Sunday In Retrospect

It's Memorial Day!!!  How I thank God for the sacrifice of our fallen troops who've protected our freedom in this country.

This past Lord's Day we celebrated 141 years as a church.  What an awesome day it was.  We began last Wednesday with a special service with Rev. A. L. Prince and the Bethlehem Baptist Church as our guests.  We had an awesome time!  Sunday morning I shared in God's Word.  I attempted to lift a passage out of Judges 7:1-7, using as the title, 'God's Answer for Moving On.'  This was a continuation of a series I am in entitled, 'God's Got An Answer.'  Totally a change in direction from where I intended to go (i.e. - I planned on using the general outline of topics, 'God's Answer for anxiety, worry, doubt, etc.); with me, however, it always seems God changes my plans!  How appropriate, in dealing with the subject of Gideon in our lesson!

My outline:
The Big Idea/CIT: God's plan, power and provision is often wrapped in human limitations.
I. God wants to show you that everyone who is present is not providentially prepared
II. God seeks to teach you the priority of prayer
III.  God desires to guard His glory
IV. God seeks to reveal the power of His presence

I thank God for the 4 who made decisions yesterday and our candidate for baptism.

In the afternoon, Rev. Kevin VanHook and the St. Peters Baptist Church came to be with us.  We had great fellowship and worship; but the Word was timely and uplifting!  Pastor VanHook shared in the scripture Luke 6, the story of Christ preaching in the synagogue; and the miracle of healing the man with the withered hand.  His points were standing, stepping, stretching.  I enjoyed it!

I am confused about what's going on between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers.  The Pacers have been quite a great contended, almost winning the first game, winning the second, both played in Miami for the semifinals.  Now....if game 3 back in Indiana, they lose BIG!  At this point, I'd love to see Miami's bubble burst.  But I am beginning to think it is highly unlikely.  I think Miami has this one in the bag.  I'm calling Miami vs. Spurs for the Finals, starting June 6th!

I really enjoyed watching Hangover III by myself this past Friday on opening day.  (footnote: I watched Hangover II several months ago and Hangover I a few weeks ago, all for the very first time.  I love them, unfortunately).

About to take my family to the movies after some BBQ.

I hope to blog again soon....  Many Blessings.

Sunday in Retrospect

It's been a good day!  It's been a great Lord's Day!  No doubt, Sunday is my favorite day of the week.  I suppose it's always been.  Growing up as a 'church kid', I am one of the dying breed of generational Baptists who remembers going to church 'all day' on Sunday.  Yet still, it's my favorite day.

I've been in a series the past couple of weeks entitled, 'God's Got An Answer.'  I confess my idea was sparked from the late Dr. Stephen F. Olford's Biblical Answers to Personal Problems.  Last time (prior to Mother's Day) I used a passage out of 2 Corinthians 12:7-11 and titled the message, 'God's Answer for Your Suffering.'

I used as an outline:
I. Accept the Reality of our Suffering
II. Recall the Necessity of our Suffering
III.  Remember the Sublimity of our Suffering
IV. Rejoice in the Victory our Suffering

Today I continued in Genesis 13:1-17, titling the message, 'God's Answer for Letting Go.'

I. Take inventory of what you have, verses 1-7
II. Choose the high road, vs. 8
III. Address the issue, vs. 9
IV. Be clear on the meaning of victory, verses 10-18

It was a busy week with traveling to Lafayette for one of our college graduates, cutting in on my study time.  I wasn't pleased with my preparation when standing today.  Admittedly, I took what I call my 'rough draft' to the pulpit.  When I prepare my sermons, I go through each sentence (speaking aloud, writing and rewriting each sentence) and interjecting stories, illustrations, anecdotes, quotes, etc.  Unfortunately, none of this was done by the time I stood this morning.

However, God is faithful.  I thank God for the six people who came forward today, two who came by Christian Experience.

It is true - God uses us in times and moments we may least expect; and in ways we fail to anticipate.  All in all....I'm thankful!

Now....time to prepare for next week!

The Patented Preacher

By Warren Wiersbe

Taken from Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching, The by CRAIG BRIAN LARSON; HADDON ROBINSON. Copyright © 2005 by Christianity Today International.

Why is it that so many preachers do not enjoy preaching? Why do some busy themselves in minor matters when they should be studying and meditating? Why do others creep out of the pulpit after delivering their sermon, overwhelmed with a sense of failure and guilt?

“It doesn’t make sense!” said my pastor friend.

We were lingering over lunch and discussing the Bible conference I was conducting in his church. I’d just commented that the church was having a strong influence on the students and staff of the nearby university.

“What doesn’t make sense?” I asked.

“Where you and I are serving,” he replied.

“You’re going to have to explain.”

“Look, I’m really a country preacher with a minimum of academic training, yet I’m ministering to a university crowd. You write commentaries, and you read more books in a month than I do in a year, yet your congregation is primarily blue-collar and nonprofessional. It doesn’t make sense.”

The subject then changed, but I have pondered his observation many times in the intervening years. I’ve concluded it’s a good thing God didn’t put me on his “Pastor Placement Committee” because I would have really messed things up.

I’d never have sent rustic Amos to the affluent court of the king; I’d have given him a quiet country church somewhere. And I’d never have commissioned Saul of Tarsus, that “Hebrew of the Hebrews,” to be a missionary to the Gentiles; I’d have put him in charge of Jewish evangelism in Jerusalem.

Al l of which brings me to the point of this article: If God has called you to preach, then who you are, what you are, and where you are also must be a part of God’s plan. You do not preach in spite of this, but because of this.

Why is it, then, that so many preachers do not enjoy preaching? Why do some busy themselves in minor matters when they should be studying and meditating? Why do others creep out of the pulpit after delivering their sermon, overwhelmed with a sense of failure and guilt?

The Difference a Witness Makes

Without pausing to take a poll, I think I can suggest an answer: They are preaching in spite of themselves instead of preaching because of themselves. They either leave themselves out of their preaching or fight themselves during their preparation and delivery; this leaves them without energy or enthusiasm for the task. Instead of thanking God for what they do have, they complain about what they don’t have; this leaves them in no condition to herald the Word of God.

One Christianity Today/Gallup Poll showed that ministers believe preaching is the number one priority of their ministries, but it’s also the one thing they feel least capable of doing well. What causes this insecure attitude toward preaching?

For one thing, we’ve forgotten what preaching really is. Phillips Brooks said it best: “Preaching is the communicating of divine truth through human personality. The divine truth never changes; the human personality constantly changes—and this is what makes the message new and unique.”

No two preachers can preach the same message because no two preachers are the same. In fact, no one preacher can preach the same message twice if he is living and growing at all. The human personality is a vital part of the preaching ministry.

Recently I made an intensive study of all the Greek verbs used in the New Testament to describe the communicating of the Word of God. The three most important words are: euangelizomai, “to tell the good news”;kerysso, “to proclaim like a herald”; and martyreo, “to bear witness.” All three are important in our pulpit ministry. We’re telling the good news with the authority of a royal herald, but the message is a part of our lives. Unlike the herald, who only shouted what was given to him, we’re sharing what is personal and real to us. The messenger is a part of the message because the messenger is a witness.

God prepares the person who prepares the message. Martin Luther said that prayer, meditation, and temptation made a preacher. Prayer and meditation will give you a sermon, but only temptation—the daily experience of life—can transform that sermon into a message. It’s the difference between the recipe and the meal.

I had an experience at a denominational conference that brought this truth home to me. During the session at which I was to speak, a very capable ladies’ trio sang. It was an uptempo number, the message of which did not quite fit my theme, but, of course, they had no way of knowing exactly what I would preach about. I was glad my message did not immediately follow their number because I didn’t feel the congregation was prepared.

Just before I spoke, a pastor in a wheelchair rolled to the center of the platform and gave a brief testimony about his ministry. Then he sang, to very simple accompaniment, “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus.” The effect was overwhelming. The man was not singing a song; he was ministering a word from God. But he had paid a price to minister. In suffering, he became a part of the message.

The experiences we preachers go through are not accidents; they are appointments. They do not interrupt our studies; they are an essential part of our studies. Our personalities, our physical equipment, and even our handicaps are all part of the kind of ministry God wants us to have. He wants us to be witnesses as well as heralds.

The apostles knew this: “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). This was a part of Paul’s commission: “You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22:15). Instead of minimizing or condemning what we are, we must use what we are to bear witness to Christ. It is this that makes the message our message and not the echo of another’s.

The Myth of “The Great Sermon”

It’s easy to imitate these days. Not only do we have books of sermons, but we have radio and television ministries and CDs by the thousands. One man models himself after Spurgeon, another after A. W. Tozer; and both congregations suffer.

Alexander Whyte of Edinburgh had an assistant who took the second service for the aging pastor. Whyte was a surgical preacher who ruthlessly dealt with man’s sin and then faithfully proclaimed God’s saving grace. But his assistant was a man of different temperament, who tried to move the gospel message out of the operating room into the banqueting hall.

During one period of his ministry, however, the assistant tried Whyte’s approach, without Whyte’s success. The experiment stopped when Whyte said to him, “Preach your own message.” That counsel is needed today.

Every profession has its occupational hazards, and in the ministry it is the passion to preach “great sermons.” Fant and Pinson, in 20 Centuries of Great Preaching, came to the startling conclusion that “great preaching is relevant preaching.” By “relevant,” they mean preaching that meets the needs of the people in their times, preaching that shows the preacher cares and wants to help.

If this is true, then there are thousands of “great sermons” preached each Lord’s Day, preached by those whose names will never be printed in homiletics books but are written in the loving hearts of their people. Listen again to Phillips Brooks:

The notion of a great sermon, either constantly or occasionally haunting the preacher, is fatal. It hampers…the freedom of utterance. Many a true and helpful word which your people need, and which you ought to say to them, will seem unworthy of the dignity of your great discourse… . Never tolerate any idea of the dignity of a sermon which will keep you from saying anything in it which you ought to say, or which your people ought to hear.

Preaching Christ, Not Myself

Let me add another reason for insecure feelings about our preaching. In our desire to be humble servants of God, we have a tendency to suppress our personalities lest we should preach ourselves and not Christ. It is good to heed Paul’s warning in 2 Corinthians 4:5: “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” But we must not misinterpret it and thereby attempt the impossible. Paul’s personality, and even some of his personal experiences, are written into the warp and woof of his letters; yet Jesus Christ is glorified from start to finish.

During the past twenty years, I have been immersed in studying the lives of famous preachers of the past. Most of these ministered during the Victorian Era in Great Britain, a time when the pulpits were filled with superstars. If there’s one thing I learned from these men, it’s this: God has his own ways of training and preparing his servants, but he wants all of them to be themselves. God has put variety into the universe, and he has put variety into the church.

If your personality doesn’t shine through your preaching, you’re only a robot. You could be replaced by a CD player and perhaps nobody would know the difference.

Do not confuse the art and the science of preaching. Homiletics is the science of preaching, and it has basic laws and principles that every preacher ought to study and practice. Once you’ve learned how to obey these principles, then you can adapt them, modify them, and tailor them to your own personality.

In my conference ministry, I often share the platform with gifted speakers whose preaching leaves me saying to myself, What’s the use? I’ll never learn how to preach like that! Then the Lord has to remind me he never called me “to preach like that.” He called me to preach the way I preach!

The science of preaching is one thing; the art of preaching—style, delivery, approach, and all those other almost indefinable ingredients that make up one’s personality—is something else. One preacher uses humor and hits the target; another attempts it and shoots himself.

The essence of what I am saying is this: You must know yourself, accept yourself, be yourself, and develop yourself—your best self—if preaching is to be most effective.

Never imitate another preacher, but learn from him everything you can. Never complain about yourself or your circumstances, but find out why God made things that way and use what he has given you in a positive way. What you think are obstacles may turn out to be opportunities. Stay long enough in one church to discover who you are, what kind of ministry God has given you, and how he plans to train you for ministries yet to come. After all, he is always preparing us for what he already has prepared for us—if we let him.

Accepting What We’re Not

I learned very early in my ministry that I was not an evangelist. Although I’ve seen people come to Christ through my ministry, I’ve always felt I was a failure when it came to evangelism.

One of the few benefits of growing older is a better perspective. Now I’m learning that my teaching and writing ministries have enabled others to lead people to Christ, somy labors have not been in vain. But I’ve had my hours of discouragement and the feeling of failure.

God gives us the spiritual gifts he wants us to have; he put us in the places he wants us to serve; and he gives the blessings he wants us to enjoy.

I am convinced of this, but this conviction is not an excuse for laziness or for barrenness of ministry. Knowing I am God’s man in God’s place of ministry has encouraged me to study harder and do my best work. When the harvests were lean, the assurance that God put me there helped to keep me going. When the battles raged and the storms blew, my secure refuge was “God put me here, and I will stay here until he tells me to go.” How often I’ve remembered V. Raymond Edman’s counsel: “It is always too soon to quit!”

It has been my experience that the young preacher in his first church and the middle-aged preacher (in perhaps his third or fourth church) are the most susceptible to discouragement. This is not difficult to understand.

The young seminarian marches bravely into his first church with high ideals, only to face the steamroller of reality and the furnace of criticism. He waves his banners bravely for a year or so, then takes them down quietly and makes plans to move. The middle-aged minister has seen his ideals attacked many times, but now he realizes that time is short and he might not attain to the top thirty of David’s mighty men.

God help the preacher who abandons his ideals! But, at the same time, God pity the preacher who is so idealistic he fails to be realistic. A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned. There is a difference.

Self-evaluation is a difficult and dangerous thing. Sometimes we’re so close to our ministry we fail to see it. One of my students once asked me, “Why can’t I see any spiritual growth in my life? Everybody else tells me they can see it!” I reminded him that at Pentecost no man could see the flame over his own head, but he could see what was burning over his brother’s head.

A word from the Scottish preacher George Morrison has buoyed me up in many a storm: “Men who do their best always do more though they be haunted by the sense of failure. Be good and true, be patient; be undaunted. Leave your usefulness for God to estimate. He will see to it that you do not live in vain.”

Be realistic as you assess your work. Avoid comparisons. I read enough religious publications and hear enough conversations to know that such comparisons are the chief indoor sport of preachers, but I try not to take them too seriously. “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise” (2 Cor. 10:12).

Although we are in conflict against those who preach a false gospel, we are not in competition with any who preach the true gospel. We are only in competition with ourselves. By the grace of God, we ought to be better preachers and pastors today than we were a year ago.

If we are to be better pastors and preachers, we must be better persons; and this means discipline and hard work. The “giants” I’ve lived with these many years were all hard workers. Campbell Morgan was in his study at six o’clock in the morning. His successor, John Henry Jowett, was also up early and into the books. “Enter your study at an appointed hour,” Jowett said in his lectures to the Yale divinity students in 1911–1912, “and let that hour be as early as the earliest of your businessmen goes to his warehouse or his office.” Spurgeon worked hard and had to take winter holidays to regain his strength.

Obviously, we gain nothing by imperiling our health, but we lose much by pampering ourselves, and that is the greater danger.

The Gift Is Sufficient

If God has called you, then he has given you what you need to do the job. You may not have all that others have, or all you wish you had, but you have what God wants you to have. Accept it, be faithful to use it, and in due time God will give you more.

Give yourself time to discover and develop your gifts. Accept nothing as a handicap. Turn it over to God and let him make a useful tool out of it. After all, that’s what he did with Paul’s thorn in the flesh.

Preaching it not what we do; it’s what we are. When God wants to make a preacher, he has to make the person, because the work we do cannot be isolated from the life we live. God prepares the person for the work and the work for the person, and, if we permit him, he brings them together in his providence.

God knows us better than we know ourselves. He’d never put us into a ministry where he could not build us and use us.

Sentence Sermonettes

The Almighty gives the best to those who leave the choice to him.

Sin thrills and then it kills.

The heart of religion is the heart.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Sin always carries with it a built-in deception about judgment.

If you are happy, tell your face about it.

Are you on a collision course with God?

Your soul will live forever, somewhere — ​where?

Love gives and forgives.

Good works are the fruit, not the root, of salvation.

God’s will is not always easy, but it is always right.

Not to decide is to decide.

Sin is personal but not private.

Life without Christ is an empty existence.

Every problem is in reality an opportunity.

Prejudice is a lazy person’s substitute for thinking.

Hell is a place of no hope.

People judge each other by rank; God judges all by service.

Happiness is a sweet perfume you cannot pour out on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

No joy is complete unless it is shared.

Not failure, but low aim, is the real crime in life.

A sharp tongue will cut your own throat.

Life is like a bicycle — ​stop pedaling, and you fall.

Worry is a mental tornado.

A problem honestly stated is half solved.

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.

You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair. — ​Chinese proverb

One may be better than one’s reputation but never better than one’s principles.

It is evil not to do good.

Is your heart on its knees?

Love is the only effective way to deal with a problem.

To poison a person’s mind is a worse sin than to poison a person’s food.

If you kicked the one responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for six months.

Forgiveness: man’s deepest need and highest achievement.

Two things are hard on the heart — ​running up stairs and running down people.

Most friction in life is caused by the tone of the voice.

Unfounded and unnecessary fears are deadly enemies that paralyze the will, poison the affections, and if allowed to continue, may destroy the soul.

If you want to be rich, give; if you want to be poor, grasp.

Cast all your care on God! That anchor holds. — ​Alfred Tennyson

It is natural to be religious; it is supernatural to be Christian.

God’s wisdom is both timely and timeless.

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.