At this time of year it’s natural to think about the virtue of giving thanks to God. On the surface, it sounds so easy.

Perhaps we think of Thanksgiving as the most “tame” and harmless of all holidays with little at stake (except perhaps that of overeating!).

But Oh, how mistaken we would be!

As Christians, the foundation of what we believe every day of the year — in sickness and in health — in good times and in bad — comes to the surface at Thanksgiving.

I am convinced that our circumstances have almost nothing to do with our ability or inability to give thanks to God.

Some of the most joyful, gracious, and thankful Christians I know happen to live with chronic illness and pains and losses that would stagger most people. Their ability to give thanks every single day has nothing to do with their circumstances or their comfort.

On the other hand, I also know people with pains and illnesses who feel angry toward God. They talk as if God has unfairly dealt them an undue measure of pain and sorrow in this life. They spend their time complaining and grumbling with no thanksgiving.

So I am convinced that our circumstances have little or nothing to do with our ability or inability to give thanks to God. Rather, our theological perspective on our circumstances has everything to do with whether we are thankful to God with joy in His goodness… or not.  

If we truly believe that as fallen creatures living in a fallen creation that disease and death should be the exception and not the rule, we are going to be sadly disappointed. Jesus even told us, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Ever since the fall of humanity into sin and corruption “the whole creation groans” (Romans 8:22).

“And we ourselves, who already have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).

Now there is a way of complaining to God that exists within the realm and jurisdiction of faith. But there is a sinister complaining about God that exists only in the realm and neighborhood of unbelief.

For insights into this from the life of Job, read this excellent article by Vivian Hyatt: (http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/11/10/when-you-cannot-live-with-or-without-god/). 

If I see my chronic illness and sickness and brokenness in this life as an exception that is unfair, my heart will become increasingly bitter and thankless over time.

But if I understand at the outset that in this life of sin and disease, we are all going to eventually have pains and losses and brokenness and blindness and cancers and griefs and death until we get home, then I can stand on the promise of Romans 8:28 and in my broken heart through tears write “GOOD” over every disease and loss.

Understand, I don’t want these things to happen to me any more than you want them to happen to you. We would never choose to suffer if we could avoid it and still grow in sanctification and still be conformed more and more into the image of Christ. But Jesus is producing something in us through these afflictions that comfort could never produce.

Knowing that God is sovereign over every good and bad thing that enters my life prepares me to take heart in the goodness of His purpose in my heartbreak and illness and pain until He brings me home to be with Himself.

In this way, what I believe from Scripture about God’s purpose in my hurts and the evils I may suffer in this life allows me to trust Him in the darkness until He finally brings me into the light.

Although I don’t like to publicize my own frailties, it sometimes helps people to understand my context when I mention the perspective from which I write and preach. Otherwise, you might think of me what Shakespeare said of Mercutio: “He jests at scars who never felt a wound!” Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have lived daily with chronic illness since 1978. I have Type 1 diabetes and many of the associated issues that go along with it. Because my illness is hidden, it is easily forgotten and ignored by most people, except me and my family. They witness my trials up close and know the battles I keep concealed from others.

In addition, I also endure the same viruses and plagues and griefs that sweep through our community just like everybody else.  So I am united with you in physical afflictions, both seen and unseen. I write with this in mind.

Understanding our personal struggle enables us to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who are rejoicing. We must be compassionate toward the hurting as Jesus taught us when He rebuked the religious leaders for their lack of compassion on those who are afflicted physically (Luke 13:10-17).

God is also glorified by the tears of His faith-filled people when their hearts and bodies are broken with grief and pain in this life. In this world, there will be pains and tears of suffering. But in His presence there is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11)!

That’s why Thanksgiving is such a profound mark of faith in the presence of illness and disability… and of disease and death. Our ability to give thanks to God has almost nothing to do with our circumstances; it has everything to do with our theological perspective on our circumstances.

This is the triumph of faith in a fallen world!

With joy in our Savior,
Pastor Kevin

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 True Christianity is not merely affiliating with a certain church or denomination. It’s really about what God has done in your heart through faith in Jesus Christ.

James talks about “pure religion” in James 1:26-27. Belief shows itself in action.

True religion is a matter of the heart toward God, not a rigorous adherence to external rules and codes and traditions. Being truly righteous without pride is winsome; it attracts other people. But arrogant legalism that condemns and confronts at every opportunity to aggrandize one’s self, is an abomination in the sight of God.

Spurgeon said: “If your religion doesn’t make you holy it will damn you. It is simply pageantry in which to go to hell.” In that sense, external religion is like an empty husk. It may have an appearance of godliness on the outside, but it’s hollow on the inside.

The word ‘husk’ is defined as “an empty shell; a remnant.” But living faith in Christ is the true kernel that alone can satisfy the empty heart. A kernel is defined as “The central or essential part of something.”

The husk of religion may resemble the true kernel of Christianity at certain points, but unlike a Spirit-filled heart set aflame with a passion for the supremacy of Christ, external, self-righteous religion is empty at the core.

In James 1:26-27, he’s talking about the difference between worthless religion and true religion (which is a life of joyful obedience to God). You’ll notice that he uses the word “religious” in the positive sense of one who is devoted to God.

And instead of being theoretical, James remains very practical. It all boils down to a unity between the inner and the outer man in submission to God. Let’s look at these two verses in James, 1:26-27.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. [ESV]

These two verses describe two different types of relgion. One is true, one is false.

James is assuming that God-centered religion in its most altruistic form can be a good thing, but only under God’s dominion.  

The worthless husk of external religion manifests a lack of self-control and a deceived heart (1:26).

That’s what verse 26 is all about. “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”  

 In our modern usage we would say, “that person’s religion is a joke.”  

Without personal holiness exhibited by self-control, especially control of the tongue, religious conformity is just a worthless husk. External acts and deeds may resemble the true kernel of life-changing Christianity, but that resemblance is only superficial.  

In verse 26, James addresses the whole church in his audience: “If anyone thinks…” The Bible is open about the fact that many of the people who associate with the visible church are not really devoted to Jesus Christ. 

They may be devoted to religion or a tradition or a denomination or a system of theology and nothing more. You can do all of that and still not know Jesus Christ. 

For some, church is a social outlet. For others, it’s a way to network and market yourself. For others, it’s a family tradition. But none of this is about Jesus.  

There are many people who “think they are religious” and indeed they may be externally religious.

The problem this religious person has, according to James, is that he “does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart.”  

In the Hebrew mindset, to deceive your heart is to be morally wrong and not just intellectually wrong. Worse than mental deception is heart deception.  

This self-deceit is manifested in the inability to bridle the tongue. They talk and talk and talk when their greatest need is to be quiet and listen. The more they talk, the more deceived they become.  

So what’s the big deal about bridling one’s tongue? What does that have to do with religion? Well James says a lot about the tongue in this letter. The tongue refers to our speech in general… the words that come out of our mouth.

To control your tongue is really to have a heart controlled by God’s Spirit under any circumstances. The heart is the foundation of the tongue. The first 12 verses of chapter three are all about the natural difficulty of controlling the tongue.

One of the reasons this is important is because controlling our tongue is an indicator of self-control in general. The tongue is a little microcosm of your ability to discipline every other part of your life.

Where the tongue is critical, divisive, self-righteous, or angry – James indicates that there is usually great sin hidden in that person’s heart.

When I go to the doctor for a check-up, my doctor is always wanting me to have my eyes examined by an ophthalmologist. The reason for this is that the circulatory health of the eyes is an early indicator of the circulatory system of the whole body. 

It’s a microcosm. The eyes are the first place where problems usually show up. If the eyes are good, then the rule of thumb is that the rest of the body is probably good too.

James applies this same concept to the tongue. If the tongue is under control, then the heart is probably under the restraint of God’s Spirit as well.

When your tongue is bridled, you’re revealing that the strongest impulses of the human nature have been mastered by God’s Spirit.

But the tongue is extremely difficult to control. It’s the easiest place for sin to occur.

It’s been estimated that the average person will speak about 18-thousand words in a day; that’s enough for a fifty-four-page book every day. 

In a year that amounts to sixty-six 800-page volumes! Many people, of course, speak much more than average. Up to one-fifth of the average person’s entire life is spent talking. James and Jesus both say that our mouths display our hearts.

We need to set a guard over our thoughts and words as Christians.

Guarding with you,
Pastor Kevin

This year, Monday, October 31 marks a significant date in the Christian calendar.

It has to do with an Augustinian monk in Germany and the recovery of the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone for salvation.

494 years ago on October 31, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenburg, Germany. The hammer blows of that posting still ring in the hearts of men and women around the world.

The Word of God pierced Luther’s heart like a lightening bolt: the just shall live by faith! That act changed Western Civilization and revival swept across Europe!

What has been called the Protestant Reformation was really just a re-asserting of ancient Christian doctrine.

In fact, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the so-called Protestant Reformation contained nothing new. It was all a recommitment to the original teachings of Jesus and His apostles contained in the New Testament.

So much superstition had already infiltrated the Roman Catholic Church prior to 1517, that the ongoing cry of the reformers became “Ad fontes!”—which is a Latin phrase meaning, “to the sources!”

This meant the reformers understood that the strongest antidote to false teaching and superstition is a clear declaration of God’s Word. They would go back to the Word of God again, and again, and again as their source of authority regardless of what the traditions of men had contrived.

In our day, so much of what passes for preaching has purged the gospel of every element that might be considered the least bit offensive or shameful to the unconverted natural mind.

The world has been telling the church that we shouldn’t talk about sin, we shouldn’t mention the reality of hell, and we shouldn’t tell people that Christ is the only way to the Father. We’ve been told that unbelievers don’t want to hear about that and they’ll call you narrow-minded if you do.

It’s time for the church to start teaching the world God’s truth and stop letting the world shape the direction of the church!

The first duty of the true church is to feed Christ’s sheep. It is only when the church feeds Christ’s sheep that the lost have any chance of hearing the truth and being saved by grace through faith. 

Those who understand the full implications of the gospel message know that there are certain parts of the gospel which make the natural mind uncomfortable to hear and which, apart from faith, are impossible to believe.

These truths can make us feel a legitimate sense of shame, especially if we’re used to courting public approval. Talking about sin and wrath and judgment can make us feel a sense of shame, especially when those truths are rejected and ridiculed.

Jesus knew that His followers would be tempted to feel ashamed of Him and of His words; so He told them they would be blessed when they overcame that temptation… and He warned them that real shame would occur if they didn’t.

Listen to Jesus in Luke 9:26…

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” [ESV]

In a battle of competing fears, I would much rather feel temporal shame in the presence of unbelievers here on earth for the gospel in order to be eternally welcomed by the King of kings than to be temporally welcomed by unbelievers here on earth only to be eternally ashamed in the presence of the Lamb of God and of His holy angels!

Commentator Geoffrey Wilson wrote,

“The unpopularity of a crucified Christ has prompted many to present a message which is more palatable to the unbeliever, but the removal of the offense of the cross always renders the message ineffective. An inoffensive gospel is also an inoperative gospel. Thus Christianity is wounded most in the house of its friends” (Romans: A Digest of Reformed Comment [Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1976], p. 24).

The answer to this problem is to preach the whole counsel of God. Preach the message of Christ to all people, rather than preaching the message of our culture and its confusion.

The answer to the church’s spiritual anemia is not a better marketing strategy; it’s not in changing the music style or adding a coffee shop to the vestibule of the church. The answer is in a return to the passionate preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ which includes the whole counsel of God’s Word!

Celebrating God’s Gospel with you,
Pastor Kevin

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As we’ve been looking carefully at what Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:8-15 about the differing roles of men and women in the public gathering of the church, it raises some interesting questions. Let’s clarify what this passage is teaching and what it permits and prevents.

To begin with, the word translated “men” in verse 8 is from anēr; this doesn’t refer to mankind in general, but always refers to males as opposed to females. Men are to take the lead when the church gathers for corporate worship. This word can only refer to men.

When prayer is offered for the lost during those times of corporate worship, the men are to do the praying; their heart for the lost is to set the tone for the church.

This public prayer is what we often think of as the “pastoral prayer” or an invocation or call to worship or anytime one person stands behind the pulpit to pray on behalf of the whole church. According to Scripture, only men are to take this responsibility in the worship service.

The women and other men who are not leading are to corporately unite their hearts in submissive agreement as prayers for the lost and for rulers and those in high positions are being offered by the men who serve as overseers in the church.

Of course, both men and women are to pray for the lost. But in the public gathering of the church for corporate worship, only biblically qualified men are charged with leading the way in prayer for the spiritual needs of Christ’s church.

But what about times when the church gathers for a prayer meeting, with both men and women?

During those times of informal prayer where no one is praying on behalf of the whole church, but men and women are simply offering spontaneous prayers of intercession, this wouldn’t be a violation of the principle behind 1 Timothy 2:8-15. The act of representation is missing.

However, where one person must formally present the prayers of the congregation as a representative of the whole church, only men are charged with this responsibility.

Men are held responsible by Christ for teaching His Word, for reading the Word, and for praying in the public gathering of His church; and every man is held responsible for the spiritual oversight of his own household regardless of his occupation.  

The primary purpose behind these principles is the greater spread of the gospel. Ironically, having men and women offer prayers or preaching in public worship as co-equal representatives of the church isn’t how the spread of the gospel is maximized.

God’s design is for men to lead spiritually. When men fail in this regard or when they passively abdicate this responsibility, it creates a spiritual vacuum tempting women to violate God’s design for expedient or pragmatic reasons.

Someone must lead. If men don’t, women are tempted to fill the vacuum left by the absence of godly male leadership.

In verse 8 there’s an instruction for how men are to pray for the lost at church. Again, this instruction is to maximize the spread of the gospel; it’s a mandate.

And then in verse 9 there’s a mandate for Christian women on appearance, again with the overarching motive being how to maximize the spread of the gospel to all people.

Are women permitted to pray? By all means. However, in the context of the public gathering of the church, only men are to take that responsibility in the worship service of the church. Anyone can and should pray silently in their seats at church… and everywhere beyond the church.

Are women permitted to teach the Bible? By all means. However, they are to teach the Bible to other women and children outside of the corporate worship of the church (see Titus 2:3-5). In public worship, women are not to lead men spiritually.

In some informal settings outside the church however, there is the example of Aquila and his godly wife, Priscilla leading and teaching Apollos the Word of God more accurately (see Acts 18:24-26).

In that setting, Priscilla gave informal instruction (i.e. spiritual leadership) to Apollos, albeit with the partnership and counsel of her husband, Aquila.

As we continue looking at these counter-cultural truths, we’re going to see that God’s design is under assault in our day. Yet it was also under assault in Paul’s day too.

Our charge as godly men and women is to obediently apply God’s Word to His church. It shapes the way we gather as His people and it sends a loud message to the world that we follow, not the voice of the world, but the Voice of our Master and Savior.

For His glory in the church,
Pastor Kevin

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As we move into October and prepare for winter, I’m reminded that reformation season is in full bloom at our church. I love this time of year!

On the last Sunday of October (this year it’s October 30^th), we observe Reformation Sunday as a church. We do this because of what the Protestant Reformation means to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It’s a reminder of the fact that a once twisted and distorted view of the gospel was recovered and clarified. Hundreds of Christians gave their lives to declare the gospel.

As a result, thousands and thousands of people began to hear the good news and come to faith in Christ. They were people trapped in a religion of rituals and traditions, but without the gospel.

For this reason, reformation season is also a time of spiritual renewal. We remember what is at stake in the doctrines of Scripture. We savor again God’s sovereignty and we move forward with renewed hope and inspiration.

The reason we observe the Sunday closest to October 31^st is because of how that reformation relates to our understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ today.

The truth is, the one true gospel is still at stake. There are millions who haven’t heard it at all and millions more who haven’t understood it correctly.

Whenever we preach on these subjects, it clarifies the gospel, what it is and what it isn’t, so that more people can hear and believe.

History is a compelling witness to the power of the gospel!

When we call on history to bear witness, it speaks to the overwhelming power of God’s Word to change lives and to shape empires. This Reformation Sunday will be no different in that regard.

Those of us who delight in the truth of God’s Word look forward to every occasion to celebrate its triumph over darkness and distortion. May Christ be glorified as His truth goes forth!

Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Kevin

Now that our new Providence website has launched, I wanted to write a brief note about how grateful we are for all the hard work that went into this production.

The improved functions and navigability of this website will allow us to reach more people with God’s Word. This is the chief way we glorify God as a church — by making His Word known to the world around us.

Everyday, many people around the world are listening to the sermons we post online, both on this website as well as our sermon host, sermonaudio.com. Many messages have been downloaded over 100 times and one message was even downloaded over 1,000 times! This is a tremendous return for the investment.

God’s Word continues to go around the world. It never returns void.

It is my joy to watch what God is doing in our church and among our members to bring glory and honor to His name, both where we live as well as around the world!

With joy in Christ,
Pastor Kevin