Question and Answer With Alistair

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthfortheworld.org who's first give us your question please all right thank you very much do you like what we've done now when I came in in in 1983 we had a building in another part of the city and we sold it in 1986 and I was very excited when they said to me that they could get they thought I think it was 1.1 million for the sale of the building to which I said well that's good because it gives us a very good start on what we're doing they said not so fast we have a mortgage of nine hundred and fifty thousand on the building and and it has a prepayment prepayment penalty clause of another twenty five thousand well I never heard of such a thing in my life coming from Scotland and it never occurred to me Scots and the Dutch you know were were and and Hebrews are we got it and Swiss we so from that from that point on when we built the first part of this building all the way through it has been our objective and and God has helped us to make sure that we're that we are not carrying any indebtedness whatsoever in any of these projects now that that demands certain things and and it's been a wonderful thing that the leadership has been united in this and and led the charge to have done what we've done the I don't know if you've gone through in the children's wing but the children's wing that we build is is is really fantastic and we've to whom much is given much will be required and that's on our hearts and a burden for us at the moment because we need to do more than we've we've been doing so far but it's not just so easy to do certain things it's a team that does it we're very well served in the congregation we have one man who was a high level in in a large building firm who has been a constituent part of our church for many years along with his wife and he was volunteering his time and then he became full-time with us and he has then led the charge through through all of these things the development of the venue the refurbishing of the kitchen the the restoration of this room and I I really don't know what what else to say about it we we we did it because we felt it was for the future in many ways you know I say to people somewhat facetiously but seriously to you know I'm really setting this thing up for my replacement so that there's no sense of you know personal anything really about it it doesn't it if don't misunderstand me when I say it doesn't mean that much to me but it actually doesn't mean that much to me I'm very grateful for it but it's not my identity is not engaged in it in any way at all and I don't think anybody's really is and so we've done it in this way so that in the future as we as we proceed we'll be a more useful space which I've still got two pieces in my own personal puzzle left and we've run out of money and so it's a challenge but I do want us to build a free-standing chapel on the property that will be suitable for weddings and funerals maybe for 300 or 350 people very simple and and I'm trying to convince the elders that to put a graveyard in to the the bottom of the property as well and so that we can say to the world that this the church is the place where burials have routinely taken place because the church is the only place that has an answer to the question of death and so that's that's the next piece of the puzzle if we're able to get there yep a kind of a funny question and then a serious one the funny one is some of us were commenting on that truth for life building whether we might be able to live on the second floor it looked very inviting okay yes but anyway that's the funny one that's the I hope maybe I should have let you figure out whether that was the serious one you know what do you think is the European II the most serious cultural question today that is a challenge for the church and ways or suggestions that you've heard or the youth that this congregation has engaged in to try to graciously approach the situation the challenge I think without doubt the the the whole issue of human sexuality and the nature of of manhood and womanhood and the family and everything else and I I think and I'm not I hope you'll accept this for me I'm pretty certain that this will be a question tomorrow because it almost is it's a question every time and I think it might be good just to leave it until tomorrow because I'm sure will be addressed and we'll get it as it were in in triplicate I mean I could speak about it a little bit but if you don't mind we could leave it until then and it if you would like to come up onto the second floor of the truthful Life Building when it's finished I'll be glad to let you stay there overnight just once we live in a world where we have social media with Twitter and blogs and Facebook and all kinds of other things and then we can use those as good tools to help us communicate with our folks but there's also some dangers in that as well I'm just wondering what your thoughts are with social media and advantages a-and the dangerous pitfalls that we need to be aware of in that well help I see really let some of my colleagues answer for me and and safeguard me well I personally I'm not very good at that stuff and I'm not I'm not I'm not in it I'm I don't have a Facebook page I'm not an Instagram it's really not possible to live in our world without without this dimension I just interviewed a young couple for in preparation for their marriage ask them how they met they met through social media I just one of my good friends who's just moved back to the area who was in Florida whose wife who is now his wife was in Michigan I asked them how they met they met through social media through the engaging processes that are involved in that it's difficult for us to conceive of the extent to which for example the our radio program is carried exponentially to areas and in dimensions that I'm not even really cognizant of myself at this at the same time it's a bit like everything else you know the the the good that was represented in the in the printing press and brought with it the the challenges that it can be used because we live in a fallen world so I'm not a fan of you know using social media for our Bibles and things like that I bet I'm a Neanderthal I mean I'm I'm you know I'm you know I'm old and so I'm just rambling I kind of like it but not a lot and I think the benefits outweigh the detriments but I don't like this thing I went on Facebook for a nanosecond because of Jeff because he said that I could go on so that we could keep in touch that I could go on Facebook and it would be a closed Facebook page well I went on it like for 47 seconds only to realize that yeah it was closed in the sense that you couldn't get on it but as soon as I went on it then it opened up to every every other part of that of that world and and I you know I don't I don't want I don't want that world you know I don't I don't I don't want that world so yeah I I'm afraid of that world really I suppose yeah well you know I die that's that old people applauding nice all crusty old people like me yeah no good now good sir my question is we're dealing with like prosperity gospel is a challenge not the obvious creflo dollar paula white you know you'll make money but more of the God loves you he loves his people you should have physical healing you should expect it if you're not proclaiming it you're not proclaiming the gospel do you have a like a book recommendation that makes a positive case for who God in Christ is and against that sir the Bible I mean that's really where we start I mean any of these questions you know my good friend Singler Ferguson says one of the questions you always ask where this is does this theory work with Jesus and if it doesn't work with Jesus it doesn't work so you know how can you propound this stuff on the back of the life and teaching of Jesus you don't need anything other than that I mean that's that's it in thinking of a book I can't think of one off the top of my head if any of my colleagues who are here know of a good book they can call it out to me or get it to me and then I can see it in a moment or two but it's an it's an it's an easy throw isn't it because it appeals you know to have sort of a very man centered orientation and I think in the beginning of 2 Corinthians 4 you know when Paul says you know we're not those who are tampering with the gospel we're not deluding the gospel we're not distorting the gospel I mean Corinth as a city was filled with self aggrandizement I mean as a culture the the display of wealth and the identification of prosperity and people erecting monuments to themselves I mean they were into selfies before we had selfies and that had bled into the the church in Corinth itself which is why he has so much to say as Don was saying last night about boasting because boasting was a constituent part of the Corinthian psyche and it's a huge part of Western culture psyche still today and so I don't think it's so much for us to to sort of rail against it and I would think that you would agree with that as much as it is for us then to to try and both in our teaching and in our and in our lives make make the point that that that you're making I'm sorry I can answer I can real deal with a hand it has to be whoever has the microphone yeah thanks I'm here with my friend we're both missionaries I'm a missionary south africa josh is a missionary to Malta and I'm just wondering how Parkside structures their missions foreign missions program could you speak to that mm-hmm um when I came in in in 83 I discovered that we had lots and lots of missionaries I didn't know how that church that had been so young had lost in lots of missionaries because the church that I had been most recently a part of had very few missionaries and had been around a long time but Charlotte Chapel where I've been the assistant you know the missionaries were kind of carved into the board and so they were all there and there was a direct relationship with all of them well then I discovered that what had happened was that someone came and said that they were a missionary somewhere and they would like some help and so the church said well we could help you and they give him a little bit of support then another person and another person other person that's how you ended up with 35 or 40 or 50 of these people but then I realized hardly anybody knew anybody that the person would come into town he'll say who's she and so she's in such and such with his own soul and some well-meaning person had obviously said you know why don't we have Brenda you know in the thing and we got them in the thing well this I never experienced this before so I'm just processing it 1986 I went to Kenya into Liberia with a doctor in the church and we went because kept who's here with us kept James who's been in Bolivia for the last hundred years was was our youth pastor and was was being tugged to two missions and one thought that si am had was so they would send him to el wa in Liberia so we went to Liberia to find out see if we could figure that out well when I was there I was with missionaries actually in in a car and they were from them America and I was driving in the car with them and I think I was you know saying something like can we get out of this car soon and because this is taken too long and they said someone said oh well you should have been with us when we were home on furlough and then they said you know we drove outlandish number of miles and and and I said well why did you do that and they said what we had to go to all our supporting churches I said well why doesn't one church support you they said we'll be how can one church support you I don't know I'm just asking and so they said well you know that can't work that's not how it works said okay so now fast forward we come back I'm here I'm in a meeting with the leadership cap is going to go you beat our first guy launched into mission and the the elders one of the some of the guys said well he's gonna have to go and raise his support well I said well what do you what do you mean he said well you know you raise your support you're a missionary I see you mean you got to get like a station wagon and a slide projector and start you know driving up the church buildings and introducing yourself is that what you're talking about what is that I mean that's crass but I mean that's essentially the game right so they said would no I says well that's what you do I saw no that's not what we do that's a that can't be what we do and so we we have been paying his salary investing in his retirement while he's here as a youth pastor now the fact that he goes to Bolivia why did why does that change anything they said just I said no no this is what we do you give him my salary in Bolivia and let me raise my support here in the congregation and anywhere else I could do it oh no they said we're not doing that cards that's risky you've got a Scotsman with a name called beg raising his own support that's that's not going to work so so that's that's what we began we we pared down all the extraneous stuff gradually finished 99% of it there were some who were in for different reasons who we were able to absorb if you like and then the next person that went we operated on the same basis and the next person the next person and in the goodness of God we've been able to do that with with with all other teams so whether they're whether our most recent couple went to Japan they're there in Macedonia the Yurkovich is kept and Debby have been a lifetime in Bolivia the beans have just come home to us from Peru at the moment with Wickliffe the Collinses are in Guatemala and in Peru and so on that's our philosophy and that has given us control with the missionary organizations as well so the missionary organizations can tell you can tell our missionaries what they're going to do because they're our missionaries we're the sending church the agency can be a conduit because they have expertise but they cannot control the missionaries so they can we're not when we bring the missionaries home we tell them you stay home you're not getting in a station when you have to go anywhere you don't need to go anywhere and then the goodness of God we've been able to buy we bought eight houses all around us here which are missionary houses or help houses or whatever you want to call them but so when our missionaries come home then they come and they have a home they have a car they have a lifestyle they don't have to to go into all of that and God's been really good to us and somebody said well you know if you keep that going you're going to end up spending Yale and you live you know a million or two million dollars on that kind of stuff I said yeah yeah yeah I mean you go how my new Millions Amiga in a building sees so that's what we do and we're we're a work in progress - you're right extreme right yeah given this given the openness to the gospel in many countries around the world that are truly hungry for good teaching but lack theological training what do you believe our view should be as pastors do we stay here in these nice wonderful conferences or do we go where the need is desperate well if we all go there'll be no conference right so some of us are gonna have to stay I'm planning on staying and you go if you want now demythologizing that there is no ideal place to serve God except the place he set you down geography is almost a happenstance now our world is so small that the question of where were actually serving has more to do with giftedness opportunity responsibilities I mean what's a Scotsman doing for the majority of his life in Cleveland Ohio for crying out loud right who's to know what that investment means not only for the immediacy of Cleveland but for whatever else extends beyond that it would if I fired a dollar for every time people said white why did you leave Scotland you know what's up I hear Scotland's in in dreadful shape what are you doing here well the answer is I'm here by God's appointment if it was God's appointment to stay in Scotland I would have stayed in Scotland and I would go back to Scotland but I'm here and so each of us is got to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and and I think quite honestly that the that the notion of us you know going over to places you know to to you know share our genius with them is is somewhat jingoistic and and almost old-fashioned I think in many Carol if long enough without the return of Christ we're going to have to face the fact that some of the best theological books are going to come out of Malaysia they're going to come out of Africa they're going to come out of the places it's not going to be I was right in the books to give to those folks those folks are going to be right in the books to give to us if it continues the way it is so what I would like to see that I'd like to see churches becoming if you like teaching module places either via social media or supplemented by social media whereby where we have the opportunity much like a teaching hospital to bring people into our context and who are indigenous to places who would enjoy the opportunity who would benefit from it and it's a two-fold benefit because they then enrich us by our understanding of who they are what they are what they're doing and how they're doing it and we have the benefit of being able to to support them from there so when I think about all these rooms up the stairs I imagine I imagine being able to go from the Greek room to the Egypt room to the Bolivia room to the Nigeria room and finding in there folks from all these different countries who we've had just some small part of being engaged in their lives as so that it's not all going to the the vision trip in India but also in a kind of reciprocal way I'm rambling now I apologize but I say again there's no ideal place to serve God except the place he set you down and we want to be sensitive to what I'm what I means you know the their mothers there's a lot of people in Cleveland they don't they never heard the gospel you know they really need Jesus badly we haven't even we only in scratch the surface here yet yes I have a practical witnessing question for you I have three adult children that were all raised in a Christian home two of them are wonderfully walking with the Lord the third does not associate today with Christianity when I have many in-depth discussions with him about the Scriptures about how God works he asked me a question why did not God initiate anything with me dad I know how I responded how would you respond I would say that he did initiate something with you he gave he gave you into our home and we have been the voice of God in your ears and we have been the prompting of God in our prayers so you may not you may not hear his voice but you have been put in a position where his voice may be heard and you know our prayer in that context is that if you think about it when you're small and you're asleep and you get wakened up by your parents you don't know that they're waking you up to begin with you then come slightly out of it and you hear there's a noise and then you come even more and you realize I am being called by name and then you realize they are calling me out of my sleep into life and you know in a situation like that we were praying that that that individual who has grown up in that context will actually hear the voice of God call his name you know but it's I think it's fair to say that when God entrusts children into the home of believing parents that they have the peculiar benefit of being set up in a context where God has taken the initiative he has taken the initiative in entrusting them to a god-fearing home I don't know what else I would say yeah you can only I can only respond to if you have a microphone I'm sorry yet for our brother and West Point would you comment on books that you guys recommend it earlier Boyce's whatever happened to the gospel of grace and David Wells courage to be Protestant in answer to his question about what about the health and wealth gospel that's good that's good there we go thanks Bill he had the courage to be Protestant by David Wells and actually John Piper is just done as just someone done another little book called sex money and power hasn't he and I would think that that would be very helpful as well thanks Bill it's good yep as a by vocational pastor one of my biggest challenges is balancing my time so I can spend enough time in southern preparations so I have two questions for you the first question is how much time do you spend in summer preparation and the second question is any advice for someone in my Bible vocational situation yeah it's good let's do it in Reverse so I can decide whether I'm going to tell lies about the first question what what times you have to go to work in your vocational charge 7:30 yeah yeah well I mean if I had a hat I'd take it off because that's what I was going to say I mean redeem in the air the earliest part of the day is I find is is the is the best if I can't get it then I'm I convinced myself I'm going to get it and I seldom do so I think you're probably on track you know how about Saturday's right right and you preach once or twice on a Sunday once well I would think I mean between four o'clock in the morning let's say you can let's even get to good hours five days a week ten hours and maybe four on a Saturday 14 I would say that would be pretty good preparation I would I mean I would I would think that was good the answer to to the first part of the question of how much do I spend as much as I possibly can is the answer and it just depends on how a week unfolds but Mundy's are tough choose these a day off Wednesday depending on what happens with early morning meetings once a month and maybe sometimes another month it's just a sheer it's just a sheer discipline in many ways it was a lot easier for me when I was on my own in my church in Scotland where I didn't have the benefits of all these other things or the distraction of all these other things and then I was able to just say in the morning I get up I get dressed I put my shoes on and I study and I study to lunchtime and then I go on for there and and I did that you know with with the only thing that broke it was a funeral or some some crisis and that way I had a farm or cadenced and balanced existence than I than I do now but an ideal week for me is that I would actually be ready by the end of a Friday so that I have Saturday as a gestation period but then the second-best would be by lunch time on a Saturday and then third best would be by 6:00 on a Saturday fourth would be right around midnight on a Saturday and fifth would be like by 7:30 on Sunday morning you know I guess you're not supposed to tell people that you've come here under cover of darkness on it on a Sunday morning but you've got to do the work one way or another you've got to do the work you can't you can't get by you get by for a Sunday maybe a Sunday and a half but especially your congregation know you you've got to do the work and so you know I'm a slave to my own processes you know I write everything out by hand and I'm not finished unless I've done that so I don't allow myself the luxury of thinking that I can do without that although certain times maybe I can but it's it's an act of discipline so I would commend you for what you're doing I mean I think it's that by vocational thing is vocational thing is a real challenge and it's a wonderful thing maybe get some people around you to set you free from the vocational part huh one more year you could always get a station wagon and a slide projector first as a former missionary who did two years of support raising in a subcompact car with a wife and three kids god bless you god bless your church secondly it's been a small part of the conversation about the biblical counseling movement and I just like to hear your perspective on that hmm well did you manage to attend Jonathan Holmes workshop yes our wee bit of it all right well Jonathan would be the best person to answer that my first exposure to it was when I made an abortive stem attempt as some study at Westminster Theological Seminary and then I was I was exposed to it then actually before that when I came to America having read Jay Adams and competent to counsel I was I was I was very intrigued to meet Jay Adams which I did at Westminster seminary when I was still probably just 20 or 21 and you know I don't quite have to answer the question except that it in so far as you know Jonathan and given his talks here represents our entree into that world which I think we're into the best parts of it then I'm I'm immensely thankful for it if there are vagaries in relationship to it of which I'm unaware that I can I can comment on those things what has helped you stay faithful and keep your zeal for God and His people over the long haul and mr. ministry or lots of things fear the fear of God being being in a context where the people around me have been more than gracious and kind to me both by their prayers their encouragement their counsel they don't know that I always listen to what they're saying but I actually listen to more then I want them to even know that I do I'm helped by a wife who is prayerfully and quietly supportive of me I've been helped by having three children who don't call me any slack at all and who are who love me but I'm their dad and they're very quick to let me know when it didn't really sound like a pleasant word from the pastor the people who have been the influences on my life remain influences on my life from a distance and even from the grave and I was saying to somebody yesterday is difficult for me to to fiddle around or shilly-shally with things when the photographs around me in my room are sort of watching me and so the man that I was assistant to Derick Prime when I think if I think about something I was about to say or about to do or I could do or whatever else and I always say I wonder what how that would play with him and there are other men like that as well and so I think I'm kept in that way and just the sheer discipline of the responsibilities of pastoral ministry that make us aware of our own frailty that make us aware of our own ongoing need that I thought that by this time I preached him would be would be like I wouldn't say easy but I thought well you know once you've done it for 40 years you know you should be able to just go but now I realize in many ways I'm less confident and more diffident than I was when I was foolish half my age and its history is a strange thing I think we're hip time maybe just for one more it's 856 in what ways have you recently been hearing from God is the first question if you wouldn't mind sharing what is he teaching you recently in your personal time whether it's in study or walks or however he communicates with you and then thirdly why do you think he's teaching you that right now okay well I can answer that very straightforwardly he's teaching me from the book of Ephesians primarily because I'm teaching the book of Ephesians and I am being taught by the book that I'm teaching I believe that we're studying it together as a church because it is right for us to study it at this time I wouldn't argue that it is more right to study this that the study the book of Hebrews necessarily but in the unfolding of just the way of of church life and having finished Daniel it seemed right to go to the New Testament again and since we had never studied Ephesians together as a church and I was being urged to by some of my my colleagues I said okay then I'll take it on I didn't really want to take on the doctrine of election but I couldn't start Ephesians without dealing with it and so God has been teaching us about the immensity of His grace and goodness about the incomparable nature of his power about the wonder of his purposes for us as a church big see and as a church small see and so I don't I I don't have I don't have any special or peculiar tract beyond that I don't I don't look for it in my own reading it going through truth for life's daily readings at the moment through the book of Song of Solomon I guess he might have had a special word for me there probably missed that one in Hebrews the apostasy passages jump out and so on but I think I think that's my honest answer you know ultimately Jesus is the preacher he preaches through his word by the Holy Spirit and so I you know I'm I'm I'm on the receiving end of my own teaching and and so but you know it's a strange it's a strange thing isn't it being doing that people say well who do you listen to I listen to myself mainly and if you think is bad once you had to try doing it three times in a row and but it's God's work so it's not it's not about you so those are the things what what God has for us in the book of Ephesians at the moment is is where my heart is where my study is and I I hope that I am you know I hope that that the Word of God is coming home to my own heart so that is from my heart to the hearts of the congregation rather than just to my head and then to the heads of the congregation all right it's 9 o'clock on the nose thank you very much and I'd like to finish by singing a song but I'm not going to do that and I was a joke but I want to give you I want to give you my favorite Spurgeon quote for the present time ok someone give this to me in Spokane Washington and I've been really enjoying it and this is an encouragement to us in our preaching responsibilities and then and then we'll pray this is what he says whatever you may know you cannot be truly efficient ministers if you're not apt to teach you know ministers who have mistaken their calling and evidently have no gifts for it make sure that none think the same of you there are brethren in the ministry whose speech is intolerable either they arouse you to wrath or else they send you to sleep no anaesthetic can ever equal some discourses in sleep giving properties no human being unless gifted with infinite patience could long endure to listen to them and nature does well to give the victim deliverance through sleep I heard one say the other day that a certain preacher had no more gifts for the ministry than an oyster and in my own judgment this was a slander on the oyster for that worthy bivalve shows great discretion in his openings and knows when to close if some men were sentenced to hear their own sermons it would be a righteous judgment upon them and they would soon cry out with cain my punishment is greater than I can bear brethren let us not fall under the same condemnation and this was Spurgeon's way of encouraging his students and scaring the rest of us to death well would commend each other to God's care now may the Lord bless us and keep us may the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious to us may the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us and give us his peace tonight and forevermore amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living learn more about truth for life with alistair beg visit us online at truth for

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 55,755

Rating: 4.8895707 out of 5

Keywords: Alistair Begg, Church Leadership, The Local Church, Ministry, Studying the Bible

Id: zI5-IaB8-Ac

Length: 42min 30sec (2550 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2016