Last weekend, Grace Church hosted its seventh Resolved Conference. This conference began as an extension of our college ministry’s winter retreat. We noticed that our winter retreat’s numbers were starting to grow, and that other churches were asking if they could join us. Rick Holland, our college pastor at the time, had the vision to see what it could become, and the leadership to make it happen. The result, after trial and error at different convention centers, is a conference in late June with 3,200 people… in Palm Springs—about as far away from a winter retreat as you can get.
The conference is called Resolved because it has as its underlying theme the seventy resolutions of Jonathan Edwards,most of which he penned when he was a teenager. While the particular messages are not on Edwards explicitly, his devotion to a pursuit of godliness is the underlying influence of all that Resolved does. I thought it might be helpful for those were not able to attend to see a summary of some of the messages:
Rick Holland began the conference preaching on what it means to run the Christian race. “How do you know if you are running the race?” he asked. “Answer: Are you tired?” He urged the students to recognize what sins they are currently tempted by, because they can’t fight what they don’t even recognize. Finally, he appealed to them to run by focusing on how much better Jesus is than sin, and to derive their endurance from that focus. “Feed your soul on the glories of Jesus, or your faith will die.”
I have heard John MacArthur preach his message on Psalm 19 at least ten times at various conferences, but I never cease to be amazed by its riches. This time he focused on verses 7-9, and explained the perfections of Scripture. Despite how many times I have heard this message, he still shed new light on why the Psalmist was so in love with the power of God’s written word. He explained how scripture produces our conversion and sanctification, then how it empowers joyful living, evangelism, and worship, finally producing a comprehensive righteousness. For that reason, Scripture is our greatest treasure, greatest delight, greatest warning, greatest provider, and greatest purifier. His main point was that the Bible takes fools, and makes them wise. (Also, and I may be mistaken about this, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t use notes).
Al Mohler’s first sermon was an appeal to DO the will of God rather than to spend your life trying to figure out what the
will of God is. This message was tailored for college students in particular, and was very practical. He gave fifteen things that are the will of God for everyone, but the main point was simply four of them: It is God’s will that you were born, that you will die, that you will do the tasks he has given you in the middle of those two events, plus it is God’s will for you—or at least almost all of you—to get married. He gave what I think is perhaps the best definition of the gift of singleness (he calls it the gift of celibacy) that I have ever heard: you have that gift if in the quitetist moments of your life, you think you could go without sex for the rest of your life, and not be bitter toward God about that, and instead be used in a radical way for the gospel. He stressed that this is the exception to the Christian life, and not the norm. The message boiled down to an appeal for students to reject the notion of adolescence, to grow up, and to serve God.
Steve Lawson appealed to the students from Ephesians 5 to stay absolutely away from sin, and to pursue walking in the light. He started with Eph 5:8, then went backwards to vs. 4, then forward to vs. 10. He had five points (and I think he snuck a sixth one in at the end), but they were essentially the same point: have a transformed life to let the power of God use you for the gospel. I honestly cannot remember hearing a message with as much Scripture in it as Lawson used. Every point seemed to have at least ten cross references, which he had memorized (I didn’t see him look at his notes, but if he did, I don’t think they would have been that helpful anyway). This line sums it up: “If the gospel hasn’t changed your life, you need a different gospel.”
CJ Mahaney’s two messages built upon each other (at least in my own heart). He began in Jude 22, and gave Christians practical advice on how to counsel other Christians that have doubts about the gospel. He was clear about the difference between doubt and unbelief, and also clear that while doubt is normal, it is nevertheless sinful. He urged us, as did Jude, to be merciful to those who doubt. His second message was aimed at the doubter, and he focused on Jude 1-2. His main point was that if you doubt your election, don’t look inside yourself for assurance, but rather look to God’s word. It was an extremely comforting message.
In my mind, the deepest message preached was Mohler’s survey of Romans 6-7. It was an extremely doctrinal message about the difference between living by grace and living by law, and what role the law should play in the believer’s life today. It was the kind of message where each sentence seemed like there could be an entire chapter behind it (plus he preached for 50 minutes before he even started on his 7-point outline. “If you don’t understand why someone would intentionally sin simply to experience grace, then you don’t understand grace. And if you do sin more to experience more grace, you don’t understand the newness of life the gospel brings.” He explained that everyone is born understanding how to sin and knowing how to be a legalist, and that living by grace battles both.
[Other messages: MacArthur preached on Isaiah 5-6; Holland preached on the death of Christopher Love from Lamentations 3; and Lawson preached on what foreknowledge is from Ephesians 1]
For better or worse, ours is an age of conferences. I confess to being disappointed at many of the conferences I have been to recently because the sessions bore more resemblance to an academic lecture than to an Edward’s sermon. Resolved stands out as the spiritual highlight of my year because the music is so God-honoring, and the preaching so intense. If you are a college student you should start planning to attend next year. If you are not a college student, you should find one that would benefit from Resolved, and send them.
