Pursuing Gospel-Centeredness, #1

January 29, 2008

I’m hoping that this series of posts is going to have at least four or five parts to it, but I suspect there will be even more. I also hope that Joe will have some time in his schedule and internet access to add his own thoughts here. In sum, few things have filled my thoughts as much in the past 9 months as the need and desire to be gospel-centered. I was first convicted of this last April at the Sovereign Grace leadership conference, when CJ Mahaney preached on Trinitarian Pastoral Ministry. He spoke at length in that message on the need to have the cross at the center of every sermon. Since then, I have been striving to be more gospel-centered in my preaching and other forms of ministry.

Last week in posting a great message on this subject from Tim Keller, Will responded with the following comment:

How does a layman like myself communicate the truth of this sermon, in love, to those in our churches who believe that preaching begins with the interests of the congregation and not with the cross? Sometimes when I have tried to do this, the reaction is either that I am not able to relate to most people “where they are”, or I am told that some people need “practical” teaching, others “theological”. I’d be interested to hear some of your thoughts, strategies, and scripture that might help me to communicate with my fellow believers the necessity to always “preach Christ, and him crucified”.

I think this question is so important, that I want to to devote several posts to it. There is no real order of importance to the ’strategies’ that I will mention, and please know from the outset that I am well aware that I have not ‘arrived’ in this area. The#1 person in need of pursuing Gospel-Centeredness is me!

That being said, my first tip for Will and others would be this: be patient.

I have been a Christian now for 8 years, and it was into my seventh year that I began to feel broken over how little my life and ministry were gospel-centered. Every person is at a different point in their journey with Christ. I know that in the first seven years there was no doubt that my life had been changed by the Gospel, but the love for the Gospel and the emphasis on its centrality just weren’t there. Yet in God’s patience and love, He has brought me to a place of greater love for the central message of the Bible.

At the heart of our own applying the Gospel daily is our bearing with and being patient with and humble towards those who are different from us, believer or unbeliever. “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:1-2).

So show your friends love and compassion and humility and patience as you seek to lead them to a greater love of and appreciation for the Gospel. If you are not patient with them, you will belittle the message which you so eagerly want them to elevate.

Striving to be patient with others as God has been patient with me,

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Random Musings, Seeking Him 

Comments

One Response to “Pursuing Gospel-Centeredness, #1”

  1. Will Bausch on January 30th, 2008 3:19 pm

    Larry,

    Thank you for the direction to be patient. The source of this impatience in myself is pride. It is God, and God alone who revealed my lack of love for the gospel to me a few years ago. What a mercy that he did! My urge is to tell others of the great comfort, freedom, and sanctification that occurs when I mediate on the gospel; however, I owe this understanding to God. Who am I to require it in others?

    I read something today in the introduction to “The Mystery of Providence” by the Puritan John Flavel that shows the power of gospel-centered preaching:

    “Luke Short was a farmer in New England who attained his hundredth year in exceptional vigour though without having sought peace with God. One day as he sat in his fields reflecting upon his long life, he recalled a sermon he heard in Dartmouth as a boy before he sailed to America. The horror of dying under the curse of God was impressed upon him as he mediated on the words he had heard so long agao and he was converted to Christ — eighty-five years after hearing John Flavel preach.” p.11

    Let’s pray that every preacher’s sermons would contain enough of the gospel that God could use it across 85 years to bring someone to Christ!

    Will

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