Tag Archives: SEBTS

Beware: The Gospel Will Ruin Your Life

David Platt recently spoke at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Beware, if you listen to this message you will likely experience the “holy destruction” that the Spirit of God can bring.  Be prepared for conviction.

Platt presents a clear and compelling message of “What the Gospel Does to Our Hearts.”  The truth of the matter, the gospel, when rightly understood, will ruin your worldly way of life.

Are you ready to have your life ruined?

Here are a few memorable quotes.  Please watch or listen to the entire thing.

Until the gospel invades our hearts, any efforts to help the poor will be shallow and short-lived; but when the gospel of a Savior who became poor that we might become rich radically invades our hearts, it will radically affect the way we live for the sake of His glory amidst urgent spiritual and physical needs around the world.

The gospel demands radical sacrifice.

Hate your mom and dad, wife and kids; pick up an instrument of torture and give up everything you have.  That’s a lot different than admit, believe, confess, and pray a prayer.

Could it be that somewhere along the way we have taken the gospel, the very lifeblood of Christianity out, and put Kool-Aid in its place.  What it means to follow Jesus is to give up everything you’ve got.

Jesus is not a good teacher to be respected; He is a sovereign Lord to be obeyed.

‘That Jesus did not command all His followers to sell all their possessions gives comfort only to the kind of people to whom He would issue that command.’

If we take Jesus and twist Him into our image, then even when we gather together in our churches and lift our hands to sing songs to Jesus… we are not worshiping the Jesus of the Bible — we are worshiping ourselves.

The gospel, not guilt, is motivation for giving to those who are in need.

‘God always gives what He commands.’

We have found someone worth losing everything for… Do we believe [Christ] is worth it.

Materialism is not just wrong — it’s dumb.

The cost of discipleship is great… but the cost of non-discipleship is far, far greater.  It will cost us to give our resources, money, possessions, and lives in this world.  But what if we don’t?  The cost will be great for a billion plus people who will go on without  knowledge of the gospel while we spend our millions on our buildings, and our programs, and our stuff.  The cost will be great for our brothers and sisters in the world who will continue starving while our dogs and cats eat better than them.  But the cost will not just be great for them, the cost will be great for us.  For we will miss out… in this age and the life to come.

What is the Proper Response to the Gospel? Danny Akin on Romans 12:1-2

As a recent graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary I cannot express how thankful and proud I am for the godly leadership of Danny Akin.  He is one of the main reasons I decided to attend S.E.B.T.S.  He has been one of the leading proponents of a “Great Commission Resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention.

In the following video you will see Dr. Akin preach from Romans 12:1-2.  While watching this video I was again challenged to give God everything.  I don’t mean to use that word “everything” lightly.  I want to live for God as a “living sacrifice.”  I want to be a dead man walking.

Also, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Dr. Akin preach without notes or a manuscript!  Must be a message particularly close to his heart.  As you’ll notice, it doesn’t take Dr. Akin but a few moments to teach the gospel and how it calls us to proclaim the gospel to the nations.

He explains Romans 12:1-2 using three words:  consecration, transformation, and satisfaction.  However, to get to Paul’s point in Romans 12:1-2 one has to understand Romans 1-11.  That is the beauty of this message!  Dr. Akin walks through Romans 1-11 in a beautiful, succinct, clear manner that does complete justice to the intended meaning of the text.

Here are a few poignant quotes from Dr. Akin’s message:

Why do we need a gospel?  Why do we need the power of God?  Why do we need to be justified?  Why do we need to be saved?  The answer is — we have a massive sin problem.

Revelation brings responsibility.

Your salvation was not an accident.  Your salvation was not an afterthought.  Your salvation was not ‘Plan B.’

God wants your eyes.  God wants your ears.  God wants your mouth.  God wants your mind… God wants your hands and your feet.  In fact, God wants all of your body — every single part of it.  He’s not interested in most of it.  He’s not willing to negotiate and bargain… You can’t give God part of you.

The mind is a very delicate thing that must be brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says if you’re not careful, both as a Christian and as a church, we can begin to look a whole lot more like the world than like Jesus.

I find that there are a bunch of stupid Christians… They love Jesus with their heart but they don’t have a prayer of a chance of explaining to somebody what they believe or why they believe it.

[Read a book] that will stretch your mind so that you can think more Christianly day-in and day-out rather than being a surface, sloppy, silly, stupid, Saint – we don’t need any more.

Any system of theology that lessens your passion for the Great Commission and evangelism is a theology not worth having.

In the day and age we live, you can’t be a stupid Christian.  You have to be able to think well about the gospel and the implications of the gospel.  You have to be able to explain and understand both what you and believe and why you believe.  If you don’t read, that’s not going to happen.

For the audio-only version of this message see my previous post on the 20/20 Conference at SEBTS.

20/20 Conference at SEBTS

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the “20/20 Conference” at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  However, the audio and video from each session is now available online.  I would highly recommend everyone checking out the messages that were presented.

Matt Chandler spoke via video on Colossians 1 about “Defining the Gospel Clearly.”

Danny Akin described the “Proper Response to the Gospel” based on Romans 12:1-2.

David Platt explained what a “Gospel-Centered Community of Faith” looks like by teaching from Acts 3:1-10.

J. D. Greear clarified some “Cultural Assumptions That Make the Gospel Offensive” based on Acts 4:1-21.

Clayton King demonstrated “Paul’s Witness for the Gospel” in Acts 17:16-31.

Reflections on "God Exposed." (Part 1)

This past weekend (September 25-26) I attended the 9 Marks “God Exposed” conference held at SEBTS.  My heart and head are both full from the information and exhortations I received.

Audio from the event can be found at the SEBTS website.  On the IX Marks website some blog reflections can be found.

Mark Dever opened the conference with a message from Mark 4 that was encouraging and convicting.  He challenged us to depend totally on the power of the Word of God and not on our own personality, creativity, or intelligence.  Being dependent on God and His word leads to humility and confidence (two traits that I normally view as opposed).  We have humility because we realize that God is accomplishing the growth of the Kingdom of God.  We have confidence in the fact that God will accomplish what he promised.  I was reminded through this exhortation not to confuse size with significance in my own ministry.  Further, I am thankful that God chooses weak vessels.  One memorable quote from Dr. Dever:

If you think you can be filled with the Spirit without being filled with the Word, you need to check what Spirit you are being filled with.

Dr. Akin underscored this point during the Sermon Review (an idea I wholeheartedly recommend for teachers of the Bible) by showing the connection between being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18) through the word of Christ (Col. 3:16).

The Word of God is powerful because God is powerful.  The Word of God will be victorious because God is the victor.

You have been born again: not originating from the mortal but from the immortal, that is through the living and permanent word of God.  ‘For all flesh is like grass and all its glory is like the flower of grass.  The grass withers and the flower falls off but the word of the Lord endures into eternity.’  Now this is the word which was preached to you (1 Peter 1:23-25).