Dr. Mohler is preaching a powerful, insightful series of sermons on the Lord's Prayer in Southern's Chapel this spring. In his inimitable style, he addresses the issue of prayer that the church needs to hear today. After all, we have turned prayer into our own personal litany of repetitive, meaningless phrases of little thought and consequence.

The introductory sermon begins on February 10. The sermons are all well worth downloading, hearing, and contemplating. Once this is done....get on your knees and start praying!

My friend Chris and I used to joke about our desire to not be “that guy”. You don’t want to be “that guy”. You know, “that guy” that you point at with the comb-over that fools nobody, you don’t want to be him. Or “that guy” decked out in eye black, pinstripes, $125 cleats, and wrist bands playing church-league softball. You don’t want to be “that guy”. Or “that guy” that still sports a mullet, drives a 1980’s Camaro, smoke’s Camel cigarettes, and drives through town waving a 12 foot Old Dixie. Nobody really likes “that guy”. Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite is “that guy”. Nobody wants to be him.

There is one “that guy” that I definitely do not want to be. It’s “that guy” that struts up to Jesus confident of his acceptance; like the confident batter that begins walking to first in the certainty that the umpire will call “ball four”. I do not want to be “that guy” because it doesn’t end well for “that guy”:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

I have to be honest; Matthew 7 has always left me a little uncomfortable. I always get a little afraid that maybe I will be “that guy”: you know, the guy that stands before Jesus full of confidence, only to get thrown into the fires of hell. Please do not misunderstand me. I do have confidence that I will be with Christ for eternity. But I think the poor saps in Matthew 7 had that same confidence. And if I am being honest, that scares me a little bit.

Audio is now available from the Sovereign Grace Ministries Pastors Conference. 

This was really helpful for me.  In the past couple of months the Lord has changed the way I think about blogging.  Tony Reinke helps to confirm that by his message at the Band of Bloggers gathering:  How can bloggers steward the teaching of the young, old, and dead?

Dan Phillips makes an excellent point with this one: Porn and paper pastors.  This article is not about pornography or pastors that struggle with pornography.  This article is about those that follow “paper pastors” instead of the one’s that God has given them.

Last week I linked to Kevin DeYoung’s series on high places.  A couple days ago he put up his final one, Part 5: Prayerlessness. 

Scot Sterner gives great counsel on “What to do with criticism”.  (HT: Z)

The video for LeCrae’s Don’t Waste Your Life is now available:

(HT: JT)

NFL Draft is this weekend.  I am going to be really sad when the Browns trade Brady Quinn, Braylon Edwards, and who knows who else to get a host of rookies that will be traded in two more years for another host of rookies.  Still wondering why I was happy when the Browns signed Mangini as their coach. 

I thought this was a pretty good summary by John Samson on the 5 Big Myths About Calvinism.  I’m sure an Arminian could easily write 5 Myths about Arminians as well.  But articles like these are beneficial to keep us from discussing around the issues and burning straw men in the process. 

What we’ve seen in our churches is now proven in statistics:  The SBC is continuing to decline says Ed Stetzer.

Thoughtful article by C. Michael Patton on The Forgotten Pulpit.  (And he means pulpit literally).

Alongside The Gospel Coalition, D.A. Carson and John Piper had an evening session about The pastor as Scholar and The Scholar as Pastor.  Thankfully Andy Naselli live-blogged it here.

If you get a chance watch Piper’s message from The Gospel Coalition: