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2022 Ordination and Installation Sermons

Written by: Rich Lusk
Category: Church
Published: 16 November 2022

Over the course of 2022, I have been honored and privileged to preach at a few ordination/installation services for some very good men in some very good churches. Here's a recap.

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A Quick Primer on What it Means to Be Ecclesiocentric

Written by: Rich Lusk
Category: Church
Published: 12 November 2022

Ecclesiocentrism is incredibly simple to understand and absolutely ubiquitous in Scripture.

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Horton and Leithart on Church, Christendom, Theonomy, and Constantine

Written by: Rich Lusk
Category: Church
Published: 11 November 2022

This is a good, wide ranging interview with Michael Horton and Peter Leithart. While Horton makes it known that he disagrees with Leithart's approach to Christians in the public square, he asks good questions here. There was one "gotcha" question from Old Testament law, but it turned into one of the best parts of the discussion as Leithart explained how to interpret and apply Old Covenant law in the New Covenant era.

 

 

A Summary of Ecclesocentrism

Written by: Rich Lusk
Category: Church
Published: 09 November 2022

Think of the layout of a medieval city. The church is at the center of town and the steeple is its high point. The church's position as society's center and summit is represented geographically and architecturally. But this does not mean the church is the only sphere that matters; they did not try to cram everything into the church building, so to speak. Fanning out from that central location were homes where families lived, shops and fields where people worked, schools where they were educated, and, yes, even a castle or government building to house the civil authority. The geographic layout was symbolic - the church did not control or rule these other spheres, but she was responsible to disciple them and they all found their end - their telos, their purpose - in the church’s worship gathering.

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John Piper on Emotional Blackmail

Written by: Rich Lusk
Category: Church
Published: 27 October 2022

"Not feeling loved and not being loved are not the same. Jesus loved all people well. And many did not like the way he loved them. Was David’s zeal for the Lord imbalanced because his wife Michal despised him for it? Was Job’s devotion to the Lord inordinate because his wife urged him to curse God and die? Would Gomer be a reliable witness to Hosea’s devotion? . . . I have seen so much emotional blackmail in my ministry I am jealous to raise a warning against it. Emotional blackmail happens when a person equates his or her emotional pain with another person’s failure to love. They aren’t the same. A person may love well and the beloved still feel hurt, and use the hurt to blackmail the lover into admitting guilt he or she does not have. Emotional blackmail says, ‘If I feel hurt by you, you are guilty.’ There is no defense. The hurt person has become God. His emotion has become judge and jury. Truth does not matter. All that matters is the sovereign suffering of the aggrieved. It is above question. This emotional device is a great evil. I have seen it often in my three decades of ministry and I am eager to defend people who are being wrongly indicted by it.”

 

-- John Piper

  1. John Calvin, on Why Pastors Need to Be Thick Skinned
  2. William Carey and the Hope that Propelled the Modern Missionary Movement
  3. Obey God's Law in All of Life
  4. American Presbyterians Once Had Confidence in the Growth and Triumph of Christ's Kingdom

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