What does a weekend journey with D & D look like? You have the opportunity to live out, on the spot, the subject of your messages. In this case, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect (maturing) work, that you may be perfect (mature) and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2-4).
Come along with us as I recap last weekend’s travel journeys.
The table is beautifully set. Everyone has their favorites, their “must haves.”
It’s time to eat! My wife has prepared Katie Brown chicken, almond/lime green beans, mashed potatoes, honey drizzled rolls, angel eggs, strawberry avocado salad, and then . . . coconut cake with lemon filling for dessert!!! Wow! Oh so good!!!
The best approval rating came from our grandsons who cleaned their plates!!
Recently I answered the question, “What is the best advice you ever received in life?” There are many things that came to my mind, but one that stands out is a piece of advice that I heard many times from a mentor 40 years my senior.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)
God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; Likewise to the]gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. (Job 37:5-6)
Wednesday WOW is written to remind us, especially pastors, that our transcendent, omnipotent, loving, sovereign God is working today in our lives in thousands of ways. The WOW is God, not the size of the work! How have you seen Him at work in your life today?
Discipleship is hard and sometimes messy, but oh, the joys of watching believers grow and change in Christ!
Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment (1 Peter 2:2 NLT). Recently I saw this passage fulfilled as I met with the man I have the privilege of discipling. There he sat across from me in my living room, coffee cup in hand, often scooting to the edge of his seat waiting for an answer to a life question or to share a blessing. At other times, he would recline intently listening to biblical instruction, soaking it all in! Wow!!
Pastors, what was your “Wow” from this past Sunday or even today?
Ministry has its share of woes, wars, and worries. Sadly, we may have been blessed with several “wows” and let one woe come into the picture, and we are immediately overcome with the woe instead of the wow! We are fixated on the woe, and we forget the wow!
We need to rejoice and praise the Lord for the “Wows!” These “wows” can be anything where we have seen God at work because God is always at work all around us. The size of the “wow” does not matter because it is always awesome because it comes from the hand of God!
My dad had many sayings. When my friends and I got rowdy as a kid, he would sometimes utter, “You boys need to settle down.”
Now in my 60’s and having been exposed to so much in the Christian and religious world for these years, could we as pastors/Christian leaders just settle down?
My background is one of . . . growing up in a pastor’s home (My dad was Church of the Nazarene until his Army days in Korea, and then came to understand the security of believer in Christ, thanks to a godly chaplain who taught him the Word!); The Wilds Christian Camp (Doc Hay, Rock Royer, Major Brooks, etc.); Bob Jones University (college and seminary plus a host of its graduates including all of its presidents to date, Bible Conference speakers, faculty, etc.); Tennessee Temple University graduates; the Sword of the Lord crowd; my Southern Baptist grandfather who pastored in Kentucky and southwest Virginia; the GARBC; the many men who fellowshipped in what was for years known as the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship (Now Foundations Baptist Fellowship); Dallas Theological Seminary grads; being mentored personally by the likes of J.B. Williams, J. Robert Martin, Randy Patten, Reynold Lemp and many others; plus being influenced from a distance by the likes of Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, Adrian Rogers, Henry Blackaby, David Jeremiah, and more.
In more recent years, my background continues to be of the many mentioned above plus Men’s Prayer Advance, 9Marks, T4G, CoRE Conferences, plus many, many books authored by Tripp, Ortlund, Wells, Bridges, Payne & Marshall, Thomas, Huegal, Ryrie, Walvord, Pickering, etc.
“What’s the point?’, you may ask.
Well, I want to say that for all of us in ministry, none of us have it all figured out; none of us knows all the facts about everyone or every situation; none of us know more than our God; none of us have the absolute right methodology; none of us are the standard; and none of us have arrived!
For all of us in ministry, none of us have it all figured out . . . none of us have arrived!
We all come from various backgrounds and are all influenced by a diverse group of people, churches, institutions and movements, but we are saved by grace through faith alone in the cross work and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one in Christ. We are made complete in Christ. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. We are children of the living God!
Therefore, understanding that there are clear, biblical points of separation and the application thereof, such as preeminently, the Gospel (Galatians 1:1-10), may I say that we need to . . .
Give one another the benefit of the doubt.
Be gracious and kind.
Stop making fun of our brothers on social media whether you agree with him or not. (No wonder the lost world doesn’t want our Jesus, seeing the way we lampoon one another.)
Throw away our Pharisaical microscope.
Give one another space to grow in sanctification.
Cheer our brother on when he’s down. When revival breaks out where he pastors but not where you serve, rejoice and praise God with him!
Personally call up the brother we have issue with instead of talking about him behind his back or on social media.
Exchange the time of criticizing and posting for time on our knees in prayer.
Let God handle error by His righteous standard rather than us being “the enforcer.”
Meet with your brother for coffee; get to know him and disciple each other.
Confess and repent of our arrogance and pride.
Exercise grace.
Remember, we will live forever together in Glory!
Throw away your Pharisaical microscope.
In times past, I have jokingly said, for instance to a group of four men, “There are only four people in the world that’s perfect. That’s me and you three, and . . . I am doubtful about you three!”
Proverbs 22:4 recently challenged my heart again . . . By humility and the fear of the LORD (not man) are riches and honor and life.
May I suggest that we soak our soul often in the truths of Colossians 1:15-18 and go deep in meditation and prayer in Philippians 1:1-2:18?
Let’s join Paul in prayer . . . And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
Since the heart is perverse and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), can it be changed?
Can our deceitful heart be transformed into a truthful heart?
Can our our hypocritical heart be converted into a holy heart?
Can our idolatrous heart be changed into a worshipping heart for God?
Yes! The heart of change is having the heart of Christ.
The heart in scripture represents all that we are. As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man (Proverbs 27:19). It’s our inner person (Proverbs 4:23; Ephesians 3:16-17). The functions of the biblical heart involve your will, emotions, spirit or soul and mind.
To have the heart of Christ is to first of all be born again (Read John 3:1-18; Regeneration).
Second, to have the heart of Christ is learn of His heart as you study His earthly life from (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and the Christ-life (Romans 6-8; Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians) as the Holy Spirit reveals Him to you (John 16:12-15).
While sitting on my back porch meeting with the Lord as I read His Word, the Holy Spirit revealed Christ’s heart to me again. As I began to read Luke 15, a passage of three parables about lost things Jesus used to answer the accusations of the Pharisees, a statement from the Pharisees about Christ spoke to my heart. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives/welcomes sinners and eats with them” (15:2).
Why does Jesus welcome sinners; those who are lost? Luke 19:10 says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
At that moment the thought came to me, “The heart of Christ is to receive, to welcome sinners who are broken in their sin, hell-bound and without hope.”
Then I was reminded of Bill Pickel, a man who lived out the heart of Christ, and it could have been said of him, “He received sinners and ate with them.”
During my junior and senior years of college, I served as youth and music leader at a church in upstate South Carolina. Every weekend I would stay at the Pickel’s home. Often he was not home, sometimes arriving back home around 2-3:00 in the morning.
Why? He was out spending time at some local beer joint . . . loving, listening, caring, and sharing with sinners the Good News of Jesus Christ. Sometimes he brought these broken men into his home for a meal or a bed. Many of them he saw humble themselves before the Lord, repent of their sins, and receive Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
Yes, Bill was criticized by the “religious Pharisees” because he had the audacity to found in a beer joint. Nevertheless, Bill chose to live out the Christ-life and “eat with sinners.”
What have you learned about the heart of Christ today as you gazed into His Word? But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).
What has the Holy Spirit revealed to you today of Christ? How has the Holy Spirit worked in your heart to bear the fruit of Christ through your life (Galatians 5:22-23)? He can do the same in your life as He did in Bill Pickel’s life.
The lyrics of a favorite song in our home when our girls were young said, “Change my heart, O God. Make it ever new. Change my heart, O God, make it more like you.”
For years I watched it happen in the back yard of our next door neighbor.
There was Dad patiently, sometimes frustratingly, teach his son and daughter the mechanics of pitching a ball, swinging a bat or fielding a grounder.
There it was . . . discipleship . . . mentorship . . . training in action!
Discipleship is not the latest “buzzword” in Christian circles.
Discipleship describes the Christ-life, who we are as believers in Christ.
Discipleship is a growing, intimate follower of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:9; Philippians 3:10; 2 Peter 3:18) whose passion in life is to help others come to know and follow Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).
But it does not end there. The goal for God’s glory is to see a disciple disciple others; it’s reproduction (1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 2:1-2; Titus 2:1-10; Heb. 3:12-13; 10:24-25).
As I would watch my neighbor teach his kids how to play ball, he was sharing what he had learned from someone else. One day, perhaps, his children will teach others as well.
Today, the local church needs:
Believers living out the Christ-life of discipleship.
Believers who are hungry to grow and change in Christlikeness, willing to meet with others for the purpose of searching the Scriptures and learning to appropriate who we are in Christ in practical ways.
Are you a genuine, passionate follower of Christ?
Would you be willing to mentor that young lady who is longing for help in her marriage and blended family situation?
Would you be willing to meet with that man who is struggling with a divided heart, wanting to live for Christ but experiencing a strong pull from the world’s allurements?
Would you be willing to meet every other week with a man at a restaurant and read through Scripture and/or a book like Disciplines of a Godly Man?
Would you be willing to invite a lady into your home to study the Word and then train her how to plan and cook a week of meals for her family?
Would you be willing to sit down at a coffee shop with a young man who just graduated from high school who needs encouragement to continue to follow Christ?
Discipleship is hard, supernatural, rewarding work. The needs are great! Every believer should be involved in the lives of others helping them take the next step toward Christ.
Will you pick up the spiritual bat, ball and glove and show someone how to follow Christ? The rewards are eternal!
May I share three things to encourage you toward Sunday?
1. Prepare your heart
In this atomic age when forces are being released that stagger the thought and imagination of man it is well to remember that prayer transcends all other forces. (F. J. Huegel)
Men, Jesus said, Without me, you can do nothing (John 15:5)! Preparing your heart through prayer is more important than delivering your sermon. Passionate, dependent, scripture-filled prayer says, “Lord, You are able, I am not!”
2. Prepare your message
Men, we have been challenged to Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2) since the day we sensed God’s call to the ministry. Those folks who gather to hear you Sunday need hope and to see Christ. Therefore, preach the Word under the control of the Holy Spirit from a heart set on fire by God!
Give the sheep good grain, a message from God’s Word, not just a sermon.
3. Prepare your family
Saturday evening, gather your family together and share what the Lord has taught you and what you will deliver in the message on Sunday. Have them pray for you and with you.
Make your family a vital part of the ministry team!
Preacher, will you be ready?
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. (Colossians 1:27-29)
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