UNTIL HE BRINGS ME HOME

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:24-26

when good news is old news

Every time I visit Lighthouse Community Church in Torrance, CA, the gospel is presented. I don’t know if it’s actually a policy or anything like that, but that just seems to be the way it is. Back at my home church of EFCLA, one of our youth pastors brings every message he preaches home to John 3:16, with a short gospel presentation. Even at AACF, the campus fellowship I’m in here at UCLA, there’s a lot of talk of focusing on the cross and gospel-centeredness.

And I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like I already know this stuff. A few months ago, I started doing what John Piper (among others) encourages us to do, and started to preach the gospel to myself daily/throughout each day. But on some days, it really is just rote recitation. On particularly bad days, I don’t care, because it just feels like a chore. I’ve also wondered how many people tune out during the gospel presentation parts of Pastor Kira’s sermons at Lighthouse or Pastor Kuo’s sermons at EFCLA. Because I certainly have.

And I wish it weren’t that way. In fact, some pastors address this very issue—we’ve heard the gospel before, but we should never graduate it. It should always impact us, because it’s not just a way to get saved; it’s the fuel for all our worship. But if I were to be honest, that’s not the case—sometimes, good news feels like old news.

In these moments, I’ve lost sight of so many things. I am not considering how the gospel in the Word beautifully portrays the attributes of God. I am not looking at how sinful and wretched I am. I am not thinking of the deep love bound up in the sacrifice at Calvary. I am not remembering how all-sufficient Christ is, and how the gospel is the only means of my reconciliation to him. I’ve forgotten all this and so much more.

And when I do actually remember and reconsider, it does fuel my worship. The gospel is full of true, factual statements, but it’s also full of the glory of Jesus Christ. And as, by the grace of God, we make that our highest delight, I hope it never gets old.

  1. changwinston posted this