Left Board or Right Board??
The Friday Morning Men’s Bible Study is wrapping up our study of John Piper’s book, “Don’t Waste Your Life.” It has been an eye-opening, faith-defining study for a lot of us and has led to a deeper desire to walk in a manner worthy of our calling in Jesus Christ. On Friday the 25th of January, I wrote two titles on the white-boards in the room where we meet and I asked them to give me the words or phrases that came to their minds when they considered the difference between a man-centered, user-friendly Christianity (the left board) and a God-centered, Kingdom-focused Christianity (the right board). I also asked a few of the students in our FAME ministry the same question. The results looked like this:
Man Centered, User Friendly Christianity
Easy, Leftovers, Selfish, Unchallenging, Shallow, Compartmentalized, Self-indulgent, Temporal goals, Felt needs, Undemanding, Casual, Weak, Flesh messaging, Me-centered,
Wide and broad gate, Incidental, Personal, Man-exalting, Short-sighted, Five ways to…, Pop Christianity, Temporal happiness
God-Centered, Kingdom Focused Christianity
Hard, Sacrifice, Costly, Daily, God-Centered, Christ-exalting, Gospel-Driven, Cross-centered, Life-changing, Deep, Never done, Blood-earnest, Serious, Selfless, Life-encompassing, Big Picture, Eternal need, Firstfruits, Strong, Powerful, Historic Truth, Eternal Joy, Missions accomplishing
At that point I asked the men, what kind of church do we want to be? What kind of church do you think Christ died to make?
The truth is that too much of American, Evangelical, even Southern Baptist, Christianity looks like the left board (the top group). And what needs to be written over that board is the word “Ichabod.” It is a word that means “the glory of the Lord has departed.” If we want to be a church that reflects and magnifies and exalts the glory of God revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ, we must be a right-hand board kind of church.
In order for that to happen, we are going to need to recommit ourselves to the historic truths of the gospel delivered to the apostles. It will require of us sacrificial commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ — sacrificial giving, sacrificial living, sacrificial worship, sacrificial investing of our lives in one another, sacrificial commitment to missions and ministry, and sacrificial submission to the word of God as authoritative and sufficient.
And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mar 8:34-38)
Thank you for this list. I heard them in your sermon and couldn’t write them all down fast enough.
And, as you were reading these words that day during your sermon, the word, “Ichabod” came to mind about the left-sided board. Amazing.
God is not finished with me yet, Pastor Nick. Keep preaching the gospel!
Love, Cecelia
Pastor Nick,
those folks on the left side of the board will regret being ashamed of the gospel and of the cross. Even the greatest commandment is ignored. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the almighty God for all the wrong reasons. Some folks will come to a final realization: God is not seeker-friendly as those self-seeking people would have Him to be. We at WSBC are seekers: we seek to glorify Him;to exalt Him;to magnify Him. We seek to know Him better. We seek His will for our lives. We seek Him while he may be found. We seek to honor Him in all that we say and do. Ray
i am gonna show this to my friend, brother