PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Lost Passion-Lost Persuasion”.

One of the great agnostics of all time was Bertrand Russell. He was a very outspoken enemy of Christ and the Church. He wrote many books refuting the arguments for Christianity. Yet, in one of his books he spoke very pointedly to the key to our ministry and mission. His wife, Patricia Spence Russell was dying of a terminal illness. In his book, Why I Am Not A Christian, he wrote about his experience. Concerning watching his wife die, he wrote: “She seemed cut off from everything with walls of agony, and the sense of solitude of each human soul overwhelmed me! Every since my marriage my emotional life had been calm and superficial. I had forgotten all the deeper issues and had been content with flippant cleverness. Suddenly the ground seemed to give in beneath me, and I found myself in quite another region. Within five minutes I went through some reflections as the following: the loneliness of the human soul is undurable-nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity of that sort of love religious teachers have preached! Whatever does not spring from this motive is harmless or at best useless; It is love that penetrates this loneliness in each person-we must speak to that!”

We live in a world that has no answers. They are looking for answers anywhere and everywhere and I finding none! The Church has the answer in Christ. But just trying to convince them of answers intellectually, without love and passion, the kind that Jesus shared with all He encountered, we will never get close enough to hear what we have to say. T.S. Eliot, in his Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, spoke about all men’s fear of eternity, and desire for answers. He wrote: “I have seen my moment of greatness flicker! And I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat and snicker! And I was afraid!” Mankind facing mortality and facing an uncertain future, behind the facade and false courage, is desperately open to loving passionate answers! This is a great opportunity for the Church to speak up and not stutter. What is the state of the Church? A.W. Tozer tried to warn the Church to stay ready. He wrote, in his book Rot, Rut, or Revival, in the chapter entitled “Causes of a Dozing Church?”- ‘What is the present condition of the Church? The bulk of Christians are asleep! Not unconverted! But asleep. God’s alarm is going off…yet we are sleeping through the alarm!” Another prophet to the Church, Southern Baptist Preacher, Vance Havner said, “If ever God’s people needed to be aroused and shocked, alarmed and awakened to their privilege and solemn duty-it is today! The Holy Spirit was given not to be a sedative, but a stimulant! We live in a time where people get excited about the trivial and shrug their shoulders at things affecting eternity!” C.H. Spurgeon says, “I am sure I do not have to unroll a page of history and ask you to glance down it except for a second; you will see the Church has fallen asleep, and has become…destitute of zeal having no ardent Passion! Every Christian is either a witness or an imposter. If you have never had sleepless hours; If you have never had weeping eyes. If you have never swelled as if your heart would burst-You need not anticipate that you will ever be called zealous. You do not know that the beginning of true zeal, for the foundation of zeal lies in the heart. The heart must be heavy with grief, and ever beat with holy heavy ardor! The heart must be vehement with desire-panting continually for God’s glory in saving the lost!” Tozer again speaks to our contentment with no passion. He writes “Too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right, but without being willing to endure the inconvenience of being right!” This contentment with our current status, without a passionate burden for winning the lost, we can convince ourselves that we are pleasing to our Lord. But George MacDonald reminds us-“In whatever we do without God we must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably!”

We have lost our burden for the lost. We no longer pray for their salvation. No longer look for opportunity to share Christ with them. We no longer spend restless nights without sleep burdened over the fact that they are facing eternity without salvation and Christ! They are not outwardly bothered about it-and the tragic thing is neither are we! Look at the people that changed history for Christ! Men like John Knox who prayed “give me souls or give me death!” “Scotland or I die!” By Charles Wesley who said, “The world is my parish”-and walked and rode horseback well into his eighties sharing the gospel the length and breadth of England, over 250,000 miles! Millions of converts! A visitor was taken into the Church pastored by Robert Murray McCheyene. He was shown the Pastor’s study-his Bible on the desk; the pages stained with tears for those he would preach to. C.H. Spurgeon who said, “If the lost go to hell do not let them go without being warned and prayed for. Let them climb over our bodies with our arms around their knees begging them to turn to Christ!”

Mary Booth, wrote a poem that expressed her heart.

“Oh for a heart that is burdened!
Infused with a passion to pray;
Oh for a stirring within me
Oh for this power every day

Or for a heart like my Savior;
Who being in agony prayed
Such caring for others, Lord give me,
On my heart let burdens be laid!

My Father I long for this passion
To pour myself out for the lost;
To lay down my life to save others,
To pray whatever the cost.

Lord teach me your secret
I’m hungry this lesson to learn!
Thy passionate passion for others,
For this blessed Jesus I yearn!”

Herbert Lockyer tells us that passion which brings tears of burden for the lost will touch lives, like Bertrand Russell told us! He wrote: “Tears win victories. A cold unfeeling dry-eyed Church has no influence on the souls of men!” William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army was asked after his retirement, why they were not winning the lost any longer! He wrote back two words! “Try tears!” Leon Kilbreath, Mr. Sunday School for Southern Baptists used to chastise us for not being involved and passionate about winning the lost. He used to say, “If we shared our Lord’s passion, why are our eyes so dry, our feet so frozen, our lips so silent!” In 1904 William Booth was invited to Buckingham Palace to be honored by King Edward VII. The King said, “You have done a great work General Booth. England recognizes you!” He was asked to sign the Kings book. William Booth wrote, “Your Majesty some men’s ambition is art; some men’s ambition is fame; some men’s ambition is gold; some men’s ambition is power. My ambition is the souls of men!” That used to be the passion and ambition of the Church. Passion for the Lost? Or Lost Passion? You know the tragic answer. That might explain our impotency!

Sermon: MR MOM
1Thessalonians 2: 1-11
I. Paul’s Role
II. Paul’s Risk
III. Paul’s Reward

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:

In the Greek Islands, one can seek out the home of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. In the area, one can also find an olive tree, supposedly dating from his time. If this is so, this tree would then be some 2400 years old. The trunk of this tree is very large but completely hollow. The tree is little more than thick bark. There are a few long, straggling branches, but they are supported by sturdy wooden poles every few feet. It has an occasional leaf here and there and might produce a few olives each year. In the fields around, however, are olive groves in many directions. The strong, healthy, young trees with narrow trunks are covered with a thick canopy of leaves, under which masses of olives can be found each year. The tree of Hippocrates can still be called an olive tree by nature, in that it still shows the essential unique characteristics, but it has long since ceased to fulfill an olive tree’s function. Tourists file up to inspect this ancient relic, having some link to a dim history, but the job of the olive tree passed long ago to many successions of replanted trees.

Do you know any churches (or even people) like the tree of Hippocrates? The form is there, but the function is not. They have stopped reproducing and are satisfied just being who they have been, or having a noble history. It reminds me of the dilemma we find the Church in, during these “last days”. Jesus warned us that in the last days “the love of many would wax cold” (Matt. 10:42). The word “wax” is the word psucho-meaning “to blow”. The image is that there will be external winds blowing that will not “fan the flame”, but “extinguish” the zeal, the love, the passion, the fervor, and sincerity of Christians, and the Church. The idea is that the overwhelming trend of the day would be that Christians would become “hollow, empty, and powerless”. Jesus spoke, in warning to the Church of Ephesus, that “losing their first love”, uncorrected, would result in losing their impactful witness to the world. (Rev. 2:4-5). Paul spoke of the last day trend being a time when many would “depart from the faith” (I Tim. 4:1). Years ago, I heard Dr. Adrian Rogers warn that in the last days Christians would “desert the Church like rats swimming away from a sinking ship!” That is what Churches all over the United States are seeing. There are some growing mega-churches, who have capitulated to the world’s desires, becoming all that the world wants in a Church, and thus are attracting them. But in order to do that the Church has paid a very high price! Woodrow Krull, on Back to the Bible Broadcast has spoken to this issue. “When the Church becomes an entertainment center, Bible literacy is usually an early casualty. People go away from the event with a smile on their face… but a void in their life!” (Back to the Bible: Turning Your Life Around with God’s Word p.134).
We “old timers” remember Francis Schaeffer warning us years ago, “Here is the great Evangelical Disaster-the failure of the evangelical world to stand for the truth as truth. There is only one word for this-namely, accommodation: the evangelical church has accommodated to the world spirit of the age”
(The Great Evangelical Disaster, 1984, p.37).
If Rip Van Winkle were a Christian, and if he had fallen asleep during the last 25years, then awakened last week, he would have been stunned. He would have never dreamed the Church would have changed so much. The Church has become a hollow shell of what she used to be. What caused it? Steven Lawson explains:
“As the Church advances into the twenty-first century, the stress to produce booming ministries has never been greater. Influenced by corporate mergers, towering skyscrapers, and expanding economics, bigger is perceived as better. The church has taken on a “Wall Street” mentality. A new way of “doing” church is emerging. Bible exposition is being replaced by entertainment, preaching with performances, doctrine with drama, theology with theatrics. The pulpit is being replaced with trendy worship styles, glitzy presentations, and vaudeville-like pageantries. We are re-inventing the Church, and re-packaging the gospel as a product pleasing to the consumer. In a strange twist, the preaching of the cross is now foolishness, not only to the world, but also to the contemporary Church” (Steven Lawson, “The Priority of Biblical Preaching: Bibliotheca Sacra 2001. p.198-199).

Eugene Petersen, author of the Message, had also lamented this condition. He writes:

“American pastors are abandoning their posts, left and right, and at an alarming rate. They are not leaving their churches and getting other jobs. Congregations are still paying their salaries. Their names still appear on Church stationary. They continue to make appearances in the pulpit on Sundays…but they are abandoning their calling. They have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are the churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeepers concerns-how to keep the customers satisfied and happy. How to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customer will lay out more money. It is shopkeeping. Religious shopkeeping…but shopkeeping none-the-less” (Eugene Petersen, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Ministry Today p.1-2).

Another writer has put it succinctly: “In our day there is a focus on the “seeker-sensitive” service that will present the gospel in a way that will be attractive to…people. The task of the Church is not to assemble seekers, but to make disciples…the seriousness of the message must never be obscured by the desire to make the medium more attractive. The preacher’s task is not to entertain or inform but to plead passionately with men and women to flee the wrath to come on account of sin” (Ian M. Duguid The NIV Application Commentary: Ezekiel p.389).
This kind of weak, enemic, powerless Church is not the kind of “power-house” Jesus intended to be “turning the world upside down” in these last days. What are we to do? What are we to say? We sit back, hiding behind the locked doors, and the four walls of our fortified bastion, trembling, as we listen to the likes of atheistic bullies like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, and others threaten to stomp us out of existence! Not for a minute. God help us to rise up, stand up, speak up, refuse to back up, with the power of the Church, infused with the Holy Spirit, as in the Book of Acts, until we are taken up.

As a Pastor I try to show my love for you all by praying for you. Visiting you as time allows. Visiting you when you are in the hospital. Being there to share your joy as you, or your children, or grandchildren marry. Be there when you go through the tragedy of loss and bereavement. That is all areas where God has given me a Pastor’s heart and has called me to show His presence by my presence. But the primary call on my life is to do what God has called me do do-what His Spirit has anointed me to do-to be a Pastor-Teacher (Eph. 411). Jesus asked Peter “do you love me?” and indicated that the way he should show it was by “feeding my sheep” “tending my lambs” and “feeding my sheep”. Since I have been your Pastor I have given more energy that I have at any other time in my life to study and prepare and preach and teach the Word of God to you. We have covered many books of the Bible, Old and New Testaments. We have studied major doctrines and preached many series of messages. We have taught January Bible Study every year. You keep praying for me that I will continue to challenge you to “hear the Word and heed the Word”. God has called me to call you to join me in being faithful followers of Jesus. That is one calling I do not plan to abandon. Only a strong and healthy Church can stand the test of these last days!

I love the story that Gregory P. Elder tells:

Growing up on the Atlantic Coast, I spent long hours working on intricate sand castles; whole cities would appear beneath my hands. One year, for several days in a row, I was accosted by bullies who smashed my creations. Finally I tried an experiment: I placed cinder blocks, rocks, and chunks of concrete in the base of my castles. Then I built the sand kingdoms on top of the rocks. When the local toughs appeared (and I disappeared), their bare feet suddenly met their match. Many people see the church in grave peril from a variety of dangers: secularism, politics, heresies, or plain old sin. They forget that the church is built upon a Rock (Mt. 16:16), over which the gates of hell itself shall not prevail.

Josh is bringing a message today on following Jesus onto the battlefield. His message is how to put on the whole armor of God and stand in the evil day. I know that he has been preparing to share his heart. Please pray and listen as he shares this morning.

SERMON: HOW TO PLANT A CHURCH
Acts 17: 1-15

I. THE PLANTER
II. THE PROCEDURE
III. THE POWER

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “GO FOR SOULS…GO FOR THE WORST!”

Most of us are very familiar with the ministry of the Salvation Army. We have all given donations to the Red Kettle, and probably many of us have even taken a turn or two at “ringing the bell”. Every major town or city has its Salvation Army Church and ministry center right in the heart of where it is needed most! That was the aim of their founder from the beginning. William Booth started this ministry in 1865, on the East Side of London England with that very intent. He said, “Go for souls…and go for the worst”. He did that very thing. He encountered and won the prostitutes, gamblers, alcoholics, and homeless beggars to Christ. His ministry revolved around the three “s”‘s-Soup-Soap-Salvation! He was converted under the ministry of John Wesley, carried on by Wesley’s followers after his death in 1791. Booth found Christ at a Methodist revival in 1844, at the age of 15. He said, “I worshipped everything that bore the name Methodist. To me there was one God, and John Wesley was his prophet. I had devoured the story of his life. No human compositions seemed to me to be comparable with his writings…the best hope for the salvation of the world was the faithful carrying into the practice the letter of the spirit of his instructions”. He spent his life doing just that! He said. “The greatness of a man is the measure of his surrender!” In that regard William Booth is a great man and a great example of those who would follow Jesus.

Let me share a few of his impactful quotes. He said, “to get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a university education. These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labor…you must graft on the man’s nature a new nature, which has in it the element of the Divine!” Listen to this: “It is against stupidity in every shape and form that we have to wage eternal battle. But how can we wonder at the want of the sense on the part of those who have had no advantages, when we see such plentiful absence of that commodity on the part of those who have had all the advantages!”. Called to ministry? His view: “Not called! Did you say? Not heard the call. I think you should put your ear to the Bible and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened agonized hear of humanity and listen to their pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters not to come to this place of torment. Then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world!” “God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with passion for the impossible!” “We must wake ourselves up or somebody else will take our place, and bear our cross, and steal our crown”.
 

He said the danger for the future is: “A religion without the Holy Ghost; Christianity without Christ; forgiveness without repentance; salvation without regeneration; politics without God; and heaven without hell!” He was a very perceptive prophet. Listen to his determination. “While women weep, as they do now. I’ll fight. While children go hungry, as they do now-I’ll fight. While men go in and out of prison, as they do now-I’ll fight! While there remains one dark soul without the light of God-I’ll fight. I will fight until the very end!” “We are not to minister to a congregation and be content to keep things going. We are sent to make war and to stop short of nothing but the subjugation of the world to the sway of the Lord Jesus”. When he was asked to speak to a graduation class of clergymen he said, “If I would have had my way you men would not have been graduated with just these studies. I would have had you spend twenty-four hours in hell to experience the torments of those who are damned and then turned you loose on a dying world!”. Toward the end of his life, he was unable to attend the annual meetings of his denomination. They asked him to telegraph a message for the congregants. He responded with one word-“Others!” When he was told that the work was failing and they did not know what to do next-he responded with a two-world telegraph-“Try tears!” It would not hurt us to take a refresher course in the theology of General William Booth. He sounds very much like our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen?

SERMON: WE DON’T HAVE TO COME BACK BUT WE MUST GO
Acts 16:1-10

I. He Has the Commitment
ll. He Hears the Cry
III. He Heralds with Clarity