Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Preaching Outrage

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Preaching Outrage · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: There's an immense pressure right now, and pastors feel it
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  Speaker 1: all week long. We see news in our social media fees,
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  Speaker 1: we see the outrage, and it all feels just so insane.
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  Speaker 1: The pastor feels angry and what he sees all week.
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  Speaker 1: People in the church feel angry and made anxious by
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  Speaker 1: the many evils that we see on our screens all week,
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  Speaker 1: which is a topic we looked at last time on Monday,
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  Speaker 1: and there can build in us this collective expectation that
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  Speaker 1: on Sunday morning, the pastor must stand up and give
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  Speaker 1: voice to the collective outrage and blast away at all
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  Speaker 1: the cultural garbage from the week. That's the feeling. It's
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  Speaker 1: a good time to think through this because how we
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  Speaker 1: confront cultural sins is the theme in our bibble reading
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  Speaker 1: this week too, and the Navigator's babble reading plan. We
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  Speaker 1: are reading First Kings fifteen to twenty. Those chapters watching
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  Speaker 1: Elijah call out sin, call out King Ahab's idolatry, and
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  Speaker 1: for it, Elijah gets called the troublemaker. Right, I have
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  Speaker 1: not troubled Israel, but you have in you and your
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  Speaker 1: father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: So Elijah's not the trouble maker, He's just pointing out
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  Speaker 1: the failure to obey. And then at Mount Carmel, Elijah
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  Speaker 1: calls out the entire nation's spiritual indecision. How long will
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  Speaker 1: you go on limping between two different opinions? That's the
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  Speaker 1: first King's eighteen twenty one. There's a lot of sparks
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  Speaker 1: in those chapters, not to mention John the Baptist's brude
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  Speaker 1: of Viper's statement in Luke three, which we recently read,
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  Speaker 1: and of course Paul talking about how to call out
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  Speaker 1: social sins and ephesis in Ephesians five, verses three to twelve.
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  Speaker 1: All of this is in our recent reading. So how
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  Speaker 1: do we publicly call out sins? That's today? I asked
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  Speaker 1: Pestor John preaching outrage Ethan feels it. As a lead pastor, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: pastor John, thank you for this podcast. I struggle with
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  Speaker 1: how much to address the insanity of the culture from
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  Speaker 1: the pulpit. My social media feed is a constant stream
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  Speaker 1: of things that are frankly demonic. Drag Queen's performing in
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  Speaker 1: front of children, ten year olds being scheduled for gender
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  Speaker 1: mutilation surgeries. My congregation is angry and honestly, so, Ma,
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  Speaker 1: I feel like if I don't spend significant time in
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  Speaker 1: my Sunday sermons calling out the absolute absurdity of it all,
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  Speaker 1: my people will think I'm being soft or like I'm
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  Speaker 1: ignoring these tragedies. But lately I feel like my heart
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  Speaker 1: is just full of irritation. I'm spending more time thinking
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  Speaker 1: of clever ways to blast the latest grossness on Twitter
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  Speaker 1: than I am in exalting Christ. How do I expose
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  Speaker 1: the darkness of the world without letting it contaminate my
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  Speaker 1: own soul or turn my church into just another conservative
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  Speaker 1: grievance club. Wow, that is a great question. Here's actually
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  Speaker 1: our Pastorreen answered that very similar question three years ago.
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  Speaker 2: This is an important question because the sinfulness of contemporary
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  Speaker 2: society is today more outlandish than it has been for
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  Speaker 2: hundreds of years in America, and more in your face
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  Speaker 2: because of the ubiquity of social media and online streaming
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  Speaker 2: and advertising. Those two facts, outlandish and ubiquity, are a
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  Speaker 2: strong temptation for a pastor to vent his anger and
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  Speaker 2: frustration at the degeneration of the world, so that the
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  Speaker 2: pulpit runs the risk of becoming not a place mainly
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  Speaker 2: of exultation over the glories of God in Christ, but
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  Speaker 2: a place of irritation and condemnation of the insanity that
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  Speaker 2: is going on out there in the world. A pastor
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  Speaker 2: can feel that things are so bad that if he
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  Speaker 2: does not linger over the latest grossness of evil, it
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  Speaker 2: will look like he's going soft on sin. So it's
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  Speaker 2: good for us to think about how to speak of
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  Speaker 2: sins in the world and sins in the church, and
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  Speaker 2: yet sound the dominant note of amazement at the glories
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  Speaker 2: of the grace of God in Christ, so that that's
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  Speaker 2: what people walk away from on Sunday morning, or walk
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  Speaker 2: away with on Sunday morning. Namely, we are amazed here
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  Speaker 2: at the beauty and the glory of the grace of
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  Speaker 2: God in Christ. There is surely a reason why Paul
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  Speaker 2: said to the Philippians, who were threatened by legalistic dogs
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  Speaker 2: who wanted to ravage their faith according to chapter three
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  Speaker 2: and by quote, enemies of the Cross of Christ, whose
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  Speaker 2: quote end is destruction, whose God is their belly, who
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  Speaker 2: glory in their shame. There's a reason why Paul said,
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  Speaker 2: precisely to this embattled church, surrounded by so much belly,
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  Speaker 2: god debauchery. Whatever true whatever's honorable, whatever's just, whatever's pure,
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  Speaker 2: whatever's lovely, whatever's commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's
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  Speaker 2: anything worthy of praise, think about these things. We are
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  Speaker 2: not to be consumed emotionally or attentively with the latest
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  Speaker 2: drag queen strutting among the four year olds, or the
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  Speaker 2: latest butchery to the genitals of eight year olds. There
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  Speaker 2: is a fitting groaning and tears over the wickedness of
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  Speaker 2: these things. But if it consumes us, we have lost
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  Speaker 2: our bearings and need to go back to Christ. Think
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  Speaker 2: of this, he said, Paul said, rejoice in the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: And again I say rejoice. He said that verses after saying,
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  Speaker 2: I tell you with tears, they walk as enemies of
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  Speaker 2: the cross of Christ. That's amazing. So let's take let's
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  Speaker 2: take Ephesians five three to twelve as an example of
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  Speaker 2: how Paul deals with sins outside and inside the church
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  Speaker 2: in his preaching. So here's what he says. This is
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  Speaker 2: Ephesians five to three sexual immorality and all impurity, And
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  Speaker 2: he had a lot of gross stuff in that word.
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  Speaker 2: Sexual immorality and all impurity or conveteousness must not even
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  Speaker 2: be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let
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  Speaker 2: there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk and a crude joking,
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  Speaker 2: which are out of place. Instead, let there be thanksgiving.
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  Speaker 2: Fill your mouth up with something positive, so it pushes
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  Speaker 2: out all the filthiness and foolishness and crews. For you
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  Speaker 2: may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral,
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  Speaker 2: or impure or coveteous, that is, an idolator, has no
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  Speaker 2: inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Let
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  Speaker 2: no one deceive you. And he's talking about believers here,
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  Speaker 2: Let no one deceive you with empty words. Because of
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  Speaker 2: those things the wrath of God comes upon the sons
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  Speaker 2: of disobedience. See the connection there. You watch out, you Christians,
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  Speaker 2: watch out for deception. And then he calls those whom
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  Speaker 2: he's really talking about, sons and disobedience, which means unbelievers. Therefore,
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  Speaker 2: do not become partners with them for at that time.
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  Speaker 2: For at one time you were darkness, but now you
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  Speaker 2: are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the Light.
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  Speaker 2: Try to descern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take
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  Speaker 2: no part in the fruit the unfruitful works of darkness,
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  Speaker 2: but instead expose them, for it is shameful even to
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  Speaker 2: speak of the things they do in secret. So here
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  Speaker 2: you have Paul naming the sins of the world sexually, immoral, impure, covetous.
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  Speaker 2: And then he warns the saints not to be partners
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  Speaker 2: with them. So he's not just grandstanding against those bad
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  Speaker 2: people out there. He's concerned about the church. You are
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  Speaker 2: saints now, you are in the Kingdom of Christ. Now,
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  Speaker 2: you are the children of light now. But he doesn't
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  Speaker 2: draw the inference from this. Well, all we need to
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  Speaker 2: do is stand aloof in castigate the world. Rather, he
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  Speaker 2: makes the sins of the world an occasion for warning
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  Speaker 2: the saints, we are vulnerable. If you partner with them
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  Speaker 2: in those sins, you too will come under the wrath
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  Speaker 2: of God. And then he closes with something paradoxical. He says,
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  Speaker 2: take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but
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  Speaker 2: instead expose them, for it is shameful even to speak
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  Speaker 2: of the things that they do in secret. So there's
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  Speaker 2: a way to expose the sins of the world without
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  Speaker 2: being verbally contaminated. It's shameful even to speak of them,
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  Speaker 2: Paul says, which I think means it's shameful to find
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  Speaker 2: pleasure in talking about them, lingering over them with excessive attention.
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  Speaker 2: It is possible to find pleasure. We're just so deceived
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  Speaker 2: on things like this. We can deceive ourselves so easily.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it is possible to find pleasure in talking
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  Speaker 2: about the things we hate. That awful. It's possible to
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  Speaker 2: find pleasure in talking about the things we hate. God
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  Speaker 2: doesn't want this. That's not good. So the right way
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  Speaker 2: to summarize that paradox would go something like this. I think, expose,
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  Speaker 2: but don't gloat. Expose, but don't linger. Expose but weep,
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  Speaker 2: Expose but pray. Expose but don't grovel in the mire.
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  Speaker 2: Even in the name of mocking the mire. Some people
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  Speaker 2: think they're justified in lingering in the mire by spending
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  Speaker 2: a lot of time finding clever ways to put it down. Expose,
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  Speaker 2: but then return quickly to the clean, clear, holy, happy
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  Speaker 2: air of the mountains of Christ's fellowship. Just three more
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  Speaker 2: bullet points observations that might give some more guidance on
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  Speaker 2: how to deal with sins outside the church. First, when
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  Speaker 2: you deal with them, do it in a serious biblical way.
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  Speaker 2: That is, do a biblical analysis, a careful analysis, A
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  Speaker 2: thoughtful analysis, for why they are sin. Some sins we
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  Speaker 2: think are so gross, so harmful, that we don't need
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  Speaker 2: to give any kind of biblical analysis or rationale for
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  Speaker 2: their rejection. I think that's a mistake because it tends
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  Speaker 2: to make us think simply on a par with conservative unbelievers.
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  Speaker 2: That's not a good place to be for a Christian.
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  Speaker 2: Simply on a par with conservative unbelievers, but a biblical
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  Speaker 2: analysis would get to the root of how the sin
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  Speaker 2: relates to God and to Christ, and our dealing with
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  Speaker 2: the sin then would be seen as a passion for
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  Speaker 2: God's glory in Christ's majesty, his mercy, not just our
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  Speaker 2: proper gobsmack at the end outrage. Second, keep in mind
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  Speaker 2: one Corinthians five to twelve, What have I to do
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  Speaker 2: with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church
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  Speaker 2: whom you are to judge? God judges those outside? And then, third, finally,
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  Speaker 2: aim at the fullest experience possible of Romans twelve twenty one.
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  Speaker 2: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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  Speaker 1: That's a tricky balance. You can't just ignore the evil
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  Speaker 1: in the world, but you also can't live in it either.
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  Speaker 1: Expose but don't gloat Expose, but don't linger. Expose, but weep, Expose,
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  Speaker 1: but pray. Expose, but don't grovel in the mere, even
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  Speaker 1: in the name of mocking the mere. Expose, but then
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  Speaker 1: return quickly to the clean, clear, holy, happy air of
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  Speaker 1: the mountains of Christ's fellowship. Such a good and relevant
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  Speaker 1: and timely word. Pastor John has covered a lot of
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  Speaker 1: topics about social evils and social challenges and where they
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  Speaker 1: fit in the gathered church. I see a summary of
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  Speaker 1: those episodes in the Aspesto John book on in that
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  Speaker 1: section on Politics, Patriotism and Culture Wars, pages forty seven
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  Speaker 1: to sixty six for more, and speaking of fleshly zeal,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John rejoins us in the studio next time to
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  Speaker 1: look at zeal for God Gone Wrong on Toty Ranky.
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  Speaker 1: See you on Monday,