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Articles by David Mathis
Why Does Theology Matter?
Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. We’re on a mission to change that. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ.
Your Kids Need to Know About Jonathan Edwards
My first impression of Jonathan Edwards wasn’t good. I lived for years with the distorted (and sadly common) perspective I received from a high school history textbook. It seemed like the only thing Edwards had done was preach “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In college, an older student twisted my arm to read John Piper, where I came across quotes from Edwards. Those quotes were surprisingly bright and warm compared to the dark and morose figure I expected.
Jesus Raged?
Jesus didn’t stuff his anger, and on several occasions in the Gospels, he allowed his anger to become observable. He was noticeably angry. And he made use of that anger: He took its prompting, and energy, to move into justice-remedying action. Have you been caught off guard by the anger of Jesus? There you are, peacefully meditating on the Gospels, or flourishing under a favorite preacher. With great comfort, you’re finding Christ to be master of every situation.
Not Ashamed to Be Yours
Oh, how often, as C.S. Lewis observes, does our God find our desires not too strong but too weak. He is honored both by our desiring Him and by His fulfilling and exceeding those desires. As it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16) I know of nowhere else in Scripture that speaks so explicitly about God not being ashamed.
Eternal Perspective Ministries
Note from Randy: God is the greatest giver in the universe, and He won’t let you out give Him. This is not prosperity theology. It is simply the way our generous God delights to work in the lives of His children. R. G. LeTourneau invented earthmoving machines and gave away 90 percent of his income, but the money came in faster than he could give it away.
In the service of love, we want to get (and keep) our bodies, depending on our season of life, in the condition needed to serve God’s callings on us to love others. We want to be the kind of people who desire to do good for others, knowing that such good often requires exerting our bodies in ways that are uncomfortable in the moment and even unthinkable if we are lazy and unfit. A Christian motivation for exercise is the good of others. Or we could say, for love’s sake.
Glorifying God with Our Bodies Isn’t About What We Don’t Do
God made us for his glory. He created us “in his own image” (Gen. 1:27). We were made to reflect and display him, to be mobile monuments to God’s strength and beauty, not to be stationary statues. We’re living, breathing, speaking, working, moving images of God himself, going out into his created world to display his glory everywhere.
A Little Theology of Exercise
A Pastor Looks at Physical Exercise and Its Potential to Serve Spiritual Life and Joy We live in an age dominated by screens. For many, life is sedentary, and it’s become increasingly difficult to prioritize physical activity. Quietly conformed to this new normal, they feel sluggish and unmotivated. Others, however, have become entangled in a fitness culture that prioritizes the self, fuels pride, and coddles idolatry. Is it possible to make exercise holy?
How to Get Strong in God
To be strengthened in God does not mean to receive food or money or weapons from above, but words of God’s promise.…David remembers and meditates on the words of God till his soul finds fresh courage in them. David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. (1 Samuel 30:6) David was not the first great man in Israel to be threatened with stoning.
Enjoying God in the Little Things
Consciously recognizing God and thanking Him as the Giver, we enjoy God in His provision of life’s little things. We might also say that we enjoy the little things in God. Saying it either way might prove to be the same thing. Here’s the danger, however: “Enjoy God in the little things” might be the same as “Enjoy the little things in God,” and it might not. It might begin as the same but subtly shift over time. We live in an age of high drama.
Pursuing Sexual Holiness
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Other ears might hear “above reproach” as a really low bar, meaning that I don’t need to have some taint on my public reputation. For many people, that’s not very difficult, and they think this is a really low bar and attainable. For many Christians—and pastors included—when you take a first look or a fresh look at the elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1, there can be a little bit of surprise that the first one mentioned is not that he’s a Christian and regenerate. Paul assumes that.
What Does It Mean to Be “Above Reproach”?
Exemplary Christians For many Christians—and pastors included—when you take a first look or a fresh look at the elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1, there can be a little bit of surprise that the first one mentioned is not that he’s a Christian and regenerate. Paul assumes that. It’s not some other attribute which we might consider central to pastoral ministry.
Sorrows Are Normal for Now
The true grace of God for your journey home is not ease and comfort, but many sorrows and suffering here — expected, designed, limited, and rewarded — endured in faith, mindful of God and Jesus Christ, and with inexpressible and glorified joy. Which leads to boundless, uninterrupted bliss when we’re finally home. As I thought about this conference of young professionals, and the opportunity to speak to you about “what to expect on your journey home,” my mind went back twelve years.
Awe with Audacity
We come [to the King] and keep coming—daily in prayer, weekly in corporate worship. God’s Spirit gives us reverence with confidence, humility with boldness, awe with audacity. In light of God’s might, we approach him with holy fear; in light of his mercy, we come with expectant delight. In Christ, we enter not only assured that we already have the King’s favor but knowing that our Father’s kingdom far surpasses all others.
How Do Pastors ‘Count It All Joy’?
When he lovingly brings pastoral trials into our lives — and he does so lovingly — he is working for us and in us, one of the greatest goods imaginable. When He tests us, he is taking action to keep us. And He keeps us not just by protecting our present level of faith and not just by growing, enriching, developing, and maturing our faith. But in testing our faith, he is keeping us alive spiritually. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds . . .
When You Pray: Speaking to God Alone and Together
This message is part 3 of a three-part seminar on practicing the habits of grace in a hectic world. See here for the other two messages: Part 1: Go Where God Walks: The Everyday Paths of Astonishing Grace Part 2: We Read to Get God: Scripture as the Chief Means of Grace Thank you all so much for your kindness, your hunger, your engagement, and your attentiveness. It’s been palpable.
Go Where God Walks: The Everyday Paths of Astonishing Grace
This message is part 1 of a three-part seminar on practicing the habits of grace in a hectic world. See here for the other two messages: Part 2: We Read to Get God: Scripture as the Chief Means of Grace Part 3: When You Pray: Speaking to God Alone and Together Let me start with a text before we do some more orienting work on where we’re going this weekend.
‘Enter into My Happiness’: Jesus’s Invitation to Infinite Joy
Imagine that moment when Jesus first opened his mouth to begin his Sermon on the Mount. The Gospel of Matthew sets the scene. Jesus has been baptized by John (3:13–17) and endured forty days of wilderness fasting and temptation (4:1–11). He has quietly begun his public ministry in the region of Galilee and called his first disciples (4:18–22). He started by teaching in synagogues. But now as his fame spreads, the crowds swell, and his ministry is increasingly consigned to open air (4:23–25).
What Makes God Happiest? Enjoying His Signature Joy
I was wondering if I had discovered a new world. Home from college after my freshman year, I was pondering what makes God happy. That spring I had read Desiring God and had my soul turned upside down for good. The book exposed how duty-oriented my approach toward God had been, and in the exposure, God’s Spirit opened the floodgates to delight in him, on the rock-solid foundation of the glory of God — since God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
Know Your Covenant: Christian Habits for the New Era
Greetings from Cities Church in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. We are a nine-year-old church with a century-old building not far from that great civic dividing line called the Mississippi River. Just a few blocks north of us is an area known as Midway, which gets its name from being midway between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Minneapolis is about three miles west; Saint Paul, three miles east.
Lord, Savior, and Treasure
Jesus is first shown to be majestic and mighty. He is king, ruler, the Lion. He is sovereign, and fulfills our longings for greatness, for a ruler strong and mighty to impress us with power and win our trust and protect us and provide for us and give us life. But we long not only for a great human king. We long for God himself. And this Lion of Judah is not just Messiah, a human king. He is God himself. One of the reasons that we love Jesus is his paradoxes.
His Power, Your Body, Our Home: Three Marks of Christian Citizens
At age 43, I can still remember times when I felt like my body was improving. I could tell I was getting stronger, or running faster, or my overall energy was increasing. But now the most recent and prevailing feeling has been that I’m getting older. I notice the incremental declines. I can feel movement slowly but surely becoming more challenging. New aches and pains come and linger. In recent years I’ve felt both the glory and the humiliation of the human body in this age.
A Republic - If God Keeps It
“Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” So asked a curious lady on the streets of Philadelphia in September 1787, giving voice to the question of her fellow citizens. The “Doctor” to whom she directed her query was none other than the aging Benjamin Franklin, who was emerging from the Constitutional Convention. Delegates from across the colonies had met all summer in their city.
Found Faithful at Your Post: The Providence of God and Our Subordinate Identities
Our Lord, assigns us various “subordinate identities” under our primary identity as Christians…In a generation that likes to play dress-up with our own identities, we do well to regularly rehearse what our actual, objective identities are, rather than those that are aspirational, subjective, and not yet actual….He determines our nationalities, our families, our vocations, and the various “stations” in which we are placed. Any big life updates?
My Body Is Not My Own: How God Redeems What Sin Seized
Oh, the paradox of this human body. How wonderful — and how terrible. For those with eyes to see, our Creator’s brilliance will be on unusual display next month at the Summer Olympics as the world’s fastest, strongest, and best-conditioned bodies compete for the gold. For some, it will be the apex of their human glory. For others will come massive letdown, even humiliation. The rest of us also know our bodies as instruments of both glory and humiliation.
What Is It Like to ‘Know Christ’?
Do you remember your first conscious “favorite song” as a child? Maybe it was a single, or an album, or a specific artist. I remember hearing a particular song on the radio as a four- or five-year-old and saying out loud to my parents, “That’s my favorite song.” Now, I realize I’m one of the older people in the room. So, I’ll ask, but I don’t expect many to raise a hand. Does anyone know the name Larnelle Harris? Hands down, gospel singer Larnelle Harris was my first favorite singer.
Lord of All the Law: How Jesus Handled the Ten Commandments
The phrase “Ten Commandments” does not appear in the New Testament. Not once. Which might be surprising for Gentile believers today who have been steeped in a Judeo-Christian heritage, and have come to adopt a distinctively Judeo way of thinking.
In Christ | Tabletalk
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When God Listens: His Ear and Our Access
Here’s our overview for this section, and this is the way I like to talk about it. It’s about hearing God’s voice, having his ear, and belonging to his body, the church. And here, I want to emphasize enjoying the gift. This is a gift that we often do not enjoy like we can. So I hope to remind myself and remind all of us here this evening, what a gift we have in prayer. And perhaps we would enjoy this gift a little bit more, incrementally more because of our focus here this evening.
The Splendor of His Queen: How the Church Reflects Christ’s Majesty
He grew up a preacher’s son. Which means he experienced the church’s warts from the inside. We might have anticipated that he would become a skeptic, after seeing so many hurts and disappointments, and so painfully up close. Later in life, he would write publicly, and honestly, about the challenges the church faces in this age — many of them of her own making. But this preacher’s son also became a pastor himself, one still remembered not only for his way with words but also for his hopeful spirit.
How Church Rescues: Christ’s Body as His Means
I mentioned briefly this morning that fellowship is often overlooked as a means of grace. I understand why, because when we talk about fellowship, we’re talking about a lot of stuff that you don’t control. With Bible reading we think, “I can set my watch. I can get up in the morning. I can find my quiet space. I can have a plan. I feel like I’m in the driver’s seat.” Or with prayer, we might think, “I can decide when I’m going to pray.
Head of Every Head
Our Head makes provision and supply for the growth of his wife. As Head, he not only loved her at the cross with covenant-making allegiance, and loves her daily with ongoing concern, but he even loves her enough to take action for her growth, her improvement, her advance. Now we add a fresh kind of encouragement to Christlike headship.
Head of Every Head: How to Lead Like Jesus
We’ve now heard plenty about bad heads. In a world of depravity, where even churches are led by recovering sinners, humans have long circulated reports of poor leaders, and some terrible ones. Now we can amplify the stories with our new technologies. Power can indeed corrupt, but not because power itself is poison. Rather, the poison is in us already. We are sinners to the core and across all our faculties. Christians have long called this “total depravity.” Leadership is not the problem; sin is.
Wrap Your Soul in Truth
The Christian who wraps his soul in the objective truth of Scripture shapes his subjective heart for the wiles of war. He takes the divine word deep into his human center, for transformation and joy. He not only searches the Scriptures, but lets the Scriptures search him. He ingests God’s truth both to feed and to condition his soul, subjectively using the objective truth to shape his pliable affections.
The Safest Soul in All the World: Rejoicing in the Risen Christ
The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Whatever the origins of our English word Easter — and they are apparently too ancient and complicated to trace with certainty, even for Encyclopedia Britannica — Easter has come to function for us today as a two-syllable designation for “Resurrection Sunday.” That’s a good abbreviation: six syllables down to two.
Wrap Your Soul in Truth: Under-Armor for Spiritual War
Given enough time, men and women of principle stand out. After waves of social pressure and the mounting cares of this life, such people are left standing, long after others around them have compromised and toppled. I’m referring to Christians who don’t play favorites and aren’t partisans of this age. They don’t bend the truth or sweep respectable sins under the rug.
Before Division Comes: A Playbook for Pastoral Unity
There you sit at the elder meeting. Some disagreement again surfaces. Maybe you disagree about a potential elder candidate. He’s a good friend of one brother. But to you, he doesn’t seem sober-minded. You don’t think he’ll add to the team, but detract. He seems more like a liability than a blessing. Perhaps you disagree about a troubled marriage.
Bring Your Grief to Gethsemane: The Healing Wounds of Maundy Thursday
Perhaps you bring no specific sorrows or griefs into this Maundy Thursday. Count it as God’s grace in a world as broken as ours — with the sober recognition that it will not always be so. The rest of us find ourselves carrying some identifiable grief or pain this Holy Week. To you, I extend the invitation to join me in bringing your griefs to Gethsemane. They are welcome here on this holy Thursday. There is room for them in the garden.
Revival in the Making
For those of us longing and praying for awakening today, on this side of the greatest renewal in history — the coming of God’s Word incarnate and the pouring out of his Spirit at Pentecost — what might we take away from these remarkable renewals in Scripture? First, God will see to it that his people, in the ups and downs of their spiritual journeys in this sin-sick world, are renewed and revived. Even in our longing and praying for revival is already a great glimmer of God’s sovereign work.
What (Not) to Preach: How to Build and Cut a Sermon
I love starting in on sermon prep. Oh, the possibilities! Any passage in the God-breathed Book holds glories waiting to be spotted and meditated on and shared. And all the prospects for application! How might this text speak to our generation, and our specific church, and individual hearts, at this particular time?
The Most Important People in the World
The church is his chosen instrument for showing the cosmic powers, good and evil, “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33). The reality and existence of the church—this seemingly unimpressive, lowly, ignoble, unwise, unwealthy, unaccomplished body of local Christians, covenanted to each other—his ragtag church, this otherwise unremarkable church shows Satan and his minions that their time is short.
Revival in the Making: God’s Central Means for Spiritual Renewal
I grew up in a revivalist church in the South. Every few years, we had a “crusade” with special weeknight services and a dynamic, out-of-town speaker. I remember singing “Revive Us Again” as our theme during one of those rallies. I didn’t realize at the time that we were singing Scripture, from Psalm 85: Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
Hell Should Unsettle Christians
Hell is supposed to make us uncomfortable. This side of heaven, it is not a sign of spiritual health to be untroubled by the horrors of hell — that humans like us, made in God’s image for fullness of joy, will spend eternity under the righteous frown of his omnipotent justice. As theologian Wayne Grudem writes, not only is “the doctrine of eternal conscious punishment . . . so foreign to the thought patterns of our culture,” but it also offends “on a deeper level . . .
Christ’s Gentleness Makes Him Great
Christ’s Gentleness Makes Him Great Note from Randy: One of our challenges is to look at the complete Jesus revealed in Scripture. We dare not remake Him in our image, reducing Him only to our favorite attribute, love. By seeing Him in His holiness and love, His truth and His grace, we’ll learn to see the fullness of His beauty. Gentleness is also part of His character, but we dare not mistake that gentleness for weakness.
Hell Should Unsettle Christians: Embracing the Most Emotionally Difficult Doctrine
Last August, as our family visited Manhattan, we had the joy of seeing The Lion King on Broadway. And in that urban, sophisticated, and apparently progressive setting, the play’s climactic moment struck me as especially memorable, and poignant. The crowd went wild at the destruction of Scar. Among all the educated and psychologically informed members of the audience, I didn’t observe any who expressed concern about the villain’s feelings.
Start the Day Happy in God: The Lost Art of Bible Meditation
“I’m just not feeling it today.” How often have you reached for that excuse? Many of us can be quick to cast ourselves as the victim of a sluggish heart. Now, making peace with a pokey heart is a very strange phenomenon, even as it now is a widespread assumption and typically goes unquestioned. It may be no big deal if we’re talking about whether you want peanut butter on your breakfast toast.
Put God’s Word to Work: Four Ways Pastors Use the Bible
All Scripture is God-breathed . . . This often-quoted Scripture about Scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16 gets a lot of attention today (and it should). Many fine defenses of the classical understanding of these three Greek words (pasa graphē theopneustos) have been published in recent decades. The God-inspired, or God-exhaled, nature of holy Scripture is worth receiving and defending and — as the rest of the verse reads — putting to use.
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His Voice First: A New Year’s Resolve and Prayer
We live in a world awash in words. The competition for your attention, your eyes, and your headspace — and that through your earspace — has never been more aggressive and ruthless. Our modern lives teem with digital and analog voices vying for our limited focus. They clamor for our money, our time, our energy, our love, our worship.
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