Recently on the podcast, Ben and I spoke about sound exegesis and our complementarian convictions. Once again I recommended a valuable resource: Eikon, A Journal for Biblical Anthropology by CBMW.

Here is an excerpt from the podcast on why I highly recommend this resource. I’m very grateful for CBMW to publish a journal that is so solid exegetically to defend and even prove complementarianism from scripture.

First of all, we as pastors have to be able to teach and to show and even protect our complementarian convictions biblically. We just don't want to say it's a value that we have. We have to be able to prove from scripture the complementarian values and the theology that we embrace.

So the main point there is we've got to know our Bibles, we've got to be pastors and men and women, members of our churches, who understand why we embrace complementarian theology because that's what the Bible teaches. So that's very, very important. Let's have sound exegesis.

In the podcast, I recommend three specific articles in the Spring edition of Eikon that are responses to trends in flawed exegesis with the egalitarian position that begin to embrace same-sex relationships and marriage. I hope you will read them to better understand our biblically-based complementarian convictions:

Misunderstood Mutuality: Responding to Ronald W. Pierce and Elizabeth A. Kay, “Mutuality in Marriage and Singleness” By Denny Burk.

Yet Another Attempt to Justify What God Forbids: A Response to Cynthia Westfall, “Male and Female, One in Christ” By Andy Naselli.

Rejecting Gender Essentialism to Embrace Transgenderism? A Response to Christa McKirland's article, "Image of God and Divine Presence" By Colin Smothers.

I'm very excited to share this mission video with you because it highlights just a bit of the good gospel work being done in the Asia-Pacific part of the world. You will hear from Jeffrey Jo (Philippines), JP (India), and Songhwan Kang (South Korea). You will also get a glimpse of our first Sovereign Grace Asia-Pacific Pastors & Wives Conference in Manila Philippines.  Jefferey Jo led this conference so effectively. The video is posted to our website, as well as below.

Please take 10 minutes to watch this video and rejoice with me over the gospel ministry among our brothers and sisters in the Asia-Pacific part of  the world. Please note that due to the sound quality on the video footage, we included subtitles.

Thank you for your continued investment into our mission—first with prayer, but also financially. Your generosity now is an investment into the training of our future pastors, and it allows us to continue to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. You can also view/download the video here. 

Recently on the podcast, Ben and I talked about 1 Corinthians 3: 5-9 with truths that can stir our faith for church planting. Here are some excerpts from the transcript, with the full podcast linked below.

Paul writes in verse 5, "What then is Apollos, what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God gives the growth. He who plants, he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field and God's building."

So just a couple of thoughts; one, in the text he says twice, that it is God that gives the growth. And, we have to have a component of faith to our church planting. That we believe our God will give the growth when we plant churches. And, when we talk about church planting there’s lot about methodology and that's really good and really helpful. So we should study those things and even put some of those methods into practice because we want to plant strong churches, but we also want to believe that God will give the growth.

Second, we are called God's fellow workers. That's stunning to me. That God would involve us in the work of his mission, but then to be called fellow workers with God, is amazing. And so when we church plant, we are laboring with God in his field, planting and watering, knowing that he will give the growth. And so church planting is a privilege because we are laboring with God. We are fellow workers with God. So, just a couple of thoughts from a text that I hope stirs us to think about church planting more and pray about church planting, and the Lord may just lead you to plant a church in the coming year or two, believing that he will give the growth.

Recently on the podcast, I recommended Tony Reinke’s book: God, Technology, and the Christian Life. We all interact with technology as it pushes into our lives raising both theological and even ethical questions. Tony does an excellent job answering these questions and develops a theology of technology. I highly recommend this book. If you’d like to learn more about the book recorded on the podcast, watch, listen or read the transcript below.

The Sovereign Grace Pastors College began with the goal of  teaching men how to build their lives and families and churches upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God and through the work of Jeff Purswell, Dean of the Pastors College, in particular, we have enjoyed years of fruitful labor in this part of our mission. 

The Pastors College ambition for the lives of their graduates is captured by 10 traits--men who:

• Savor the beauty of Christ above all else

• Pursue the exaltation of God’s glory in all things

• Marvel that their sins are forgiven

• Trust fully in the power of God’s Word to change lives

• Rely wholly on the power of the Holy Spirit

• Delight in loving and leading their families

• Count caring for God’s people a staggering privilege

• Love and pursue the lost

• Value the strength, joy, and humility that team ministry brings

• Find steadfast resolve in Christ’s promise to build his church

Our most recent mission fund video highlights a few recent graduates. They share their experience at the Pastors College and how the training equipped them for ministry in their local church. 

I'm excited to share this one with you because it represents years of prayers, as well as an incalculable number of hours of hard work by Jeff Purswell and our Pastors College Staff. Their labors are one of the ways we live out our shared value of being committed to gospel-centered doctrine and preaching. 

Please take 10 minutes to watch this video and consider financially giving to Sovereign Grace Churches. Your generosity now is an investment into our future pastors who are being equipped to continue the work of advancing the gospel for the glory of Christ alone.

Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). For our family of churches to bear much gospel fruit we must continue to abide in Christ because apart from him we can do nothing. Jesus’ words capture our utter dependence upon him. One of the ways that we abide dependently on Christ is through prayer for Jesus says a couple of verses later in John 15:7, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Asking is a practical expression of abiding dependently on Christ.

Together, we can ask Jesus to provide for our needs. And as you ask, my prayer is that you would abide in Christ even more.

Thanks for praying.

Sovereign Grace Churches Second Quarter 2023 Prayer Requests

• Pray that God would give the members and pastors of Sovereign Grace churches a renewed desire, and opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers in our communities, on our campuses, and in our workplaces.

• Pray for the Ark Church in Dnipro, Ukraine asking God to protect them, and to use them to meet practical needs, and to offer gospel hope to people impacted by the war.

• Pray for Ed O’Mara and Rocco Dalia as they plant a Sovereign Grace church in Torino, Italy later this year asking God to provide housing, financial resources, and a Sunday meeting place.

• Pray for the second Sovereign Grace Europe Pastors meeting in Warsaw Poland, June 20- 22, 2023, asking God to strengthen relationships and provide wisdom for how our churches in Europe can partner together to advance the gospel.

• Pray for the Fieles Conference in Juarez, Mexico, August 9-11, 2023, asking God to encourage, equip, and strengthen the pastors and wives attending from Mexico and LatinAmerica. Pray also for Carlos Contreras as he leads this strategic conference.

• Pray that God would provide Mandarin speaking members of Sovereign Grace churches to form a core team to help Perry Wang plant Jishi Church (Cornerstone Church) in Charleston, SC later this year.

• Pray that God would continue to provide financially for Sovereign Grace Churches so that we can fund the gospel opportunities He is giving us throughout the world.