Day two of the SBC Pastor’s Conference kicked off this morning.
Jimmy Meek started the morning off talking about unity from Philippians 2:1-4. He used the analogy of dogs who started fighting each other as a metaphor for what happens in churches so often. Their problem is that they had stopped doing what they were wired to do. But when they started doing what they were wired to do they found unity. When we do the same—centering ourselves in the gospel—we too will find unity.
What I really appreciated about Jimmy’s sermon is that he was faithful in proclaiming the gospel. Something I always love about Thabiti Anyabwile is that I’ve never heard him preach a message at any conference where he does not explain the gospel. I love this. And I loved that Jimmy Meek did this as well. We should never assume that every one of our hearers knows and understands the gospel. What a great example for us pastors.
Nathan Rose preached the second message on Philippians 2:5-11. This is a difficult passage filled with tons of theological questions. Nathan Rose knocked it out of the park. He is a great teacher of God’s Word. His major point from this text was that the answer to selfishness is listening to gospel music. Nathan faithfully proclaimed Jesus and all that he has accomplished on our behalf.
The most encouraging thing to me from Nathan’s sermon was his stance on penal substitutionary atonement. And what was so encouraging is that he was using words like kenosis and such throughout the sermon. It wasn’t bookish it was biblical. That was so meaningful to me because I have sat through so many Pastor’s Conferences where we learned business principles and where beat over the head about how we needed to do certain things so that our churches would be just like the church of the successful guy up on stage. Nathan’s humble and faithful exposition of God’s Word was a breath of fresh air.
Ryan Rice closed out the morning session. All I can say is “wow”. One particular thing that Ryan said put a dagger in my heart. Speaking of the grumbling and complaining that marks the heart of unbelief in Philippians 2, Ryan said, “sometimes the biggest grumbler and complainer in your church is the pastor himself.” Ouch! That one hurt. The message wasn’t only convicting it was also encouraging as well. He brought the Word home to our hearts and didn’t leave us in our own hands. This is one that I’ll be sure to listen to again.
