Beeson Podcast, Episode #148 Name Date >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Now your host, Timothy George. >>Timothy George: Well, I’m so glad you’re listening to the Beeson podcast today. I’m here in the studio with my dear friend and colleague, Dr Robert Smith Jr, and today we have the privilege of introducing you to one of the most dynamic and influential young pastors in America, Dr David Platt. Dr David Platt is the pastor of The Church at Brook Hills right here in Birmingham, Alabama. A number of our Beeson students go to his church. If you come to Beeson, you can go to his church. He has a wonderful ministry. But not only in our city, really through his book, Radical, and through his speaking ministry around the country, he’s touched so many thousands of lives in a way that’s just remarkable Dr Smith. Tell us about Dr Platt and what we’re going to hear from him today. >>Smith: Dr Platt is a hybrid of Jeremiah and his tears and John the Baptist and his intensity. In fact, he reminds me a great deal, Dr George, of Clarence Jordan who established the Koinonia Farm in America’s Georgia. We are going to hear a person who is authentically humble without being manipulatively self-effacing. He is going to give us a sermon that is laced with alliteration. He points come straight out of scripture and there is a tremendous challenge there. He wants us to follow the real Jesus of the Bible rather than to reconfigure the Jesus that we want Him to be. And so, that is going to be the challenge not only of the message, but it is also the challenge that he and his congregation lives out. When he says in Luke 9:57-62 that these three questions serve as a center for the sermon, this whole idea of following Christ, he lives it out. His congregation is challenged to live it out. And at the conclusion of this sermon, they are touched, and they are on their feet giving him applause. >>Timothy George: Transparency, sincerity, integrity. These are the hallmarks, I think, of David Platt’s preaching and his ministry. There are two other things I would say, Dr Smith, to listen for. One is the way he brings together a passion for souls, for leading people to personal faith in Jesus Christ and he weeps because there’s so many people in the world who haven’t heard the name of Jesus. And also, at the same time, his compassionate concern for the hungry, for the children, for those who are exploited. He brings those two things together in a wonderful equipoise that you don’t often hear today. The other thing is the international dimension. He talks about things around the world. He’s very involved in international missions through his church and his ministry. So, let’s listen now to Dr David Platt, the pastor of The Church of Brook Hills as he brings to us a message that God has given to him for the church today. >>Platt: “Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights above. Praise Him all His angels. Praise Him all His heavenly hosts. Praise Him son and moon. Praise Him all you shining stars. Praise in your highest heavens, in your waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord for He commanded, and they were created. He set them in place forever and ever. He gave a decree that will never pass away. So, praise the Lord from the earth you great sea creatures and all ocean depth, lightening and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do His bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and small cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on the earth, young men and maidens, old men and children, let them all praise the name of the Lord for His name alone is exalted. And His splendor is above the earth and the heavens, and He has raised up for His people a horn, the praise of all His saints, of Israel, the people close to His heart. Praise the Lord.” “Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song. His praise in the assembly of the saints, let Israel rejoice in their maker. Let the people of Zion be glad in their King. Let them praise his name with dancing. Make music to him with a timbrel and harp.” Listen to this, “The Lord takes delight in His people. He crowns the humble with salvation. Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double edge sword in their hands to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples to bind their king with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all the saints. Praise the Lord.” “Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His acts of power. Praise Him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise Him with the harp and lyre. Praise Him with tambourine and dancing. Praise Him with the stings and flute. Praise Him with clash of cymbals. Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Do you have breath tonight? Do you ever wonder what it would be like if that last phrase in the book of Psalms switched around? Instead of saying “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord,” what if it said let everything that praises the Lord have breath? How many of you would be alive right now? If your every single breath was dependent on it being lifted in praise to your God. I submit to you tonight that the God who is worshiped in this room is worthy of nothing less than every single breath. I’m humbled to be with you all tonight. I’ve been pastoring in Birmingham for about three and half years and don’t have a clue what I’m doing. I don’t say that just to be self-effacing like I’m clueless. I’m like Solomen in 1 Kings 3. I’m only a child and I don’t know how to carry out my duties. I’m humbled and overwhelmed. I’m overwhelmed by the task that is entrusted to us as followers of Christ and leaders in the church. There’s 6.8 billion people in the world today. Even the most liberal estimate would put the world at about one third Christian. In many contexts, that’s people who claim to be Christian as more of a social and political identification. But even if we assumed all of them were actually followers of Christ, that’s still leaves 4.5 billion people who at this moment are without Christ. And if nothing changes, we’ll spend an eternity in hell, 4.5 billion people. And you add on top of that spiritual need, that physical need, the reality that while we just finished a great meal over dinner, there are 26 thousand children who today alone have died of either starvation or a preventable disease. If that is true, then we do not have time to play games with our lives. And we do not have time to play games in the church. And we do not have time to waste our lives living out a nice comfortable Christian spin on the American dream. We have a master who demands radical sacrifice and a mission that warrants radical urgency. If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, I’m going to ask you to go with me to Luke, Chapter nine, verse 57. I want us to look at a passage that may be familiar to us and ask ourselves, are we really even following Jesus? Verse 57 says, “As they were going along the road, someone said to Him,” Him being Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, first let me go back and bury my father. Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you Lord, but first let me say farewell at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks ack is fit for the kingdom of God.” Doesn’t that seem strange? Doesn’t seem like Jesus is trying to talk these guys out of following Him? I remember the first time I heard this text preached. I had moved down to New Orleans to go to seminary to study under a preaching service there, Jim Shaddix. And soon, a few weeks after I got there, Dr Shaddix invited me to go to a youth event, a student event, where he was preaching, to travel there with him. So, I went, and I sat down there in the front. This crowd of students had assembled, and he got up. And the first thing he said to them that night, he said, “My goal tonight is to talk you out of following Jesus.” And I thought, what? I just moved my life to study under a man who persuades people to forsake Christ. So, he preached the text just as it is. At the end he said, “Now, if you want to follow Christ, let me invite you to come down to the front.” And students started pouring down the aisles and I thought, huh. It works. Tell them you’re going to talk them out of following Jesus, and they will respond in drove. So, I decided I was going to try it. The next week I was preaching at a student event and so I preached not on this particular text, but a similar text. And I stood up and the first words out of my mouth, I said, “My goal tonight is to talk you out of following Jesus.” Now, I could see the organizers of the event in the back raise their eyebrows, but I thought to myself, don’t worry, I’ve seen this done before. Been in seminary a few weeks now, know what I’m doing. Just trust me. So, I preached and at the end I said, “now, if you want to follow Jesus, let me invite you to come down here to the front.” Apparently, I was more successful than Dr Shaddix was. I stood there at the front alone while no one came down. I had successful persuaded every student in that room not to follow Jesus. Isn’t this interesting thought? The name of game in church growth today is do whatever you can to bring the crowds which seems totally contrary to what Jesus was actually doing. Remember when the crowds would start getting big, he would say something like, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” I can imagine the look on the disciples faces. They roll their eyes. We’re never going to get on a list of fasting growing movements if you keep telling people to eat you. This doesn’t work. And sure enough, the crowds would leave. Later in this book, Luke 14, verse 25, large crowds traveling with Jesus. So, he turns around and what does He say? If you want to come after me, you need to hate your mother and father and your wife and kids. Imagine following an obscure religious teacher today, him turning around and saying, if you’re going to come after me, you need to hate your mom and dad, your wife and kids. He just lost most of us at hello. As if that was not enough, the next thing He says, “If you’re going to come after me, you need to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” Now, we for good reason, have deep respect and reverence for the cross. But we’ve got to put ourselves in shoes of first century ears. Imagine following an obscure religious teacher and hearing Him say, pick up an instrument of torture reserved for the worst, most vile, most shameful of criminals. Imagine following a religious teacher today and having him turn around and say, if you’re going to follow me, you need to pick up your electric chair and follow me. That’s weird. Kind of creepy. As if that was not enough, you get to the very end, and he gives us a pull at your heartstrings conclusion. If you’re going to come after me, you must give up everything you have. Give up everything you have, pick up an instrument of torture, hate your mom and dad, wife and kids. That’s a lot different than admit belief, confess, and pray the prayer. Later on, Luke 18, a young influential mam comes up to Jesus. He’s got money, if anybody needs to be in on this thing, we need this guy in. Unfortunately, Jesus does not have the personal evangelism methods we have devised today. So, he looks back at him and what has to be one of the classy examples of letting the big fish get away. He says, if you’re going to follow after me, you need to go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. Now, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of these people in the first century. How would we have responded? What if Jesus had said, sell everything you have and give it to the poor. What if Jesus had said, hate your family. What if he has said give up everything you have? And this is where we come face to face with the frightening reality, Jesus has said these things to us. He has said that if you’re going to follow after Him, you must give up everything you have. He has said to every one of us that we are to love Him in a way that makes our closest relationships in this world look like hate in comparison. And He could call any one of us to give up everything we have and sell it to the poor. He says sell it all and give it to the poor. We don’t believe this. We take passages like this, and we twist them. We say well, what Jesus really meant was, and this is where we need to be very careful because this is where we start redefining Christianity according to our preferences. We take these words and say, what Jesus meant was, and we begin twisting Jesus into someone we’re a little more comfortable with. A nice middle class American Jesus who’s okay with materialism. Who doesn’t mind where we put our priorities and values. Who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and for that matter, wants us to avoid danger all together. Wants us to be safe and comfortable. A Jesus who looks like us and thinks like us. And here’s the real danger, now that we take Jesus and craft Him into our image, then when we gather together in our churches, and we sing our songs, and we lift up our hands, the reality is we are not worshipping the Jesus of the Bible. We are seeing and lifting up our hands to ourselves. And we think we’re worshipping Jesus. And so, I ask us, are we really following Him? And based on these three conversations, I want to ask us three questions tonight. Are we choosing comfort or are we choosing the cross? This first guy comes up to Him eager. I’ll follow you wherever you go. They’re walking along the road, verse 57 says, which takes us back to verse 51 where there’s a major shift in the book of Luke and Jesus sets His face to Jerusalem. And the picture is, Jesus is on a road that is headed to a cross. And so, this guy comes up and says, I’ll follow you wherever you go. We know from Mathew, chapter 8, this most likely a religious teacher. We know from Mark, chapter 12, verse 38-40, Jesus has warned us about guys like this. They will attach themselves to someone in order to advance themselves, in order to promote their own status. And so, Jesus looks at him. I can almost picture Him pulling this guy aside, putting His arm around his shoulder and saying, I want you to look down the road that I’m on. I want you to look past all these crowds that are following me. Look past those crowds waving palm branches and singing my praises. Look past that intramural of my disciples. At the end of this road, you will see a bloody cross and there are no holidays between here and there. You follow me, you’re not even guaranteed the basic need of shelter. You follow me, I am all you’ve got. And I am not a means for you to advance yourself or a means to some end in this world. We must be careful here not to use Jesus as a means to a comfortable Christian life. Jesus is the end. He is the one we need, the only one we want. Following after Him means letting go of our desire for more and more stuff and saying Christ is sufficient for me. So, brothers and sisters around the world, I’ll speak about the church God has entrusted me to pastor. We have filled our church with so much stuff. Filled out Christianity in Birmingham with so much stuff that we do not see Christ as all sufficient. We fill ourselves with so much other stuff. And I go to our brothers and sisters in Cuba, and I see the God of Cuba. You don’t see the church from the outside in Cuba. You don’t see buildings and programs and flashy stuff. You don’t see the church until you get to know the people. You get to know the people and you see. One small impoverished Cuban church that we have worked with, that one church has planted 60 other churches. They don’t have money. They don’t have stuff. I said, “How are you planning so many churches?” Older brother, he’s the pastor. Older brother, he looks at me and says, “We’re making disciples.” So, let me write that down, make disciples. That’s good. This brother is a fireball. Older. He’s been brought numerous times, one time, brought before the communist counsel there. Threatened. So, he knows what’s going to happen. So, he brings a big rock in with him, and he sits it on the table in front of him. And they say, “What’s the rock for?” And he said, “I just want you to know that if you try to stop me from proclaiming the glory of my God, then this rock’s going to do it for me.” They thought he was nuts, so they let him go. It’s our brothers and sisters in underground house churches in Asia. Just imagine going to a worship gathering and putting dark pants and a jacket with a hood on and late at night, getting into the back of a car and then driving you out into this village under the cover of night. You get out of the car and an Asian believer meets you there and escorts you down this little path where you round the corner into a room nowhere near the size of this stage. And 60 believers of all ages are crammed in, sitting on the floor. The Bible’s open and they look at you and they say, “We want you to preach for at least two hours.” It’s a dream. They have one little light bulb hanging in the middle. They have different people standing guard in different places in the villages to alert them because they are gathering together at the risk of their lives. This impoverished village. We get that picture of this, believers crammed in on the floor, one little light bulb. We think, well what can we do? How can we help them? Let’s take an offering and send. Brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you tonight, the Holy Spirit is doing just fine in that country without all the stuff we’ve surrounded ourselves with. Somewhere along the way, they’ve gotten the idea that the spirit of God and the word of God and the people of God are enough to accomplish the mission of God. And they are right. They have Christ and He is enough. So, the question is, is He enough for us or do we continue on running after all the same stuff the world is running after and tack Christ on to the end of it? Are we choosing comfort or are we choosing the cross? Are we settling for maintenance or are we sacrificing for mission? Jesus initiates the conversation with the second guy. Follow me. He says, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Now, the people who have studied this passage a lot more than I have debate whether or not this guy’s dad has actually died yet or not. There are some who believe his dad was about to die and he simply wanted to go back and spend those last couple of days with his father while he was alive and then give him a proper burial, which is something he obviously would want to do, but even deeper than that was one of the highest of religious obligations that you would honor your father in this way. It would be shameful, I’d be shame upon you, your family, and your father not to even bury them. Others believe his dad had just died. He just wanted to go back and bury his father. The first time I did preach this text was in a conference in New Mexico. And I flew home and as soon as I got home, got a call from my brother telling me that my dad, best friend in the world, had just passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. And I cannot imagine, in those moments, hearing Jesus say, let somebody else do the funeral. There’s more important things for you to do. Doesn’t that seem brash? What does this mean? Clearly, it means that when we follow after Christ, our lives are immediately consumed with superior devotion to a mission that is greater, more important than anything we can think of in this world and that mission is proclaiming the kingdom of God. Sacrifice all to proclaim the kingdom of God. There’s an urgency here. You must go now and proclaim the kingdom of God. There’s no time to waste. That urgency is there. how much more, in the light of the world around us today. When we look and we see a billion and a half people who have literally no access to the gospel, 6000 people groups, we see a nation like India where there are more people living below the poverty line than there are people in the United States all together. A world where our dogs and cats are eating better than our brothers and sisters in the Sudan. Where every week, 50 thousand people are dying of AIDS and close to 200 thousand kids dying because they don’t have food or medicine. On top of that, our brothers and sisters who are persecuted in prison and tortured around the world for their faith. And I look back at churches that I’ve pastored, and I see the temptation to settle for maintenance at every turn. Settled into a Christianity where we give the tip of our hat to world missions and evangelism while we go on designing endless programs that revolve around us and spending endless millions on us when we should be on the firing line for God. So many in our churches are still in the nurseries drinking spiritual milk. We have an urgent mission for us, and we must sacrifice it all for the sake of proclaiming the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. To turn aside from, to forsake the pledges and pursuits of this world. What happens when the people of God are conquered by a superior mission? I think about God’s grace and brothers and sisters in our church. I think about Danny. He is a recent college graduate, extremely smart in engineering. And he comes to me, and he says, “Pastor, I have two options before me, and I’ve had two options before me.” And I said, “Which one? What are they?” He said number one was to work at a nuclear engineering plant in Mecca. A lot of money. They offered me an extremely high salary. He said, “Second, the school wanted to pay me to do more school. Not just pay for my school but pay me to do more school.” So, I said, “Which one did you take?” He said, “I told them both no.” I said, “Why?” He said, “Because I found, Pastor, I found a way to go into an engineering organization into third world context and serve along side the local churches that are trying to provide water in their communities, and I think that’s going to be a better use of my life.” When I think about businessmen and businesswomen who are leveraging their companies for the glory of God and all nations, doctors who are selling their homes and moving downtown into the inner city and our faith families, I think of one wealthy brother in our faith family. We sat down, we were walking through Rich Young Ruler and text like it, and he sat down in my office. He said, “Dude, I think you’re crazy for saying the things you’re saying.” I said, “Okay.” He said, “But I think you’re right. Not really you, it’s Jesus who’s saying these things.” So, we began to talk about how he was selling his house and his cars, and he had tears in his eyes. He said, “Sometimes I think am I just going crazy? But then I realize that Jesus is enough for me. And there’s never going to be a day when I get to heaven and he says well, you should have kept more for yourself.” I think about a senior adult couple, Ed and Patty. Over a four-month span, they were home 11 days. And it’ not because they were golfing and cruising. It’s because they were doing disaster relief all over different places, Nigeria, Sri Lanka. Ed said he was in Sri Lanka in the middle of rebels fighting, during disaster relief, sleeping under a bus. He said Patty usually travels with me, but she doesn’t like being in the middle of rebels, sleeping under buses. That’s understandable Patty. You don’t have to go with Ed all the time. But this couple has decided that they’re going to spend their last years before they see their savior’s face making their lives count for His glory on this earth. They aren’t going to waste it away. So, what happens when the people of God, not just pastors or church staff members, but what happens when the people of God are all, all conquered by a superior mission. The very gates of hell cannot stop the advancement of the kingdom when the people of God forsake the pleasures of this world and give themselves to the superior mission. So, are we going to settle for maintenance or are we going sacrifice for our mission? Last question. Are our lives going to be marked by indecisive minds or undivided hearts? Indecisive minds or undivided hearts. This last man says I’ll follow you, let me just say goodbye to those in my home. He just wants to say goodbye to mom and dad, brother or sister. It’s understandable. But Jesus knows that affections are strong. And then he goes back, and he speaks with mom or dad, brother or sister, and they begin to ask him, why are doing this? Is it safe? How are you going to find a wife? Same kind of questions that college students, and for that matter, anyone in our churches will get from people in our churches when they say we’re going to radically follow after Christ. And Jesus says to this man, you can’t look back. You set your hand to the plow, and you don’t look back. You follow after me. You’re not just conquered by a superior mission. You are captured by superior affection. And that affection’s for me. And this really is the issue, isn’t it? This is the issue. It’s our hearts. It’s our hearts. Where are our hearts? Do we in our hearts believe that Christ is so supremely good and so supremely satisfying that we will gladly let go of the stuff in this world? Isn’t that the gospel? Isn’t that the point in Matthew 13:44? Man walking in a field. He stumbles onto a treasure that is worth more than he has or could ever have. So, he brushes his foot over it, and he goes back. Matthew 13:44, it says he gladly sells everything he has. Gladly. With gladness he sells everything he has. People say, why are you selling everything you have? He says I’m going to buy that field over there. They say, you’re nuts. Why that field? And he looks at them and smiles, he says, I have a hunch. And he gladly sells all he has. Why? Because he’s found something worth losing everything for. Brothers and sister, we have found someone worth losing everything for. And so, we’re free from the pursuit of more and more stuff. We have a treasure in Christ and He is more valuable than all the stuff this world has put together. The question is, do we believe that? Do we see Him as so supremely good and so supremely satisfying? You know, the cost of discipleship is steep. There is no question. Bonhoeffer was right. When Christ bids a man, He calls him come and die. It’s steep. But I would submit to us tonight that the cost of non-discipleship is far, far greater. What if we don’t follow after Jesus for who He is? What if we continue to follow after Jesus for who we’ve created Him to be? Well, the cost will be great for those without the gospel because they will continue on for generations without hearing the gospel while we design all our programs around ourselves and spend all our millions on ourselves. The cost will be great for them and the cost will be great for our brothers and sisters who have malnourished bodies and deformed brains because they don’t have food and water. And those who haven’t ever heard the gospel who are dying because they don’t have food or water, the cost will be great for them while we spend all our resources on nicer bigger homes and cars and church buildings and everything else. The cost will be great for the lost and the poor, but I would submit to us that the cost will be great for us because we will miss out. We will miss out on the superior joy that is found Christ alone. Got a letter from someone. It’s a little lengthy but I think it’s worth it. This is someone who came to our church and he wrote, “Dear Dr Platt and the church at Brook Hills, I assume, based on what others have said about you and the faith family at Brook Hills, that you’re accustomed to receiving complimentary letters. I hope that you will indulge me as I write to you from a different perspective.” That’s not a good way to start a long letter. He writes, “My letter could be considered more of a complaint or a warning. It is intended to enlighten you as to how your radical actions and teachings related to God’s word have been destroying my life and probably the lives of others like me. Let me explain. I was raised unchurched by loving parents who were perfectly content with their lives. The worldly perspective I grew up with allowed me to see the hypocrisy in the lives of the few church-going families to which I had been exposed. Thus, I grew into a worldly man and found myself in the path to the American dream. This path, as far as I could see, did not go through or even near a church. I went to college and then grad school. Married a kind and beautiful woman. Got a decent respectable job which allowed me to ultimately buy a house and make maximum contributions to a 401K. My wife and I eventually had a family with two beautiful daughters and a couple of dogs. I was living out the middle-class version of the American dream. I was a kind, decent family man, grounded in the realities of the world, perfectly content to devote myself to working hard to provide the financial resources my family needed. 401K retirement plan, 529 college savings plan, a general savings account, and a vacation savings account. I also worked to provide the necessities of life such as a flat screen tv. My charitable giving would be described as minimal, at best. I love my family. I love spending time with them. But I was constantly distracted by the financial realities and needs of our life. I looked to my balance statements for a sense of security. Like many good worldly men devoted to getting ahead in this world, I would find moments of joy when the 401K statement showed a profit and pronounced periods of stress, disappointment, and anger when it dropped or when we had to take money out of savings to pay the bills. However, I accepted these ups and downs as the realities of life. And overall, we were doing okay until one day my wife, who I thought loved me, told me that she would like to raise our daughters in a church and requested that we start visiting local churches. Up till this point in my life, I had done a good job avoiding churches and hypocritical Christians who attended them. I had always felt uncomfortable around these Christians. And now, in order to make my wife happy, I was going to have to attend a church and interact with them on their turf. I reluctantly agreed and added church to my list of dreaded weekend chores. Initially, our trial run of visiting churches proved relatively painless. The people were nice but the watered-down version of the word which they were serving had little impact and left me with no desire for more. My wife, who was also unimpressed by these experiences, suggested we try Brook Hills because she had heard good things about this church. Well, if attending a regular church was bad, I was sure attending a mega church would be far worse. However, as usual, my wife convinced me, and we attended your church for the first-time last fall. That day was the start of a process in which you and your faith family have been progressively destroying my life in this world. The word you served up that day was strong and pure, not like the watered-down versions I had received in the past. It had an immediate impact on me and like the most addictive of drugs, left me wanting more. We started to attend regularly on Sundays but soon that was not enough to satisfy my growing need for more of this word. I started buying CDs of previous sermons so I could get my fix on the way to and from work each day. I started to interact more with members of this faith family who were not only consuming the word, but also appeared to be living it as well. This only fueled my desire for me. You and this faith family seemed all too happy to encourage and support my habit. As I got deeper and deeper into this addiction, a side effect known as faith began to grow inside me. As my faith grew, I felt a greater need for fellowship with others who were suffering with this same faith. All along I was gradually losing my grip on the realities of this world which had been my foundation, and I came to Christ. I cannot believe what the word and this faith have done in my life over the last year. I used to avoid church all together. Now, we attend the worship service on Sundays, and I’ve joined a small group which meets for three to five hours every week at a neighbor’s house. I used to avoid Christians who professed their faith and now I have become one. I stopped saving for the flat screen tv, which is just as well since I don’t have much time for tv anymore. I have reduced my 401K contributions and stopped looking at the quarterly statements. I’ve gone from trying to save as much as I can to give away as much as I can for the glory of Jesus. What is wrong with me? It’s lunacy. What have you done to me? The worldly man I was a year ago would not recognize the man I’ve become. I was a man believing the realities of this world, living the American dream, saving up riches for a comfortable future, and looking for security and a strong bottom line. Now I believe in, pray to, and seek after a relationship with a God I can’t see. I found salvation in Christ whom I can’t see. I long for eternity in an unseen future creation. I now look for security in my faith. All of this would have sounded like foolishness to the man I was a year ago. However, the man I was a year ago and the worldly life I knew are being destroyed. And I wanted you and the faith family at Brook Hills to be aware of the role you played in destroying my worldly life. I also feel the need to warn you that if you persist in teaching and living out the word as you are doing currently, then you will likely have a similar impact on the world and lives of others like me. I hope you realize that you may have to live with the knowledge of your actions and their effects on the lives of others for all of eternity. I will be there to remind you of what you have done.” Brothers and sisters let’s show them there’s another way. Let’s show them that Christ is more than enough. Let’s choose Him over our comforts and let’s sacrifice it all for mission. Let’s let our generation and our lives be marked not by indecisive minds but undivided hearts. And may God show Himself as supremely satisfying through us. Thank you. >>Timothy George: The sermon we’ve just heard by Dr David Platt was preached at Convergence 2010, which is a prayer and leadership conference sponsored by the Baptist State Convention in North Carolina and Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte. >>Jim Pounds: Greetings. My name is Jim Pounds. I’m Director of Operations here at Beeson Divinity School and I know that you just enjoyed a great sermon by David Platt. He’s going to be here on the Samford University campus as part of a large conference hosted by Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, and orchestrated by the Acts 29 Church Planting Network. David will be preaching on the afternoon of September 24th, but he will be part of a larger group. That morning Ray Oreland and Brian Loritts will be speaking. And in the afternoon, it will be Matt Chandler, Kevin Smith, and David Platt will close out the event. To register for the event, you can go to our website, www.beesondivinity.com. If you will look in the lower left corner and look for the yellow icon for “Engage the South” and click on that, it will take you to a little bit better explanation of the event. At the bottom of that page, you can click on the link that will take you to the registration. We hope you will come be a part of things. You’re always welcome at Beeson Divinity School. Thank you for listening to this week’s podcast. >> Announcer: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast with host, Timothy George. You can subscribe to the Beeson podcast at our website, Beesondivinity.com. Beeson Divinity School is an interdenominational evangelical divinity school training men and women in the service of Jesus Christ. We pray that this podcast will aid and encourage your work and we hope you will listen to each upcoming edition of the Beeson podcast.