with your actions means obedience. In particular, obedience to the moral commands laid out in God’s word. The world would have you determine your own fate, decide what you want to do, ”do what is right in your own eyes.” When you remove an eternal sovereign God from the picture, you are left to determine and serve yourself.

Therefore, the simplest and most fundamental way to display the worth and weight of God is to deny yourself and live for Him. To let God determine who you are and what you are to do with your life. Was there ever a time that self-denial and prioritizing God were more counter-cultural? By choosing to obey God rather than choosing to obey your own desires, you are effectively saying to the sinful world around you ”I am not ultimate. You are not ultimate. There is a God who is ultimate. And He determines what life is, what life isn’t, and what we, as create creatures, should do.”

Radical, ordinary, everyday obedience is a testimony to God’s glory.

It is a testimony that God is so exceedingly glorious and valuable that He is superior to your own desires and pleasing Him is the greatest good you can do. Now, just because glorifying God with your will is simple at a fundamental level does not mean it is easy. Choosing God over self is a daily battle to ”deny yourself, take up your cross” and follow Christ. But in calling us to lose our life for the sake of the Gospel, Jesus is calling us to show to the world that there is someone greater than anything and is worth us losing our life for.

Obedience and self-sacrifice are both acts of the will by which you can display God’s glory to the world around you.

Conclusion: Responding to God’s glory is the privilege of the Christian

Responding to God’s glory with a life of worship is the great privilege of the Christian. Unbelievers live their lives in this world blind and trapped in the black hole of self-glorification. While the culture pretends this is an enlightened and viable way to live, the Christian knows better. Self-glorification is nothing more than trying to quench your thirst with a broken cup when a fountain of living water is in front of you (see Jeremiah 2:13).

In that sense, the Christian’s chief end to ”glorify God and enjoy Him forever” is not a burdensome duty, anymore than the invitation to drink from a fountain of life is a burdensome duty. It is the highest privilege and blessing you can be given. It is a calling to taste and see that the Lord is good, to come and buy food without price, and to experience the eternal life of knowing the Lord. You cannot be too committed to pursing a deeper knowledge of God’s infinite value. Nor can you be too committed to displaying with your mind, will, and life that knowledge you have of God’s infinite value. If you are a Christian, revel in the knowledge that you get to live a life of ”praising the one who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

For more of my assorted reflections on a myriad of topics, click here. If you found this post helpful, please share on social media below and subscribe. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.
6 Spiritual Conditions in Your Congregation

6 Spiritual Conditions in Your Congregation

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The insight of Puritan pastors never ceases to amaze me. One area where Puritan pastors have helped me immensely is in learning how to preach and apply the Word of God. William Perkins in his book “The Art of Prophesying” writes that there are essentially 6 different spiritual conditions that can be found in any collection of people you preach to. Each of these spiritual conditions requires a slightly different preaching approach.

Perkins’ analysis is crucial for any pastor, elder, or person who finds themselves teaching or preaching at Church. Knowing the different spiritual conditions a person might find themself in will aid you in your sermon application, your sermon delivery, and in how you pray for the congregation to receive your exposition. Additionally, these broad categories will help you pastorally as you seek to build up and equip the congregation God has given you to shepherd.

1. Unbelievers who are ignorant and unteachable

The first category Perkins gives is unbelievers who are “ignorant and unteachable.” There are some humans who are both unaware of the state of their souls before God, and who also have no desire to hear the truth explained to them. One might label such people as “hard-hearted.” They are contentedly living a life of rebellion against God and spurn any rebuke or conviction they might receive from Scripture.

For those in this spiritual condition, Perkins recommends trying to reason with them. In particular, you should try to explain to them their wrong attitude and call out any known sins with the hope that their “consciences may be aroused.” The only way an unteachable unbeliever can be helped is for you to plead with them to see sin and its effect in their life. If you start to see the Spirit’s work in softening their hearts and making them teachable, you can continue in a more thorough explanation of truth. But if their hearts remain hard, only God has the power to make them teachable.

The implication for preaching or teaching is clear: be sure to impress upon your listeners the gravity of sin and fearful consequences of living a life in rebellion to God.

You cannot soften a human heart in your own power. But you can boldly and unashamedly proclaim the truth of humanity’s total depravity.

Don’t shy away from specifically calling out sin from your pulpit. It may be the only time an unbeliever gets their lifestyle questioned or challenged. Be like Paul when he preached to Felix on “righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25). And then having preached truthfully and soberly on sin and its consequences, pray that the dead hearts in your congregation would become teachable.

2. Teachable but ignorant

The second of these many spiritual conditions is a person who willing to learn, but who doesn’t possess knowledge of Scripture or the Christian faith. Perkins recommends using the catechism to help such people start to understand the fundamental principles of Christianity. The two doctrines Perkins recommends you start with are salvation and the glory of God. Focus on the “milk” of the Christian faith and seeking to answer clearly and concisely any questions the person may have.

Again, this has implications for how you preach in your Church. Within your congregation, there will be those who have a lesser understanding of Scripture and of its doctrines. Some may be unbelievers but who want to hear more about the Gospel. Others may be young believers who have not been instructed fully into all the different aspects of Scripture and Theology. While I don’t recommend you preach a catechism from the pulpit, seek to define terms clearly and try to anticipate and answer questions your listeners might have.

Don’t assume that every single person in your Church is at the same or even a similar level of knowledge. Even for common terms such as “justification” and “righteousness” seek to give a clear and concise definition. When you are done with your teaching manuscript, read through it and imagine that you are a new believer in the congregation. What questions would you have? Ensure that in the course of your sermon you answer any questions you anticipate a newer believer asking.

3. Have knowledge but aren’t humbled

This third category of people have an intellectual understanding of the truths of Scripture. However, they have not been convicted of sin nor have they been “humbled.” What Perkins refers to here is a “godly sorrow” that leads to repentance. Perkins defines “godly sorrow” as grief for sin because it is sin. In other words, true humbling conviction comes when a person is is sorrowful over sin itself, not merely the consequences of sin.

What Perkins recommends for people in this spiritual condition is the preaching of the law. The goal is to show the height of God’s standards so that a person can actually realize the extent and gravity of their sin. Of course, Perkins immediately clarifies the goal of preaching the law is to lead them to Christ and the hope of the Gospel. But if a person knows truth generally but feels no conviction of sin, the best thing a preacher can do is show them their dire need of a Savior.

Of all the spiritual conditions listed here, this one might be most pressing for preachers in modern-day America. Never before has information about the Bible been more readily available. Many in your congregation no doubt have a dozen different copies of the Bible along with dozens of good Books written by good Christians. Most of the time in your Church, issues won’t arise as much from a lack of information as much as from a lack of conviction of sin.

Remember when you go to preach that your congregation does not merely need to receive more “facts” about the Bible. They need to have their lives confronted with its teaching.

If you pastor or teach in very intellectual congregation, heed Perkins’ advice: lay out for them the moral demands of God’s law. The Bible teaches that “knowledge puffs up” and one of the best antidotes to pride is the humbling effect of preaching the law of God.

4. The humbled

People who find themselves in this category have the strong conviction of sin discussed above. Perkins gives two words of advice for dealing with these type of people: 1. ensure that their humbling is not merely external or superficial and 2. offer the comforts of the gospel. Perkins warns not to give comfort to someone prematurely who has not been truly humbled. I take this to mean you should not give the promise of assurance until you are sure of a person’s heartfelt repentance. False assurance can doom a person to think that they are save when they are not.

When you are preaching, don’t miss the opportunity to “do the work of an evangelist” by preaching clearly the hope of the Gospel. The only hope in life and death you can offer people is Christ alone. Therefore, if you neglect to clearly share the hope of Christ when preaching, you are missing the opportunity to give comfort to those in your congregation who are feeling the weight of their sin. Remind them to turn their eyes to Christ and His finished work, not merely to “try harder”.

5. Believers

Perkins gives three main categories of truths to teach those who are already believers: the gospel, the law, and the danger of indwelling sin. By “Gospel”, Perkins means preach justification, sanctification, and the perseverance of the saints. The law when preached to believers should mainly be calling them to holy living rather than proclaiming the curse of the law since Christians are free from that curse in Christ. However, Perkins does argue for preaching the consequences of disobedience to God, even if a Christian is free from the ultimate curse of the law.

Perkins goes as far as to say that if you want to fight your indwelling sin, you must begin by meditating on the law. Why? To remain humble and to cause you to fear using the freedom you have in Christ as an excuse for sin. And again Perkins states that the ultimate goal is to remind yourself of the gospel as your ultimate rest and comfort.

A whole separate post could be written on these three categories of teaching Perkins recommends for believers. Suffice to say, make sure that you teach on each of these categories frequently. Don’t spend all your time teaching on ambiguous doctrines or obscure texts. These are profitable at times, but ensure you are sticking consistently to preaching the Gospel, obedience to Christ, and war against indwelling sin. Whether your congregation recognizes it or not, these are the three most pressing categories of truth for their lives.

6. Fallen into sin

The last of the spiritual conditions I will discuss is a believer who has “fallen back” from the faith either “in faith or in lifestyle.” Perkins spends several paragraphs describing this type of person and I recommend you read his full discussion, as it is incredibly insightful. By way of summary, falling back in faith comes from falling into error. The pastor must correct any known error and remind the individual of the truths of the Gospel. Falling back in lifestyle means falling into sin such, as David with Bathsheba. Perkins recommends again expounding the law to this person so they can run back to the Gospel in repentance.

Correcting error and calling the congregation to renewed repentance both are necessary components of preaching. In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul commands Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” There both an instructive and corrective component to preaching God’s word faithfully. And since you likely don’t know the specific spiritual state of each person in the congregation, ensure you are regularly confronting error and confronting sin so that those listening might hopefully avoid falling into either.

Your congregation has a mix of these spiritual conditions

Each of these spiritual conditions is likely represented by someone in your congregation. The visible Church is mixed with believers and unbelievers in various levels of spiritual health. Perkins’ categories are helpful for understanding the spiritual conditions you might encounter and how best to address them. Even though there are nuances to each response, at the end of the day, Perkins recommends constantly bringing people back to the law and the gospel. The hope is that people will see clearly the depths of their sin and their need for a savior.

For more tools to help you prepare sermons and teachings, click here. If you want to read another post on Puritan ideas about sermons, click here. If you found this post helpful, share and subscribe below. Follow the Average Churchman on Instagram to get updated whenever there is a new post.

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6 Tips for a Better Small Group

6 Tips for a Better Small Group

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Small groups are an essential part of local Church life. Certainly there are ways to get to know a fellow Church member after a Sunday morning service. But, in my experience, a mid-week small group is the best way for a subset of the Church body to mingle, worship together, and get to know one another. Like any gathering of the local Church, there is always the potential for your small group to remain shallow or to fail at it’s goal of fostering spiritual closeness among believers. That is why I want to give 6 tips for a better small group based on my own experience.

Tip #1: Define “small” and keep it a small group

This is one of the most important keys to a better small group. It is easy for a small group to grow and grow until it is no longer “small”. Why is this a problem? A larger small group can make it difficult to foster a deeper spiritual closeness with those around you. A small group must be “small” so that you can really connect with the group of people you regularly meet with. Once the group gets too big, you end up in most cases trading depth of relationship for vague familiarity.

Additionally, a large small group can make it difficult for Church members who aren’t comfortable in large groups to share their thoughts and prayer requests. Not everyone is this way, but a good chunk of your congregation will likely have a tough time sharing any deep spiritual concerns once your group reaches a certain size. Finally, a large small group ends up becoming challenging logistically. Your small group size will determine where you can meet and, the larger the group is, the less options will exist.

How can you avoid thees problems? Define from day 1 what “small” means. How large will you let your small group become before you split it into two groups? And once you have defined what “small” means, be up front with the members of your small group. Let them know and prepare them for the day when the small group will need to become two. Prepare potential small group leaders ahead of time so everything is ready when you need to “plant” another small group.

Tip #2: Meet in a Church member’s house (or at least not at Church)

If you want a better small group, meet in a Church member’s house if at all possible. In my experience, nothing beats the comfort of a home to foster closeness and open discussion. If this isn’t possible, then at least try to meet somewhere other than the actual Church building. You want to distinguish as clearly as possible to your small group members that this is not a mini-Church service. It is a gathering whose goal is to bring together Church members in a more intimate setting.

Why is where you meet is so important? I have attended small groups both in Church member’s houses and in the actual Church building. Both were great and spiritually profitable, however, I personally find that people are generally more comfortable with opening up in an actual house. Think about it this way: small group is a time to engage with and interact with fellow Church members in a different setting than Sunday service. Part of that is actually physically meeting and interacting with Church members in their “home turf” if you will.

Small group and hospitality go hand in hand. If you keep your small groups actually “small”, then the hope is that two or three attendees will be able to host you in their home. Will it take sacrifice on the part of the host? Of course. But:

You shouldn’t expect to become close with fellow Church members if you never open up and let them into your world. Your real world, your real home, the real place you and your family live.

Tip #3: Pray and sing together

Small groups can fall into two extremes: becoming a mini-Church service or becoming a completely loose “hang out” time. What is the middle ground? A structured gathering that is spiritually profitable, but also allows time and flexibility for Church members to simply interact. The best small groups I have attended have had a time of prayer and singing. Both of these are spiritually profitable, interactive, and semi-structured.

If you have someone who is musically inclined in attendance, give them the responsibility of leading the singing. 3-4 songs is usually sufficient but I have been in small groups where people want to keep singing and praising the Lord. “A small group that sings together and prays together, stays together” should be a motto. After a time of singing, I would go immediately into a time of prayer and sharing prayer requests. This shouldn’t be rushed. Let your attendees have time to really think about what sins they are fighting, what issues they need prayer for, and what praises they want to corporately bring before the Lord.

If you lead a small group, be okay with a small group meeting that spends most of its time simply singing and praying to the Lord. I don’t think you can pray or sing “too much” as long as both are focused on the Lord. Additionally, some small group members will open up and engage in the singing and prayer time who won’t feel confident enough to chime in during a group Bible study. Give these people a chance to engage and worship and grow closer with the group.

Tip #4: Have a structured discussion around God’s Word

After a time of singing and praying, I would have some form of structured discussion around God’s word. My small group discusses the sermon from the previous Sunday and tries to think through applications of the sermon to our lives. But this is not the only way to dive into the Word together. The benefit of sermon application, however, is it provides a structured conversation around a passage that all attendees are familiar with.

Whatever you choose to do, make your time in God’s word structured. Have someone leading the discussion with a passage chosen ahead of time, questions chosen ahead of time, and a general flow of the discussion chosen ahead of time. Keep the questions open ended, but make sure your small group isn’t going around simply sharing their assorted thoughts and feelings about a particular passage. Have a goal in mind and then help lead a guided discussion to get your group there.

Tip #5: Initiate open and honest discussion

Every Church member I have met likes the idea of having close, meaningful, spiritually-edifying relationships with their fellow Church members. They like the idea of being open and honest about their sin, their struggles, their spiritual victories, their doubts. But when it comes time to gather with actual people, everyone is wary of dropping their guard and opening up.

Here is the reality: someone has to initiate openness. And that someone is going to have to be you. If you wait around for your small group to spontaneously develop a culture of loving openness and spiritual honesty, you are going to be waiting a long time. Take personal responsibility to lead the group in the right direction. And it does not matter if you are the actual small group leader. Someone has to initiate spiritual openness. Why can’t it be you?

Be the Christian who is so passionate about God’s glory, so certain of Jesus’ justifying grace, and so focused on corporate sanctification that you are comfortable with candidly communicating where you are at spiritually.

Most of the time, fear of man is the thing that keeps us from sharing the not-so-perfect parts of our life. Of course, there is a balance to this. You don’t need to go into all the gory details of your most recent sin. And you don’t want to spend the whole discussion time focused on self. But take the initiative to drop your guard and accept that you are still have areas where you need to grow in Christlikeness.

Tip #6: Find a couple people to go deeper with outside of small group

Small group is a great place to go deep with fellow Church members. But there will always be a limit. You cannot have the same level of closeness with everyone and chances are, your small group is already too large for you to go deep with everyone. The solution? Use small group as a way to find an even smaller group of people to meet up with and go even deeper with. I would say that you and three others is probably an ideal sub-small group.

This will do two things: first of all, you will have a close couple Church members who you will really know and will really know you. Second, that closeness will manifest itself in a number of ways when you gather with the entire small group or even on a Sunday morning. Let gathering with Church members begat further gathering with Church members. Find people within your small group who you want to disciple or be discipled by and then meet up some other time during the week.

Conclusion

Small group is a great tool to ensure the members of your local Church are developing close, discipling relationships. One of the great joys of being a Church member and committing to a local body is getting to know other Church members. This means not just knowing their names, their vocations, or that their week “was good.” It means loving them in the fullest Biblical sense. It means sharing your lives, encouraging one another’s faith, and seeking to do spiritual good to the other person. I hope these 6 brief tips have gotten you to think about how you can make your small group even more glorifying to God and more edifying for those who attend.

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book quote of the week
An Easy Way to Do Your Quiet Time

An Easy Way to Do Your Quiet Time

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My wife loves Elisabeth Elliot. So, when we celebrated her birthday a bit ago, her parents bought my wife one of Elliot’s books called “Keep a Quiet Heart.” As I often do when I encounter a new book, I skimmed through the contents to see if anything jumped out at me. The book itself is a collection of short topical sections. It wasn’t long before I stumbled upon a section that I found particularly helpful. The section is called “Hints for Quiet Time” and I thought that Elliot gave an excellent and easy way to do your quiet time which I want to share today.

Read a few verses, a paragraph, or a chapter. Then ask, What does this passage teach me about: (1) God, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) the Holy Spirit, (4) myself, (5) sins to confess or avoid, (6) commands to obey, (7) what Christian love is?

From “Keep a Quiet Heart” by Elisabeth Elliot

What the quote means

In the small, page-long section on quiet time, Elliot emphasizes the importance of having a daily quiet time with the Lord. In particular, Elliot wants to help out busy parents who know they need to have a quiet time, but are not sure how to fit it into their busy schedule. Elliot recommends doing your quiet time in the morning, working through a book of the Bible, and answering the questions she gives above.

The questions Elliot gives are simple, but they cover a lot of ground. You first see if their is anything the passage teaches you about any of the members of the Trinity. Then, you ask what the passage teaches about how you should live your own life. Simply put, the questions boil down to “what does this passage teach me about God” and “how then should I live in light of this passage?” Elliot rightly points out that actually writing down your answers to these questions in a notebook is a good idea.

Finally, she recommends you make it a point to share what you learned in you quiet time with your spouse and your children. I think this point is essential because one of the ways you remember what you study is by using what you have learned.

A great way to ensure that you remember God’s word is to teach God’s word to others.

Elliot says you can complete these steps, answer the above questions, and have some time in prayer in 15 minutes if that is all the time you have. But the more you spend time with the Lord, the longer that time will likely become.

Why it is important

I think we need to distinguish between quiet time and a full on, in-depth Bible study. If you plan on having the latter every morning before you start your day, you are setting yourself up to fail. You might occasionally be able to complete an in-depth Bible study before work or before caring for kids. But more often then not, your morning quiet time will be a half-hour to an hour time where you get to pray and spend some time reading a section of God’s Word.

However, just because your quiet time might not be as long as an in-depth Bible study does not mean it should have no structure or should stay at a surface level of analysis and reflection. What I love about Elisabeth Elliot’s advice is it gives you 7 easy questions that force you to look at the text and think. It is all too easy to pass over what you read with little to no understanding. And if that is the case, you should not be surprised if you “don’t get much out of” your morning quiet time.

If you want an easy way to do your quiet time, start by taking Elliot’s recommendation and keep a notebook where you record your answers to these 7 questions. Work through a book of the Bible, write down what you see in each daily chunk, and then spend some time in prayer. Your quiet time will be richer and more Spiritually beneficial if you ask questions and write out answers. It might feel like work but “in all toil there is profit”, especially when it comes to the Word of God.

Don’t settle for a short, surface level quiet time. Ask and answer questions that will force you to meditate on the passage you are reading.

Implications

1. You are never too busy to dig into God’s Word

How long would it honestly take you to read a chapter of the Bible and write down the answers to the 7 questions Elisabeth Elliot gives? Not everyone has an hour or two in the morning to spend in deep Bible study, but there is not a single Christian who couldn’t have a simple quiet time as defined by Elliot. Reading the Bible, asking these 7 questions of your reading, and praying in response might not seem like much. But every day you commit to digging into the Bible, you encounter the life-changing Word of God.

“I don’t have time” or “Bible study is too difficult” should never be excuses for failing to have consistent time with the Lord. Elliot makes it so simple and practical: examine the text and your own life using the 7 questions she gives. You don’t need to be a Pastor or a Theologian to do this. You don’t have to be particularly brilliant or incredibly insightful. But what you do have to do is set aside time.

Spiritual growth is as simple as setting aside your excuses and setting aside time to spend with the Lord.

2. Spiritual growth takes disciplined effort over time

Even though Elliot gives an easy way to do your quiet time, it still requires two things: effort and time. You cannot get away from this. If you are going to grow any sort of flower in a garden, it isn’t going to spontaneously appear out of thin air. You will need to put time and effort into planting and watering the flower. So too with spiritual growth.

Quiet time doesn’t have to be complicated, but it will always require effort and time on your part.

Here is the reality: as soon as you commit to put disciplined time and effort into pursuing the Lord, every sort of roadblock and excuse and difficulty will appear. The Christian life is spiritual war remember. So if you are going to commit to spiritual growth, you are going to have to commit to fight. To fight distraction. To fight laziness. You will have to guard your time with the Lord when other “priorities” seep in. Elliot gives a marvelous method for spending time with the Lord. But only you can commit to scheduling and keeping your daily time with God.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

book quote of the week
Christ Already Took Care of the Big Problems

Christ Already Took Care of the Big Problems

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How should assurance of salvation change your life? That is a question J. C. Ryle answers magnificently in his book “Holiness.” Ryle contends that many Christians live life either without assurance of their salvation, or are indifferent towards it. In a great chapter, Ryle lays out why assurance of salvation is important and what characterizes the life of a believer who has assurance of salvation. Today, I want to think through a particularly gripping point Ryle made : assurance of salvation allows Christians to rest in the fact that Christ has already taken care of the big problems of life.

(Assurance) enables him to feel that the great business of life is a settled business, the great debt a paid debt, the great disease a healed disease, and the great work a finished work; and all other business, disease, debts and works are by comparison small.

“Holiness” by J.C. Ryle

What the quote means

This quote appears in a section of Holiness where Ryle wants to show how assurance of salvation affects the life of a believer. In particular, Ryle is concerned that Christians who do not have assurance often are greatly affected by the uncertainties of life. “Doubts and fears have the power to spoil much of the happiness of a true believer in Christ” Ryle argues. If you doubt your own salvation, how can you expect to maintain a joy in Christ? In this section, Ryle is arguing from the lesser to the greater.

If uncertainty causes doubt, fear, and joylessness on a physical level, how much more will uncertainty on the state of your soul cause doubt, fear, and joylessness on a spiritual level?

In the quote above, Ryle is listing a blessing that comes when Christians are sure of their salvation. Namely, assurance of salvation gives the Christian a unique perspective of life: Christ has already taken care of the big problems of life, death, and eternity. Therefore, all other issues which Christians inevitably face in life are not nearly as big or as frightening.

Why it is important

The Christians life is a fight of faith and the fight of faith is a fight to see.

What do I mean by “see”? A lot of your day to day Christianity comes down to believing and holding onto God’s promises over and against whatever you are dealing with on a physical level. Daily you wake up and fight to maintain a Christ-centered, gospel-oriented perspective. What you practically believe about Jesus and the Gospel is going to affect how you respond to and feel about every situation you face in a given day.

Ryle’s point is that if you do not have the perspective that Christ has objectively, decisively, and eternally dealt with the absolute biggest problem in your life (i.e. your sin), then you will see the world in a completely wrong way. If you don’t see your own sin as your biggest problem and Christ as the final solution, then every problem, big or small, will throw you off. It will take your joy, cause you to doubt, create a large amount of anxiety in your heart, and rob you of any contentment.

In short, if you don’t believe Christ has already taken care of the big problems of your life, you will feel overwhelmed by all the smaller problems you face. So, you must fight to hold on to the proper Biblical evaluation of your life:

  • Your biggest issue in your life is not your circumstances, those around you, your lack of opportunity, your lack of money or power, your looks, or anything of that nature. Your biggest problem is that you have personally sinned and broken the law of the eternally Holy God.
  • There is no amount of effort on your part that can counteract the broken relationship you have with God nor remove His just punishment on your rebellion.
  • The only possible way to reconcile with a thrice-Holy God is through the means He provides. Specifically, through Jesus bearing the punishment and wrath that your sin deserves.
  • For those who believe in Christ, there is “therefore now no condemnation” and, instead of getting God’s just wrath, you receive God’s undeserved favor.

When you have this perspective, this worldview, then life suddenly becomes a lot more manageable. Your circumstances didn’t change. Your position in the world didn’t change. But by faith you realize that your biggest problem was the one thing you could never deal with yourself. But Christ has. If you are assured of that reality, then there is a peace and a rest and a contentment which could never be found any other way.

Takeaways

1. Renew your mind through prayer and the Word every morning

From the time you wake up in the morning to the time you sleep at night, you are going to be bombarded with false worldviews that are contrary to Scripture. The world is going to tell you that you have a hundred different problems that you need to solve now. You aren’t pretty or handsome enough. You don’t have enough money. Your car isn’t fancy enough. You aren’t happy unless you buy this or that.

If you enter your day without time in the Word and in prayer, you may as well walk into a war-zone with nothing but a T-shirt and shorts. You have no protection, no Christ-centered perspective apart from prayer and the promises of the Bible. In fact, you probably need several times during the day where you renew your mind with the Word. Don’t think for a second that you are impervious to the false messages you hear every day. If you remind yourself that Christ already took care of the big problems, then you will be able to resist all the voices of the world that try to convince you that you have a whole lot of issues you need to solve.

2. Simplify your life by resting on Christ’s completed work

I find that most of my frustrations, anxieties, and annoyances come from trying to solve a “big problem” I think I see in my life. But every problem will look big to you until Christ becomes bigger to you. Life becomes a lot simpler and joyful when you realize Christ already took care of the big problems. You suddenly can both rest in the reality of the Gospel while also faithfully serving where God has you. You stop trying to work to earn the favor of man or God.

Do you feel stressed, overwhelmed, and anxious about the next day? Perhaps you either don’t have assurance of salvation or you are not fixing your mind on it as you should.

As Ryle writes, when you have the finished work of Christ in your mind and heart, all your businesses, diseases, debts, and works that you must deal with seem small in comparison. As is so often the case, most of your problems in life come down to whether you are trusting Christ and His promises or not. Look at your life and take stock. See if there is any “thing you have to do” or “problem you have to solve” which actually is coming from you not resting in Christ.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

coworkers don't have the church
Remember: Your Coworkers Don’t Have the Church

Remember: Your Coworkers Don’t Have the Church

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If you are a Christian who regularly attends a Bible-preaching Church, you can easily assume everyone you interact with enjoys the same privileges as you. In particular, you can easily assume when you enter your secular workplace that, to some degree or another, you and your coworkers lead similar lives. After all, you work at the same place and you probably have the same educational background. What makes you so different? One of the most important things you can do as you go off to work is to remember that your coworkers don’t have the Church. And that has several implications that you should keep in mind when you enter the world of your 9 to 5.

They don’t have regular exposure to God’s Word

If you are a member of a solid local Church, chances are week after week one of your Elders opens up God’s word and explains to you what it means and how it should impact your life. When you have regular exposure to the preached Word, whether you are aware of it or not, the Holy Spirit uses that Word to conform your life to the image of Christ. When you hear the Word preached, your worldviews are confronted, your sins are exposed, your heart is encouraged, and your gaze is directed back towards the reality that you are a sinner in a world ruled by a holy God and your one hope is the propitiation provided in Christ’s blood.

Since your coworkers don’t have the Church, they do not have the regular exposure to God’s Word. When you come into the office on Monday morning, you most likely just came off of a blessed day of rest, reflection, and spiritual revival. Your coworkers, on the other hand, are not starting their week with any sort of conviction of sin or encouragement of faith. Many spent their weekend trying to forget about the week, spending time drinking or pursuing worldly pleasure. Whatever they chose to do, if your coworkers don’t attend a faithful local Church, they do not have the same exposure to God’s word as you do.

What does this mean? You need to be a voice of truth in the office. Your coworkers don’t have the luxury of consistently having their life confronted by the truth. In fact, they might never be exposed all week to God’s word. Think of how different you life would be if you weren’t consistently hearing God’s word. Imagine how you would view the world or the wrong things you would prioritize. You would have nothing but self to live for and to serve. Idolatry would reign in your heart unchecked and uncontested.

Be diligent to take every opportunity to share God’s truth with your coworkers. You might be the only avenue they have to hear it.

They aren’t consistently warned about their sin

Sin is deceitful and damning. Not only will sin send you to Hell, it will send you to Hell while convincing you that you are on the path to Heaven. Ever since the fall humans in their natural state choose everything contrary to God’s law and seek to glorify and serve self rather than the living God. The local Church is a place where, as the author of Hebrews says, you are exhorted over the deceitfulness of your personal sin. Through the sermon, discussions, and prayer, every time you go to Church, you are reminded that your biggest problem in life is your sin and that, even though you are saved, indwelling sin threatens to draw you away from Christ.

Since your coworkers don’t have the Church, they aren’t being warned about the eternal danger of sin. Most likely, the word “sin” isn’t in their vocabulary. Your coworkers almost certainly don’t see personal sin as the most destructive and dangerous thing in their life nor do they contemplate that most of their problems come down to living in rebellion to God. Think about who you would be if no one warned you about your sin. You most likely would keep living in ignorance and rebellion, never giving a second thought to the things of God and developing for yourself a host of ideas about the world that are not true.

What does this mean? Don’t be surprised if your coworkers call “good evil and evil good.” Without the word of God to define morality and a loving community of believers to remind you to “pursue holiness, without which no one will see God,” people end up simply doing and believing what feels good to them. “Live your truth” is the creed of our age. Therefore, your coworkers political views, moral views, their work ethic, and a host of other issues are not determined by God’s word. So when you are tempted to follow a coworkers advice or accept an argument they are making, remind yourself that they most likely have no idea of the reality of sin in their own heart or in the world.

Be incredibly discerning and make sure truth is defined by God.

They don’t regularly spend time with Godly people

One of the great blessings of being a part of the body of Christ is the type of people you hang out with weekly. There are certainly difficulties with interactions and relationships within the local Church. At the end of the day, however, your fellow Church members are the godliest people you could choose hang around with. Though there are exceptions, your Church no doubt is full of saints both young and old who love the Lord Jesus Christ and who are seeking to humbly grow in godliness. Not only that, but most of them are willing and desire to help you grow in your knowledge and practice of the Christian faith. Where else can you find such excellent and spiritually profitable company than in the local Church?

Since your coworkers don’t have the Church, they do not have consistent interaction with godly people. Remember what Paul says: “bad company corrupts good morals.” Imagine the type of person you would be if you never spent extended, consistent time with people who served and loved God. No doubt as the years went on, you would become more and more indifferent to spiritual things. In fact, when you actually came in contact with a genuinely godly person, you would likely be indifferent towards them and think them entirely odd, stupid, or evil. That is the life most of your coworkers live week to week. Your coworkers aren’t exposed to people who seek to obey the Lord or who seek to glorify Him in all things.

What does this mean? How you behave at work represents what Christianity is to your coworkers. Don’t assume your coworkers have dozens of godly Christian examples they interact with daily. You interacting with them is likely the only time they get to see what Christianity means “up close and personal.” Your behavior will either “adorn the gospel” or will make the gospel seen powerless. So enter your workplace assuming that you, and no one else, are setting the example for your coworkers of what godliness looks like.

You might be the only Christian your coworkers interact with closely during the week. Therefore, you have the high calling and privilege of representing Christ to them.

Conclusion

If you are a member of a solid local Church, you get consistent exposure to God’s word, your sins are confronted, and you spend time with godly people. Your coworkers, on the other hand, likely have none of those privileges. So pray before you clock in each morning that your conduct would honor the name of Christ, that you would take every opportunity to speak truth, and that you would be protected from any ungodly influence while at work.

View yourself as an “ambassador for Christ” in the workplace and you will start to see more and more opportunities to glorify God in your “secular” vocation.

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book quote of the week
6 Sure Marks of Spiritual Growth

6 Sure Marks of Spiritual Growth

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J. C. Ryle is probably my favorite Christian author of all time. No matter who else I read, I always find myself returning to Ryle. He had a gift for communicating profound truths clearly and directly. So, when I had a break this past Christmas from Master’s classes, I decided to start reading through “Holiness.” If you are looking for a book to read in the New Year, I strongly recommend “Holiness.” I have not read a book as spiritually beneficial in a long time. In keeping with what I have been writing about lately, I wanted to discuss 6 marks of spiritual growth J. C. Ryle gives in this book.

Increased humility

Increased faith and love towards our Lord Jesus Christ

Increased holiness of life and conversation

Increased spirituality of taste and mind

Increase of charity

Increased zeal and diligence in trying to do good to souls

J.C. Ryle from the chapter “Growth” in “Holiness“

What the quote means

The above marks of spiritual growth occur in a chapter where Ryle wants to impress on his readers that spiritual growth is an essential part of the Christian life. According to Ryle, there are many professing believers who do not care at all about growing spiritually or think that spiritual growth is not a necessary part of the Christian life. Ryle spends the first part of the chapter arguing that there is such thing as spiritual growth and that every earnest believer must ask themselves “am I growing spiritually?”

But Ryle doesn’t just want his readers to accept that spiritual growth is taught in the Bible or that it is important. He lays out 6 marks of spiritual growth so that you and I can take stock of our lives to see if we are, in fact, growing. Each of these marks is rooted in Scripture and is based on Ryle’s assumption that humans are poor judges of their own character. Therefore, Ryle recommends you examine your pattern of life in light of the 6 categories given above to get a more or less objective look at whether you are growing spiritually or not.

Why it is important

Most serious Christians I have met desire to grow spiritually. But a lot of times “spiritual growth” is so abstract that it becomes hard to answer the question “am I growing spiritually?” Oftentimes, Christians answer that question by seeing if they are growing in Biblical or theological knowledge or by looking at how busy they are doing “Christian activity” (small groups, Bible studies, etc.). These are good, but the 6 marks of spiritual growth Ryle gives are much better measures to test our lives against.

Notice that the list Ryle gives is not focused merely on head knowledge or doing Christian activities. Each of the 6 qualities are focused on how you practically relate to God, to yourself, and to others. The first mark given is humility which Ryle describes as a growing sense of sin and unworthiness as you draw closer to a thrice holy God.

If you are truly growing in the knowledge of God, such knowledge will humble you rather than puff you up.

The second mark concerns your love for Christ. You can know a lot of true things about God, and even be a morally upright person but if you aren’t growing in your love of Jesus, it is all for naught. Another mark of spiritual growth is increased holiness of life, both in word and in action. Ryle makes the point that a growing Christian will seek to submit every aspect of his life to Christ.

The fourth mark is increased spiritual taste and mind. I thought Ryle made a very profound and helpful point here. If you are growing spiritually, your life won’t just change. What you value and enjoy doing will change too. You will become more and more interested in “spiritual companions, spiritual occupations, spiritual conversation.”

Growing Christians don’t just pursue spiritual things out of duty. Instead, all things connected to Christ and the gospel excite them.

The fifth mark is growing in charity, or love for others. Ryle spends a lot of time connecting this idea of loving others with being forbearing or long-suffering. A growing Christian will grow more gracious towards others when wronged and will seek to do good to all regardless of whether the other person deserves it or not. Finally, Ryle argues a growing Christian will become more and more concerned with the state of the souls around him. If you are growing, you are progressively more and more concerned for the unbelievers in your life. You pray fervently for their salvation and share truth with them every chance you get.

Takeaways

1. Consistently examine your life against these 6 marks of spiritual growth

A famous quote in business management is “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” A lot of times, you can have a vague idea of what spiritual growth is and a desire to grow. But when it comes down to how you specifically measure your progress in the Christian life, it is easy to get stuck. The 6 biblical measures of spiritual growth Ryle gives will allow you to actually get some measure of where you are in your walk with the Lord. And once you get an honest look at where you stand spiritually, you can prayerfully seek to improve in areas you know you fall short in.

In your morning quiet time or nightly journaling/reflection, take time once a week (or even more frequently) to examine the trends in your life. By that I mean are you increasing in each of these six areas? Or are your life patterns going away from these six ares? Ask yourself which of these six areas you need to grow in the most and then make that the focus of your next weeks prayer.

Don’t settle for vague, general prayers for spiritual growth. Use these 6 marks Ryle gives to ask the Lord specifically for sanctification in the areas you most need it.

2. Explicitly target these 6 marks of spiritual growth when discipling others

Every Christian is obligated to make disciples. Teaching others to observe all the Jesus commanded is an exciting but difficult task. How can you help another believer grow up in Christ? These six marks are an excellent starting point for discipling others. When you meet up with another believer, don’t just talk about the weather or overall how your week went. Ask a question about one of these six areas of the Christian life that Ryle gives.

Within the local Church, we should all be comfortable asking one another “how has the Lord grown you in humility this week?” Or confessing to a brother or sister “my taste for spiritual things has dulled the past few weeks.” Or praising the Lord together for a Church member who is increasing in zeal for the lost. Part of the privilege you have in the local Church is helping other believers grow spiritually. Use these six marks Ryle gives to frame your conversations so you can better spur your fellow brothers and sisters unto love and good deeds.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

start your year with thankfulness
7 Truths to Start Your Year with Thankfulness

7 Truths to Start Your Year with Thankfulness

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If you are a Christian, then according to Ephesians 1, you are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. You have been given everything you need for life and godliness. Moreover, Christians are invited by both the Old and New Testaments to give thanks to God for His goodness. So what could be a better use of your time than to start your year with thankfulness? In this post, I want to share 7 truths (in no particular order) that Christians can thank the Lord for as they start into 2022.

1. You have peace with God

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1 ESV

If this was the only promise on the list, it should cause you to be grateful to the Lord for your entire life. The world is at odds against God: it denies God’s existence, breaks His law, and worships anything but the living God. The majority of the world is starting this year against the Lord and thus does not have peace with God. But for the person who has repented and believed in Jesus, the war against God has ended. There is peace. Not because of anything you have done or could do. But because of the gospel.

This promise is sweet enough to give you joy every single day this year. Peace with God. Your sins forgiven. Start your year overwhelmed by the goodness of this good news.

No matter how chaotic your life or the world gets, you have peace with the only person that matters in the end: your Creator.

Let this “peace that passes all understanding” guard your heart and mind this year.

2. You don’t have to fear death

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:56-57 ESV

Death is an ever present reminder of sin and God’s judgement against it. God promised Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that on the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. The Bible says it is appointed for man once to die and then comes judgement. Death is a certainty that humbles us and testifies that there is something fundamentally wrong with the world. And it is this powerful enemy that Christ destroyed through His resurrection.

The world fears death, and rightfully so: it is too powerful for any person to avoid. But if you are united to Christ by faith, then you have victory over death. You don’t have to fear death anymore than you would fear a wasp without a stinger. Jesus has defeated death at it’s root: your sin. Your sins have made you deserving of death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Oh that we would thank God daily for this gift in 2022!

3. God is Lord over the nations and over history

Psalm 2 is one of my all time favorite passages. It was the text I chose for the first sermon I ever preached. It paints a compelling picture of the nations setting themselves against God and His anointed, but failing. God cannot be defeated by sinful humans and His plans are not thwarted by mankind’s rebellion. There is no individual, organization, or government that is strong enough to face Him. In fact, the only reasonable response to God’s sovereign majesty is to submit to His king: Jesus.

God’s rule over His universe is a truth you and I should remember in 2022. Oftentimes, it seems like current events are dictated by politicians or other powers in our society.

Let us never forget that there is only One who rules over history: the unchanging, all-powerful, eternal God.

You may not know what the year will hold, but you can start your year with thankfulness knowing that the one who does control what the year will hold is the same loving God who mercifully saved you through Jesus.

4. The Church will prevail over the gates of hell

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18 ESV

It has become commonplace to discuss the “state of the Church.” More often than not, there are a dozen ways people can find in which the Church is not living up to her high calling. Such analysis is necessary, but always remember that no matter how weak the visible Church may seem to you now, Jesus has promised that the Church will have victory in the end. In fact, He goes as far as to say the very gates of hell will not withstand the Church’s attack.

In other words, start 2022 with a positive outlook on Church, particularly your local Church. Don’t start the year by thinking about all the ways it falls short of the biblical ideal. Don’t start complaining or critiquing the things you think need to change. Start your year by reminding yourself that Jesus has already promised the Church victory. The world, the flesh, and the devil won’t win in the end. Then, go serve in your local Church this year with the full knowledge that your efforts are not in vain.

5. Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39 ESV

Loss is inevitable in a fallen world. Everything in life is fleeting and transient. Your life in 2022 will be different from your life in 2021. People change, circumstances change, opportunities come and go. But one thing will never change or alter: the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you are a Christian, you have something eternally indestructible. You have something that life’s changing circumstances can’t touch.

The love of Jesus is something you can always enjoy, always rely on, always count on.

The question is how much does Christ’s love for your affect your life? I once read a secular quote which said “…a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” Well, for the Christian, you have all three of these things in Christ: a Savior to love and be loved by eternally, a commission given by Jesus to devote your life to, and the hope of fully experiencing Jesus’ love for you after death. Pray that the indestructible love of Christ would compel you to greater faithfulness this year.

6. Christ will return and set all things right

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

Revelation 22:12-14 ESV

I don’t think Christians can meditate too much on the return of Christ. This world is cursed, full of sin and evil, and characterized primarily by rejection of God and His gospel. Jesus is resisted as He was during the time of His earthly ministry and those who side with Him are persecuted, slandered, and rejected. This has been true in every age of the world and will be true in 2022 as well.

But you and I can start the year with thankfulness because Jesus has promised to return and set things right. He is coming soon and will usher in the New Heavens and New Earth where righteousness will dwell. Such a promise should remind us to stay alert and watchful in the present. Now is the time Jesus has given us before He returns to do the works God has called us to and to preach the gospel to all nations.

7. The Holy Spirit is presently active in raising spiritually dead souls to life

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit

Titus 3:5 ESV

You can probably think of loved ones, coworkers, or people you know who are starting 2022 spiritually dead. They have not submitted to Christ, they have not interest in spiritual things, and are living in open, unrepentant sin. Remind yourself this new year that as spiritually dead as people are around you, the Holy Spirit can still open their eyes to see the glory of Christ in the gospel. With man it is impossible, but nothing is impossible with God.

The reality that the Holy Spirit regenerates people should give you boldness in your evangelism and every day conversation this year. You have no power to raise people from the dead spiritually. In fact, you couldn’t open your own blind eyes. It is God who must act if any human is to be saved. And He is acting.

2022 will be full of many events. But the most glorious events that will happen this year is God saving people from eternal death through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There will be more saints in heaven praising the Lord for His mercy and grace because of God’s work this year.

So, start your year with thankfulness to God for all these precious promises. Read His word so you can uncover other promises to thank Him for and live in light of in 2022. Your love for Christ and your conformity to Him will grow in proportion to the promises in Scripture that you know and believe.

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book quote of the week
Resolve to Grow in Godliness in 2022

Resolve to Grow in Godliness in 2022

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Believe it or not, 2022 is right around the corner. I always like the end of the year because it is an excellent time for reflection, self-examination, and prayerful commitment to new habits for the coming year. As I have written before (and here), I have been working through Jerry Bridges’ book “The Practice of Godliness.”This thought provoking volume has caused me to ask the question recently “how do I intend to grow in godliness in 2022?” Below is the quote that caused me to start asking the question.

“So there is a sense in which we are growing in our character every day. The question is, In which direction are we growing? Are we growing toward godly character or ungodly character?”

“The Practice of Godliness” by Jerry Bridges

What the quote means

This quote appears in a section where Bridges makes the point that developing godly character is a progression. You must “train yourself for godliness” as Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7. In other words, godly character is not going to just “happen” to you. You aren’t going to wake up one morning in perfect imitation of Christ. Godliness takes effort.

The word “train” should make you think of an Olympic athlete. An individual does not magically compete at the Olympic level. It requires training. Work. Commitment. Dedication. In commanding Timothy to train himself unto godliness, Paul is calling Timothy to work and to put forth consistent effort.

But then Bridges makes another point: you can train yourself “in the wrong direction” i.e. towards ungodliness. He references 2 Peter 2:14 which mentions false teachers who trained themselves in greed. Bridges then concludes this discussion by giving the quote above and saying every day what you do, think, or say will either lead you to godliness or to ungodliness. In other words:

You are becoming what you are training yourself to be today.

Why it is important

There is no neutral territory when it comes to godliness. Today, you will either grow in godliness or in ungodliness. The same will be true of tomorrow, the next day, and every single day in 2022 and every year after that. For the Christian, there is no “middle ground” between godly character and ungodly character. The actions you do, the things your heart values, and the thoughts you have on any given day are either in accordance with God’s revealed character or they are not. Therefore, it makes sense to conclude that whatever you find yourself habitually doing, thinking, and feeling indicates whether you are becoming a more or less godly person.

This has enormous implications. If Bridges’ point is true, then every day where you feel like you have not grown in godliness is a day you regressed. There are no “rest days” in your pursuit of godliness. If you resolve to work out more consistently in 2022, you can take rest days and still achieve your goal. But if you want to grow in godliness, you must commit every day to the pursuit of it.

Additionally, this means that there are no neutral actions, thoughts, or attitudes. If you are tired and lash out in anger towards your spouse or kids, you don’t get a free pass. That action and the corresponding attitude are ungodly and if not repented of, they will train you towards ungodliness. What I find helpful about Bridges’ quote is that he gives you an easy barometer to examine your actions:

Ask yourself “Is that thought, action, or attitude directing me towards Christ-likeness or away from it?”

Takeaways

1. Resolve to grow in godliness this year regardless of any other goals you might have

For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

1 Timothy 4:8, ESV

If you are a Christian, your resolution every single day should be to grow in godliness. The New Year is simply a good time to remind yourself of what Jesus already called you to. And make no mistake: of all the resolutions you make for 2022, training yourself unto godliness is the most important one and the most difficult one. If you miss a workout day, it won’t endanger your soul. But every day you are not training yourself unto godliness is a day you are regressing towards ungodly character. Growing in godliness is not easy; it is part of daily spiritual warfare.

But remember what Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:8. Your other resolutions might make you more productive or physically stronger or healthier but only godliness will benefit your present life and your life to come. When things get difficult, remind yourself that a day spent fighting for godliness is not a day wasted.

Every step towards godliness is pleasing to God, glorifies Christ, and better prepares you for the eternal weight of glory to come.

2. Honestly reflect at the end of each day whether you grew towards or away from Christ-likeness

This is where the “rubber meets the road”, so to speak. If you want to commit to grow in godliness in 2022, you are going to have to commit to daily, honest, self-reflection. You are going to have to take stock of what you did, what you felt, and what you thought. For most people, that means taking some time in the morning or before bed to get out a journal and prayerfully ask the Lord to help you see your day through His eyes. Then, you can examine ways you made spiritual progress, things you need to repent of, and ways you can improve tomorrow.

To use the workout analogy, most of the time when you are physically training you keep some sort of log of what you did, how many reps you accomplished, and the weight you used. So it shouldn’t be surprising that keeping a log of your spiritual life is one of the best tools available for training yourself unto godliness. Look at your schedule and set aside 15-30 minutes of your day for self-reflection. That way, by this time next year, you can have a journal full of reasons to praise the Lord and thank Him for His faithfulness to you as He progressively conformed you to the image of His Son.

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