Sermon Video Introduction: As we celebrate the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit to the church, which is how God created the church in its new covenant form, we should make a point of paying close ...
The Spirit of Wind and Fire
The Insufficiency of Education in Virtue
“Christian virtue needs to grounded on the bedrock of grace. Education in virtue is no substitute for gospel. If all you’re offering your kids is a moral course of instruction, all you’re doing is bringing up Pharisees. You’re raising a household of moralistic prigs. You’re going to get two inches of snow on a dunghill: it looks really pretty, and it photographs well, but it is what it is. Or to use the illustration the great Puritan Thomas Watson once used, you’re treating a broken leg by putting a silk stocking on it. An external conformity to virtuous behavior is not going to cut it. Everything depends upon the new birth.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 46-47
Blind and Fastidious
“Remember that, right after having committed the crime of all crimes, the murder of the Christ, when Judas came back and returned the thirty pieces of silver, these orderly process-mongers were very concerned about what account to put the money into. They didn’t want to get dinged in the next audit. Ethics are so important.”
So Your Kids Are Dating? | Doug Wilson
They Were Just Checking Their Heart Rate
Content Cluster [06-05-25]
The Challenge of Mopping Backwards: Somebody Likes Being Stared At: A Song I Really Like for Some Reason: Hard Time in the Kennel: Another Podcast Heard From: And Yet Another Story On Us: Another news story on Moscow, and also not a hit piece. At the same time, the headline was curious . . . …
Oppression Always Respectable
“One of the things that Girard noticed about the Scriptures, not to mention human history, is that oppression is always respectable, and that the victim who protests that oppression is not respectable. He is told to shut up. Persecutors always feel persecuted. The oppressor feels oppressed and is highly indignant when the victim won’t shut up. When the victim writes a psalm of lament, he is not playing the dutiful role that he was assigned. The victim is therefore the troublemaker and must be dealt with.”
Three Characteristics of Wise Discipline
“First, discipline must be prompt. No delays or postponements. Ecclesiastes says that discipline must be carried out ‘speedily.” Second, discipline must be effective. The child needs to feel it. The book of Hebrews says that no discipline seems pleasant at the time but rather painful. If it isn’t painful, it isn’t corrective. Third, discipline must be consistent. Whenever there is an infraction, you need to deal with it. Too often, discipline is meted out based on the attention span of the parent or the annoyance threshold of the parent . . . What are you teaching your children [with intermittent discipline]? It certainly isn’t virtue. You’re instilling in them a gambler’s hope.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 45-46
The Sin of Servant Leadership
Introduction: Okay, and what comes after this? What sin comes next? The sin of loving Jesus? Yes, the title is certainly provocative, at least in some quarters. But this merely highlights ...
Keeping a Lid on Caesar
“If there is no God above Caesar, then how do we keep Caesar from declaring himself god? Not only so, but because as god he answers to no one, this means there is no such thing as ethics. There is no authority over him to which he must defer. And if that is the case, then everybody under him must defer to him—and he could well be an erratic or ill-tempered or insane god with bad digestion. And does anybody really want a god with a bad temper who is capable of toothaches or migraines?”