I had heard about Together For The Gospel (T4G) and watched the sermons on youtube. I bought the conference books that the sermons are published in and was extremely blessed. I was a big fan but never got a chance to attend, all of that changed last week in Louisville, Kentucky. I attended my first  T4G and I will never be the same. Watching it and reading about is good but experiencing it is a totally different feeling. This year there were over 12,000 attendees, it was held at the KFC Yumcenter where the University Of Louisville Basketball team calls home, its seating capacity is almost 20,000, let that sink in, it’s held in a basketball arena. I was able to attend with my pastor H.B. Charles Jr. who was one of the plenary speakers and a few others from our pastoral staff. I have been to a lot of conferences and most are great but T4G is in a class all by itself. Every T4G conference has a theme and the theme for this year was distinct from the world, in my opinion this was the perfect theme for pastors, in this day and time.

Some of the speakers were John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, Mark Dever, John Piper And Kevin DeYoung and many more. These men are scholars and are influencing a generation of Christians, my library is filled with these men books so I was excited to sit under their preaching. I was blessed in so many ways but this blog can’t be forever so I will list my top 5.

 

1. The Preaching

This conference is designed for pastors so preaching is a big part of it. I enjoyed and learned something from every sermon preached but some did stick out more than others to me. My favorite three sermons were Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever And H.B. Charles Jr.  .

 

  1. Ligon Duncan preached the best sermon of the week and if you wasn’t in the room you will never feel the gravity of his sermon, you would of just had to have to be there. He was so good that he received a standing ovation from everyone in the room. He preached about “The Whole Of Our Holiness” he started in genesis and made his way to the new testament. Here is two lines from sermon that will blow your mind. 1. Jesus’s “take and eat” in the lord supper is a final blow to Satan’s “take and eat” in Eden.  2. “If we would have just obeyed the commandment to love our neighbor, racial tensions would be in a very different place”

 

  1. Mark Dever opened the conference with the perfect sermon for pastors and raised the bar for the rest of the speakers. His sermon title and text was “Holiness Together” 2 Peter 3:8-13 his sermon was about leading the local church to sustain and advance holiness he had 9 points and here they are.
  • Commit Yourself To Preaching Thru The Bible.
  • Emphasize What The Bible Teach About God.
  • Emphasize What It means To Be A Christian And How To Become One.
  • Teach Christians To Commit To Love.
  • Pray For Our Members Not The Number Of Our Members.
  • Teach The Church Must Choose Between Hypocrisy And Church Discipline
  • Teach The Church How To Find The Right Pastor
  • Pray Publicly About Hopes And Dreams
  • Teach How Holiness Don’t Compete With Mission.
  1. H.B. Charles Jr. sermon was another message that was right on point, and I believe the sermon that stayed closest to the theme. His sermon title and text was “The Message Of The Cross” 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 This sermon was clear and stayed close to the text my favorite quote was this. “The Primary, central and definitive mark of the true church is the faithful proclamation of Christ crucified. The message of the cross is what distinguishes the church from the world.”

 

2. The Singing

            Bob Kauflin led us in worship in every session, there was only a piano and a mic and it was awesome. It was incredible to here 12,000 men singing hymns and spiritual songs. Some of my favorites were “hold me fast” “In Christ alone” and “all glory be to Christ”.

 

3. The Conversations

The atmosphere at T4G was amazing, hearing the word of God preached, singing God glorifying songs and the conversations with likeminded believers. Meeting different people and having conversations about the messages, ministry, school, and just life in general was great and got to pick the minds of people.

 

4. Zero Dollar Books

           Zero dollar books are what T4G calls the books that they give out for free. They had pallets of books that everyone would receive before and after every session and sometimes it would be multiple books and there is 3 or 4 sessions a day. In total they gave out 16 books including 3 commentaries. If you do the math it’s almost 250 dollar worth of books, they are paying you to come to this conference that it more than the registration.

 

 

5. Refection    

Every night me and the pastors that went from my church would sit down with pastor Charles and discuss the entire day. We would talk about every sermon and how it helped us, we also discussed other things about the conference. On one night we talked how we can become better preachers and pastors and about what we can take back to help our church. We would end each night with praying for that day and for the conference host and speakers. But My favorite thing about those nights was spending time with my pastor, just listening and getting poured into by him. Moments like those are priceless.

 

To Watch All The Sermons From T4G 2018 And For More Info Go To www.t4g.org 

To Listen To The Music From Past T4G Conferences Check “Together For The Gospel Live” You Can Find It Digitaly Everywhere.

 

Even though people from all around the world come to T4G  it is still widely unknown. Many people asked me what exactly is it? Here is what their website says:

What began as a friendship between four pastors from across denominational traditions has burgeoned into a biennial conference for thousands of pastors and church leaders who, for all their differences, are committed to standing together for the main thing—the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Over a decade of consequential gatherings focused on expositional preaching (2006), biblical theology (2008), the gospel (2010), conversion (2012), evangelism (2014), and the Reformation (2016), T4G has sought to reaffirm and reiterate the central doctrine of the Christian faith and to encourage local churches around the world to do the same.

The ensuing years have brought with them many new faces, along with seismic cultural shifts and challenges for Christian ministry. And yet the conference has grown as more and more pastors discover that they share the same gospel-centered ambition.

 

Here Are Some More Pics From T4G