Zeal for Christ

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, it is wise for every pastor to have familiar paths in scripture; precious promises, easily, readily at hand to serve our souls. One of those promises that you've been meditating on for months, and you talked about at the pastor's conference last year, is the words of Jesus in John 15:5. So we anticipate going to our next conference in the fall. We don't want to leave behind what you communicated to us, shared with us, encouraged us with at last year's pastor's conference. So you want to return to that. So talk to us about that.

Mark Prater:

Yes, John 15:5 has been a very meaningful verse to me, one that I continue to meditate on. Jesus says, there "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit." And then he says, "for apart for me, you can do nothing". And I unpacked that verse a lot in my State of the Union during the Council of Elders meeting, and I talked about the fruit that we can bear as pastors and as churches if we continue to dependently, abide in Christ. And one of the fruits, if you can say it that way, that I talked about that I really wanted to call us to continue to bear in our ministry and in our lives, is that of zeal; that we would be pastors who are zealous for Christ. And I was picking up partly on what Jeff had said, at actually the Pastor's conference before that.

So we're kind of building on two pastor's conferences here. Jeff preached an excellent message from Romans 12:11, do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit and serve the Lord. And if you haven't listened to that message again recently, I would encourage you to listen that message, that sermon is also available in print. It's entitled Sacred Zeal, thanks to the efforts of Jared Mellinger who transcripted it and worked with Jeff to get it in a published form so you can listen to it. You can read it, and please do so because I want to continue to hold out for us as pastors and really as even members in Sovereign Grace churches, that we would have a growing zeal for Christ and that would mark our homes. It would mark our marriages, it would mark our churches because we have zeal for Jesus Christ. And I'm praying that that is one of the good fruits we continue to bear in Sovereign Grace.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. Why don't you share with us, if you would, why you carry this burden so consistently and communicate it consistently as well, to us as pastors and members of Sovereign Grace churches?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I think it's important because first of all, I think it authenticates the work of the gospel in our lives, is really what it does. And that's real important for people to hear and see in our lives, to see it in our lives, to see it in our preaching, to see it in our leadership. Because it mentions there in Romans 12:8, those who lead with zeal. So it needs to mark our leadership as well. And I think that's been important at any point in history. It's important now, especially in an age where they're talking about the dechurching of the church; people leaving the church, not coming back. And it's important because I think people that are coming to our church, especially new people, they want to see if we really believe what we preach, this Christ that we preach, do we really believe in him and do we have love for him and zeal for him?

I also think it's an important reminder for us as pastors that when people come to our church, each and every Sunday, members and guests who come to our church, they don't need our opinions. They need the truth of God's word. They don't need you to be an expert on cultural issues or on politics. Now, that doesn't mean you can't speak into those things, but what they really need is your zeal for Christ that stems, that comes from you being soaked in the word of God. And so that word that you're about to preach you care a lot about. And I was listening to, well, Kevin DeYoung has written a book recently. I haven't read it. I just ordered it called Secret to Reaching the Next Generation. And I just happened the other day to be listening to a podcast that he was a guest on, and they talked about a number of different topics.

One of them was this book, and Kevin's saying, this is not so much a secret, but it is what we need to do. And he lists several things in terms of reaching the next generation for Christ, those that maybe have left the church and maybe visit one Sunday. And he said, one of the things is, I think he says it like this, grip them with your passion. Passion is a similar word to zeal. And he said this in the podcast, he said, people want to know that this really matters. What you're preaching really matters. And the illustration I've given so many times when I preach is the story of George Whitfield and Benjamin Franklin. I'm sure most of our listeners have heard this story where as people know Ben Franklin regularly went and heard George Whitfield preach. And one of Franklin's friends asked Franklin, why do you go and hear Whitfield preach so frequently? Because you don't believe what he says. Franklin responds by saying, I know, but he does. Whitfield does. So he went back because he was affected by the fact that Whitfield had zeal for what he was preaching. He had zeal for Christ. And that's what we want people to say about us. They may be skeptical, they may not know, but they should leave church on Sunday morning, thinking, well, he believed what he preached and that affected me. And so I'm praying that we would continue to be pastors who preach with zeal, who pastor with zeal and lead with zeal in Sovereign Grace.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's excellent. Thank you for your continuing encouragement in this area of zeal and abiding in Christ in order to produce that kind of zeal in us as pastors. I love the familiar definition of Martin Lloyd Jones of preaching is logic on fire. And so may we be pastors in any context with the people we serve who encounter us, may they encounter zealous, passionate, happy pastors; as an example, a model to them and for their good. So thank you for your encouragement, Mark. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.