Galatians 2:4-5:

Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

That phrase “preserved for you”, when referring to the Gospel, really caught me this morning. The sense of the word ‘preserved’ is that it would ‘continue’ or ‘last’ or ‘live on’. The whole passage has this sense that Paul is protecting the Gospel, not only for now, but for the future as well. He will not allow the Gospel of Jesus, which is grace and truth in its purest form, to be convoluted by individuals who would tack things onto it, or water it down with anything.

Of course, for me, it immediately made me think of our own corporate church system today. Virtually every corridor of the organizational church makes big compromises—some motivated by fear, some by ‘love’ and some are just plain insidious. But all seem to fail to ‘preserve’ the Gospel.

Some churches, out of fear of losing numbers, will refrain from preaching some passages of the bible. Yet all passages of the Bible inform, or are informed by the Gospel. They must be preached faithfully. Some churches in hopes of bringing in and not turning-off lost people remove iconic Christian symbol—like the Cross. The message of the cross itself isn’t far behind. And still some churches, with wicked and greedy motives, simply preach whatever will be most likely to produce a giving spirit in the congregation.

While the motives and the forms and degrees vary, the result is always a gospel that begins to deteriorate. The Gospel is not preserved. Regardless of the risk, it’s crucial that our churches do what they must to hold fast to and preach the (whole) Gospel.

Jeremiah 6:14:

They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.

The prophets in Jeremiah’s time had stopped preaching the word of God. Instead, they said the things that would bolster their esteem. They tickled the people’s ears with things they wanted to hear. “They healed the would lightly”.

Now, I know that Jeremiah’s time was a specific time in history and that we have to tread lightly over life applications from these pages. But I couldn’t help but see the parallel as I read across this verse.

The teachers, the prophets in our western church, many of them, have stopped preaching the Word of God. Or begun preaching it only in part—leaving the difficult or offensive topics and concepts untouched. Not just the prosperity-gospel church either. I mean many of the churches we attend on a weekly basis.

In the interest of creating a welcoming environment (and securing a mortgage payment), way too many preachers only teach the parts of the bible that can be understood without too much objection. And, without too much risk of scaring people away.

I can’t help but wonder whether or not God would say these same things to our church today that he said through the prophet Jeremiah in his day.

I finished reading 2 Timothy yesterday. In Paul’s closing thoughts, he exhorts Timothy 4:1-2):

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

I’ve always found this to be an interesting exhortation. Why not just say, “Always be ready to preach the word”? Why did he choose to be specific and refer to seasons? As I’ve thought about it, I think there’s probably a lot of reasons. But I think of two in particular.

1. Seasons of the soul. People ebb and flow and there’s no way around it. A lot can change from one emotional state to another, even the way we choose to interpret things. I think it’s possible that Paul was telling Timothy that regardless of what season he found himself in emotionally, or physically or socially or whatever, he should remember that his duty is to preach the word and he needs to be ready for it. And,

2. Seasons of ministry. I think that this one is probably a bit more likely since it seems to agree more with the context—particularly the statement immediately following it. There are times that are for ministry (missions trips, church, youth group, whatever) and there are times that are not for ministry (like going to the movies or out for dinner). But I think that Paul was telling Timothy that he needs to be prepared for ministry even in the times that are ‘not’ for ministry.

The Church could take a queue from Paul’s exhortation here. We’re in a time where almost no one is ready ‘out of season’. Especially not ministers, most of whom are too wrapped up in their gigantic labyrinth of a church system.

I think that’s pretty bad. Especially when most people in our culture don’t want anything to do with our ministers ‘seasons’.

I attended a funeral today. I was hired by the family to photograph the occasion. It seems that the family is scattered abroad and many members couldn’t return for the funeral. So they thought the best option would be to document the service.

The funeral held was for an elderly woman—a sister in Christ—and a mother. The occasion was bittersweet. Waves of remorse rolled right along side waves of joy.

During the service, a close family member rightly used the occasion to preach the Gospel. By that I mean he used the opportunity as a springboard to present the hearers with an invitation to Christ. He did not go into great exegetical detail, or even follow any specific biblical thought. But the intentions were obvious and the message was clear.

This reminded me that birth and death are really the only things that give us humans any real context for existence. It is a very peculiar thing to be alive—to exist at all. One day we don’t exist anywhere, nor has anyone here even thought of us. Then all of a sudden we do exist, until one day our body dies and as far as the human mind knows on its own, we go back to not existing.

Existing is taken for granted; most rarely even think of how weird it really is. It becomes only natural to see here and now as the end all be all of everything. It’s not hard to see how the spiritual can be pushed hard to the back of a persons mind.

It’s only when faced with birth and death that people’s eyes really forced open to the context of our existence. It’s in those moments especially that people’s hearts seem to be the softest and we would be fools to neglect such an opportunity.

In Colossians 4:5 we’re taught to “make the most of every opportunity.” How much more life’s most crucial opportunities?

I hope that at my own funeral the discussion will be less about me and more about what Jesus has done for me. And, that the opportunity in other’s lives will be seized to preach His Gospel of grace and love and forgiveness to them as well.

I’m sure many of you have already found SermonAudio.com, but for those of you who have not, I hope you will find something that encourages you.

SermonAudio.com is…

In a nutshell, SermonAudio.com is a massive database of free audio files which can either be streamed and listened to from you computer, or downloaded and loaded onto an mp3 player or cell phone. I did say “free” right. Right, free. There are sermons from contemporary preachers from all over the US and internationally. That’s great and all, but it gets way better. SermonAudio.com also has a wealth of classic preachers as well. Tozer, Pink, Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon—just to name a few. But really, it seems that the list just keeps going.

How it works…

When arriving at the site you’re dumped into a fairly cluttered environment. It takes some time to catch your breath and figure out what exactly you’re looking at. However, most folks won’t have too much trouble after a minute or too.

The main column of the site is filled mostly with updates and daily postings, popular downloads and featured speakers. But, the really juicy stuff starts on the left.

You’ll see four very important links: Sermons by Bible, Sermons by Speaker, Sermons by Topic and Sermons by Date. I’m sure you can figure out what these are. This is the main artery for browsing sermons. Choose to look up all the sermons by a favorite preacher, by the date they were delivered, or the topic they’re about. Or, by my favorite, the verse they are taken from.

When you select “Sermon by Bible”, you’re dropped onto a page displaying each book of the bible and a link to the each chapter. Within each link you’ll find sermons relevant to the selected verse. And, at the top of the page you’ll find an handy quick reference to the chapter of the bible you’re browsing in. From the scripture quick-reference, you can also further narrow your searches down by clicking on a particular verse and displaying sermons relevant to that specific verse.

When browsing through sermons, you also have some pretty advanced sorting methods to choose from. You can sort by the geographic area the sermon was delivered, the speaker, the denomination of the speaker and more.

The sermon…

Once you’ve actually found the sermon you’d like to hear, first you’ll have to sign up for their newsletter. No biggie. Then, you’ll have the option of either streaming the sermon live using Windows Media Player, meaning no hard drive space will be taken up on your computer. Or, you can choose to download the sermon onto your computer. The sermon comes in the form of an mp3 file. The files are a pretty decent size, not too big, but not so small that the sound quality stinks.

If you choose to download the sermon, you’ll then have the chance to load it into itunes, then onto you ipod. Or any other mp3 playing device.

One drawback to downloading the mp3′s are that they are not intelligently named files. So, for example, if you download a sermon by Charles Spurgeon, the file may not have a name you recognize. It will more likely be titled with a seemingly random string of numbers. You’ll want to rename the files so you can easily find them later.

Membership options…

I offer kudos to SermonAudio.com for offering this service for free. It’s commendable and, I believe a great gift to the church, if she would only take advantage of it. However, more robust options are available for people who are willing to pay a nominal premium.

For free you can get pretty much all of the best benefits. Listen to sermons. Download sermons. Browse sermons. Search the bible. Stream sermon related videos. Even get access to a lot of PDF sermon resources.

For bloggers and other web junkies, $4.95/month will get more features. Namely, the ability to download a lot of stuff unattended–although I don’t really know how this works. There’s also things like blogging tools and some advanced RSS options.

For churches and pastors, $29.95/month will get everything, plus the ability post your own sermons from your church. It seems that there must be some kind of a screening process, because the site really doesn’t seem to be overrun with junk. But whatever the case, that’s the gist of the complete package.

However, take note, the best and most important features are offered for free. The way it should be.

Highlights…

SermonAudio.com has a host of really cool and free features. There’s a few that stick out to me.

1. RSS Capabilities. Lets be honest, we’re not going to be visiting this site all that often. It just wouldn’t be a very practical stop along the road. But, with RSS subscriptions to sermon series or speakers, you can bring SermonAudion.com into your RSS reader. With Google, the sermon can stream directly from the feed.

and

2. Morning & Evening Devotions with C.H. Spurgeon. In addition to being able to read Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening Devotions, a good audio version is offered making the devotional easy to do in the car on the way to work or at your desk. Pair this one with the RSS functions and you’ve got a pretty sweet pair.

Conclusion…

SermonAudio.com is fantastic. It’s an excellent resource, especially considering all the classic content. And, it’s free, which is great.

So, go check it out. Download some sermons. Learn a thing or two and fall more in love with Jesus.

A discussion I was recently having with some friends reminded me of an important lesson we have to learn from the martyrs.

I recall a story from the early church history in which a woman was brought into the Roman coliseum and tied to a post. Animals were released to devour her. She was fervent in prayer and for the time being, the animals would not touch her. After a good amount of time, the crowds were getting restless and the guards took her down. They slaughtered a cow and gutted it. They shoved the woman into the dead animal and sowed her inside. After some time, the animals were released again and eventually devoured her.

Like many martyr stories from the same time period, several of the Roman guards and many in the crowds were overwhelmed and were brought into Christ that same day.

What I draw from the story today is that our life lived out in the seriousness of the cross of Christ commands attention and, I believe, at many times will even humble sinner’s pride. Like the martyrs who proved their sobriety in their faith, we should live lives that obviously take Jesus seriously; extremely seriously. How can we honestly expect people to believe us when we tell of the glories of Christ and the satisfaction found therein, if our lives aren’t screaming the words?

I’m a proponent of the preached Gospel; I believe that in most relationships, however short, the Gospel should eventually be preached with words. However, our words won’t hold very much value if we’re not constantly preaching with our lives and as we can draw from martyrs, sometimes what we do (i.e., die as one of Jesus’ martyrs) will be more than enough to convince people.

Jesus, help me to take this life with you with the utmost seriousness. Jesus, for the sake of your glory, sanctify your church and help us to live lives that echo your redemption. Strengthen us, Lord.

I noted something interesting while reading in Colossians along with a commentary by R.C. Lucas.

“(3) At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison (4) that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. (5) Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. (6) Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

Paul here gives departing remarks to the church at Colossae. Our first two verses Paul makes requests of the Colossians that they would pray for him and his fellow workers opportunities to ‘declare’ the Gospel; that when they do, they will do so properly. Then, in the next two verses Paul moves on to discussing the responsibility of the Colossians; wisdom towards outsiders, using time wisely, gracious and salty speech, so that they will know how they are supposed to answer each person.

It appears that Paul would view his responsibility as aggressive while viewing the Colossian’s responsibility as passive. Paul, an apostle and preacher, is to ‘declare’ while the Colossian’s are to ‘answer.’ It seems, according to this here, a clear delineation between responsibility of the one called to preach and those not called to preach.

This is up for debate, however, I fear that the church has made an error in teaching that all believers are to ‘preach’ the Gospel. I think that I disagree with this. All believers are called to live godly lives of pure and utter devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ—in absolutely whatever that means; for some it will certainly be to preach, but for others I can easily see that it would be far more passive. Yet the holy lives of true Christians will be pervasive on the consciences of nonbelievers and it surely inspire questions for which we must always be prepared with an answer (1 Peter 3:15).

If the church has been exhorting all believers to ‘preach’ the Gospel it is likely she has told countless people to do what they are not called to do, leaving many in discouragement. In addition to that it’s likely that many potential relationships that could lead to holy conviction are stifled and cut short by a believer trying to operate outside of their gifting and calling.

Jesus, lead us humbly to truth. Give us grace to walk carefully and faithfully after you. Jesus, I pray that you would help us to understand, believe and apply your word to our lives, bearing good fruit for the glory of your name.