Thoughts For A Sunday Night

 When they introduce classical music they always tell who the composer was first, and then they tell who performed the piece. When they announce a pop song of any genre they first tell who performed or sang the song, and rarely if ever do they tell who wrote the song.

Some sermons go to great lengths to tell us about the Bible story. Who wrote it, when it was written. What they were thinking. Only then do they tell how to apply the Bible to everyday life. Some sermons get to the point of how to apply it and they might not ever dissect the verse to explain the details of the historic writer.

In music there is no right or wrong way to describe a song. In preaching there is no right or wrong way to preach a sermon. As long as the song is performed. As long as the sermon is preached.

I think about things like this.

My Thought

 I had a thought today. I wondered how hard it must be for a pastor, who has served his church for a long time, to say something new or fresh that he hasn't already said hundreds of times already. The preachable parts of the Bible have probably all been preached on. Nothing new has been added to the biblical cannon for a long time. And yet there we are, three times a week, listening for the voice of God from an ancient book and though a veteran pastor.

The only thing that makes the Bible relevant and fresh is the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of truth. A relationship with Christ who is the word made flesh and being filled with the Spirit of God causes old words to come alive again.

I go to church every time listening for God's voice and seeing if God will speak to me again. Often He does. Other times I eat the fish and spit out the bones.

Pray for your pastor that the word will be made flesh through his life and his ministry and that he will be encouraged to bring us sermons that are apples of gold in pitchers of silver. Amen.

PS: Not everything in the Bible is preachable. It is all God's word. It is all true. But some things and some passages just don't work as a three point sermon. Just saying.

Missing Pastor Mitchell

 Back in ancient days pastor Mitchell used to take the pastors and evangelists out to breakfast after prayer every morning. That is until someone suggested that he and the guys could make breakfast for everyone at the church. Pastor agreed and to this day guys cook breakfast at the church for all of the pastors, evangelists, missionaries and visiting preacher who are there.

Like any group of guys, the talk around the table inevitable drifted to sports, politics, or the weather. Until pastor Mitchell got out his Bible and suggested that they talk about the Bible and spiritual things. It used to amaze me how right on pastor was and how wacky some of the guests were. I used to go home and study just to see if I was right or wrong!

I miss those spiritual talks with a wellspring of wisdom like pastor Mitchell.

Winning Souls, Or Making Disciples?

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Mat. 28:19

I wonder if, in our zeal to win souls, we are more focused on saying the sinners prayer with them, and less on winning them over to faith in Christ? We can get people to pray, and we can fill out the convert card. But have they been born again, or just prayed a prayer?

I wonder if getting people filled with the Holy Spirt with the evidence of speaking in tongues is as much to connect them to God as it is to get them to be Pentecostal? Speaking in tongues is the evidence of the infilling with the Holy Spirit. An unmistakable sign. Tongues does not save you, but it identifies you as a true believer in Christ. Without speaking in tongues, something vital is missing.

Water baptism is important. Jesus said it is part of our job to baptize those who have been saved in water. Baptizing people is not a religious ritual, it is a powerful event when the filth of a sinful life is washed away. It identifies us to the church and to our friends and family that I am a real Christian.

If you answered an alter call and got saved, good for you. Some do the same thing and nothing happens. No miracle of God takes place. Discipleship is the process of living out the Christian life in a local church.

"O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth," Gal. 3:1

 

Attend Church But Not Born Again

 Our country is filled with good people who attend Christian churches but who have never been born again. They read the Bible. They sing religious songs. They give money in the offering. But they have never been born again.

Born again is the miracle that happens when Christ comes into your heart. When Jesus comes in, everything changes. If nothing in your life has changed and you are basically the same person, except that now you go to church, maybe you have never been born again.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2Cor. 5:17 KJV

Being born again involve a time just like being born involves a specific time and place. Not the first time you visited a church, But the day and hour when Jesus saved you from sin. For me it was December the 8th, 1973. At the Door in Prescott, AZ. 

All things become new. A new way of thinking, a new way of talking, a new way of living, and a new song to sing.

"He has put a new song in my mouth-praise to our God; ..." Psalm 40:3

Being born again ought to be visible and obvious to all around you. If you are no different than the world around you, something is missing.

Being born again is not about becoming a better person, it is about being changed by a miracle of God. A new creature in Christ.

I wonder how many people in our church have never been born again?

Truth For A Crazy World

 Disney made us believe that animals are almost human. That wild animals can be tamed, and that they have human feeling and intellect and emotions. Disney gave us the myth of prince charming coming to save the damsel in distress. And living happily ever after.

AI wants us to believe that machines are almost human. That a machine can think, and reason, and deduce, and feel. They want us to believe that a machine is faster than man, smarter than man, wiser than man, and more valuable than man.

I suspect that those who reject the gospel will believe any crazy idea that man or science can dream up.  That if it is on film it must be real. That if it is science based it must be true.

The Bible is God's revelation of Himself. In it we find not only rules to live by, but hope and power to live a victorious life now. The Holy Spirit makes the Bible alive and relevant today. It shows us truth and it exposes lies. One day God will balance the books and give mankind and nations the wages that they have earned. Unless you are born again your wages will be terrible. Ask the Lord Jesus to help you today.

Signs And Wonders

 "Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles." Acts 2:43

I have noticed over the years how some pastors try to put the weight of responsibility for the success of the church on the people in the church. It's up to them to win souls and to pay the bills. And I agree that there is a part to play for the people in the pews.

But today I noticed again the important part that leaders play in ministry. It says in this text that sign and wonders were done through the apostles, not the people. The KJV says signs and wonders were done by the apostles. Through or by, it was the apostles who were the conduits for the miraculous.

Signs and wonders is not, put up your sign and wonder how it will work. It is a demonstration of the Spirit and power of God. Divine healing for example. The burden for this is the burden of the apostles and pastors and evangelists. The people were in awe and fear because of the demonstration seen from the leaders.

Pray for your pastor that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit and that his prayers would heal the sick.