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Archive for the ‘Sermons’ Category

How a dad of ‘normal’ kids helpfully talked about disability and the death of a child – and made God look glorious

Posted in Scripture, Sermons on March 7, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Henryk Thiel had a short life – only five months.  He died in January.

Henryk’s dad has a good friend who loves him and who loves God.  That friend, David Mathis, preached at Henryk’s funeral.

And God gave David a message you want to hear or read:

Henryk was weak, but we won’t mainly think of him as weak. He was small, but we won’t mainly think of him as small. Henryk was disabled, but we won’t mainly think about him as disabled. For those who have eyes to see, the main thing we’ll remember is the unexpected and surprising way the greatness of God was so clearly on display in Henryk’s life, and through his parents. It was not the greatness for which the world typically looks. It was a gospel greatness. It was the greatness of another world, one that’s not here yet, but is coming so quickly. It was the greatness of power in weakness (like 2 Corinthians 12:9). It was the greatness we sense when we catch a glimpse of divine strength in the very midst of human frailty.

So let me give you just a five reasons—one for each month of his life—for why I will remember Henryk Otto Thiel as “Henryk the Great.”

You can listen to the entire 19 minutes here: Funeral Service of Henryk Otto Thiel

Or you can read it here.

Please, give yourself the gift of knowing God better through this God-centered honoring of Henryk’s extraordinary life and impact.

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Life together in love – thank you, Lord, for the examples!

Posted in commentary, Sermons on February 27, 2013 | 3 Comments »

Sometimes God takes a season when many things happen in a short period of time and lets me see something glorious.

He did that for me this past week where so many things just seemed to be so right and enjoyable.  But until he used Pastor John to tie it all together for me, I was missing the point:

For example, I know from words, cards, letters, emails, looks that I am loved by hundreds of you whom I barely know. What is that? It’s the knitting together of souls with deep, solid affection because week after week and month after month and year after year we have shared precious truth. If you love Christ with all your heart, and you love his word with your very soul, and if I preach Christ and his word with heartfelt faithfulness over years with you, what else can happen but love? And so it will be with all those around you who love the truth. Christian love is not mushy, it is solid affection for those who love and share the truth of Christ.

John Piper, Life Together at the End of the Age

As he said those words, God let me see more of him in all that he had been happy to do for me in the past few days.

Here’s what I had experienced:

  • Last Thursday I got on an airplane with Dianne’s full blessing and encouragement.  I don’t take that for granted given how complicated things can be at our house!
  • I was greeted at the airport by a man I had never met but with whom I felt an immediate kinship.  The drive and dinner together did not feel like a meeting of strangers but a reunion of brothers.
  • I met a boy named Tyler that night who is changing his family, his church and his region by his very existence.  He is also not at all impressed by any of it because of his disability.  God’s good design in disability glowed around that young man.
  • The next morning I met several men who are in this life of disability. One man, on hearing some good news from another, said gladly, ‘I’ve been praying about that for you!’ A great ‘yes!’ rose up in my heart – these men knew what it is to be in helpful, godly, masculine, affectionate relationships with each other that point them to God!
  • That noon I met leaders from several churches (pastors, youth leaders, nursery coordinators) and again felt the delight of coming together around the truth of God’s word and God’s promise of help on difficult things like disability. And they seemed to enjoy being together!
  • I also met Hannah’s mom and dad, who delight in their youngest daughter with an extra chromosome and who told stories of how their family and their church has been changed by God through that precious girl.  Their daughter has amplified their experience of God’s love for them!
  • More than 150 parents gathered that night and I felt their strong affirmation that, of course, life with disability is hard yet God is greater.  The conversations afterward were focused on God’s goodness and help in some really hard circumstances.
  • I had friends drive hours east and hours west just to see me and support me – how kind is God to do something like that!  And how great it was to be present with them, if even for just a little while.
  • The next morning leaders from two churches took me to breakfast and once again I saw God’s hand on the work they are doing.  At one point one young woman said, “I appreciate all that you’re doing at your church, but that wouldn’t work at mine.” And then she proceeded to share her vision for children with autism.  I thought my heart would burst at the delight that God’s fame and goodness can be communicated in a thousand different ways as we lean into him for help.  He is the source of wisdom and strength, and we don’t all need to do it exactly the same!
  • My family was glad to see me on Saturday, which I do not take for granted!  And Paul responded to a gift from my new friends in a wonderful way.
  • On Sunday we read together as a congregation from Romans 5, which includes this powerful encouragement: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 ESV)
  • Then Pastor John took an emphasis on the ‘end of the age’ to make the point that this is all about love!

And then I got it – I had been surrounded by people who love the truth and who are quick to love people who also love the truth.  What a gift!

Thank you, Lord, for this lavish gift of more of you through being with people who love you and love the truth of your word.  Please, Lord, more!

 

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“It will be painful, but it is worth it!” Pastor Jason Meyer

Posted in Quotes, Sermons on December 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

In the same way, you might go through crosses and losses and cancer and sickness and family trouble and you might be treated unfairly and you might have your name smeared, but the good news is that you are going to go through all of that, get to Heaven and say, “It was WORTH IT!” No one will ever say, “I went through that for THIS? The message of the Christian life is not you become a believer and then it’s champagne and roses after that. The message is, you become a believer, and you will have to swim upstream against the current of the world. It will be hard, it will be painful, but it is worth it!

Pastor Jason Meyer, He Will Be a Risen King! Victorious Over the Last Enemy, delivered December 15, 2012.

His entire sermon was very helpful.  But if you only have ten minutes, go to 36:36 on this sermon, and let his closing remarks on interpreting pain make your heart soar at the incredible goodness and mercy – and future hope we have – in Jesus Christ, including these final words:

If you are justified, you are as good as glorified because there is no fall out in this “golden chain” of God’s grace. No one can snatch you out of your Father’s hand. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how strong your grip is on your father’s hand. It matters how strong your Father’s grip is on your hand. We rest in the glorious knowledge of his resurrection.

I call you to remember the Resurrection. Look at the pain, the shame, and the injustice in the face and say, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death by death. Come awake, come awake, come and rise up from the grave. O death where is your sting. O grave where is your victory. O church, come stand in the light the glory of God has defeated the night! The cross gives you a place to take the pain—the Resurrection points to a time when God will take all the pain and injustice and make it stop because he will make it right.

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Advent is about a King who conquers evil and makes us free

Posted in commentary, Sermons on December 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Because in the story God is telling, evil does not have the last word. Good Friday is not the end (which is why it’s so good). He burst from the spiced tomb on Resurrection Sunday, commissioned his disciples, and ascended to his throne, where now he sits until all of his enemies are subdued under his feet, including and especially Evil.

This then is the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Christian answer to the problem(s) of evil. It is the confession of Jesus Christ, the Divine Author who never himself does evil, but instead conquers all evil by enduring the greatest evil, and thereby delivers all those enslaved and oppressed by evil who put their hope in him.

O Come, O Come Immanuel.

Joe Rigney, Confronting the Problem(s) of Evil

Joe also gave one of the most helpful sermons on prayer and God’s sovereignty I have ever heard: If God Knows Everything and Planned Everything, Why Pray?

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God purposes gladness through suffering

Posted in commentary, Scripture, Sermons on December 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

I came across this quote on the purposes of Christ’s suffering in A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life:

Ambrose also warned that faith in Christ is more than just an emotional response to the history of His sufferings. Natural human compassion can be stirred by the story of anyone suffering, but this is not faith in Christ. Faith looks to the “meaning, intent, and design of Christ in his sufferings,” Ambrose said, namely to “redeem us from the slavery of death and hell,” and “to free us from sin…destroy it, kill it, crucify it.” (Emphasis in bold is mine)

Beeke, Joel R.; Jones, Mark (2012-10-14). A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Kindle Locations 14133-14136). Kindle Edition.

And that reminded me of Pastor John’s sermon, Why Was This Child Born Blind:

They say in verse 2 (of John 9), “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” In other words, what is the cause of this blindness? The man’s sin? Or the parents’ sin? Is this blindness a punishment for the parents’ sin or a punishment for his own sin—some kind of inherited sinfulness already in the womb?

Jesus says, in effect, specific sins in the past don’t always correlate with specific suffering in the present. The decisive explanation for this blindness is not found by looking for its cause but by looking for its purpose. Verse 3: Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (Emphasis in bold is mine)

Jesus fulfilled his purpose through his suffering.  God has purpose in disability.  And the end result isn’t just relief, it is gladness!

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:13 ESV)

 

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“This is not a plaything for me. We’re talking about death!” John Piper

Posted in Sermons on October 16, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Pastor John laid out why God is the center of our joy so clearly – including for those experiencing intense suffering – that I hope you will watch or listen to the entire sermon.

If you can’t watch it all, watch about 90 seconds from 3:05 to 4:35 to hear Pastor John talk about death and Christian hedonism. Yes, being satisfied in Christ is important at the moments of greatest pain.

And if you have only 2 and 1/2 more minutes, go to 43:20 of the sermon where he looks specifically at disability and weakness.

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Pastors, help us to see that all means all

Posted in Quotes, Sermons on August 23, 2012 | 1 Comment »

I very nearly stood up and cheered when Pastor John said this more than two years ago.  But I think I was crying too hard, with joy:

So my aim in this message is modest and, I think, explosive, if the church really took hold of it and lived it.

The message is that God knits all the children together in their mothers’ wombs, and they are all—all of them of every degree of ability—conceived for the purpose of displaying the glory of God.

John Piper, Born Blind for the Glory of God, preached on January 24, 2010.

That sermon can also be found in this free ebook, Disability and the Sovereign Goodness of God, along with other sermons and some interviews Pastor John and I did last year.

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Help me, Lord, ‘for your name’s sake.’

Posted in commentary, Scripture, Sermons on July 26, 2012 | 3 Comments »

The little phrase ‘for your name’s sake’ showed up in my Bible reading recently and I was so comforted by it that I went looking for other places where that phrase is used.  Here are three:

For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me. . . (Psalm 31:3 ESV)

“Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.” (Jeremiah 14:7 ESV)

“And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 20:44 ESV)

Why am I comforted? Because it isn’t about my performance!  God is acting out of a commitment to his own name, and we can ask him to act based on that commitment to himself.

I need that perspective.  God is for me because of Jesus Christ.  God is for my son with multiple disabilities because:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3 ESV)

Paul doesn’t have to perform to have value to God – he is valuable to God because he was made by God, and God will act on his behalf for the sake of God’s name.

A long time ago Pastor John did a sermon on 1 Samuel 12:22 (For the Lord will not cast away his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. RSV) where he offered this:

What is the basis of the fearlessness of God’s people according to this verse? First of all it is the promise that he will not cast them away. In spite of their sin in wanting a king, the verse says, “The Lord will not cast away his people.”

But that is not the deepest foundation of hope and fearlessness in this verse. Why will God not cast away his people? The deepest reason given is in the phrase, “For his great name’s sake.” The rock bottom foundation of our forgiveness and our fearlessness and our joy is the commitment that God has to his own great name. First, he is committed to act for his own name’s sake. And then, for that reason, he is committed to act for his people.

God will act FOR us, for his own name’s sake, offering forgiveness, fearlessness AND joy!  I hope you can feel how great this is – God will ACT FOR YOU not because of you (you know how weak you are, really), but because of HIM!

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“You should embrace your suffering in the path of obedience and not run from it.” John Piper

Posted in Sermons on July 24, 2012 | 3 Comments »

God gave Pastor John an especially helpful word on Sunday: He Cannot Deny Himself.  I highly recommend it.

And it also encouraged me to reflect on how books have advantages over individual sermons.  Mainly, you can pack more information into a book.

What I mean is this: it is possible to hear this sermon and put it entirely in the category of suffering based on the choice to follow Jesus.  Further, we can be tempted  to make that a superior category of suffering than suffering which isn’t chosen, such as a child with significant disabilities being born into a family.

But I think this sermon can be applied to all kinds of suffering and the five foundation stones can provide comfort in circumstances beyond suffering for the sake of the gospel, moving the emphasis away from the reason for the suffering toward our faithfully clinging to Jesus in the midst of suffering.

R.C. Sproul helped me work this out some time ago when he addressed the question: can suffering in general rather than suffering for our Christian faith be counted as sharing the sufferings of Christ?

I think it can. If the suffering is done in faith – that is, throughout the suffering we place our trust in God – then I think we are participating in the sense that we are willing to suffer and to trust God in the midst of suffering, even as Jesus trusted the Father. . .

In regard to the man born blind (John 9), the question was asked of Jesus, “Who’s sin was it, this man’s or his parents’, that he was afflicted with blindness?”  Jesus said it was neither. In other words, the question was a false dilemma. And those who asked it were trying to reduce to two options something that had more than two. There was another option. Jesus said, “It wasn’t because of his sin or his parents’ sin. This person was born blind so that the power of God and the grace of God may be made manifest.” That person was suffering not from persecution. His suffering was used by God to bring honor and glory to Christ.

I mention this instance because it is a clear biblical case in which suffering has theological value – not merit, but value – insofar that it is useful to the purposes of God. Christ himself tells us that we are going to have afflictions and suffering in this world. He certainly indicates that we are going to suffer persecution, and he gives a particular blessing to that in the Sermon on the Mount, saying that the reward will be great. He also indicates that there will be other kinds of suffering that come our way and that we are suffering in him and with him.

R.C. Sproul, Now, That’s a Good Question, pp. 473-475

I’ve gone back and forth with myself several times about posting this – even I think an argument could be made that I’m applying this particular sermon too broadly.  But I’ve decided to post it to see what you think.

In the end, I hope at least this is clear: God is entirely trustworthy and sovereign.  We can live and work and rest with confidence in him, no matter our current circumstance.

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“All children, of every degree of ability, are conceived for the purpose of displaying the glory of God.” (Repost)

Posted in commentary, Sermons on July 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

While we’re on vacation I pulled a few miscellaneous blogs from the archives.  This was first posted in January 2010:

If have any doubts about God’s goodness and sovereignty in disability, please watch, listen or read this past Sunday’s sermon from Pastor John.

Born Blind for the Glory of God – Sermon by John Piper, January 24, 2010

Here’s an excerpt:

So when Jesus said in verse 3 (of John 9), “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him,” this is the work of God—that the man see natural light and that the man see spiritual light. That the man be given natural eyes, and that he be given spiritual eyes. That he see the glory of this world, and the glory of its Maker, Jesus Christ. And worship him.

From this I conclude that in every disability, whether genetically from the womb, or circumstantially from an accident, or infectiously from a disease, God has a design, a purpose, for his own glory, and for the good of his people who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). Therefore, it is wrong to think that such children in the womb are unimportant, or without a unique, God-given worth in this world. And it is wrong to abort them—to kill them.

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