Tim Keller concludes his message with 5 things church leaders can do to help lead their people to the prodigal God:
Spiritual renewal has to happen in the heart by the Holy Spirit; it has to be happening now as we think of Jesus’ love. That destroys the spiritual deadness of our elder-brotherism. We have to drill this gospel down into our hearts. Otherwise, people think that asking Jesus into their hearts means “Now we should try hard to live for Jesus.”
1. As leaders we have to receive this gospel into our hearts. I was reading Romans 1:16, “He who through faith is righteous shall live,” and the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “and he who through preaching is righteous dies a thousand deaths every Saturday night.” The reason we take criticism so hard, the reason we care so much about attendance, the reason we work so hard, is that our salvation is still our performance; we’re not living by the gospel.
A 200-year-old text says, “Don’t go into the ministry to save your own soul.” At first, I thought, “We don’t do that; we go into ministry because we’ve already been saved.” But then I realized what the writer meant: Are we trying so hard to help people for our own sake, or for Jesus’ sake?
2. If you’re a teacher or preacher, carefully distinguish the gospel from moralism and religion. In Corinthians, when Paul appeals for generosity, he does it because “Christ, for our sakes, became poor.” To the degree we see we have true spiritual riches in Christ, money will not be our security and righteousness, and we’ll be free to give our money away because it’s only money. The reason we’re being stingy is because deep down we don’t believe.
If preaching, say, Psalm 23, we can’t just preach, “Now go and trust him.” Instead, we show how because Jesus came and had to thirst, our cup can be filled; because he was hungry, we can feast; and because he was forsaken, grace and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. That’s why we can trust, because of Jesus.
We can’t just pound on the will.
3. Share this with your leaders. Get a group of leaders in your church to work through this, perhaps using The Prodigal God DVD and study guide.
4. Get the congregation to work through it.
5. Pray.
How do you know the renewal is coming? When you have gracious disagreements. In churches where people don’t grasp the gospel, there aren’t conflicts, because people just leave. Or they fight without graciousness. But when there are gracious disagreements, God is at work.
When you see in people a catholicity of spirit, a sense of appreciation for the many ways of Christian expression, yet still an enjoyment of your own tradition.
When people who thought they were Christians now see that they aren’t.
As John Newton wrote in the hymn,
Thou art coming to a king
Large petitions with you bring
For his grace and power are such
Thou can never ask too much.
