Stand: Session 3

I'm briefly summarizing the messages from Desiring God's most recent conference.

Four Essentials to Finishing Well--Jerry Bridges

Since Jerry Bridges has been serving the Navigators for fifty-two years, he is certainly one who can speak of enduring faith. Bridges begins by contrasting Demas and Paul from 2 Timothy 4:7-10. He then laid out Four Essentials to Finishing Well:

1. Daily time of personal communion with God.

2. Daily appropriation of the gospel.

3. Daily commit yourself to God as a living sacrifice.--Romans 12:1

4. A firm belief in the sovereignty and love of God.--Lamentations 3:37-38

Bridges certainly presented four important elements to finishing well. It was a delight to hear Bridges share a similar testimony to mine (that in fact, he once thought the gospel was simply a message necessary to bring a person to salvation...yet now sees the glory for the believer to focus on the gospel continually). However, my grand expositional bias (as some would find annoying) found this message lacking a bit of punch. The four elements were valid and Scripturally supported, but not necessarily tied together with a passage. In my mind, I find myself asking, "Why these four elements? Are these the only four? If not, could these be just four of ten, and possibly not the most essential four?" I realize these questions are entirely unfair, as a conference message does not have to be expository...again, it just shows my bias.

Numeric Review: 7 of 10 (encouraging/edifying but not expository)

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Other Reviews: Sessions 1 & 2