Sermon: Your Time is Currency – by Andy Adkison
This is the latest sermon from my brother Andy. He’s preaching about “the currency of time” and how we should leverage our time wisely for the Kingdom of God. I’m listening to it now as I type this post.
Check it out!
Your Time is Currency – by Andy Adkison – 8/26/10 – download
To hear more of Andy’s sermons, click here…
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No comments(sola)s Hattiesburg Promo Video
(sola)s Hattiesburg from (sola)s on Vimeo.
I love my brother Andy. And I love the things that God is doing with him down in Hattiesburg, MS as a college minister. This is a recent promo video that describes Andy’s ministry and what’s going on. (Take time to notice the nifty posters in the background. I helped design them).
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No commentsRecent Sermon: Approaching God in the Midst of Trouble – Heb 4:14-16
This is a recent sermon I preached at 24church. I had intentions of posting a manuscript as well, but I haven’t had the time to tidy it up enough to post.
Approaching God in the Midst of Trouble – by Ben Adkison – 8/15/10 – download
My brother, Andy, preached a sermon on the same day at Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, MS, and I would’ve posted it as well, but it’s not available yet.
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No commentsBook Review: Living the Cross Centered Life by C. J. Mahaney
Why?
My brother Andy has been telling me about C. J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries for a while now. So, digging into a Mahaney book was really only a matter of time. Andy and I like to talk about books and ministry and theology because, well, we’re both pastors. But the actual reason that I picked up this book was to review it. I wanted to see if it might be a useful tool in a discipleship program that I’ve been working on for my church. Nathan Loxley (our worship pastor) and I were looking for a book that would be pretty accessible for the average person, but also really foundational. It needed to be a book that would teach doctrinal truth, but stay applicable. And I think we found the book with Living the Cross Centered Life.
Brief Description
Living the Cross Centered Life is a relatively small book (166 pages to be exact) about the theology and practical application of the cross of Jesus. It should be explained that this book is really a combination of two other Mahaney books: The Cross Centered Life and Christ Our Mediator; the new version of the book combines these two books and includes additional material. The focus of the book is this: the truth of the cross is not just for new believers, but for all believers in all parts of their lives. As Mahaney says in the first chapter, “Too many of us have moved on from that glorious plan [the plan of responding with our whole lives to the gospel]. In our never-ending desire to move forward and make sure that everything we think, say, and do is relevant to modern living, too many of us have stopped concentrating on the wonders of Jesus crucified” (18). This is glorious truth and often overlooked. Many times Christians think they are saved by God’s grace, but then after that it’s all about what they do. Wrong! It’s all about what Jesus did from beginning to end.
Mahaney takes his readers through a brief, but thorough understanding of the cross in the first half of the book. He then moves on to explain how the cross helps us when we suffer, how it brings us joy, and how it defeats legalism and self-condemnation. He ends by giving practical advice for keeping the cross central on a daily basis. I love this nod towards the practical. As Mark Dever says in praise of the book “You’re holding the book you want to read to begin living the Christian life. You’re also holding the book you want to read to help you continue living the Christian life” (1).
Why I love it
Living the Cross Centered Life is a great book! It’s doctrinal, accessible, and practical. C. J. carefully examines the cross, teaching theology as he goes, but keeping the picture of Jesus vivid the entire time. Mahaney is honost and practical as he writes; he seems to me to be the type of guy that anyone would love to hang with.
The part of this book that will probably stick with me the most is the concept of “preaching to yourself” rather than “listening to yourself.” Mahaney talks about how prone we are to let our emotions control us. We begin thinking all kinds of negative and prideful thoughts in our heads rather than preaching the truth of the cross to ourselves. He encourages readers to make decisions in life based on the truth that they know is right (the cross and it’s accomplishment) rather than making decisions based on how they feel emotionally at any given moment. This is a really good insight that has already begun to effect my life. I’m grateful for this little book, and even more grateful for Jesus and his life, death, and resurrection! I highly recommend Living the Cross Centered Life and am already making plans to implement its use in the life of 24church.
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2 commentsCounterfeit Gods by Tim Keller
I recently finished Counterfeit Gods, The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters by Tim Keller. Honestly, had it not been for my brother Andy, who gave me this book for Christmas, I probably would not have read it. I’ve heard for quite some time that Keller’s books are amazing, but the title of this book just seemed so “I already know what that’s about.” So, I wasn’t planning on reading it, but with Andy’s encouragement, I embarked on this rather accessible book and came away enlightened for the better.
Counterfeit Gods is a more in-depth study of the some of the themes in Louie Giglio’s book, The Air I Breathe. If you like that book, and it’s examination of the worship that every person is offering to something or someone, then you’ll love Counterfeit Gods. Keller begins with many of Giglio’s same tenants – 1) everyone worships something, 2) we can make an idol out of anything, 3) God is the only thing that will satisfy us, etc. – but he examines these ideas more thoroughly. Reading this book will convict your heart, reveal personal idols that you were unaware existed, and draw you towards the glorious gospel of Jesus.
One of the most intriguing parts about Counterfeit Gods is Keller’s ability to unveil truths within biblical stories that previously seemed absent. Listening to Keller explain a biblical story is like hearing the story for the first time. Without stretching the biblical text one iota, Keller unveils newfound understandings and exposes untold truths. This to me is Keller’s greatest accomplishment within Counterfeit Gods. He helps the Bible become alive.
I would be remiss not to mention that Keller also accomplishes the task of relating all of this Biblical understanding to modern day culture as he waxes eloquently about culture. He effortlessly relates everything to current cultural examples. He’s a well-read guy and it shows.
I cannot thank Andy enough for turning me onto this book. I honestly would have ignored Counterfeit Gods had Andy not sung its praises. This is a seriously good read that is convicting and timely. God has used it to speak into my life and reveal idolatry that I scarcely knew was present.
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1 commentTotal Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey
My brother Andy recently read this book and wrote a review. I’m posting it here. The implications of this book are huge: I can’t wait to read it for myself.
Summary
In Total Truth Nancy Pearcey argues that western (American) Christians have been indoctrinated by secular culture, and by poor theological frameworks within the church, that have caused them to acquiesce into a bifurcated system of living and seeing the world, one in which there is a secular/sacred divide that keeps faith locked into the private sphere of life and out of the public sector (17). Pearcey states, “Many believers have absorbed the fact/value, public/private dichotomy, restricting their faith to the religious sphere while adopting whatever views are current in their professional or social circles” (33).
The problem with this is that it is a breakdown in theology and it highlights the insufficiency of many western Christians’ worldview. A right understanding of Christianity is, “that there is a biblical perspective on everything – not just on spiritual matters” (44). Thus, it is every Christian’s duty to think through and live out all of life from a Christian perspective. “Being a Christian means embarking on a lifelong process of growth in grace, both in our personal lives (sanctification) and in our vocation (cultural renewal)” (49). Christians cannot afford to accept the terms as they stand – leaving faith at home or in church on Sundays. Rather, the Christian’s entire life should be driven by a biblical worldview. This is the only real way to break free from the dichotomies that pervade our thinking and living. As Pearcey states, “The best way to drive out a bad worldview is by offering a good one (58); one that unifies both secular and sacred, public and private, within a single framework (65-66).
And it is the church’s duty to work to this end. The church is a training ground for cultivating people equipped to speak the gospel to the world (67). And by “gospel” Pearcey does not simply mean to share that all have sinned, that Christ died for sins, and that the proper response is repentance and faith. While it is inferred that she does believe this to be true and that it is the central message of the gospel, Pearcey argues that evangelism encompasses more than disseminating these basic truths. She states, “The task of evangelism starts with helping the nonbeliever face squarely the inconsistencies between his professed beliefs and his actual experience” (314). She goes on a few pages later, “In evangelism, our goal is to highlight the cognitive dissonance – to identify the points at which the nonbeliever’s worldview is contradicted by reality. Then we can show that only Christianity if fully consistent with the things we all know by experience” (319).
Moving on in her book Pearcey traces trajectories that led America into its dichotomized way of thinking. By looking from within the church and from the outside, she exposes several contributing factors to the secular/sacred split. First from within, Pearcey explains an overarching three-part theme that should guide the Christian worldview: Creation, Fall and Redemption. She summarizes, “All of creation was originally good; it cannot be divided into a good part (spiritual) and a bad part (material). Likewise, all of creation was affected by the Fall, and when time ends, all creation will be redeemed. Evil does not reside in some part of God’s good creation, but in our abuse of creation for sinful purposes” (86). This system is, “cosmic in scope, describing the great events that shape the nature of all created reality. We don’t need to accept an inner fragmentation between our faith and the rest of life. Instead we can be integrally related to God on all levels of our being” (95). Using this three-part grid as a tool of analysis, Pearcey then argues, “Throughout the history of the church, various groups have tended to seize upon one of these three elements, overemphasizing it to the detriment of the other two – producing a lopsided, unbalanced theology” (87).
One such failure was Aquinas’s overemphasis of Creation, leading him to a theology of “nature/grace dualism” (92). The outworking of this error was that the gospel was restricted to the “upper-story realm,” isolated from science, philosophy, law and politics (93). This gave leverage for the argument that later came to fruition during the Enlightenment; namely, that science and reason are religiously neutral. From this developed the notion that secularism and naturalism are objective, rational systems, binding on everyone, all the while biblical views are dismissed as biased, private opinions (94).
Once there was an accepted dichotomy between “nature” and “grace,” it was not hard to convince anyone that “science constitutes facts while morality is about values” (107). And with Darwins’s theory of natural selection came the ability to have a complete naturalistic worldview (106). The effect of Darwin’s theory has been pervasive. Pearcey states, “Virtually every part of society has been affected by the Darwinian worldview” (155).
What is insightful by Pearcey, though, is that the overwhelming acceptance of this dichotomy and of naturalism as the “lower-level” neutral sphere of truth is all based upon a philosophical foundation. The under girding of naturalism is the belief that matter is eternal and that the “system” is closed – neither of which can be proven on naturalist, scientific terms. Nonetheless, “once people have made that philosophical commitment, they can be persuaded by relatively minor evidence” (168). Furthermore, at this point, the “game” is biased, because once the two-tiered view of reality is accepted, the naturalists define the rules for access into the “lower realm.” Science (empiricism) is put forward as the only viable means for validating truth claims. Or conversely, we must now accept naturalism as a “central tenet” of science (169).
Moving on, Pearcey progresses to show how the dichotomy made its way into the development of our country’s politics and religion. Originally, in the colonial period, the dominant political philosophy was classical Christian republicanism. But with the development of thought – that cannot be divorced from the Enlightenment and Darwinism – came the new liberalism, which replaced the sentiment of self-sacrifice and the social structures of family and church with individualism. The focus was now on self-assertion and self-interest (280). Even evangelicalism1 with all of its positive affects in many ways worked to further the gap. The focus on individual conversion led to a doctrine of one-time emotional decisionalism, which ultimately contributed to the belief that Christianity is a “noncognitive, upper-story phenomenon” (272). Pearcey concludes, “Evangelicalism has largely given in to the two-story division that renders religion a matter of individual experience, with little or no cognitive content” (293).
Pearcey eventually reveals that the bifurcation of public/private has made it into the culture in which we are currently living. And therefore Christians have a great responsibility to fight against this way of thinking because it opposes truth. “What Christianity offers is a unified, integrated truth that stands in complete contrast to the two-level concept of truth in the secular world” (119). So what we must do is “evangelize”2 culture by exposing the flaws of other worldviews and then reveal that the Christian worldview offers a better alternative. And the alternative we offer is not simply for the private sector; we must, “find ways to make it clear that we are making claims about reality, not merely our subjective experience” (119).
Critical Evaluation
The premise set forth in this book has exposed an entire schema of thinking that I have used to interpret reality. While I have thought for some time that what Christians need is an entire worldview from which to operate, I have failed to see the pervasive nature of the public/private dichotomy in the western world and my acceptance of it many times. As a result, there are some questions I now have in relation to this new enlightenment. For one, how am I to understand the concept of “separation of church and state?” Originally, this clause was set forth to guard from the establishment of a church-state and to protect the right of individuals from forced religion. But as it is used now, it seems to “guard” the government from any religious influence (except naturalism), and this seems to be an extension of the public/private dichotomy. It would be fitting to trace how it is that we should specifically think through this concept of “separation.”
Another trajectory worth tracing is what the implications are for the education of Christian children. If evangelism is as broad as Pearcey defines it3, and if, “every subject area should be taught from a solidly biblical perspective so that students grasp the interconnections among the disciplines, discovering for themselves that all truth is God’s truth (129), then is public school even an option for Christian parents? And furthermore, where do we start as Christian parents in building a biblical worldview with our children?
Lastly, Pearcey calls for us to engage culture by exposing to individuals the inconsistencies in their worldview. But at what point do we share what Paul calls of first importance: that Christ died, that he was buried and that he rose again?4 And what’s the order in our attempt to put forward both the central gospel message, and an entire worldview that comes with it?
Review by Andy Adkison
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No commentsProfile: A Portrait of the Sexes
I just recently finished writing some small group curriculum for my church. The curriculum is entitled Profile: A Portrait of the Sexes, and is a study about biblical manhood and womanhood. Last year my brother Andy and I wrote some small group curriculum for the church entitled I AM. I AM was an eight week study on the attributes of God. It was a daunting but satisfying endeavor, so I thought I’d put myself through all the stress and torture again by writing Profile.
As with I AM I’m going to offer a pdf download of the curriculum to anyone who wants it, just let me know via a comment if you plan on downloading the file. I’ll warn you ahead of time, this curriculum is controversial, but I truly believe it’s biblical. Much ups to Andy and to Erin Royalty for helping edit and to David Mead for the cover design.
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