You Can't Take It With You

7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. (1 Timothy 6:7)

            We know this for a fact. I have either preached or attended a total of 8 funerals during in the relatively short time that I’ve been here.  It is definitely a sobering thought.

            A wealthy landowner was trying to buy some additional land near his estate. A neighbor observed that his only motive was to prevent someone else from buying it. So the neighbor asked, “Sir, do you want to only all of the land in the world?” “No,” the wealthy man replied, “just the land that joins mine.”

            Many people believe that contentment and true happiness comes from having enough money to do whatever they like whenever they want to do it. Other think it comes from have a good, close-knit family or having a life with no problems. That is why they constantly think that having a little more money or changing their relationships or improving their circumstances will bring this contentment.

            It’s just not so. This true happiness comes only from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We must believe that He will supply all of our needs. Contentment is not found in things, circumstances, or other people. It is truly found in knowing that our heavenly Father loves us and cares for us.

            The writer of Hebrews understood the true source of contentment when he wrote, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). To express it in another way, discontentment comes when we think that having money or the latest electronic gadget or newest fashion will make us happy. Scripture affirms that true happiness is obtainable only through Jesus. Knowing that He provides us with what we need when we need it produces stress-free living at its best. Be strong and courageous in this and do not be afraid. You are valuable to God.

Standing in the Gap

30 And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. (Ezekiel 22:30)

            We look around and the problems we see in our society and maybe even in our own family or workplace see so enormous that we think a single individual could not make much of a difference. The opposite, however, is the truth. The best and momentous advances in our history occurred when one person stood up against the indifference of their time.

            In Ezekiel 22, God identifies four ways that the culture in Judah should have been faithful but were not. The people including priests, princes, and prophets were very dishonest and extremely corrupt. God finally said, “I sought for a man…” This one life, this one individual could have been a wall of protection for a city headed for doomsday. The Bible is replete with individuals who “stood in the gap” and changed the world around them. There are those today who still provide this type of godly influence to those around them.

            In the 1980s, the late David Wilkerson was walking through Times Square in New York City where prostitution, drugs, and crime ran rampant. The famous author and preacher was praying that God would raise up a witness in the city. He said he sensed the Lord saying, “You do it.” So Wilkerson started the Times Square Church. Now, a little over 30 years later, the church reaches several thousand each week in worship and ministry.

            In the beginning it looked like a nearly impossible dream, yet today it is a strong witness in a part of NYC not known for vibrant churches. Moreover, when Wilkerson started the church, he was 55 years old – not even in the ballpark of the average age for a church planter. Yet, one man with God is a majority against the tidal wave of sin and compromise that can destroy an entire culture. It is not too late for you to “stand in the gap,” interceding on behalf of your family, your workplace, and your nation. Go and be the one standing in the gap for the Lord.

Confession 7/23/17 Service

⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

            Every true believer desires to be used by God in powerful, life-changing ways. We all have different abilities, talents, and spiritual gifts, but God will use anyone who is available to Him. Often it is not the size of the gift you have but the willingness in your to be used that makes a difference. He is not impressed with what we can do of our own volition. No lack of talent or physical handicap renders a child of God useless. The biggest thing that cause us to be put on the shelf or taken out of the game and made to sit on the sidelines is this: Sin! God is always using broken and messed up vessels for His purposes, but He rarely uses dirty ones.

            You can declare, “But we are all sinners!” And that is very true. The Bible even declares it for us, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We are sinners by birth and later by our choices. When you are washed by the blood of the Lamb, He forgives you of all of the sins you’ve committed. He wrote your name in the Book of Life and set your feet on a righteous path toward heaven. But, if you are reading this, you and I are not there yet. We still have to live in this world and deal with all of its pain, suffering, and sin. But when we refuse to repent of our sins it hinders our usefulness to God. We are to be as iron sharpening iron.

            So how do we deal with our own sin? Our first task is to see it as God see it. He views it as unrighteousness and rebellion. He sees is as wrong! Our second task is to confess our sins. Confess means to agree with one another. We must not only see it as He see it but also agree with Him that it is wrong. We cannot hide it; we must bring it into the light and admit it is wrong. Third, we must ask Him in all earnestness to forgive us. When we honestly ask for forgiveness, He is faithful to forgive us, remove it as far as the east is from the west, and He cleanses our hearts. He purifies us and makes us useful again. Do your best to a useful vessel in the hands of our loving Heavenly Father!! 

Foundations for Growth

            Many people have asked for my thoughts in the area of church growth. There are several things that must be in place for a church to be able to handle, receive, and maintain successful church growth.

            First the church must have a solid vision from the leadership of where they would like to be in the future. The leadership must paint a picture that the people can envision. It must be one that is obtainable and one that everyone can support. A picture of where the church would like to be in one, five, and even ten years is a solid place to start. This should be a rallying point for the congregation. This should be a vision that is exciting and should inspire the members to carry out this mission of the congregation.

            The second foundational item should be a mission. This should contain the specifics on how the congregation is going to reach the goals contained within the vision set forth by the leadership. When the congregation is on a mission, they can all pull in the same direction. It should produce a sense of unity and support. It allows the members to spur each other on in service to the Lord. This mission should contain the different ministries in which the church will be involved to make an impact within the community.

            The idea is to have each member contributing something, anything toward the mission. These things are truly important to church growth because they reflect the church’s heart. They reflect the church’s attitude toward the lost, the poor, the down-trodden, and the marginalized. These attitudes affect how genuine and authentic our worship is and how genuine and authentic people perceive us when we are attempting to minister to them.

            Most people can spot a fake from miles away. If we do not have a truly authentic relationship and desire to serve the Lord, people we will not respond to out outreach efforts. The foundation boils down to the church having a solid identity. They know who they are, where they are going, and have a good idea on how to get there.

            Any ideas for events and programs must, therefore, be pliable and moldable in order to fit the congregation’s mission and vision. When these ideas produce solid results as far as generating guests, they must be welcomed into a community of believers. When we create community, growth comes by drawing those guests into that community of believers and turning them into solid disciples of Christ.

            Unfortunately there is no “magic bullet” of church growth. Yet, when a congregation has a solid identity and a great focus, growth will be the natural byproduct of community service and outreach.

            The last piece of this puzzle is a congregation’s ability to change their fishing nets, the way in which we attempt to reach others. The messages never changes. It is always, always the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But, our times and our culture changes very rapidly, thus our methods of delivering the message must change. To put it in fishing terms, you simply do not fish for catfish the same way you fish for bass or trout or marlin. It is surprising to me how many congregations want to use the same outreach methods that worked in 1955 and are astonished when they do not get the same positive results in 2014 – many times failing completely.

Recently, a congregation in the town in which we live held a tent revival. The event was well publicized. There were radio spots, flyers, banners, and guest speakers that went from congregation to congregation to plug the event. In the 50s and 60s this event may have been too crowded for everyone to get a seat. The event barely had one third of the chairs filled each night. The message did not change. The speakers were very good at delivering the message. The weather was nice. What went wrong? In 2014, we have internet streaming, DVDs, multiple television channels with religious programming, and many other avenues in which people can watch or listen to the message on their own time. Our information and technology flooded culture has become one where relationship trumps the event. People want to be cared for over informed. We must change our methods if we are to see long term success.

 

“On the one hand we are obligated to remain faithful to the unchanging Word of God. On the other hand we must minister in an ever-changing world.”

 

“Every church needs to grow warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through through worship, and larger through evangelism.”

                        - Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church

Broken Promises

            If there is one thing that truly makes me frustrated is when someone ‘promises’ to do something and breaks it. We hear telemarketers promise all of the time to remove our name from the call list. It never seems to happen. We hear customer service people promise all kinds of things but do it simply to pacify you and get you off of the phone.

            I remember one time my wife and I were having trouble with our long distance carrier, MCI. We could make local calls but not long distant calls. I was working with Bellsouth at the time and knew my way around the phone industry.

            I first contacted Bellsouth who referred me to my long distance carrier. When I called MCI around 6pm I was treated cordially and guaranteed that my problem would be fixed in two hours. Well, at 8pm, as you can imagine, I was not quite as polite as I could have been, after all, a guarantee is a guarantee. I was placed on hold on and off for about an hour and a half. They could simply not figure out what was wrong with my long distance. The customer service representative has becoming frustrated as well. She offered to refer me back to Bellsouth to which I refused, stating that I worked for the phone company and knew for a fact the problem was on her end.

            It was then the promises starting flying. She promised to have an MCI technician at my house no later than midnight. I kindly directed her attention to the fact that there was no such thing. Bellsouth was the only phone entity in the area that actually went to a person’s house. It was then that she swore up and down that someone would be at my house from MCI by midnight and there was nothing more she could do.

            Needless to say, no one came to my house, mainly because there was no such service from MCI. I called them back at 1215am. I asked to speak to her supervisor. After another 30 minute hold, I finally reached someone claiming to be as such. The person laughed when I told them about the representative promising me to send a warm body to my house. They verified that they have no such technicians. When all was said and done, my problem was in their software, and I received a $50 credit for long distance on my phone bill. After the $50 credit was used up, we switched long distance service and never returned to MCI.

            How many times as Christians do we break our promises? It seems to be an epidemic in our country that you simply cannot trust someone’s word. We as Christians must strive to honor our words. We must make every effort to follow through on the things we say we are going to do. There are times when we are the only witness for Christ that someone encounters. If we break our word to them, we may also lose our ability to witness to them as well. Let our yes be yes and no be no.

            This isn’t to say we should beat ourselves up but to say that we must be careful with what we say. I have let people down before and it pains me when it happens. But God can cash in on our busted promises. Take a look at Peter. He denied Christ during His darkest hour three times! God still used him to preach a sermon that resulted in 3,000 baptisms. He was an apostle that truly demonstrated a zeal and boldness for Christ even though he failed on many occasions. How can God redeem your broken promises? Start with one relationship. Pray over it. Ask God to help you fix it. Wrestle with how to mend it. Then start with one…

Traditional Versus Contemporary

            One of the big questions of our day is about worship. Should our worship services cater to the ones that prefer a traditional service or the ones who prefer a more contemporary service? It seems that many of the older crowd grew up with things such as hymnals, pews, a reverent style service, and even a certain style of preaching. There is certainly nothing wrong with this type of worship.

            It also appears that those of younger generations prefer a more upbeat, visual stimulating, technology-filled style of worship. They tend to like songs that you might hear on contemporary Christian radio with little to no silence during the service. They tend to like their song lyrics projected on big screens instead of having them in printed form. There is certainly nothing wrong with this type of worship either.

            Yet there seems to be a growing chasm between the two types of service. Unfortunately this same chasm can develop among the people as well. So what is to be done about the vast differences in worship preference? Are we to split our services, have different times for each? Will this not also split the smaller congregations, making two really small congregations out of one small one? If your church is over 1,000 members, you will most likely be running multiple services anyway, and this will not be as big of an issue as in a smaller one. If you are not ready to run multiple services due to sheer numbers, perhaps the following suggestions might provide some help in blending the two:

 

1. Open the lines of communication. It is important to keep your people informed and dialoging. Perhaps have several who prefer each style of worship form a committee and discuss this issue. What does worship look like for each style? What things are important for each group to instill a desire to participate fully in worship? In what ways can these two styles work together? Define the things that seem essential.

2. Cross pollination is a must. A healthy congregation needs members from all generations. There are things that each generation brings to the table that the other generations do not. The older generations have that invaluable wisdom and experience from which others may benefit greatly. The younger generation has the energy for service and has lots of creativity and the imagination to lead the church into the future. When these two generations work together and help each other the entire congregation benefits. It may be the older generation mentoring the younger generation on marriage, or it may be the younger generation helping the older one learn to use technology. This type of cooperation is a must for a strong faith to be passed down from generation to generation.

3. Compromise is acceptable when it is a preference. When we are talking about Scriptural truths, compromise is never acceptable. When we are talking about which song to sing on a giving Sunday, a blend of contemporary and traditional songs and hymns will work well. There are also many apps for electronic devices that can be used to aid worship. A printed bulletin may be a must for some while an electronic “event” with additional content in the YouVersion app may be desirable for others. In the scheme of things, preferences should not be divisive things. A variation in the order of worship should not cause great distress. Clear communication beforehand works well to alleviate a lot of heartburn. Always sell the benefits of a change or variation before it happens.

4. How fast should we go? There are also small things that can be done to compromise. My daughter who is 12 had a nice insight. She said, “I don’t mind singing the old hymns but I don’t want to sing them like I am at a funeral. Please don’t sing Gloryland Way to the cadence of Just As I Am. I end up wanting to fall asleep and not participate.” Is it acceptable to pick up the pace a bit and still sing some of the great old hymns? Absolutely! You may find new life in your song service.

5. Unity building events can cement relationships. There are things that you can do that both generations enjoy. You can have board game nights, movie nights, football watching parties, shopping, book clubs, “Chick flicks”, jewelry or craft making circles, etc. These types of events and social gatherings help members from every generation bond as a community and build lasting friendships.

            Perhaps trying some of these things will help if your congregation is experiencing the separation in generations. Be flexible and remember the most important thing is an open an honest dialog about the issue.

Expectations

²⁰ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. (Philippians 1:20)

            There are many times in our lives when we have expectations. These could be about meeting or interacting with certain people. The expectations could be about an upcoming event. During these times, we could be filled with excitement or dread.

            But what happens when things just do not meet those expectations? Currently, there are many, many college football teams that would love to be invited to the Bowl Game Alabama will be playing. It is an honor to be selected to go to one of the BCS games. But Alabama had different expectations for their season. They were focused on a National Championship Game. Though what they are experiencing would be considered outstanding by most, they are sorely disappointed.

            How do we handle these same disappointments? Our office Christmas party is a bomb…our family gathering is poorly attended…no one remembers our birthday that falls way too close to Christmas…our kids don’t make it home for the holidays this year…how do we handle those times?

            Often when we are disappointed, it becomes harder to honor Christ in thought and deed. Our focus strays from the main purpose of our lives which is to bring glory to God. We get “blue” and do not want to participate in the rest of the holiday cheer.

            Paul had many reasons to be “blue” or even down-right depressed. Over the course of his ministry, it may even seem more things went wrong than right. There were shipwrecks, beatings, snakebites, persecutions, imprisonments…the list goes on and on. I am not sure exactly what his expectations were for being an apostle and an ambassador for Christ, but I think they were all under-whelmed. It turned out like nothing he would have imagined; yet, he found joy in all of it. He found joy in spite of the disappointing expectations.

            As the year comes to a close and we look back on what might have been, I encourage you to look ahead and stay focused on what is truly important – Christ. He will never “under-whelm” or fail to meet our expectations. When we keep Him in our sight, the rest will pale in comparison…