If You Can't Be Good, Be Loud!

 I want to look at two kinds of preaching today. One kind is roughly called expository preaching. The other I have heard but I do not know what to call it.

Expository preaching, to me, is taking the literal Bible narrative and expounding on it. Telling us the old, old story that we have read and studied for a long time. Not just doctrine, since expository preaching is not about doctrine. It tells us what they did and why they did it thousands of years ago. Expository preaching puts me to sleep. 

Good preaching takes the Bible and applies it to real life. How God works today in current people's lives. Not just how they got saved, but what God is doing today. Pastor Mitchell was a master at this. His mind was full of people and experiences that he could use to illustrate truth today. Pastor Warner is very good at this as well.

I am not a preacher or a pastor. But I know good preaching when I hear it and I know lazy preaching when I hear it. Like my mother in law used to say, if you can't be good, be loud.

One final thought. Pastor Mitchell was a reader. He could have written books, but he did read, and not just the Bible. Deep preaching has a reserve to draw on. Expository preaching is lazy. Anyone can read the Bible and tell us what it says. Maybe our pastors need to return to reading. 

Preparing For The End Of Life

 Last night pastor Martinez preached on death and dying. The fear of death. Preparing to die. The inevitability of death. What an inspired message for a Pentecostal church that believes in Divine healing. He encouraged us to be ready for the end of life. To be prepared physically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

I have a will. I have all of my end of life paperwork concerning health care signed and notarized. I am taking steps to be physically well. I am at peace with my life and with God.

Marriage Sermon

 This morning we had a wedding during our morning service. Pastor Rubi preached one of the best sermons on marriage that I have heard in a while. My prayer is that our young people will be inspired to pursue marriage for themselves!

Marriage: Valuable, or a Means to an End?

 "Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man." Genesis 2:22

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." Genesis 2:24

Marriage is the first human institution that God set in place when he created man upon the Earth. It is by far the most important human institution to this present day. It is no wonder that it was marriage that was attacked by the feminists and the sexual revolution. But truth is greater than human rebellion and marriage endures in spite of the attacks.

In some of our churches marriage is looked at as a side issue. Important as far as it goes. But little emphasis is placed on marriage; to promote it, or to support it. In some of our churches anyway. We view marriage as legal sex. We view marriage as a means to an end to get sent out. We know how to marry people. We, by our actions, seem to not value the institution of marriage.

In Prescott, pastor Mitchell used weddings as an opportunity to preach a new sermon on marriage every time! He thought wedding and marriage were valuable in their own right. Some pastors only see weddings as an evangelistic opportunity and they are only excited since there will be unsaved visitors there. They use weddings to preach the Gospel. Very few people get saved at a wedding. Visitors are thinking about marriage even if the preacher isn't.

The first wedding set the stage for all humanity. Only death is strong enough to break the holy bonds of matrimony. Divorce and abandonment damage marriage. But death alone ends it. Since marriage is so important and so profound and so critical to any church or society, ought not our churches be a place to see marriage and to learn about marriage and to get married? I think we owe this to the world.

Focusing like a laser beam on evangelism blinds us to some very important issues.

"And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18

God said that Adam did not need to witness, he needed to get married!

Scare Tactics

 Israel and Hamas have signed a cease fire. Many hostages are being returned. Crisis is averted. Too bad that the war mongers in our pulpits won't have anything to try to scare us with this Sunday. Once again, men who claim to know when Christ will return were wrong.

Beware any preacher who claims to have special knowledge on the return of Christ.

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, but my Father only." Matthew 24:36

Practice What You Preach

 I went to church last night like I always do. It was our Thanksgiving service. You would have never known that by our what we said or did. We do nothing to help people with food and cash like they do in Prescott.

I thought that pastor Rubi would preach on being thankful and grateful. Pastor Greg did that last night. Any good pastor would have done that. Not pastor Rubi. He preached on witnessing. Like on the eve of Thanksgiving we are thinking about the lost. We are thinking about what time to start cooking the food!

This church has changed since we moved into this new conference center. We do not fill the seats, especially on Wednesday night. A modest crowd looks tiny in that large auditorium. I wonder if our pastors see all of the empty seats and mistakenly think that it is our job to fill them. They care much more about nickels, noses, and noise than we do.

So today I will be spending Thanksgiving day with my family and some friends. I wonder if pastor Rubi will be honoring the day, or will he practice what he preaches and spend the day witnessing and winning souls?

Being Right Is Not Enough

 Moses is still an important figure is history. He is the law giver. He led the people out from under slavery and forged them into a nation that is still a nation today. He wrote the first five books of the Bible. He was with Christ on the mountain. Moses is remembered and revered to this day.

Joshua was a disciple of Moses. Joshua was a warlord. He led the conquest of Canaan. A book of the Bible bears his name. But he is largely forgotten in history. He is just a historical figure with little current value.

Everyone has his or her part to play. Some are remembered, some fade away. One thing that makes us memorable is not just being right, but love. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love conquers human hearts. A preacher who loves God and loves the Bible but does not love people will be forgotten.

It is possible to be right, and to be all alone.

Random Thoughts

If one size fits all was true, ministry to people would be much easier. Discover what is in the Bible and then use that truth for every person in every circumstance of life. If by chance it doesn't work for someone, that is their problem and it is up to them to change. In the real world, when a person doesn't not feel included or accepted they will give up and leave. Not everyone who leaves our church is a rebel. Some are just discouraged by their differences.

A turtle is not a failure because it cannot run like a rabbit or soar like an eagle. That turtle can fast and pray and discipline it's life. But it will always be a turtle. And, no one criticizes the eagle for not being a turtle. No one criticizes the rabbit for scurrying around. Only the slow, plodding unattractive turtle gets criticized.

Greg Mitchell is not my pastor. Pastor Wayman Mitchell was my pastor. I was saved and Spirit filled under his ministry. I was married by pastor Mitchell. We were sent out by pastor Mitchell. We were counseled by pastor Mitchell. When pastor Mitchell died my pastor died. I have a new pastor now. And he is not Greg Mitchell.

Finally, grief is love looking for a home. If you mourn the death of a spouse one day you will understand this statement better. The absent are always present. Amen.

How Much Is Enough?

 We can do almost anything if we know the limits to our activity. Fast three days and you can see the end approaching. A week long revival or conference is doable because it has an end. Anyone can read their Bible as long as you don't have to read it all every day. Limits make life livable.

But there are things in our Fellowship that have no limits. The size of our churches. No one says this is big enough. The size of our bank accounts. No church ever has enough money. Pastors serve until they die. They have nothing to look forward to and there is only death to end their service and their ministry.

When we say the field is the world, we will either do all that we can or we will do nothing. Some pastors ought to quit their jobs and just evangelize all day every day. No studying, no praying, just witnessing to everyone on planet Earth.

The problem with a limitless outlook on life is burn out. When enough is never enough one day you will quit or give up and say enough is enough.  When you give until it hurts you have nothing more to give no matter how hard the preacher pulls for more. It must be enough since it's all that I have. Prayer that is not answered becomes dull and routine and one day you will say enough of this.

Time is the enemy of the endless and limitless life. No one at 70 is interested in acting like a teenager. If a pastor could only serve in his own church I wonder how long he would last. Variety give spice to their lives by preaching in other places. The test of time can show us if what we have is worth keeping.

How much is enough? 

A Tale of Two Sermons

I heard two different sermons recently. One was classic Bible exposition. Explaining the Biblical narrative with accuracy. Telling us how it happened and how the characters in the Bible felt or what they were thinking. It was all true. I had a hard time paying attention to what was being said. 

The other sermon was a message about God in the real world. It was heart felt. It talked about real people and real places in our world today. He talked about how God was at work today and how people were helped and healed and saved. I hung on every word.

The radio and YouTube are filled with preachers who know the Bible inside and out, who know ancient languages, who can tell us with great detail how and why it played out in ancient times. They can tell us how Moses felt or what David was thinking. This is the letter of the law that is awful to hear and dangerous to our faith.

Pastor Wayman Mitchell was an expert on practical righteousness. He ministered to real people with honest fears and hopes and dreams and failures. He made it clear that God could help us in the here and now. Some other pastors in our Fellowship are good at this. Some are not.

I do not care why Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. I want to know how to avoid forbidden fruit in my world. I want a word in season when I am ready to give up. I want a living hope for today. 

"who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2Corinthians 3:6