Still Not Professionals
Ten Pleas for Today’s Pastors

Still Not Professionals: Ten Pleas for Today’s Pastors is a celebration and extension of John Piper’s Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. With two brief exhortations from Piper and eight others from veteran pastors, this short ebook aims to strengthen and challenge Christians in general, and pastors in particular, for the labor of everyday life and ministry. The contributors were asked to express their “heart of hearts” for fellow leaders. You’ll find these chapters tap into profound human themes, in both the pastor and his flock, and will be of use, we hope, beyond the North American context of the contributors.

by John Piper Modal , Daniel L. Akin Modal , Thabiti Anyabwile Modal , Mike Bullmore Modal , Sam Crabtree Modal , Ray Ortlund Modal , Jeff Vanderstelt Modal , and Douglas Wilson
Read here by J.N.Wheels

Find the Still Not Professionals link from Desiring God Here: https://www.desiringgod.org/books/still-not-professionals

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Full Text:
BROTHERS, PRAISE SOMEBODY OTHER THAN GOD
Sam Crabtree
Brothers, praise somebody other than God.
I can hear blasphemy sirens going off in readers’ minds. If
“somebody other than God” means “somebody instead of God,” or “more than God,” the concern is warranted indeed. But if “somebody other than God” means “because God is honored by
it,” that’s another thing entirely.
Commending Whom God Commends
Is it possible that God actually receives more honor from us when we praise somebody other than God? The answer can be yes. In the same way that the heavens are declaring the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), God’s common kindness in everyone around us (both saint and sinner) is declaring his glory as well. But just as God does not receive as much glory when we fail to pause, observe the heavens, and verbalize our praise, so he does not receive as much glory when we fail to pause, observe his good- ness in others’ lives, and verbalize our praise.
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Still Not Professionals Ten Pleas for Today’s Pastors
So, we could say, “Brothers, praise somebody other than God, for God’s sake.” Or even, “Brothers, agree with God, and commend somebody he commends.”
Merely praising somebody other than God isn’t enough. God isn’t necessarily honored by that. The question is, How can we praise somebody other than God for God’s glory?
God-Centered Praise for Those Who Are Not God
We do it by praising persons who are not God in a God-cen- tered way, by praising them for being godly, for being Christ- like, by commending them for God’s glory, by applauding them for doing something good in the strength God supplies (1 Peter
4:11). This is how we complete the loop when Jesus teaches us that people should let their lights so shine that others see their good works... and what? Glorify their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). If we don’t glorify God for people’s good works, we miss the point of Jesus’s teaching and the point of their good works, which are works that are... what? Good! We must recognize them as such, and say so. And they did those good works, because God was at work in them. So he gets the final, ultimate credit.
For many of us, our churches and homes and offices and marketplaces are full of people doing good works in the strength God supplies. Our job is to get for God the glory he deserves by calling out the goodness he’s worked through oth- ers and commending it openly.
God Praises Others
God himself—to whom all praise is finally due—praises oth- ers. Is he violating his own most...