I Repent: From Saying Nothing

So, sometimes I shoot my mouth off. Sometimes I say something that is not very well thought out. Sometimes I say something untrue. But more often than not, I say a true thing in the wrong way. I can speak the truth but not always in love. Sometimes I speak the truth in pride. This sinful ability means that I've needed to become more and more willing to apologize to people and turn away from my lack of self control. To, sincerely, ask someone's forgiveness because you've sinned against them is very humbling. It's part of God's work in our lives. It is God enabling us to repent. Hopefully we're all learning to repent in this way.

But I wonder, have you ever had anyone come to you and sincerely apologize because they should have said something but they remained silent? Have you ever had someone come to you and say "I repent for all of my years of passivity when it came to my words"? Have you ever had someone come to you and say "I ask your forgiveness because I didn't speak up but I kept silent"? Has anyone ever said to you "I want to ask your forgiveness because, when you were sinning against God, I didn't confront you"? Has anyone come to you and said "I'm sorry I didn't say anything but at the time I was putting my own comfort and reputation ahead of Truth"? Has anyone ever said to you "I am sorry and I've now learned that my silence was actually sin masquerading as humility"? I think it might be good for us to learn to say, "I repent, from saying nothing."

Punch me in the face and tell me I'm not doing enough... (Clarification)

In my last post I don't think I was as clear as I should have been concerning Expository and Topical teaching. First of all, expository teaching should address many topics but if it is done correctly it should be uniquely Gospel oriented. In other words, it should always be lifting up the character of God and resting on the death and resurrection of Christ.

On the flip side, if topical teaching is done correctly it too shall lift up the character of God and rest on the death and resurrection of Christ. I am not completely rejecting the idea of topical teaching. I love eating at Red Robin but we must realize that topical teaching limits the teacher (to what he already understands) and it limits the hearer (to what the teacher already understands). Topical teaching is, generally, a rehearsal of all of the verses on a given subject that the teacher already knows. Expository teaching keeps forcing the teacher and the students into unknown worlds of Biblical Truth.

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Punch me in the face and tell me I'm not doing enough...

When you've been teaching in the same church for 7 years you have an opportunity to see trends in people's response to preaching and teaching. My teaching ministry is mainly expository and chronological. By expository, I mean is that I'm usually teaching a Biblical text and desiring for the themes of my teaching to come out of the Scripture. By chronological, I mean that I usually teach right through a book of the Bible, verse by verse. People's response to this type of teaching is underwhelming to say the least. It's like my mom's cooking. There's plenty of meat on the table and it fills you up but you don't rave about it for weeks.

But every once in a great while I do a topical series. I tackle topics like sexuality, relationships, stewardship, worldliness, or other charged issues. This is when I get the most response. "I've never heard you teach like that." "That was awesome... it was so practical." This type of cooking is like the cooking at Red Robin. The meal tasted great and it was really fun to be there but if you eat like that every night you'll be a nutritional basket case. You'll be overweight and under nourished. The compliments go on and on and at the end of those times of teaching and usually I am utterly distraught.

I'm distraught because the reason people like those topics is because evangelical Christians love to be told their not doing enough. The thinking goes something like this 'if you tell me I'm not doing enough, then I can make better decisions and then I can fix the problem and make some progress.' This thinking springs out of a belief that when we have spiritual problems, through the power of our will/choices we can better ourselves. We gravitate towards being punched, feeling sorry for ourselves, and attempting to pull ourselves up rather than ceasing to attempt to pull ourselves up. We want to work but we don't want to trust. We want to wallow in ourselves but we don't want to know God. We want a quick fix to our self centeredness not a life-long discipleship process. We want a soft spoken teachers who spout a lot of self help not a hearty herald of God's Word who holds out the promises of God. We want answers not the discipline of the Lord. We want crystal balls not walking by faith. We want works not grace. I want me not the Triune God.