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

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Happy Unscrupulous Fishing: You Have a Divine License!”

     Recently, my son Justin, reminded me that now that I am a Senior Citizen that I do not have to buy a fishing license any longer.  What an exasperating feeling!  One definite reason to get back into a habit that I have always enjoyed, but have not had much time to do it lately.  I have always loved to fish.  I have been an avid fisherman since Junior High days.  I wish I could say that my Dad taught me how to fish.  But actually, I only remember him taking our family fishing on one occasion, and I was quite small.  There may have been more times than that, but not that I can recall.  My older brother loved to fish.  He was especially fond of going to pay lakes where you could catch some of the “big fish”, but he usually did not want a kid brother tagging along!  My venture as a fisherman came when a new kid moved into our neighborhood.  His name was Mike Phillips.  Mike did not really like baseball, football, basketball, or tetherball.  But he loved to fish.  He talked me into joining him on a fishing trip to the neighboring Fairview Park in Decatur, Illinois, and we tried our luck at Dreamland Pond there.  After that first day I was hooked!  Dreamland was stocked with enough fish that they kept you busy with bites.  Then we graduated to Steven’s Creek, a small tributary of the Sangamon River, that ran through Macon County.  The real adventure then was to walk to Lake Decatur, and fish down by the Dam.  We mostly fished with Zebco rods and reels, and fished on the bottom.  I learned to catch all kinds of fish-bluegill; crappie; yellow belly catfish, an occasional channel cat; carp, and sucker fish.  I learned how to concentrate on the end of that pole, be patient for the strikes, until you were sure this was the one where the fish took the bait.  Moderate success kept me coming back for several years as a teenager.  It was only after leaving for college, and entering into the pastorate, and working that it became more and more difficult to enjoy the hobby that I learned early on.  But fishing can be a wonderful joyful past time.

     Henry David Thoreau reminded us that “men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after!”  Robert Altman says, “You put a line in the water and you don’t know what is on the other end.  Your imagination is under there!”  John Buchan says, “The charm of fishing is that pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope”.  Garrison Keillor quite pointedly reminded us ” Thank you dear God, for this good life.  Forgive us if we do not love it enough.  Thank you for the rain.  Thank you for the chance to get up after only three hours of sleep to go fishing.  I thank you now, because I won’t feel quite so thankful about it then, in the morning!”  Steven Wright says, “There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot!”  I have done both!  Haven’t you?  But in spite of all of that-fishing has been something that has given me great satisfaction over the years, and I hope will again, not that I am a Senior Citizen! Lol.

     That is why I find it intriguing that Jesus used fishing as a metaphor to describe winning the lost.  It is a graphic metaphor for a very important subject.  It is no small thing that four of his earliest disciples were chosen from the ranks of hearty fisherman that labored daily all over the Sea of Galilee.  That metaphor conveys quite vividly important parallels to those who know even a little bit about the sport.  When I was a teenager, feeling the call of God on my life to enter the ministry, the Pastor who had led me to Christ took me under his wings.  I owe a lot to him for giving me opportunities to preach on youth Sundays, for recommending me to other Pastors to preach Youth Revivals, and for recommending me to the Church in Clinton, that I had the privilege of Pastoring at the ripe old age of 17.  This year I am celebrating 50 years in ministry.  Russell Pittman was the one God used mightily to lead me into such an honorable calling.  I remember that Bro. Pittman belonged to a special group of Pastors.  They called themselves the “Fishers of Men Fellowship”.  It was a network of Pastors in Central Illinois who were dedicated to Soul-Winning, and in order to encourage each other, and the membership of their Churches, they had annual conferences on Soul-Winning on a rotating basis at each other’s Churches.  These meetings were called “The Fishers of Men Fellowship Conferences”.  I heard some of the best soul-winning preaching from Russell Pittman; Virgil Graham; Jerry McDaniel; Laverne Arndt; Gerald Thompson; and Mickey Hutchingson.  They choose that term from Matthew 4:19. Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  He saw Peter and Andrew, James and John fishing, and later cleaning their nets from a hard day’s work.  Passing by, He challenged them to come and follow Him, and “He would make them to become Fishers of Men!”  In Luke 5:10-11 Jesus challenged them again to “join Him in Catching Men”.  The Greek word is “zogreo”- which should be translated-“catch men alive”.  An invitation to join the Master and learn His technique.  They took Him up on the challenge. 

     As we meditate on those passages, I want you to think with me about three things concerning that metaphor.  The first thought is pretty much understood.  The last two not so much!  I hope it stretches your thinking, and broadens your perspective a bit.  First of all, He likely choose that metaphor because of the apparent similarities that fishing for fish and fishing for men have between them.  Fishermen must go to the location of the fish.  Fish do not search for the Fishermen…just hoping to be caught!  Fishermen need to know what fish they are seeking.  Such knowledge lets you know their habits and habitats.  Some like the deep.  Others the shoreline.  You need to know the bait that lures them.  Some like Wheaties in a ball on a treble hook; others blood bait on a treble hook; many prefer a worm or a nightcrawler; Salt water fish prefer shrimp or cut-up pieces of squid.  Bass seem to like the lures, especially a spinner with a plastic worm.  It takes real skill to go fly fishing for Trout.  Such knowledge is invaluable to the successful fishermen…and imperative for the Fisher of Men.  A fisherman must have a desire to go at inconvenient times, and sometimes inconvenient locations to find the “best spots”.  That is true of those who fish for men.  There is never a convenient time, and usually never a convenient place.  But we must go.  Fishermen must be patient.  You usually do not throw your line in and have a continuous experience of catching one fish after another.  It also takes practice.  You must develop strategy and skill…both in luring and landing the fish.  I remember the first time Bonna and I took Justin and Josh fishing.  Josh was a little young and found waiting for that first bite a little boring.  Justin had a little more patience being a little older.  Justin got the first bite.   He pulled back to set the hook.  Soon it appeared the fish had led him into a snag.  He handed me his pole to get the snag loose.  As I attempted to do that, the snag began to pull back!  He and I together fought the fish, and landed a 12-pound catfish!  Huge fish for his first catch!  We have pictures of that trophy. Lol.  These things find parallels to fishing for men.  Jesus knew we would understand that much. 

     But…there are Bible teachers that believe that Jesus did not only mean that fishing was the only professional metaphor He saw as illustrative of soul-winning.  Some believe that He was inferring that whatever your profession and talent is-if you will follow Him, and dedicate your giftedness to the Lord, that He will transform and sanctify your profession too, as He did these fishermen.  Whatever our giftedness in life is-given to Him-it can be used to further the Kingdom of God.  After all, Levi-Matthew was a tax collector.  He was a gifted businessman.  He knew a lot of people.  He knew a lot of other tax collectors, and had the gift of instructing them, and entertaining them at his home.  After his conversion, his first act was to invite them all over for a party, and introduce them to the one who loved spending time with tax collectors and publicans.  That might just be where Zachaeus first heard of Jesus.  I remember hearing Stuart Briscoe preach a message entitled Ordinary People Make Wonderful Disciples.  In the message he spoke of a woman that he met at a conference.  He asked her what she did for a living.  He wasn’t prepared for her answer.  She told him-“I am a disciple of Jesus Christ…cleverly disguised as a school teacher”.  He said, “for the first time I understood that Christ wanted us to be primarily disciples who extended the Kingdom of God…through whatever gifted profession He had placed us in.  We were to grow where we were planted!”  Many believe that is the message of the fishers of men metaphor.  Think of your calling.  Take inventory on your talent pool.  Dedicate that to the Lord.  He will sanctify it and use it to win others to Himself through you.  That may be the message of Solomon when he said “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your heart”. (Eccles. 9:10). Or what the Apostle Paul meant when He told the Colossians “Whatever you do-do it heartily unto the Lord…serving Christ!” (Col. 3:23-24). 

     But then there is another thought to incorporate into this devotion.  Many feel that Jesus had a particular Old Testament passage in mind when He invited these four anglers to come and join Him in His work.  Many feel that He was referencing Jeremiah 16:16 which says “I am sending forth many fishers declares the LORD, and they will catch them” The context speaks of those who have spent their time pursuing idolatry will be caught in the nets of judgment.  The “fishers of men” reference may be a double-edged sword.  There will be those who will be caught in the nets, and belong to the LORD in His Kingdom.  But those who dodge the net He throws out, will escape to their own destruction.  In the Parable of the Dragnet, in Matthew 13:47-49, Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven was like casting a net into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind.  When it was full it was time for the sorting of the fish…the good into containers, the bad were discarded.  Some are caught in Gospel nets and swept into Eternal Life.  Others caught up in their own destruction.  The same Sun that melts the snow, hardens the clay.  Paul said that our witness is a sweet-smelling savior, an aroma of life to those believing.  But he also said our witness is an aroma of death, to those who reject the Gospel, and are in the process of perishing.  The Gospels record Jesus, the Master Fisherman, drawing in Nichodemus, the Woman of Samaria, (The Bad Samaritan!), The Demoniac of Gadara, and many others in His gospel nets.  It shows the “ones who got away too”. –The Rich Young Ruler; The Pharisee Praying in the Temple with the Publican; Herod; Pilate; Caiaphas; His nets flung from the cross even netted the Thief on the Cross; and the Centurions at the foot of the Cross.  Never forget God, in His Sovereign work, casts His nets into the lives of those who are willing to be captured for Himself and Life.  C.S. Lewis made this point so clear in his book Surprised By Joy.  He answered a young atheist who had asked for his advice with these words-“A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful about his reading.  There are traps everywhere-Bibles laid open, millions of surprises, as Herbert says, ‘God uses nets and stratagems in His dealings with us’ (a reference to George Herbert-poet and author of the 1600’s) and I might add is very unscrupulous in His use of them on us”.  Lewis had been caught in God’s fishing nets, and called himself “he most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England”. Of course, his intellect and profession became a great vehicle for God to apologetically defend the Gospel through him, like few others.  One lesson I learned from those Fisher of Men Conferences I attended as a young man is that winning the lost only occurs when God’s Spirit empowers us to cast the Gospel nets into lives He longs to capture.  Without His presence and power, we would fare no better than the disciples who toiled all night and “caught nothing!”.  Twice, in Luke 5 and John 21, Jesus illustrated with His touch and technique the haul will be so successful it nearly breaks the Gospel nets!  Go ahead launch out into the deep.  Cast out on the right side.  Happy Unscrupulous fishing.  You have a Divine license.

SERMON: THE PROMISE OF THE COMING

                                    Matthew 4:19

1. THE PROMISE
2. THE PROCESS
3. THE PRODUCT

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: BELONGING IS VERY NECESSARY

     There are many voices today decrying the Church of Jesus Christ.  They tell us that she is outdated.  Irrelevant.  Impotent.  Unneccesary.  The focus basically is-you can be a Christian.  You can love the Lord.  You can live for Him in the world today-but you don’t need, nor will you likely get any help from the Church-i.e., the organized historical Church as we have known it. You can even go on line and find a Church to meet your needs at virtualchurch.com. This is not a new trend.  I came across an article written by Robert W. Patterson, associate to the Executive Director of the National Association of Evangelicals, written for Christianity Today back in March of 1991.  He wrote:

     “When President Eisenhower became a Christian, he made a public profession of his faith in Christ, he was baptized, and was extended the right hand of fellowship at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C., the second Sunday after his inauguration in 1953.  Had the former President expressed interest in becoming a Christian a generation later under more consciously evangelical auspices, he might have never been challenged to identify with the Body of Christ through baptism and church membership.  A personal relationship with Jesus Christ, he would have been told, is all that really matters”. (Robert Patterson, “In Search of the Visible Church” Christianity Today, March 11, 1991, Vol. 34, No. 3, p.36). 

     Of course, I wholeheartedly agree that without a saving relationship with Jesus Christ that all is lost.  Joining a Church is not the same as accepting Christ as Savior.  But we must never mistakenly reason that one’s relationship with Christ minimizes the importance of the Church.  Yet that is the spirit of our age.  Someone has said that this is the age of the “McChristian”.  We choose what level of product he wants from the Church, like one does at McDonalds, or a buffet.  Pollster George Barna says, “The average adult thinks belonging to a particular Church is fine for other people, but is an unnecessary bondage and baggage for himself” (George Barna, The Frog in the Kettle Regal Books. 1991 p.133).  So, a decade into the new millennium’s 21st century we have a phenomenon unthinkable in any other generation-“Churchless Christians”.  Why has this trend developed?  Some feel that it has happened because of too much emphasis on the “invisible Church”.  While it is true that Christ is building a Church, and the totality of that Church is overall invisible to our eye, i.e., we cannot see the entire Church in its entirety at any one time, and any one place, (the first meeting will be in the air at the rapture), Christ’s invisible Church manifests itself in visible congregations, at visible locations, all over the world, as the New Testament teaches us.  Both teachings are true, but too much emphasis on one over the other leads to error.  Another likely reason this trend has happened in America is our historic American individualism.  Nancy Pearcey has written a 478-page book on how we have developed a Church in America that our culture has molded to make it quite different from the New Testament Church.  It is called Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity. (Crossway books. 2004).  She has an entire chapter titled, “When Christianity met America Guess Who Won!”  She quotes Thomas Paine saying, “We have a chance to start history all over again”.  She proposes that we did that with Christianity too!  When Christians from other countries come to America, they don’t even recognize our “version of the Church”.  R. Kent Hughes, in his book Disciplines of a Godly Man, says “another reason for the de-churching of many Christians is the historical individualism of evangelical Christianity and the grass-roots American impulse against authority.  The natural inclination is to think that one needs only an individual relationship with Jesus Christ and needs no other authority.  Such thinking produces Lone Ranger Christians who demonstrate their authority by riding not to Church, but out to the badlands, reference Bible in hand, to do battle single-handedly with the outlaw world”.  (p.152). If we “say” we don’t need the Church that settles the matter-we are the final authority on everything.  Because “we say so!” That’s the American way!

     We need to make a commitment to join and to belong to a local visible Church for many reasons.  It is a place we come to worship with other believers in a committed relationship, not to be forsaken (Heb. 10:25).  It is a place to be fed preaching and teaching (something the Bible commends a Pastor who does it well of being worthy of double-honor-(I Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the Word and doctrine”).  It is a place to be held accountable.  Hebrews 13:17 “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you”.  How do you do that if you do not belong where a Pastor can watch over your growth and service?  It is a place for giving and service.  You are committed to share in needs of the Church, and to work alongside your co-laborers.  It is a place to pool your resources and support a mission cause bigger than what you are locally.  Southern Baptist Mission endeavors are second-to-none worldwide in reaching the world for Jesus Christ.  It gives you a Church family that you can rejoice with or weep with. (Romans 15:12).  John Bunyan, (of Pilgrim’s Progress fame), expressed this need well on one occasion.  While imprisoned he had been quite depressed, falling into despondency which lasted for several days.  God intervened and let him experience His presence in a special way.  Bunyan wrote, “But that was a good night to me; I have had but few better; I longed for the company of some of God’s people, that I might have imparted unto them what God had showed me.  Christ was a precious Christ to my soul that night; I could scarce lie in my bed for joy, and peace, and triumph though Christ”.  You and I take for granted the very thing that had been taken from him-the community spirit of the Church. 

     The Church, though seen as defeated and irrelevant in today’s world, will outlast the world!  Jesus said, “I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).  Harry Blamires emphasizes this truth when he wrote, “The world is like a great express train hurtling towards disaster-total destruction.  And in this truly desperate situation certain passengers are running up and down the corridors announcing to each other that the Church is in great danger!  The irony of it would be laughable if it were not so searing.  Why most of the Church’s members have already gotten out at stations en route.  And we ourselves shall be getting out soon anyway. (The rapture). And if the crash comes and the world is burnt to ashes, then the only thing that will survive the disaster will of course be the Church” (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind, c. 1963 p. 153).  In this world we need the Church!  The visible local Church! 

     Timothy Dwight, President of Yale University, when it was a bastion for God’s truth in Puritan fashion, wrote one of the most beautiful poems about the Church.  He wrote:

I love Thy Church O God

     Her walls before thee stand

Dear as the apple of Thine eye

     And graven on Thy hand

For her my tears shall fall

     For her my prayers ascend

To her my cares and toils be given

     Til toils and cares shall end! 

Jesus Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her and to her.  We can do no less!

SERMON: THE DRAWING POWER OF THE CROSS.

John 12:20-33

I.    THE PERSON ON THE CROSS

II.    THE POWER OF THE CROSS

III.    THE PRODUCT OF THE CROSS

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:  “LAST DAY FAITH-LASTING OR LAPSING?”

     I remember hearing Adrian Rogers, who passed away in November 2005, said in a sermon, “In the last days people will be deserting the Church like rats deserting a sinking ship!”  He was basing it on what Paul said in I Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit expressly says, in the latter days many will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits, and doctrines of demons”. Jesus, Himself inferred that, when He asked, “When the Son of Man Comes again, will He find faith, (people practicing their faith), on earth?” (Luke 18:8).  Are we seeing the evidence of that?  Since 2012 The Annual Church Profile of the Southern Baptist Convention denominationally wide has consistently shown that baptisms and Church membership and attendance are declining.  Steve Gaines, Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Pastor of the Belleview Baptist Church of Cordova, (Memphis), Tennessee said, “we are not growing anywhere near a rate comparable to the population increase”.  The SBC is not the only ones experiencing this decline.  According to Pew Research “every major branch of Christianity has lost significant numbers-the biggest being the Catholics and the mainline Protestants”.  Churches of all denominations are closing or consolidating in record numbers!  According to Barna 73% of Americans say they are Christians, but only 31% feel Church attendance is important, and that explains why that same percent usually attend less than once a month!  Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Louisville, Kentucky says “this is a new age, a secular spirit of our age, with headwinds blowing right in our face!”  Apologist Pastor Voddie Baucham, speaking at the G3 Conference last year, emphasizing the importance of the local Church, said “if we don’t understand the magnitude of the local Church, then what’s the difference between us and the Rotary Club?  If all of this is entertainment then why bother?  God has a plan.  It is the local Church.  It is Plan A.  There is no Plan B!”  As the experts try to explain the cause of the decline, we cannot wave the white flag of surrender!  I think part of the problem lies in the quality of faith that marks the maturity of the believers, or the lack there of, that has caused them to be overwhelmed by the spirit of this secular age, and demonic winds of change blowing on the rank and file of our members. There is an interesting passage of Scripture that talks about this very issue.  II Peter 2:7-8 says, “God delivered Righteous Lot, vexed by the conduct of those around him”.  The word vex here is the word-“kataponeo”-“to completely wear down and exhaust by repeated involvement”.  Then verse 8 says, “that righteous man, dwelling among them day after day, kept on vexing his righteous soul with their lawless deeds.  The second word vex is “basanidzo”- “to buffet, to torment, to beat against, as waves crashing upon a shore!”  The idea is a picture a structure standing on the shore, being battered by the waves and storm of the sea.  Even if it survives, there is usually great damage sustained.  Many times, the structure does not survive the battering!  Think of a lighthouse, standing in the storm to guide lost ships in the storm and darkness, being battered by the winds and waves of the storm.  That is the Lot Complex!  That may be the cause of Christians departing the ranks of the Church in these last days.  That may be the blight of our generation!  Jesus also said, “In the last days, iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold!”  The word “wax cold” is “psucho”- “to blow on with chilling air”.  Listen to how Martin Vincent, the Greek scholar translates this verse-“the fervent love of many will be blighted of its spiritual energy by a malignant poisonous wind of evil”.  The question we have to ask and answer is how do we insulate our rank and file to protect their faith from such a last day onslaught, to guarantee they will survive faithful to meet the Lord when He comes?   Jesus was trying to prepare us to get ready for such an onslaught and build up a faith that can stand on the shores of this evil age, and withstand the day by day battering without a total eclipse of our faith.  How do we do that?

     Without offering a pat answer, I believe that the writer of Hebrews, in his great chapter on faith, pointed to the lives men and woman of faith, to show us how they withstood the challenges that battered them in their day, and yet ran their race victoriously.  We cannot look at all he said to emulate from them, but I would like to point out three things he stated will fortify us against those diabolical winds that blow on us continuously in these last days.  First of all, in the face of great evil, he points out that Abel was able to withstand the onslaught by his exemplary WORSHIP OF GOD.  “By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice (act of faithful worship) to God.”  The word “offer” is “proskuneo”- “act of worship”.  “God therefore testified that he was a righteous man…and even after his death…his life keeps on speaking as an example to others”.  The first ingredient to bring a strong faith is worship.  Faithful worship.  In these last days there is nothing more important.  The Church has believed the devil’s demonic lie that worship is not all that important.  Someone has said, “seven days without worship makes one weak!”  That is an incontrovertible truth!  If we neglect worship, we are setting ourselves up for failure in these last days!  That is why the author of Hebrews exhorted “Stop forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the habit of some have become, in so much as you see the day approaching!” (Heb. 10:25). The very best definition of worship I have ever read is from William Temple.  He says, “Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.  It is the quickening of the conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of our mind with His Truth; the purifying of our imagination with His beauty (perfection); the opening of our heart to His Love; the surrender of our will to His purpose-and all gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which we are capable”.  A life that is fortified with that kind of daily experience will be able to stand strong in the face of the winds of evil.  A.W. Tozer tells us that worship, that kind of worship is imperative and primary!  He says, “We are to be worshippers first and workers second.  We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so.  God meant that a convert should first learn to be a worshipper, after that he can learn to be a worker.  Then the work we do will have eternity in it.  When we give God what He is worth, (all our love and all that we are), we become more of who He wants us to become…all the rest will follow.  I am tired of being whipped into line, being urged to work harder, pray harder, give more, without being shown who Jesus is, and how much He deserves all of me, for giving me all of Him”.  Maybe when we deprive our faith of worship, we find ourselves distracted from the very one that makes us invincible!

     The second person of faith that is held up to us in Hebrews 11 is Enoch.  It says-“Enoch walked with God”.  Don’t rush over that statement of faith.  The name Enoch-(Chanokh) means “dedicated”.  Enoch was committed to walking daily in the presence of God, when everyone else was walking away, going their own way.  That has become the habit of most Christians in this last day.  Instead of rushing into the presence of God, when feeling the onslaught of the winds of evil from our generation, we let those winds beat us down, or blow us farther away from His presence.  He is the Rock of our Stability.  Every step you take in these evil days should be in close proximity with God.  The further you stray from His presence the more of a sitting duck you become.  Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of each evening.  It was by His design.  They learned of life from Him…not independently from Him.  Walking with God moment by moment throughout all the experiences of our day is the only way to survive in these last days.  We must start each day in His presence and we will soon learn to complete our days having walked with Him every step of the way.  C.S. Lewis warned us that that must be done at the start of each day.  He writes, “It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.  All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.  The first job each morning consists of simply shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.  And so on, all day.  Standing back from all your natural fussing’s and fretting’s; coming in out of the wind!”  (Mere Christianity). That is daily walking with God.  That fortifies our faith for these last days! Enoch did it daily until the day he was raptured.  What an example for us!

     The third example of faith is Noah.  Listen to what it says about him.  “By faith, having been instructed by God, concerning things not seen, but soon to come, moved with reverential fear, built an ark of salvation”. (Heb. 11:7).  II Peter 2:5 says that Noah proclaimed the righteousness of God, and the coming flood for 120 years.  The word flood is the Greek word “kataklusmon”-cataclysm.  In the last days before the flood, while the world continued on in their wicked rebellion against God, Noah worked every day building the ark of salvation according to the instructions of God.  When asked what he was building he warned of the flood and pointed to the ark as the only way of salvation.  He worked and witnessed daily to everyone who would listen.  He did that faithfully for 120 years.  The demonic spirit of the age prevailed.  But Noah withstood the winds of the evil age till the day the flood came and took them all away in destruction.  What an example of how we too can be strong in the faith in these last days.  Noah withstood ridicule.  He declared the truth though he could not prove it!  His faith helped him work and witness and God kept him strong!  He will do the same for us if we commit to that same activity as we see the day of His coming approaching.  How do we keep our faith from lapsing in these last days?  Worshipping God with a whole heart.  Walking with God-Practicing His Presence.  Working for Him-letting our lights shine in the darkness around us. Witnessing by “holding forth the Word of Life” to all that might have ears to hear.  That kind of faith can withstand the frightful forceful winds of this evil age.  That is the kind of faith that Jesus is looking to find in us when He returns again.  Keep the faith!  That kind of faith!

SERMON: A GREAT WORD OF PROMISE AND PROSPECT

Acts1:1-8

I.      A PERSONAL WORD-“You”

II.     A PROPHETIC WORD “shall be”

III.     A PROMISING WORD “a witness for ME”

IV.    A PROGRESSIVE WORD-“Beginning in Jerusalem…to Uttermost”

V.    A PRODUCTIVE WORD