pastor

The Perfect Church Service

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Jim Cymbala in his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire said something that floored me. If you walk away from any church service praising the sermon or the music, then that church has failed. If you’re focusing on the human elements of any worship gathering, the church has not done its job.

Ideally, the response to any worship service isn’t how great we are as a congregation or how great our ministry staff is, but how great is our God. As I read recently, our Sunday meetings can easily slip into Christiak karaoke followed by Ted talks with tithes if we’re not careful.

The key is to allow room for the Holy Spirit to move. Too many churches have programmed their services down to the last second leaving no space for the Holy Spirit to speak to people’s hearts and minds. I for once am not advocating for two hour services, but I do think that sometimes we could be just as attentive to the gentle whisper of the Spirit as we are to the worship schedule.

I also think that we (especialy me) need a shift in our mentality about worship. If our goal is to meet with God, then it shouldn’t matter if the songs were hundred year old hymns or the latest CCLI worship songs. It shouldn’t matter that the pastor made all his points start with the same letter or not.

Our goal is not a great sermon or a deeper worship experience through carefully cultivated worship playlists but to encounter the living and holy God. He’s the true audience of any worship service, not us. Otherwise, it’s just another concert or music event with no more benefit than if we’d stayed home and listened to a Christian Spotify playlist or watched a televised sermon from some famous preacher.

Lord, as we prepare to meet You tomorrow in our places of worship, move in our hearts to yearn for You and You only. Give us eyes to see You and ears to hear from You that You might speak a word to us tomorrow and we could walk away from the gathering different than when we arrived. Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening. Amen.

The Gracious Wounds of God

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“Sometimes the most gracious, merciful thing God could ever do is wound you. To wound you, (and in that wound bind you to Himself) is far more gracious than to bless you with everything you want and have you not know Him” (Matt Chandler).

I found out recently that my pastor who is battling cancer is in stage 4. I also learned that a surgery last month to remove the cancer was unsuccessful. At that point, a lot of people would either give into fear or throw in the proverbial towel altogether. But not my pastor.

He has maintained an incredible and submissive attitude throughout the entire ordeal. I’m not saying he never is afraid or gives into moments of doubt, but he is trusting God, no matter what the outcome. He reminded us that the way to fight spiritual battles is through praise.

It’s easy for me to lose perspective sometimes when I’m in a struggle and forget that others are dealing with way worse than I am. The secret is not comparison with others or dwelling solely on the problem but keeping our eyes on God. As I’ve heard it recently, the antidote to anxiety is the adoration of God.

My pastor referenced a passage where King Jeoshaphat is facing a combined army that is invading Israel and the odds are not good. Instead of panicking, he turns to God in prayer. The last line of his prayer is one of my favorite verses in the Bible: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Sometimes, God has to wound us to get us to look up. Sometimes, He allows trials and suffering to get our attention. Sometimes, we face hardships and trials to purify our faith and get us to turn our eyes on Jesus. I’d rather be wounded and find the comfort of closeness with God than get everything I’ve ever wanted and not know God. That would be tragic.

Lord, get our attention. Help us see that there’s nothing else that we could ever desire that is better than You. You are the only one able to hold us together when we feel like we’re falling apart. You’re the only one who can heal our woundedness and brokenness. We don’t know what to do so much of the time, so we once again turn our eyes on You, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen.

God’s Heartbeat

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This is one example of why Dr. Adrian Rogers of Bellevue Baptist Church was one of the best communicators of God’s Word that I have ever heard. He was indeed a gifted pastor and preacher. I’m sharing one of the thousands of sermon excerpts that are the reason he is so well loved and remembered to this day, over 20 years after he passed to glory:

“Once I was reading the Houston Chronicle and came across a picture of a woman who had her ear on the chest of a man. And there was a caption under the photo that explained the man had received a heart transplant, and the heart that was beating in his chest was the heart of this woman’s son. She was listening by putting her ear to his chest to hear her son’s heart beating. When I read that, I thought, ‘Would to God that He could put His ear on my chest and hear the heartbeat of His Son.’

If God Almighty puts His ear to your chest, and Jesus is in there, you’re going to have a heartbeat for missions and evangelism. Jesus said, ‘As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’ (John 20:21). And why was He sent? Luke 19:10: ‘for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’

Does your heart beat with God’s heartbeat? Does mine? That’s not something that happens overnight. It takes a lifetime of prayer and obedience, of sacrificial love and surrender. It’s not something you can declare over yourself or magically wave a wand and automatically make it happen. It takes years of laying down your life and taking up your cross and following Jesus daily. Not sporadically or periodically or even regularly, but every single day.

Lord, make us Your disciples whose hearts truly beat with Your Son’s heartbeat. May people observe us in all our actions and hear us in our words and see not us but You in us. May they see Your Church at work and see Jesus with skin on in this world. Amen.

Transforming Not Conforming

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“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity” (2 Cor. 10:3-6, The Message).

I had a pastor who used to say regularly, “Don’t let the world teach you theology.”

I still think about that statement a lot, especially since so many believers get their theology from just about any any every source out there except for the Bible. We’re judging the Bible and God by our own humanistic standards of right and wrong. We have the mentality of saying that “God would never” because we would never, making ourselves the standard to which even God must abide.

But thankfully Romans 12:1-2 talks about being transformed not conformed. Being conformed means that eventually you cease looking like Christ and look exactly like the world. You end up with no message to give a sick society because you have become equally sick. But being transformed means that we no longer are carried along by every wind and wave. It means that we stand out as beacons of hope in a dark world that is desperately searching for meaning and a way out of the chaos it created.

Lord, help us no longer to be conformed to this world and the messages it is constantly sending us through the news and social media and advertising. Instead, transform us by the renewing of our minds through Your holy Word as we saturate ourselves with Scripture. May we be in the world but not of it. May we show the world not what it is but what it can be and be the means through which You can continue to rescue people out of a perishing world into a glorious Kingdom of Light. Amen.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

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I’m dusting of a favorite quote of mine and bringing it back for an encore performance. This was reportedly found among the possessions of a young pastor in Zimbabwe after he was martyred for his faith. This is proof positive that those who live and die in Christ leave behind a legacy that will live on until eternity. May it be the prayer and the anthem of your faith going forward as you strive to be among the fellowship of those who are unashamed to bear the name of Christ:

“I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of His and I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure. I’m done and finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, or first, or tops, or recognized, or praised, or rewarded. I live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by Holy Spirit power. My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven. My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my guide is reliable and my mission is clear. I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He does come for His own, He’ll have no problems recognizing me. My colors will be clear!”

A Good Word from Dietrich

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“Christians are persons who no longer seek their salvation, their deliverance, their justification in themselves, but in Jesus Christ alone. They know that God’s Word in Jesus Christ pronounces them guilty, even when they feel nothing of their own guilt, and that God’s Word in Jesus Christ pronounces them free and righteous even when they feel nothing of their own righteousness…

Because they daily hunger and thirst for righteousness, they long for the redeeming Word again and again. It can only come from the outside. In themselves they are destitute and dead. Help must come from the outside; and it has come and comes daily and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ, bringing us redemption, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. But God put this Word into the mouth of human beings so that it may be passed on to others. When people are deeply affected by the Word, they tell it to other people. God has willed that we should seek and find God’s living Word in the testimony of other Christians, in the mouths of human beings.

Therefore, Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them. They need them again and again when they become uncertain and disheartened” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

That’s called community. If I read my Bible right, community is not optional for the believer. It’s required. It’s essential. If I really want to do more than tread water spiritually, I need brothers and sisters around me who can encourage and exhort me toward godliness in all areas. If I want to prosper, I need to be in a place where people gather together to sing, pray, hear God’s Word proclaimed, and give.

My pastor always says that the first person you lie to is yourself, so you need other people around you who will remind you of what’s true, whether you feel it’s true or not. Tonight was a good example as we broke bread together for the first time on a Wednesday night at The Church at Avenue South. It was a good Baptist gathering, so there was fried chicken, of course. But also there was plenty of fellowship.

Life can be a bit of a grind sometimes, so it helps to have people who speak life into you and lift you up in prayer. Some days, you will be in a good place, so you can return the favor. The beautiful thing about community is where I am weak, you can be strong for me, and where you are weak, I can be strong. In all our collective weaknesses, we find God’s strength is perfected.

I look forward to the next few weeks of fellowship and Bible study at my church. It will be a break from the norm, but sometimes that can be a really good thing.

What’s It Worth?

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Today, I saw a house for sale in the neighborhood where I go to church. It had been listed for a while, and I noted that the price had been reduced recently. So being eternally curious, I googled the house for fun and giggles to see what it was worth.

It was just shy of a million dollars. It was a nice house, but by no means spectacular. I think it had about 2600 square feet, so it wasn’t a big house. It was just a normal-sized house in a good neighborhood in the insane housing market of Nashville.

It seems that when I was growing up, a million dollars could get you a mansion. If you spent a million dollars on a house, you were rich. At least that’s what 10-year old me thought at the time.

But now money is worth less than it used to be. Back in the day, currency was based on a gold standard, but now it’s just paper. And every day that paper grows less and less valuable.

I think that’s pretty much the tale of everything that we tend to prize and value on this side of heaven. Eventually, those things depreciate. They rust, get eaten by moths and other critters, and get stolen. Technology is the worst because the top of the line product quickly becomes outdated and soon after obsolete. Soon after that, it’s junk.

But things eternal only grow in value. If you treasure what is heavenly, as the verse in Matthew 6:19-21, you will find joy both now and hereafter. If you value what the Heavenly Father values, you will find you are rich in those things that no amount of money can buy. Those are the things that truly matter.

I heard a pastor say that the streets of heaven are paved with gold, because gold up there is worth about as much as pavement down here. It would be dumb to walk around with pits of asphalt in your pocket thinking you were wealthy. In the same way, gold isn’t the true currency of heaven. Love is.

If you love God wholeheartedly and love others the way that God has loved you, you are valuing the right things. If you value possessions, remember that he who dies with the most toys is still dead, but what you take with you are those who are following and trusting in Jesus because of your faithfulness and your testimony.

Fellowship of the Unashamed

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I know I’ve probably posted this previously, but it’s still worth checking out. I remember distinctly being blown away by the radical sentiment of the author. I found out recently that he was a young pastor in Zimbabwe who was martyred for his faith and a little poem was found among his papers that went something like this:

“I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed.
The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line.
The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of
Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down,
back away, or be still. My past is redeemed. My present
makes sense and my future is secure.
I’m done and finished with low living, sight walking,
small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams,
tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position,
promotions, plaudits, or popularity.
I don’t have to be right, or first, or tops,
or recognized, or praised, or rewarded.
I live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience,
lift by prayer, and labor by Holy Spirit power.
My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven.
My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few,
but my guide is reliable and my mission is clear. I will not be bought,
compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back,
deluded or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the
presence of the adversary.
I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy,
ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander
in the maze of mediocrity.
I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until
I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up,
and preached up for the cause of Christ.

I am a disciple of Jesus.
I must give until I drop, preach until all know,
and work until He comes.
And when He does come for His own,
He’ll have no problems recognizing me.
My colors will be clear!”

Whoo boy, that’s good.

Beauty from Ashes

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“To all who mourn in Israel,
    he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
    festive praise instead of despair” (Isaiah 61:3, NLT).

On my weekly Radnor Lake hike, I saw something that took a minute to register. There were these beautiful yellow flowers growing out of a pond of green scum. If I knew anything about botany, I could tell you what kind of flowers or maybe what kind of green scum was covering the pond.

I do know that what stuck me is that out of something I perceived as ugly grew something that I saw was beautiful. But isn’t that just God’s way?

The prophet Isaiah speaks about God bringing beauty from ashes. I honestly can’t think of anything more hopeless than ashes. Ashes are what’s left after the destruction of fire. There’s literally nothing left to restore.

But God can take these ashes and turn them into something beautiful the same way He could take a valley of dry bones and make them into a living army.

I heard a pastor say once that what seems impossible for us isn’t even remotely difficult for God. That means even the most hopeless of circumstances can be transformed into the most amazing outcomes. He can make miracles from mud (just ask the blind man Jesus healed).

It’s easy to forget God’s goodness when you’re staring at a pile of the ashes that are what’s left of your life. But God can turn even those into something beautiful, something better than before, something that will always be a reminder of God’s faithful love for you.

A Quote that Punched Me in the Face

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First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak for me” (Martin Niemöller).

Martin Niemöller was a German pastor during the Nazi regime. According to what I read, he spent the last seven years of their reign in concentration camps.

I found this quote when I was scrolling through the saved websites on my phone. It did almost feel like a punch to the face. It reminded me that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and silence in the face of injustice amounts to consent and approval of it.

I’m left asking the question: Who do I need to speak out for?

A better question is this: Who do I know that doesn’t have a voice that I’m not speaking out for?

Who will speak out for me if I don’t speak out for them?