“thank you for destroying my life. no, really, thank you.”

listen to this amazing letter that was read at the beginning of a sermon a couple of months ago by david platt, pastor at the church at brook hills, during a sermon series called “global gospel.” the letter is intriguing, challenging, convicting, encouraging, exciting…all at once. what a story! check it out!

and if you have time, you would benefit from listening to the entire sermon as it outlines the church’s radical experiment that they are now beginning in 2010.

the radical experiment was primarily birthed out of a recent sermon series that platt did called ”faith works.” (you  might also want to check out the “radical” series from about a year ago.) in its simplest form, the radical experiment involves committing to five specific challenges (read more here.):

1. To pray for the entire world
2. To read through the entire Word
3. To commit our lives to multiplying community
4. To sacrifice our money for a specific purpose
5. To give our time in another context

shannon and i are plugging into this radical experiment as individuals and as a family. and if you’re interested, here’s a glimpse at what a typical week looks like in terms of prayer focus, scripture reading and memorization, and family worship. i hope your new year will be a radical one. and maybe – like the writer of the letter - your life as you know it will be destroyed for the glory of god!

bad news: satan claus is coming to town

christmas destruction

want to know what christmas is all about? here’s something you probably won’t hear in the latest jingle on the radio or read in your trendy shopper’s guide to christmas or, unfortunately, maybe not even have preached in your church:

“Until we realize that there is something in us – something in the world – that needs to be destroyed, we will miss the meaning of Christmas.” (David Platt, “He Came…to Destroy the Devil” sermon, 12.6.2009)  

christmas is about destruction! merry christmas!

this is a quote from david platt’s message last week, december 6 (“He Came…to Destroy the Devil”) in which he unpacks 1 John 3:8b – “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” he actually looks at this verse and this clear reason why jesus came within the broader context of 1 John 2:28-3:10. 

don’t miss this great series titled, “He Came.” the church is taking a look at the many verses in the bible that explicitly declare why jesus came. so far they have covered the following:

He Came…

• “To Free the Captives” (11.29.2009 – preached by bart box, not david platt)
• “To Destroy the Devil” (12.06.2009)
• “To Serve the Helpless” (12.13.2009)

check it out…

free will

“The fallen human will is free the way a skydiver is free until he discovers he has no parachute.” – John Piper

god comes to end our life (and the gospel comes to kill us)

“We are frequently told that the church is in the business of ‘life transformation.’ However, both the problem and God’s solution are greater than we ever imagined. God does not come to improve our life, but to end it; not to transform the ‘old Adam,’ but to kill it and to raise us together with Christ in newness of life. Our transformed life will never be trasnformed enough to pass through God’s judgment safely, but ’salvation is from the Lord’ (Jonah 2:9).”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 60

“The gospel comes not to help us get our act together, fixing us up for a night on the town, making us more respectable to ourselves or to others. Rather, it comes to kill us and make us alive as completely new creatures. Not a new and improved self, but a self buried and raised with Christ, is the gospel’s message of genuine transformation.”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 78

we are saved by works (christ’s, not ours)

“We are indeed saved by works – and not by good intentions – but by works that are perfect, complete, and perpetual to every command. However, it is Christ’s works, not ours, that have secured the eternal inheritance for us.”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 74

no such thing as surface-level sin

“Sin does not lie on the surface; ‘deep down’ it is even messier. Our hearts have committed sins that our hands haven’t gotten around to yet [emphasis mine]. It is from the heart that our perversity ascends to God and out to our neighbors (Matthew 12:33-37). ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked – who can know it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9)”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 58