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  I attended the “2008 Desiring God National Conference†over the past weekend, and what a blessing it was!  This was my first Desiring God conference so I don’t have much to compare it to but I was quite impressed with most of the speakers and the messages from the Word. 

 

Sinclair Furguson

The opening night featured Sinclair Ferguson who spoke on “The Tongue, the Bridle, and the Blessing: An Exposition of James 3:1-12.â€Â  Sinclair Ferguson said that Scripture is designed and intended to make us mature by equipping us and correcting us.  James wants his readers to understand how difficult it is to tame the tongue and because of this, not many should strive to be teachers since teachers will be judged with greater strictness.  Taming the tongue is not so much about what we say, but often by what we don’t say or what we choose wisely to leave unsaid.  Saying the right thing at the right time is a “difficult graceâ€, and our words should be “gracious, [and] seasoned with saltâ€.  The tongue, when used wrongly, can make all other graces impotent - don’t I know that is true! The tongue is like an accent which should make people wonder where you come from; is your speech heavenly or worldly?

 

Bob Kauflin

Bob Kauflin spoke first thing on Saturday morning, and did an excellent job explaining the importance of music, lyrics, singing, worship, rhyme, meter, and rhythm (there is probably more, but I’m not very musical).  One great thing that Bob Kauflin did for me was instill in me a deeper understanding of, and a greater appreciation for, music and especially music that is Biblically accurate.  I’m not much of a listener to music, I listen to classical music when I do listen to music, I listen to podcast sermons mainly and almost think of songs on my iPod as an unnecessary intrusion into my listening; Bob Kauflin changed that for me.  I think that now I will load up some good music to go along with good preaching.  The statement that stuck with me was something like “If the teaching of your church was limited to song, what would your theology be like?â€

 

Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll followed that up with a funny, although sometimes very piercing look into how the Bible and Jesus uses words to deal with different groups of people.  I was looking forward to hearing Mark since I had heard much about him but never heard him for myself.  I listen to “The Way of the Master†radio and last week Todd Friel went on a tirade about whether or not a Christian Preacher should be debating the use of foul language in the pulpit.  Mark Driscoll talked about the different types of people.  He said that we need to feed the sheep; rebuke the swine; shoot the wolves and bark at the dogs.

 

Shepherds have the awesome responsibility of discerning who the sheep, swine, wolves, and dogs are and to deal with them accordingly.

 

Daniel Taylor

There was only one speaker that I didn’t get too much from and that was Dr. Daniel Taylor.  I thought that his story telling was wonderful but his delivery of what goes into the process of developing a story line was too much like English literature class for me.  Part of the problem might be that I am a pretty serious person and I hardly, if ever, read non-fiction.  Dr. Taylor did make a good point about how we are all social creatures and that our lives are filled with the stories that we tell.

 

Paul Tripp

Paul Tripp was another of the speakers that I really enjoyed.  I had never heard Paul Tripp before and I was very impressed with him as a speaker; he kept me riveted to my seat.  I liked that he talked about the very first words that were ever spoken were from God and the words themselves belong to God.  Words have power and can reach into our mundane lives and can give life and death. 

 

Paul talked about what Jesus said about the heart and that we speak what is in our heart.  Our mouths are the biggest reflections of what is already in our hearts.  Some people, when intoxicated by some substance, will say things and then say afterward that “I didn’t mean to say thatâ€, when really what they should be saying is “forgive me for saying what I meantâ€.  Nothing comes out of the mouth that isn’t already in the heart. 

 

Our word problems are actually heart problems and the only way for us to have our heart problems changed is to have organic change.  There must be a change at the root level; you shouldn’t expect to grow apples if you plant a peach pit.

 

Dr. Tripp also talked about the way that we respond to people and the words that we use when we are upset or angry and especially the things that we say to those most close to us.  Much of the time that we react angrily in our words it is because someone isn’t serving us in the way that we think they should.  We like to be the king of our own kingdom and when the subjects of our kingdom don’t act toward us like we think they should we respond with condemning, prideful, and hurtful words which is never okay.  We esteem ourselves too highly and are a vat of “I wantâ€. 

 

When God is in the rightful place in our lives, our words will show it.  The kingdom of God is a kingdom of love and true love is propelled by gratitude.  Love is defined by the cross – willing self-sacrifice that doesn’t require that the other deserve it.

 

John Piper

John Piper finished off the conference on Sunday morning by preaching a wonderful sermon entitled “Is there Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross†I think that the biggest message that I got from John’s sermon was that Christian eloquence is totally appropriate and even desirable if that eloquence is done not to inflate our own ego but if done that Christ would get the glory. 

 

Paul was against the Sophists who used words as a way to persuade people to their way of thinking by playing word games and striving to be thought of as extremely wise.  The Sophists had a great influence in the church and Paul wanted the Corinthians to know that engaging in that kind of word play and one-upmanship was hurting the cause of Christ, because it was being done in order to gain praise from men.  People can even be very eloquent at not being very eloquent.  Eloquence becomes an art form, and if the reason for the eloquence is to boast in yourself, then the cross does not get through.

 

I have to test myself constantly to see if I do my writing, witnessing, studying or whatever I do for my own glory or am I doing it so that the name of Christ is glorified.  I would like to think that I do, I do for Christ’s glory but I know that sometimes that is far from the truth.  I don’t know what the writing process is like for others, but I wrestle with word usage and sentence structure in an effort to be clear and precise in my meaning.  My challenge is to make sure that I’m doing these things so that the Gospel message is clearer and not so that others will think me clever for the way I put words together. 

 

Is there Christian Eloquence?  Yes, but don’t elevate yourself and obscure the cross.   May all the glory go to Christ!