Takeaways from Dead Preachers: Adrian Rogers

I listened to a little Adrian Rogers today on my jog--a sermon called "It's Decision That Determines Destiny." A killer reminder of the importance of our decisions. Rogers, who went to be with Jesus back in 2005, brought a great message from the first chapter of Ruth. Here are a few highlights:

1. The Principle of Willing Choice

• You are free to choose
• You are not free not to choose
• You are not free to choose the consequences of your choice
• One big choice takes care of a lot of little choices

2. The Problems of a Wicked Choice

Elimelech made a wicked choice. He got out of the will of God by going over to the land of Moab.

• He had the wrong motive - He went for material gain--for bread.
• What motivated his life was what buttered his bread.
• Faith is believing God in spite of appearances and obeying God in spite of consequences.

Ruth is a beautiful example of a life that God made completely new. A new creation.

Marks of a new creation:

• She had a new determination ("entreat me not to leave you")
• She had a new dependences ("where you go, I will go")
• She had a new desire ("your people shall be my people")
• She had a new devotion ("your God shall be my God")

Takeaways from Dead Preachers: Tozer: Awake

One of my goals this year is to listen to and read more sermons from dead preachers. It's just one of those things that the Lord laid on my heart at the end of '09 that I really want to be faithful in. There's so much to learn from some of these dead preachers who really walked with Christ. Today I listened to a sermon by A.W. Tozer called "Awake!" Incredible stuff! Here are some highlights.

Isaiah 52

¹ Awake, awake, O Zion,
clothe yourself with strength.
Put on your garments of splendor,
O Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled
will not enter you again.

² Shake off your dust;
rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem.
Free yourself from the chains on your neck,
O captive Daughter of Zion.

Two kinds of sleep:

1. Moral Sleep - that is to commit moral habits that are utterly hateful to God and not know it - acts that are dangerous to the soul and yet not know it - self-destructive and harmful to self and others and yet not be aware of it.

• Tozer illustrates moral sleep by describing a man who fell asleep drunk across some rail road tracks and was pulled to safety by a passerby. The sleeping man had no idea he was in danger.
• The New England revival is rarely called a revival - it's called an awakening - we need to be awakened.
• Gone are the days when the evangelist was out to awaken you instead of comfort you.

2. Spiritual Sleep - to have a cold heart with little privy, little fire, and little worship.

• Most Christians aren't alert to what's going on in the world around them. They might know the current events in the world, but they don't understand the meaning of what's going on.
• A Christian ought to be basically a good man ... not by his own nature ... but by the regenerating work of God.
• Tozer quotes Sidney Harris, a secular columnist who had more spiritual insight in this one statement than many believers:"The modern religious revival leaves me cold, for this reason: men are trying to use God in place of offering themselves to God to be used by Him. No man has a right to ask God for peace of mind unless it's founded on righteousness."
• If God never answered another prayer for me as long as I live, I still want God to believe that I want to serve Him until I die. If He never did another thing for me ... I still want Him to know that I want to serve Him simply because He's God.
• This modern emphasis that God is a convenience and that Jesus Christ so kindly died for us in order that we might have peace of mind, makes a mockery of the Gospel. The sinner knows it, and the liberals know it. Only us sleepy evangelicals fail to see it.