If you’ve ever preached as much as a single sermon, if you’ve ever delivered as much as a single conference address, if you’ve ever led as much as a single Bible study, then I expect you know the temptation. I expect you have longed to make much of Jesus, but have also felt the desire to have people make much of you. I expect you have prayed that God would glorify himself through your words, but have also wished that those listening would glorify you, at least a little bit. This is a familiar, and I dare say universal, temptation for those who teach, lead, and minister.

This is a temptation I have to battle every time I stand before a group of people large or small, familiar or unfamiliar, far from home or in my local church. It is a temptation I battle as I study, as I prepare, as I preach, and as I engage with people after all has been said and done. It is a battle I’ve yet to win and, frankly, doubt I ever will completely.
Yet I have made some headway, I think.
I have made some headway by committing this to prayer, not just on a sermon-by-sermon basis, but in the big picture. I pray for the humility to go unseen, unacknowledged, and unremembered, so long as Christ is seen, acknowledged, and remembered. In fact, I pray that Christ would be so present and so visible that people would fail to think of me at all.
I have made some headway by reminding myself of the goodness and sufficiency of Scripture. If I had to stand before people and bring them some of my own wisdom I might well despair and boast—despair at the difficulty of the task and boast in any success I might have. But I really have nothing of value to bring, nothing that can bless, challenge, or strengthen people except for what God has already said.
I have made some headway by acknowledging the tension that exists—the tension that I may only know that God has used something I’ve said if people tell me. And the tension that such encouragement is a way in which others may wish to bless me.
And I have made some headway by pressing on, knowing that just as I will never preach a perfect sermon or deliver a perfect speech, neither will I ever be a perfect man preaching a sermon or a perfect man delivering a speech. I need to press on even if my heart is not fully pure and my desires fully blameless. Like Peter, I can sometimes only say, “Lord, you know! You know I love you. You know I want to honor you. You know I want you to be the hero.” And then I press on, doing my best, asking God to forgive any shortcomings in my words or my desires, asking him to grant what I desire at my best rather than at my worst.
And then I prepare to fight the same fight and plead the same grace the next time.

This is your weekly reminder that my book Seasons of Sorrow is now available for pre-order; those who order from Westminster Books will receive an additional paperback book with supplemental material. And do remember the launch event in Nashville on Labor Day! Information here.

There are a couple of new Kindle deals to look at today.
Gaming and the Metaverse
I really enjoyed this reflection on gaming and the coming metaverse. “Here’s the rub: the purpose of gaming is not to simulate whatever unique experience is unfolding on screen. The purpose of gaming is to simulate meaning.”
Good Writing: 10 Short Maxims
“I can’t stop writing. Whether I write well or not, I will let others decide. All I know is that I am a writer—because I have the two things that make someone worthy of the title ‘writer’: (1) deadlines and (2) a paycheck. And I offer what little advice I can give to aspiring writers. In ten maxims.” These are good!
The Foibles and Fallibility of Christian Leaders
“Blessed are the true Christian leaders who understand their need for help from God and express that to God. Christian leaders are formative works of God in character, skills, knowledge, faith, love and even enthusiasm, who have been given responsibility nonetheless for which they often feel entirely inadequate except for Christ’s help.”
Who Are the 144,000 in Revelation 7?
This is a compelling answer to a common question (and one I found myself discussing recently with my barber, of all people).
5 Truths We Must Defend: Lessons from China
“On the basis of my experience in China over the past 30 years, I want to highlight five theological truths that inevitably emerge as crucial battleground issues for Christians living in a hostile, totalitarian environment. Although the experience of Christians in the U.S. is vastly different, we can learn from the faithfulness of our brothers and sisters in China.”
Why I Stand By the Gate
“Every Sunday at the front entrance of New Life Bible Fellowship on you’ll see my Co-Lead Pastor, Greg Lavine. If you have a child, then you’ll enter through the side gate where I will meet you. Regularly, first time attendees will express surprise after the service, either to myself or another New Lifer, that a pastor greeted them at the gate. Churchgoers often say they’ve never been to a church where a pastor serves as a greeter.” John explains why they’ve chosen to do it this way.
Flashback: Why Satan Is No Friend of the Family
If family truly comes from the mind of God and plays such an essential role in his world, don’t you think this explains why there are so many attacks on the family?

We chose to be regenerated spiritually as much as we chose to exist physically. —Will Dobbie

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

On sale at Westminster Books this week is an excellent new daily devotional from Alistair Begg.
Brothers Indeed
I very much enjoyed this dispatch from afar.
The Middle Years
Melissa often makes me laugh. “The middle years, where any guess about my age is likely to be wrong one way or the other, depending on ridiculous things like how much water I’ve been drinking or how much I spent on my current anti-aging moisturizer.”
The Grief of Finite Joy
“Somehow my oldest child is a freshman in high school. As I’ve experienced those where-did-the-time-go emotions that come with such minor milestones, I’ve started to feel a deep, preemptive loss.”
Public Health After Christendom
This is quite an interesting look at how public health is likely to change in a post-Christian era. “It is my contention that public health should be recognized for what it has become, not what it set out to be.”
How to Spot a Personality Cult
Mark Hampton: “In the modern West the church has an issue with its public image. With the rise of digital media and heightened technophilia, the image we often present to the world is not Christ but ourselves. We build up mini-celebrities in Jesus’s name, calling for the world to follow along. At times, whether Jesus is actually glorified can become negligible.”
Should I Choose a Church for Its Pastor?
Mark Dever says  that “if you are looking for a good church, the role of the preacher of God’s Word is the most important thing to consider. I don’t care how friendly you think the church members are. I don’t care how good you think the music is. Those things can change. But the congregation’s commitment to the centrality of the Word coming from the front, from the preacher, the one specially gifted by God and called to that ministry, is the most important thing you can look for in a church.”
Flashback: Four Categories to “Act the Miracle”
So much of the Christian life comes down to the matter of identity. At heart, who are we? Who or what has the right to define us? What is our deepest identity?

Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. —E.M. Bounds