As a Calvinist This Is What I Believe

 

The first 18 years of preaching I could never preach a sermon without mention going to a movie, (Jerry Lewis you know) and going to a dance, or having long hair, and playing cards, etc. And eveery sermon had to have salvation, and Heaven sweet and Hell hot. Then the last 34 years I just taught what the Bible said book by book, chapter by chapter. I didn't add or substract or twist or

　

The first 18 years of preaching I could never preach a sermon without mention going to a movie, (Jerry Lewis you know) and going to a dance, or having long hair, and playing cards, etc. And eveery sermon had to have salvation, and Heaven sweet and Hell hot. Then the last 34 years I just taught what the Bible said book by book, chapter by chapter. I didn't add or substract or twist or take a verse here and there, half verse and made it a sermon.

The first 18 years of preaching I could never preach a sermon without mention going to a movie, (Jerry Lewis you know) and going to a dance, or having long hair, and playing cards, goingt to a rock show, goling camping, playing golf, going to a NASCAR race, And every sermon had to have salvation, and Heaven sweet and Hell hot. Then the last 34 years I just taught what the Bible said book by book, chapter by chapter. I didn't add or substract or twist or take a verse here and there, half verse and made it a sermon.

　

I have friends who are Calvinist Baptists..., and I love their friendship dearly! But I dare you to test the mindset of Calvinism..., if you're truly born again, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, then I dare you to test their doctrine..., just as you walk past the next stranger, think of them as lost..., then HOLD that thought and set it aside, then walk right on past that stranger with the mindset that God has already chosen that they will or will not be saved, that they are going to heaven or Hell, and there's nothing you are responsible for doing concerning them! I dare you! The Spirit of God will overcome that doctrine of devils, and will compel you to witness of your Saviour Jesus Christ, to them. I tried the test...and the Lord would not let me pass them by..., and thank God I tested that false doctrine..., because some of those folks have been saved, not because of my feeble efforts, but because Jesus is not a Calvinist..., in fact, Satan is not a Calvinist, even the Devil knows that's a lie even he cannot believe! Terry Rollins

　

I said: Of course you are so wrong brother, but that is okay, your heart is in the right pleace. your view point about most Calvinist is wrong. There is a responsibility to share the gospel, with out which no one would be born again. The gospel must first be preached, the gospel is to be shared. God could save everyone, God could use angles to bring the gospel story, but God calls us to present the Gospel to all men, but it is God's alone that saves a sinner from Hell. I know I don't share the gospel to every one I see, but its not because I don't think I should. I think I must have talked to 20 people today in stores, and in a bakery, in a bank, at quick stop and didn't ask them if they were going to heaven, but it was not because I didn't think about it. Of course Jesus is a Calvinist, He knows God alone saves. But Jesus knew he had to die on the cross in order for God to save. And we know we need to present the gospel message for God to save those that are lost.

　

Contentment

 

Paul  say that “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (Philippians 4:11). That’s not to say that Paul had found a state of being that was free from suffering, disasters, or opposition. Rather, he was able to embrace all hardships as essential components of God’s sovereign plan. The contentment (autarkēs in the Greek) he describes transcends all of those things. His union with Christ brought with it a profound sense of satisfaction and independence from worldly distractions. And that was because Paul’s dependence and sufficiency were found in Christ: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

John MacArthur elaborates further:

Paul was saying, “I have learned to be sufficient in myself—yet not in myself as myself, but as indwelt by Christ.”  He elsewhere expressed that subtle distinction: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me”  (Galatians 2:20). Christ and contentment go together.

But the contentment Paul described was never detached from his passions; rather, it was found in His ultimate passion—Christ. It wasn’t being disconnected from all things that made Paul content. It was His connectedness to Christ that was all-satisfying and the cause of Christ was all-consuming. His letters to the churches he planted are overflowing with love for Christ and love for His people. As John MacArthur points out: “Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he took the idea of contentment much further than it was taken even in the Greek culture, where the word first found its meaning.” Anxious for Nothing, 130. What Paul left us with was a divinely inspired thank-you note.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.

Contentment

 

Paul  say that “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (Philippians 4:11). That’s not to say that Paul had found a state of being that was free from suffering, disasters, or opposition. Rather, he was able to embrace all hardships as essential components of God’s sovereign plan. The contentment (autarkēs in the Greek) he describes transcends all of those things. His union with Christ brought with it a profound sense of satisfaction and independence from worldly distractions. And that was because Paul’s dependence and sufficiency were found in Christ: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

John MacArthur elaborates further:

Paul was saying, “I have learned to be sufficient in myself—yet not in myself as myself, but as indwelt by Christ.”  He elsewhere expressed that subtle distinction: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me”  (Galatians 2:20). Christ and contentment go together.

But the contentment Paul described was never detached from his passions; rather, it was found in His ultimate passion—Christ. It wasn’t being disconnected from all things that made Paul content. It was His connectedness to Christ that was all-satisfying and the cause of Christ was all-consuming. His letters to the churches he planted are overflowing with love for Christ and love for His people. As John MacArthur points out: “Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he took the idea of contentment much further than it was taken even in the Greek culture, where the word first found its meaning.” Anxious for Nothing, 130. What Paul left us with was a divinely inspired thank-you note.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.

Don't Try to Please People

What’s a chronic people pleaser to do? Here are six ways I’m still learning to fight the idol of approval.

1. You can’t know what others think, but you can know what Jesus thinks.

The cruelty of approval is that you can’t ever really know what others think of you. One look at the cross, though, and you can be sure what Jesus thinks of you. He literally loves you to death.
When talking about approval, my dad likes to say, “What you think of me is none of my business.” But making what Jesus thinks of you “your business” is key.

2. The pursuit of coolness and the practice of kindness are mutually exclusive.

Being a people pleaser means that even when I’m doing something nice for you, it’s really about me. Which is shorthand for saying, “I want you to like me and think I'm cool.”
The way out of this trap is dying to what you think of me so I can begin to be kind to you in the ways Jesus has been kind to me. Because Christians have died with Christ to being cool, we’re free in him to begin being kind. The pursuit of coolnees feeds our approval idol, but the practice of kindness starves it.

3. Being yourself is better than being a cover band of someone else.

A few years ago I braved a dive bar to see a Led Zeppelin cover band called Zoso. They were amazing and the next best thing to Led Zeppelin. But they also made me sad since they’d adopted the persona of someone else, down to the long curly hair and tight leather pants (which should be illegal unless you’ve been on the cover of Rolling Stone). The world has missed out on the unique music only they could have made, even if it wasn’t appreciated beyond their cat lady aunts and favorite high school teachers.
No one wants you to be a cover band of someone else. They want you to be yourself, in all of your shame and glory.

4. Before you can ever be yourself, you have to actually like yourself.

Sadly most of us could agree with Dave Matthews (right now people with Jeeps are nodding extra hard): “I wish I had been anyone other than me.” A guy in my high school actually chose that for his senior quote because he hated himself so much.
The way out of hating yourself isn’t being someone else. It’s beginning to be who God made (and redeemed) you to be. It’s like that scene in Silence of the Lambs when Hannibal Lector escapes from prison by cutting off the guard’s face and wearing it on top of his own. As gross as it is, it’s exactly what we do when we try to be somebody else.
The only way out of the prison of people pleasing is to take off the skin of others and get comfortable in your own. Of course this doesn’t mean getting comfortable in our sin. God is at work to renew us into the likeness of Jesus. But do you realize that God made, chose, redeemed, adopted, called, and sent you?

5. Live from your identity, not for it.

Maybe it’s better to make the distinction between identity and image. Identity is something given, fundamental to the way you see yourself. Image, on the other hand, is something you create, fundamentally about the way you want others to see you. The sin of our age is to live for our image instead of from our identity. Which is why Vaughan Roberts wisely warns us that “wholehearted commitment to Christ will not be good for our image.”
But we have something better than an image. We have an identity in Christ that nothing and no one can touch. It includes words like “son,” “daughter,” “servant,” and “heir.” In the words of Aslan:

You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. . . . And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.

You don’t have to be someone when you already are someone.

6. Resign yourself to the awkwardness of life.

This is my new favorite line (mainly because my spiritual gift is making things awkward). It’s from the Before movie trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight). From beginning to end, life is awkward. Life isn’t as it should be, and neither are we. Let’s not pretend life isn’t hard, or that any of us has it all together. Let’s admit to ourselves (and one another) that we’re broken and can’t fix ourselves. Resigning yourself to the awkwardness of life means being vulnerable about all your weakness and weirdness. Awkwardness is an invitation to vulnerability. And vulnerability is where friendship is born. It’s also where God becomes big. And not until he becomes big will people become just the right size: big enough to matter, small enough to not be enslaved to what they think.
Unfortunately, our struggle with approval won’t just go away. The fight for the gospel of grace to reign in our hearts and minds is a daily one. The fear of winning (or losing) the approval we crave is something to be repented of daily, too. That’s why I’m strongly considering getting Jesus’s words in Luke 6:26 tattooed on my forearm: “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you.” Then again, having a forearm tattoo might be its own approval struggle.
The rest we need from our constant striving to be liked will never be found in ourselves, in the clichés of “trying harder” or “doing better,” or in the shame of “just stop being this way already.” Instead it’s found at the right hand of God, where we already have all of the approval we could ever need. As someone once said, God doesn’t just love us. He likes us. He really likes us.

Sammy Rhodes is a campus minister with Reformed University Fellowship at the University of South Carolina. He also recently authored his first book, This Is Awkward (Thomas Nelson, 2016).