Pastor Goforth

Fertile Soil For Weariness

July 21st, 2014

Galatians 6:9(NIV84) “Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”

– “Do not become weary” or “grow weary” – The Greek word is enkakeo – it means to “lose enthusiasm; to be discouraged; to grow weary; to lose heart”

We all get there, we lose momentum, we lose enthusiasm. The word “become” or “grow” insinuates that this is not something we slip and fall into, or out of, but it grows, it develops over time. Sometimes it feels like it came out of nowhere, but it most likely has been something that started with a seed, a kernal, and then something else and something else, and then … here it is, weary.

There other day, “all of a sudden” I had a couple of muscles in my chest and back that were killing me. I thought “how in the world am I sore, I haven’t done anything”. But then as I thought back through it there were a couple of incidents that had contributed to the tweak in my back and chest. I didn’t realize it.

We have had some success, God has been moving, all seems normal and then all of a sudden, I’m just weary, feeling out of sorts, what’s going on?

I need to ask a few questions, where did the weariness come from?

1) Has someone planted it in me? Has someone spoken negativity into my life?

2) Did I plant it myself?

3) Did someone else plant it, but I nurtured it?

It’s a process, and I have to go back and identify what is going on and then realize that We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Satan is in this, he is working to discourage me and bring me down.

I have to recognize the areas that have been broken up to prepare for planting weariness and I need to not allow the soil to be prepared.

Philippians 4:8 (NIV84)

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

I can’t dwell on the things that make me weary, let my enthusiasm wain.

I need to renew my strength … How does that happen?

Isaiah 40:31 (NIV84)

³¹ but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Those who hope / wait – the word comes from a root that means to twist or wind. It is like a thief “laying in wait” or a farmer “waiting” for the harvest. It means to “set your heart” to wind your intentions around The Lord. Those who so set their hopes on the Lord, who wind themselves around his will, his purposes, will renew their strength.

What are you wrapped around?

– “For at the proper time” – “time” – kairos = season, occasion – “proper” – idio = peculiar or one’s own … Where are we going? This means that our harvest is coming – but it is coming at a season, a time, that is unique, peculiar, my time. Like an idiosyncrasy is a quirk, so the proper time, is the season for ME. A season, unique to me is coming, if I will trust God for the proper time for renewal, success, recognition, rest – Wait for YOUR Time. Don’t be frustrated because someone else had their time, that’s theirs, wait for the Lord and your time.

– “we will reap a harvest” – REAP — I think we forget sometimes that harvesting means WORK too. There is work in the planting, and work to be done in the nurture, and there is work in the harvest, we have to REAP. Which reminds us too that it has to be the right season. If you reap during the summer, you won’t have anything good. So you have to know the season. if you don’t know ask, do the necessary, seasonal time.

But Harvest IS coming

Do you know the “Rules of the Harvest?”

1) you reap WHAT you sow 2) you reap LATER than you sow and 3) you reap MORE than you sow. Those are the 3 rules of the harvest I have always heard, but can I add one? 4) You reap WHEN you do the WORK of REAPING.

So, Paul says

– “Do not Give Up” – keep working, keep doing the last thing that God gave you to do. Work the Harvest when that time comes. The word “give up” is eklyo = to unloose – There it is AGAIN … we lose our strength, become weary, when we become LOOSENED from the Lord. Keep your hope set on the Lord. Wrap your mind, your intentions, you purposes around the Lord.

My boys often heard me quote Ecclesiastes 7:8 “the End of a matter is better than its beginning, patience better than pride” – Don’t unwind yourselves … stay focused on the end. Don’t just be a starter, be a finisher? How FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS – the AUTHOR and FINISHER of our Faith …

Then verse 9 of Ecclesiastes 7 says “do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools” … when you unwind from the Lord, and sit down instead of keeping at the work, it’s amazing how anger creeps in, angry with circumstance, angry with the success of others, and it is Fertile Ground for Weariness and giving up …

So, Want to “Clear your lap?”

GET UP

Get Back to Work

Continue What he Last Told you

Reap when it is Time …
Where Will Our Sons Be?

July 17th, 2014

Here is a printing of my “Men of Faith” Prayer Breakfast Message from this week

Faith Baptist Church – Men’s Breakfast July 2014 Kaiserslautern, Germany

“Where Will Our Sons Be?”

Gentlemen, being a Father is the one of the greatest things we will ever do. As a Father, we have the opportunity to impact Tomorrow, and Impact Eternity.

There are many great men in scripture

Eli was the High Priest of Israel for 40 years, he served the Lord with distinction. He was the priest who raised Samuel. Who told Samuel how to listen to the voice of God and say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” … Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. While Eli accomplished great things for the Lord, his Sons were scandalous 1 Samuel 2:12 says Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord … You can read the rest of their deeds, but the problem was that … Eli, instead of aptly correcting them, he gave them duties in the Temple of the Lord … and in 1 Samuel 2:29-31

1 Samuel 2:29–31 (NIV84)

²⁹ Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?’ ³⁰ “Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and your father’s house would minister before me forever.’ But now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. ³¹ The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your family line

He succeeded in ministry and failed as a Father

Gideon is another one of the great men of scripture, a warrior a man who learned to walk in obedience even when his faith was weak … but toward the end of his life, he allowed his worship to become divided and created an object of worship. We are told that he had 70 sons, that’s another story, but this man, who we talk about, even find in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, didn’t lead his sons …

Judges 8 ends:

Judges 8:33–34 (NIV84)

³³ No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and ³⁴ did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.

But my mind has been thinking this last two weeks of a man in scripture that is a “bit part” in the story of the Gospel. If he is but a “bit part”, his sons are barely mentioned … so why is it important?

Jesus was arrested, charged, placed on trial, mocked, beaten, and spit upon. His beard was plucked out, finally the people cried for him to be Crucified and so they placed his cross on his back, and he walked the “way of suffering” toward the place of execution.

During this, the greatest event in History, a father, finds his way into the story. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all mention this father, but Mark tells us something the others do not.

Mark 15:21 (NIV84)

²¹ A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

A Father, Simon, from North Africa, was in Jerusalem, with his sons, Alexander and Rufus.

Where will our sons be?

Why would the gospels mention this man by name and why would they tell us WHICH Simon this was? Because he was a “certain man” that readers of the gospels would have heard of. It is clear that he became someone that they knew in the early church. There in the story of Jesus was a man carrying his cross, not a nameless man, but Simon, Simon from Cyrene. But while it is seemingly insignificant for these three gospels to mention Simon, why, even more obscure, would Mark mention his sons? For the same reason, because his readers knew these boys.

Stay with me …

Mark’s gospel was written particularly to the Romans. So, The Romans, reading this gospel, would have said, “we know Simon, and we know his sons, Alexander and Rufus …

Where will our sons be?

Simon didn’t do much else that we still know of today … but what we know of him tell us he got some things right in raising his sons … How do we know? … Well … there are many things that Alexander and Rufus probably did after that Friday morning in Jerusalem. But 20 plus years later … where do we find them?

Romans 16:13 (NIV84)

¹³ Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

Simon, did one great thing … He Led his Sons To Follow Jesus and so 20 years later … Rufus is “Chosen in the Lord” … or “A Choice Man”

Gentlemen, there are many wishes and dreams I have had for my sons the last 26 years as a father, but the most important was for them to be chosen by God, Choice men, found among the faithful and following God.

Is that what you want?

I have two sons who are very different, we have not always agreed. I haven’t always liked every choice they made, but along the way, even when struggling with difficulty, even when struggling with becoming … Praise the Lord they have still been found among the faithful.

I wrote my sons an email and asked them to speak to you and I want to share their answers … to these questions 1) as your Father, where have I led you 2) what did I teach you along the way that is most significant to you now 3) how did I do that 4) is there anything you want me to share with Fathers to encourage them in the important things?

AJ sent these answers

1)    My Father has led me to be a man who loves people, loves my community, and loves The Lord. No matter what community Dad was a part of, he loved them. That is something that has been a huge part of my life. Loving people no matter the situation.

2) and 3)    One of the most memorable “lessons” I ever got from my Dad was about Mercy and Grace. I remember coming home from school just knowing I had it coming. I deserved a grounding or punishment of some sort. My Dad sat me down and gave me a long thorough talk about Mercy and Grace. Explaining the difference between the two, giving examples from scripture, and relating it to my situation. Despite what I deserved, I got a gift. Not just any gift, I got a new baseball glove and a trip to the Arcade! That memory has been the most life-changing lesson I’ve ever had. Through that memory, I’ve learned that everyone deserves Grace and Mercy. People make mistakes. Loving them despite, is something my father has taught me.

4)   The Joy of Succeeding will go further than the Fear of Failing. It is far easier for a person to succeed if they know when they’re doing something right rather than only knowing when they’re doing something wrong. It’s in our human nature to want to fight for achievements. We want to succeed. We want to win. Whether thats a game, an award, or just acceptance. Punishments and redirecting are great ways to teach and learn, but if they’re not paired with praises of what they’re doing right, the redirects aren’t going to stick.

Bryan sent this

Hey Dad,

I apologize for the late response, i hope this is still beneficial.

           You have led me to take responsibility and ownership of my faith, my marriage and my daily actions. You taught me from a young age that my age does not determine my maturity and actions, but my character does. You taught me how to be a leader while still being under authority.

            You taught me these things 1st by living them out in your own life. Growing up, and even now, i witness the example of a dad who is fully devoted to Christ, his wife, and kids. It is clear in your actions towards mom, aj and me that you first understand your role as the leader of our household, but you also understand that you are held accountable by God for the way you lead us. This taught me that even when i am a leader of men, i am still under authority.
            Going beyond me simply seeing your example, you were actively involved in my development. You cared about the things i cared about (even if you actually didn’t), you encouraged me when i was down, praised me when i did right, and disciplined me then built me up when i was wrong. One of the most important things you taught me growing up was how to realize when i had done wrong, sincerely apologize, then walk in forgiveness.

            Above all else you saturated my life in the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the moment i was born. Each of the things mentioned above were a picture of the Gospel that had so radically changed your life. When you showed me leadership, love, kindness, and forgiveness, you were teaching me what it means to be Christ-like. That is want i am most thankful for as your son. I am thankful that you loved me enough to pour the love of Jesus into me.

“Is there anything you want me to share with the fathers…”

Everything i said above about my dad is 100% true but the description above makes it seems like my dad is perfect. He will be the first one to tell you that he is not. He did make mistakes in fathering my brother and me, but the key is that he told us when he did wrong, and asked for forgiveness. He was man enough to realize his own mistakes and ask his children for forgiveness. Show your children that they are not alone when they mess up in life. Show them that you will love them in spite of their shortcomings, and they will do the same for you.

I hope this is helpful and not too late!

Love you dad!

Bryan

Now, I know we’ve gone a long way … but what did this man Simon do, to lead them this way?

5 Things

1. Be Present In Worship

How many things do we miss because we aren’t there? Simon was THERE, There with his Sons, There to Worship the Lord

Simon would have been in Jerusalem to worship the Lord through the Passover. He would have traveled from Cyrene, modern Libya, North Africa – 800 Miles to Celebrate Passover. But God had more in mind when he moved his heart to make that journey to worship. One writer suggests that Simon was heading in to the Temple for the 9:00 prayers

It is amazing what happens “along the way to worship”

Wiersbe says of Simon “Before Christ He had Religion and Devotion, After he had Reality and Salvation”

Gentlemen are you present in worship? Sadly many Fathers SEND their families to Church … But Simon was Present … we know that more is CAUGHT than TAUGHT …

Then Secondly

2. Take Them With Us

Be Present in Worship, but be Present With Our sons. I know the nature of your work means you are gone, but when you are there be THERE. When you are gone, find a way to be there

I spent 8 years in Evangelism, but when I was home, I kept the boys home with me 2 of 5 days when “officing” in the house. When I traveled, I connected with them from wherever I was, I blessed them daily via phone, email, or whatever was available. I have had great opportunities to do things for and with the Lord. I have had great opportunities for worship, but I included the boys whenever I could.

We were planting a church in the south of Houston. I had my office in the house, myself and another man were praying one morning. As we prayed, I was praying for my neighbor, John, while I poured out my heart, I began to weep. Sitting at the dining room table, praying, when I finished, my head on the table, I opened my eyes, and there was my very young son, laying on the floor staring up at me, he asked “Daddy, why are you crying?” I replied “Because my heart breaks for John to know Jesus, son”. I hope my son learned something that day.

I performed concerts and spoke in churches, and I didn’t go alone, my boys went with me. October 31, 1994, we packed the car after the concert and AJ said, “Daddy tonight, when those kids gave their heart to Christ, I asked Jesus into my heart.”

AJ went with me to pray with more than one millions men in Washington DC with Promise Keepers. Bryan went with me to El Salvador on two trips, he accompanied me on hospital visits, they joined me for sharing in concerts and revivals as well as ministry in our church.

Simon, went to Jerusalem, a long trip, but he took his boys. That must have been some sort of trip, taking your boys to Jerusalem from North Africa. Look for Opportunities to bring your boys with you. Don’t just take them to YOUR stuff, go to their stuff too, engage them where they enjoy it too …

Thirdly

3. Get Face To Face / Eye to Eye with Jesus

Simon looked into the eyes of Jesus that day. He came to worship God through a centuries old pattern of the Passover. The Passover was celebrated with a spotless lamb, and the blood that stayed God’s judgment … But that day, he looked into the face of the LAST LAMB. Simon met Jesus, but that wasn’t the end. If Simon’s “chance encounter” with Jesus had ended there, we wouldn’t have ever known his name. But Simon met Jesus and kept meeting Jesus and led others, including his sons to do the same

Have you met Jesus Face to Face? When you look to Jesus, you will see yourself as you are, wicked and in need of a Savior, and you will see him as he is Loving and Full of Compassion, desiring a relationship with you.

Oh what that must have been like for Simon. I have no doubt that he recounted the look in the eyes of Jesus for the rest of his life.

Did you look to Jesus yesterday? Do you look to him every day?

Next

4. Take Up His Cross

That is what Simon is famous for, he took up the Cross of Christ

Is that extraordinary? Should it be? Jesus considers it an Expectation, a Normal Thing

Luke 9:23 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me

It isn’t enough just to give your heart to him. To take up his cross one time … no Daily. Take it Up, And FOLLOW HIM …

Peter, Andrew, James, and John pulled up their boats, left their nets and followed Jesus. Matthew left his Tax Collectors Table. I am not saying you have to quit your job … but WOULD you if he asked? Would you STAY in your job for him, for a future? Have you left the ultimate influence of all to follow the way of Christ?

Luke 9:24 whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it 25 what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very life?

Can I add, what good is it if we gain the whole world and lose Jesus, Gain the Whole World and lose our sons?

Lastly then

5. Tell The Story

I just have to believe that Simon was never the same again after that Friday in Jerusalem. I believe he spoke often of the face of Jesus, the privilege of service, the change in his life … but it wasn’t a one off event. It wasn’t the only thing that Jesus had done in his life. It wasn’t his only experience with Jesus, it wasn’t just nostalgia it was LIFE … and it changed his life?

How do we know?

Because there in Romans 16, Twenty years later, is Rufus, an important noted member of the Church in Rome, useful to the church, noted by Paul … there is Simon’s boy, Rufus

Jesus changed Simon’s life

Acts 13:1 (NIV84)

¹ In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.

Why do the gospels call him by name? Because the church knew him. This Simeon, is another way to render Simon. He referred to here as Simeon called “Niger”. Niger is latin for “black”. He is a man from Cyrene, he would have been a black man. Simeon is a colleague of Lucius who is from Cyrene … Barnabas and Saul (Paul). In Romans Paul says that Rufus’ mother was like a mother to him. Where was this relationship built? There, in Antioch where Simon, one time worshipper, who carried the cross of Christ, became a prophet/teacher …

And because he followed God to Worship, Because he took up the cross of Jesus, Because he brought his sons along … they were there in the Church

Oh that Friday there was a Simon (Peter) who promised to fight for Jesus, but ran away in the night denying him. But here is another Simon, thrust into service in the daylight

Will you serve him in the daylight? Will you lead your sons? Where will our sons be?

Gentlemen, Judges 2:10 says

Judges 2:10 (NIV84)

¹⁰ After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.

Where will our sons be?

If the generation that comes after us doesn’t know, that is Our Fault … I can’t change the whole generation, but the only way to touch tomorrow is to touch my children, your children

It is NOT easy

It IS Hard

But we CAN do it …

I share my story, not to point to me, but to say we can do it … they may not come back today or tomorrow, but don’t become weary in well doing for in due time you will reap the harvest

On Father’s Day, AJ put up a collage of pictures of me, with Lisa and the boys and this message:

This is my dad. He is a man among men. It’s a blessing to have a father who believed in me and loved me even when I wasn’t the biggest fan of him. I owe absolutely everything to him. Through him I inherited my love for people, my God, arcades, and Craigslist. Thanks Dad. 🙂

My boys Love Jesus, They Are In His Church, They Love People. Praise the Lord!

Where will our sons be?
The Frightening Prayer of a Disciple

July 1st, 2014

Are you Acquainted with Suffering? Are you Acquainted With Jesus?

Isaiah 53:10 says “He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, and familiar (acquainted-KJV) with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not.” (NIV84)

This is such a precious and lovely verse. Chapter 53 of Isaiah contains some of the most beautifully written word pictures in scripture. Of course the Holy Spirit inspired all of scripture, but working with the personality of the writer, He communicates the words of the gospel. I would venture to say that perhaps this passage could only be compared with John 1:1-14 as the most beautiful in all of scripture.

When we talk of what Christ did for us, these words are beautiful, but if we dare challenge the modern Christian to be a disciple of this way, that idea won’t sell a whole lot of books. “Despised … Rejected … Sorrows … Suffering … Despised … without Esteem” – My Savior? Yes … Me? No Thank You.

But this is just the way of salvation, right? It isn’t the way of a disciple is it? Well don’t tell the Apostle Paul that. In Philippians 3:10 he says “I want to Know Christ …” . I am with you Paul, I want to know Christ too … But the Word, ginosko, means “to learn, to understand, to be familiar with” i.e. “to know by experience”. There is a physical tactile component to this. It doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by intentional action. So Paul says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming LIKE HIM in his death.”

Want to be a disciple? Take up his cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). Fellowship (koinonian) commune with him in suffering (passion) of Christ. This same word for “suffering” or passion is in Romans 8:18 when it says “our present sufferings are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed.” Becoming “like him” (symmorphizo – similar in form) to his death.

We like Philippians 3:12, “press on to talk hold … forgetting what is behind … straining for what is ahead”. But Paul is talking about the previous image of being conformed to his death. And so he says “I’m not there yet, but I’m pressing forward to share in his suffering. Forgetting what is behind, forgetting accolades, forgetting accomplishments, forgetting station achieved, forgetting failures, I press onto fellowship with him in suffering. This doesn’t mean needless suffering, nor self-inflicted suffering, or self-serving suffering, but as Isaiah says “suffering that brings peace”.

Jesus was Despised (contemptible, thought lightly of), Rejected (made detestable), Sorrows (pain), Acquainted with (familiar, experience, recognize), Grief (sickness, suffering, disease, affliction), not Esteemed (think about value, considered)

Are we willing to be thought lightly of, made detestable, have pain, experience suffering and afflictions, to be under valued, not even thought of, in order to follow Christ? Well, how badly to you want to be a disciple?

Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest”, (June 23) says “we are not acquainted with grief in the way in which our Lord was … We endure it, get through it, but we do not become intimate with it”

Yet, fellow traveler, it is, and has been the way of the disciple of Christ for every generation. The Apostles knew it, the Martyrs knew it in the Colosseum, St. John of the Cross knew “The Dark Night of the Soul”, Martin Luther knew the isolation of the Castle in Eisenach as he hid away from a death threat while translating the New Testament into German. Calvin, Wycliffe, Huss, all knew suffering. Isaac Watts penned the most poignant hymns in history because of a life of suffering and physical pain. Every Generation of Christian disciple has known. Missionaries like Jonathan Goforth (no relation) knew suffering, sickness, imprisonment. Lottie Moon also in China refused to eat giving her food to those she served with the gospel. Martin Luther King knew the Birmingham Jail, that he might have a dream.

Walking with Christ is to Fellowship with his Suffering, Conformed to his Death.

Do I want to be a disciple or just a scholar, a student? Oh there is nothing wrong with knowledge but head knowledge without experiential knowledge does not make a disciple. I disciple must follow in the footsteps, and the footprints of Jesus walked the via Dolorosa, the way of suffering.

“I want to know Christ” – The Frightening Prayer of a Disciple
Choosing Friends

June 16th, 2014

John 15:13,15 – “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends … I have called you friends”

Who is your friend? Think of a list of your 5 best friends. Would you lay down your life for them? Probably, in most cases, you would. My wife is my best friend, I certainly would lay my life down for her. I have friends that come to mind that would also be on that list and I would lay down my life for them as well. But I think this verse calls for more than just being willing to die but willing to live for them. They call, they need, we do, because they are friends.

Jesus is saying “we can define and measure love in many ways, but this is the greatest measure, would you lay down your life for them, that is love.” Jesus taught it, the Apostle John understood it. You read 1 John 3 and it says in verse 1, “how great is the love that the Father has lavished (given in extravagance) on us that we should be CALLED the children of God”. We were NOT the children of God, but we have been CALLED the children of God. But how does that happen? John 1:12 “to as many as received him, to those who eliev has give the right to be CALLED, to become, the children of God“ How is that provision made? Again in 1 John 3:16 it says “this is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us …” We cannot just become the children of God without the laying down of the life of Christ for our sin on the cross. John also states in that letter “This is real love, not that we loved God but that God in Christ has loved us” (1 John 4:10) And what is the sum of the gospel, John 3 :16, “For God so loved that world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life”

Yes, the measure of love is a life given, for whom? Friends. “Ok, Pastor, I am with you … I can do that for my friends.” But what qualifies as a friend of God, here a friend of Christ?

Jesus said that the 2nd greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And then he was asked “Who is my neighbor?” Then he proceeded to tell them a story about a man in need and concluded that the one in need in my path is my neighbor.

But who is my friend? who deserves my life laid down?

Jesus said in John 15:15, “I have CALLED you friends” The word “called” means “to call by a certain name, to clarify, to think to oneself.”

I did not deserve to be the recipient of his life laid down for me. But i remember Paul says “God demonstrated his love in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

We didn’t become friends, earn a right to be friends, and so he gave his life. NO, while we were still estranged from God, deep in sin, while we were his enemies, the embodiement of sin which God hates, Christ died for us to call us Friends. And so, because he chose to befriend me and lay down his life, i can receive that gesture, by faith and be more than just a friend, but also be called a Child of God.

WOAH … that is love! That Jesus called his enemies his friends and loved them

Doesn’t that give greater meaning to the sermon on the mount, when Jesus says “you have heard it said to ‘love your neighbor and hate your enemies’ but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father”

God loved us while we were still enemies. Jesus befriended us when we weren’t friendly and brought us to God. So when we CHOOSE to call someone a friend and lay our lives down for them, we look like our Father, we show ourselves to be Children of God.

So, will you choose to call your enemy your friend today?

Will you choose to lay down your life for one who is not worthy, has not asked, is not friendly?

Then, you will show yourself a child of God

Jesus said, “I have called you friend, I have laid down my life”

Who will you choose as friend today?
Ask, Seek, Knock

June 9th, 2014

Luke 11:10 says “Everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the doors will be opened”

This is a verse that is often misused and misunderstood. I don’t believe it was intended to be a “name and claim” sort of verse. If we were to underline the important words, we might underline, receive … find … opened. After all, that’s what we want right? We want what we want.

So, is this verse about, “give it to me”, “finding the golden object”, or “opportunity opening”? I really don’t think so. I believe we miss the mark if those are our key words.

First, I believe the verse can always be made to be true if we want to badly enough. If you ASK long enough, increase your sample of petitionees, eventually someone will say “yes”. If Dad says “no” ask Mom. If both say “no” ask a friend. If friends say “no” as an acquaintance, and eventually, even if everyone who loves you says “this is not good”, well someone who doesn’t know or love you may say “yes” and you will get what you want. If you search long enough, hard enough, and even in the wrong places, you are likely to find what you think is important. If you knock on enough doors, eventually one will open … for good or for bad.

but again, is this verse simply about persistence? I really don’t think that this is the point. It is more about personage and purpose than about persistence. I would like us to underline the words, ask … seek … and knock. Then I would like us to see that it is about engagement more than persistence, it is about experience more than product. It is about coming God, seeking His fulfillment and His provision. Asking God means I engage Him in conversation. I don’t demand, i don’t inform, I Ask. Then God has an answer. Could your prayer life be defined as a conversation or just a list you give to God?

Ask – “Lord, I have a need, can you fill it? Here is what I believe to be the desired outcome.”

Then Listen – as God answers. Sometimes it is “Yes, I have been waiting for you to ask.” Sometimes He says “Yes but not today, be patient and keep praying.” Sometimes He says “no child, that is not good for you, and it doesn’t fit my purposes.”. Other times, He says “no not that, but I can and will fill that desire but I’m going to do it another way.”

Seek – Seek God … His purposes, His plan, His pleasure, approval, direction, … seek and you shall find. Again it will perhaps be different than expected, but if you seek HIM, you will find Him, even if the earthly thing you desire is different. Seek Him and you will find what is best.

Knock – Every time we knock on Heaven’s door, seeking to know and experience God, the door is always opened. Hebrews 10:22 “let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith.” Hebrews 4:16 says “let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Back in Luke 11, it talks about a neighbor giving what is wanted in the middle of the night because of persistance and boldness. But then it moves to God down in verse 11 it says, if a son asks for a fish, will a father give him a snake? Or, if he asks for an egg, will the good father give him a scorpion? Of course they would not, and so Jesus says “if you know how to give good gifts, how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

WAIT … back it up … I was asking for MY stuff. I was asking for a car, a job, a spouse, stuff, won’t he give me what I want when I ask, seek, knock? What do you mean, “if i ask He will give me The Holy Spirit?”

The problem is not with Him giving us a snake or a scorpion, when we ask for eggs and toast. The problem is that sometimes WE are ASKING for snakes and scorpions and God says “No! I won’t give you that, But I WILL GIVE you MYSELF”.

Ask HIM, seek HIM, knock on HIS door, and God will give you HIMSELF.

I will Take It … Give Me Jesus

I love the Negro Spiritual that says

In the morning, when I rise, in the morning when I rise

In the morning, when I rise, Give Me Jesus

Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus

You can have this whole world, Give me Jesus

80 years ago, George Beverly Shea was offered a big, for that day, secular recording contract. He had always been a Gospel singer. He was being asked to shift and sing the most popular songs of the day.

But he was committed to sharing the Gospel through Music. He went home and put to music these words

I’d rather have Jesus, than silver or gold, I’d rather be his than have riches untold

I’d rather Jesus than houses or land, I’d rather be led by his nail-pierced hand

Than to be the king of a vast domain, or be held in sin’s dred sway

I’d rather have Jesus than anything, this world affords today

Bev Shea joined with Billy Graham a few years later and when he died last year in 2013 at the age of 104, he had sung live to more people than anyone in history, thanks to the crusades all over the world

Ask,

Seek,

Knock

And God will Give you Himself and it will be Perfect!
The Unfathomable Abyss

May 6th, 2014

I have made it my practice for the last 30+ years to read the devotions of Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest.” Yesterday as I was reading there was something that jumped off the page and set my heart to flutter and my mind to racing as I was preparing our staff devotion for the day. The phrase was as Chambers described Salvation and the Love of God as “The Unfathomable Abyss”.

WOW … Abyss is a word we tend to think of negatively … we think of it as something dreadful and negative, but it is not a must that it be seen that way

The Word Unfathomable is defined thusly, – 1) incapable of being fully explored or understood 2) impossible to measure the extent of

And Abyss is 1) a very deep chasm

Oswald Chambers full quote is this “The Christian Worker must never forget that salvation is God’s thought not man’s. Therefore it is an unfathomable abyss. Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is only a gateway by which salvation comes into our conscious life

WOW again

I began my day reading some theologian’s thoughts on salvation, it’s extent, scope, and process, and I think of all the systematic theology that has been written over centuries of Christian Tradition. It is all our attempt to understand and communicate the depth of the statement of Jesus “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” What a glorious and yet unfathomable thought. That God, self sufficient and without need, would create us in the first place. That God eternal, would even love us. That he would take the four centuries after creation to bring the world to just the right time and place for Jesus to be born to live in perfection and die in sacrifice for our sin. Unfathomable.

The fact of the countless grains of sand called wisdom that have been written to explain this truth is astounding. The continent of trees that have been cut down to create the paper needed by all the books written to explain this simple truth, who it includes, what it entails, Chambers calls it an Unfathomable Abyss.

1 John 3:1 How great is the love of God that we should be called the children of God

Romans 8:33 – O the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments and his path beyond tracing

O the Unfathomable Abyss of God’s Loving, Gracious Salvation.

When I think of an Abyss, in a good way, I think, “Lord let me get lost in it.” “Lord let me really let go in the abyss of your love” I think often I am holding on to the walls at the mouth of the Abyss of his Salvation, afraid of what might happen if I really let myself go and get lost in the unfathomable abyss of the love of God…

“Oh Jim, let go and get lost, fall into it.”

But that scares me a bit, ok a lot. But it also excited me at the same time.

If it is an unfathomable abyss, then I can’t control it. Sometimes our systems of theology become an attempt to control the abyss. But if I let go, I realize I can’t get a firm hold. I am just in it, let go

What is the real fear of falling? What is the fear of heights? Is it not the fear of hitting the ground, of being shattered at the bottom of the fall? But if it is an unfathomable abyss, then there is no bottom. There is no sudden stop. There is no pain at the crash, because there is no crash. I can’t fall out of it because it has no measure.

How great is the love that I, me, I know me, that I should be called a child of God!

Oh the depths of the love of God. I’m afraid too of the depths. If I fall in, I might never get out … YEAH? … AND?

I won’t be who I am if I get lost in his love. I will lose my “identity”. I will just be “that guy in the Abyss of God’s love” … OK … Problem? God forbid that our identity is in our theological system and not in Christ.

We are conveying good news and judgement is part of that news because news must paint reality and proclaim possibility. Fall into it, let go to the Abyss

Chambers says “every element of self-reliance must be slain by the power of God. Complete dependence will always be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest His power.”

Fall in and let God show himself

O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out!

Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?

Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?

For from HIM and through HIM and to HIM are all things to HIM be the glory forever! AmenRomans 11:33-36
Do Not Despise The Small Things

April 28th, 2014

Zechariah 4:10 says “Who despises the small things?”

Have you ever paid attention to the Triangle Player in the Orchestra? What do they say? “There are no small roles, only small actors.” Just a minor deviation makes a huge difference down the road. A turn of the body starts with a thought, a twitch of a muscle, a signal from a nerve that is imperceptible but it moves the body. The rudder is small compared to the boat and is hidden under the water, but it makes all the difference.

The scriptures are full of “small things”.

Enoch did nothing of record in or out of scripture. All we know about him was that he was a husband and father and that he “walked with God”

Abraham LEFT Ur … Abraham Believed God

Sarah laughed. We beat her up for that, but really, she was an old woman who had no children and they told her that she was going to have a son. She laughed, was it a lack of faith, or a positive doubt that thought, “wow, but could it be true?”

Moses was a baby in a basket before he lead Israel. No one noticed him except Pharaoh’s daughter. Then he was a shepherd in the wilderness meeting God at a simple bush on fire

Do not despise the Little things

Joseph was just talking about dreams being faithful where he was, a slave, stuck in prison … little things

Rahab had heard about God’s deliverance of Israel and she believed and was fearful of God. “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” and then she just hung a red cord from her window in the wall of Jericho

Do not despise the Little Things

Ruth just made a decision to love her mother-in-law, Naomi – “where you go I will go … your God will be my God … your people will be my people” Just a little thing … Lay down at the feet of Boaz … Little things

Gideon had his 300 men … men unafraid, but with eyes on the horizon

Joshua “stayed in the presence of the Lord” while he was Moses’ servant

Samuel was just a little boy saying “speak Lord”

David was just bringing bread and Cheese to his brothers … he just stopped to pick up 5 smooth stones

Don’t Despise the Little Things

Haggai said “is this nothing in your eyes?”

Mary was just a girl from Nazareth,

Shepherds in the field, just some stinky Jr High boys

Just a birth on a cold night in a Shepherd’s Cave Manger

Just a 12 year old boy talking to teachers in the Temple

Just a little boys lunch – just 5 cakes and 2 little fish among 5000 men

Do not despise the little things

Up toward the modern days,

Just a Shoe Salesman and a Sunday School Teacher named Edward Kimble who shared Jesus with that young shoe salesman named Dwight L Moody one of the greatest preachers of his generation

Moody impacted F.B. Meyer, Meyer, Wilber Chapman, Chapman a baseball player named Billy Sunday who became a flaming preacher, Sunday Mordecai Ham, and while Mordecai Ham was preaching, Billy Graham walked the aisle to receive Jesus as his Lord.

Do not despise the little things

If we could list all the “Little Things” God has done, all of the World’s Libraries couldn’t hold the books we would write. The pile would rise to Heaven and beyond

Wherever the gospel is told, the little things are remembered.

You see … God doesn’t do “little things”, he does unnoticed thing, just not little things.

Open your heart, open your eyes

What is He calling you to do? What is He doing that you missed, or failed to praise him for today?

Open the eyes of your heart. Open the eyes of faith.

Despise? That means to “show contempt, to look down”.

I’m JUST a triangle in the orchestra … Really? But when your place comes … will you ring it out or leave a space? No one will notice, will they?

The Composer will know. The Conductor will know, even if no one else notices.

Proverbs 13:13 says “whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded”

“revere” = tremble

Oh if you’ve been given a little thing, fear it as the critical piece in the plan of God on which much rests or falls … Complete it as unto the Lord from a Diaper Changer to a Deacon … From a Parent to a Pastor, all are Servants of God’s will and Purpose

Who despises the little things? Oh Lord, let it not be me.

Not Me Lord …

Here I am Triangle in Hand, Read to Play … Ding!
A Wedding Banquet For His Son

April 14th, 2014

Matthew 22 begins, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son”

You know, in the grand scheme of the Godhead, I don’t fully understand the “Oneness of God” and yet that he is Revealed to us as “Father, Son, and Spirit.” It is truly beyond our understanding, yet it is not beyond our believing and embracing.

A deeper thing then is the relationship between “The Father” and “The Son”. What is this relationship between two self-existing, eternal beings of the Godhead?

Well, I do not have to understand it to embrace it. I also do not have to understand the “how” and the “why” in order to understand the “what”.

God is not a man or a woman, but he IS Father. And Jesus is The Son. And in this revelation, God is giving us something that we CAN understand, something we can embrace and a Mission Objective that we can strive to accomplish.

The Objective: A Father/King is preparing a Wedding Banquet for his Son.

What a sentence to encompass all of Human History, the Human part of God’s Story: A Father is preparing a wedding banquet for his son.

The Unfolding of Human History is about making provision for this thing that God is doing.

So, there must be a Groom. There must be a Bride. There must be Guests. There must be a Dowry paid. There must be a Ceremony. There must be a Celebration

John 14 tells us that Jesus is preparing a place. He is clearly the groom, the son of the king. Right now he has gone to his Father’s House to make preparations for his bride.

So, in the New Testament, The Church is the Bride being prepared for the son.

John the Baptist understood it. He said in John 3, “I’m just the friend of the groom …” he recognized that his job was to make preparation and then get out of the way

There are then in this story from Matthew 22, “those who have been invited to the banquet”. I believe that is the people of Israel. They are primarily the honored guests at this banquet. We see it in the book of Revelation chapter 19. I believe the Faithful of Israel are those who have been blessed to be invited to the Banquet for the King’s Son. Israel has always known the story of the coming of the Messiah and the inclusiveness of the Gentiles. They have been invited, but as Jesus delivered this message, he says “They refused to come” v3. This is more about the individuals like the Pharisees and Leaders who refused to embrace Christ.

So, in verse 4 another invitation goes out. Maybe they didn’t understand that This Is A Big Deal. He tells them “I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”

But they paid no attention, it says some “went off one to their field, one to his business”

Lord forgive us for having too much to do and missing what you are doing.

It goes on that they “seized his servants, mistreated, and killed them.”

Study the treatment of God’s prophets as they proclaimed his message, Biblically and Historically.

verse 7 says that he sent armies to judge them, and he did through pagan nations like Babylonia.

Then verse 8 he says “The wedding banquet is ready … the invited did not deserve to come”

So the instruction: “Go To the street corners and invite anyone you find”

The word “anyone” here means “if anyone, whatever, wherever, whenever, anyone”. There is no exclusivity … there were first invitees, with special honors, but now the King says Invite ANYONE.”

so verse 10, “So they went out to the streets and gathered …”

“went out” is the word exerchomai = to go, but also to pass away … It also looks like our word “exercise” –

“Gathered” is the word synago where we get the word synagogue

In order to go for Christ, we need to DIE to Self and follow … Jesus taught us that. And Paul taught us we are to be crucified with Christ. So as we die to self, we must Go and we must DO – exercise is action … Mission is Action

We GO – that’s obedience toward God

We Gather – that’s obedience toward People

We go, exercise our faith, and synagogue, gather, people together around the invitation to the banquet. We certainly should be gathering people, synago, but, If we are gathering people and not inviting them to the Wedding Banquet of the King’s Son … then we have Mission, our Commission.

Then Jesus says they gathered both good and bad … our job is not to “weed out” the ones we don’t think deserve to be invited, only the worthy, the respectable, the privileged, our job is simple to gather.

Regardless of your theological position on salvation, soteriology, The Call of God for his servants is to Go and Gather. Let God do the sorting out of the chosen. I believe it was D. James Kennedy, who said, “God’s job is to do the electing, I’m just on the nominating committee.”

v9 “and the wedding hall was filled”

There is our focus … this is not about us, This is about the Celebration of the Wedding of the Son of the King. Don’t we want the place to be filled?

You know we are inviting people to the banquet … but as most illustrations break down eventually, we realize that we are inviting people to salvation in Jesus Christ, and if they come and embrace Christ, they become part of the Bride.

Well, what a more beautiful picture than this. A beautiful maiden, longing for the one she loves … she’s invited to a lavish wedding celebration. She arrives, they take her and she is dressed in the finest of clothes and then she is escorted into the Hall, only to find that:

SHE IS THE BRIDE!

What a story

What a Kingdom

The King is preparing a wedding celebration for his Son

Let’s Take It To The Streets
How Do We Allow The Spirit To Transform Us By the Word?

March 17th, 2014
I was asked a question today that prompted my devotional thought. The question was “How do we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us by the Word of God?”

My immediate though was to a particular passage of Scripture and the words of Jesus. These words of Jesus are NOT hard to understand but that doesn’t mean that they are easy to do, But it isn’t complicated.

In John 8:31 and 32 Jesus says “to the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

So how do we allow transformation to happen? Remember Romans 12:1 says “do not be conformed to the pattern of the world but be transformed” … So how do we allow that to happen?

1. Believe In Him

Jesus didn’t tell unbelievers that his Word would change them, though the principles of truthy are good for all. Yes I’ve often told people that even lost people would benefit from living by the principles of the Word of God, but that’s not what it’s saying here. This promise was given to people who had already heard and believed in Jesus. Those who had “believed” (pisteuo = think to be true, have Christian faith, entrust) – and is in the perfect active tense. So these are people who are actively believing in Jesus Christ. Transformation cannot happen if we are not IN Christ. We become IN him as we act in Faith to receive the Grace of Jesus Christ.

So then Jesus says “If you hold to my teaching”

2. Hold To / Continue In His Teaching

“hold to” – meno = stay, wait for continue to exist, keep on“teaching” – logos = statement; speech; gospel

Jesus is saying, “keep on, stay in, what I have actually said, the essence of who I am” –

It doesn’t say, “if you believe the Word, or Understand it, or even want it.” This is a conditional declaration that: as one who believes in, confesses, has entrusted your life to Jesus Christ, if you will stay, wait for, keep on, continue in, his teaching, actual instruction that comes from the essence of who He is, THEN ….

It doesn’t ask us to lie it, fine it easy, normal, believe that it works, it just says, “do it” … Nike didn’t invent the concept of “just do it.” and so IF … Then

3. You Are Really My Disciples

“disciples” – mathetes = follower; pupil “really” – alethos = truly

Reality is that we can call ourselves whatever we want. We can live in a garage and call ourselves cars, but we aren’t REALLY cars. We can call ourselves disciples but if we don’t walk in his Words and Ways … we aren’t really his disciples, followers, pupils. We can call ourselves servants but if we don’t serve … we aren’t servants. We can call him our “lord” but if we don’t obey him …

Our lives are often full of excuses and contingencies. Often I counsel people and bring them a word of life from the Word of God, yet their response is “that’s right, makes a lot of sense, but … well … you see … I …” or they say “yes I know I shouldn’t do ‘x’ but … well … it’s just that …”

So the question is … will we DO what he says? Will we continue in his ways? His ways are life, hope, and peace. In the preceding verses of our text, John 8:28-30, Jesus says “‘… I do nothing on my own, but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.’ Even has he spoke, many put their faith in him.”

It was the fact that Jesus says and does the will of God that we trusted him in the first place. But transformation is stunted in our lives because we stop short of following him. Perhaps we never truly believed, but at the very least we are failing to trust and do.

But as a believer in this Jesus, who does the will of the Father, we know his Word, and actually do it as “imitators of Jesus” (Eph 5:1) – Continuing when it is hard to do, or hard to understand, then we PROVE we are disciples in actuality not just converts in our hearts.

A convert in heart should be a convert in deed

James 1:22-25 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.”

So, how does transformation happen? There it is …
- “Look intently into the word” – parakypto = bend over, desire to learn
- “continue to do this” – parameno – same root word that Jesus used to tell us to do and keep on doing to stay and keep on staying
- “not forgetting” – this combines the word for forgetfulness with the word for to become – transformation will not come when we hear the word but become something else because we forget what was said
- “but doing” – poietes = doer, poet – We hear the word, but move on to something else, we have the words but won’t allow them to form together in beautiful poetry of obedient and application
- Then you will be blessed – markarios = happy
Jesus said

4. You will know the Truth

“figuring it out” often doesn’t come until we DO it.

I was coaching my oldest son in 1st grade soccer. One day I brought a piece of 12 foot long pvc pipe to practice and made them run drills holding the pipe. They didn’t know why but I said “just do it, and trust me”. Come the next game, the biggest issue with 1st grade soccer is that they all clump together in a big circle around the ball and just kick it. I wanted to spread them out. the first time the kids clumped around the ball, I hollared “pipe, remember the pipe”. The boys looked at each other and spread out 12 feet apart. While the other team clumped around the ball, my boys were spread out, one kick to get the ball free and we were running away. It didn’t make sense at first, but in the doing, we became a different team.

As we DO what our teacher, example, Lord, and Christ does, we find, TRUTH in experience. Jesus said you will “know”, that’s the word ginosko = to know by experience.

THEN

5. The Truth Will Make You Free

The Truth, reality, has a natural result of freedom, liberation. Romans 8:2 says “through Christ Jesus, the Law of the Spirit of Life set me free (same word) from the law of sin and death.”

The only way to be set free from the trap you are in, doing what you are doing, following old patterns, is to STOP IT, and do something else, DO what Jesus is teaching in his word, follow his example, be an actual disciple, a pupil of Jesus.

And then, in the action that follows faith, we look up and the chains are gone, we are set free from the old bondage, transformation has taken place in the light of truth and reality in action.
Preach The Word

March 10th, 2014

2 Timothy 4:1–2 (NIV84)

¹ In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ² Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

Four Things here – Preach, Be Prepared, Be Pertinent, Be Patient … Ok, I KNOW some love alliteration and some hate it, I personally love it. As a preacher I’ve done it so long, I just see it and like it and helps me remember it.

1. Preach the Word

– Preach – kerysso = announce, tell, preach – Mark 13:10 uses this word when it says “the gospel must be first preached (announced) to all nations”

– Preach The Word – logos = the logos isn’t aa thing, or a concept the logos is a PERSON. John 1:1,14 says “in the beginning was the Word … with God … was God … 14 the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory …” And verse 12 told us “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God”

We have an announcement to make and it is JESUS. He alone makes us the children of God

We may help with marriages, finaces, parenting, but we are to be announcing the Word of God in the flesh … Jesus He is the Answer. he is the Glory of God we behold. Preach Jesus!

2. Be Prepared

“In season and out of season” … we are only caught off guard when we are unprepared.

What are our objectives? What are our expectations for “normal”? What are our contingencies because chances are it won’t go as we think.

I was in Atlanta, I had finished a conference and I wanted to visit the Ebenezer Baptist Church, ML King Jr’s church for the first time. I drove my rental car to the church, next door was a store and a parking spot. I was listening to Gospel Music and a couple of homeless gentlemen were sitting on the curb of the store. I pulled in, opened my door, music playing and one of the guys walked up and said “I’m a Christian” … before I knew what I was saying I said “well I’m a pastor” and put my hand out. He said “you’re a pastor, you have to pray for us.” he grabbed his friend and a moment later, I’m standing in a circle with several homeless guys, praying for them. This wasn’t my plan that day, I just wanted to go to the church. So I’m talking with these guys, at the Lord’s leading, I bought them lunch, got a promise they would attend church the next day.

Be Prepared, IN season, or OUT of season

prepared – ephistemi = “to approach, be near, attack, be imminent” – Be Ready to take the stage, when God calls you to step up …

In Season – eukairos = convient / favorable time

Out of season – akairos = untimely / unfavorable

“Lord, this is not a good time” – have you ever said that? But who gets to make that call about our time? The Maker of Time, the Planner of the Universe. If my schedule is full, but God’s schedule has my name on it … well … Be Prepared, imminent, ready, approachable when it is convenient, favorable, or unfavorable, inconvenient … Be Present, God is

3. Be Pertinent

Sometimes we are ready to preach, ready to announce, ready to pass judgment, but what we give doesn’t fit the circumstance or the plan of God.

Going back to my story in Atlanta … I met those guys, God had a plan for me that day, they certainly had problems, but did I need to talk with them about the dangers of alcoholism, or needing a job, etc? No I need to pray with them, encourage them and point them to Jesus. That was my job that day.

This verse says “correct, rebuke, encourage” What I do has got to be pertinent, fit the situation. Plenty of times, I’m forced into a situation I am not ready for, or don’t like, I have to pray through it, “Lord what do I do, what do I say?”

Sometimes I have to correct … other times, I outright need to rebuke, but still other times I’m just called to encourage.

Correct – elencho = expose – uncover the error, identify the course correction needed

Rebuke – epitimao = rebuke, command, sternly – sometimes a stern correction is needed with “teeth”, saying “this is wrong, wrong direction, turn around, repent … even discipline or consequences.

Encourage – parakaleo = to encourage, to urge, ask for earnestly, invite – The Holy Spirit is called a paraclete “one who comes alongside to comfort” …

Listen to the Lord, fit the situation

Preach the Word, Prepared, Pertinent then lastly

4. Be Patient

“with great patience and careful instruction”

In all 3 correction, rebuke, and encouragement, we need patience and care.

We will not always get results and the timing may not always be what we want … but

patience – makrothymia

Peter uses this word when describing God’s actions waiting patiently while Noah built the ark — and only to save people. Sometimes we want to “bring the flood” … Be Patient … even though it was warrented, it wasn’t time and 8 people were important. Even in the face of great wickedness, yet they were part of the plan of God and he was patient.

In view of Christ’s appearing … God may come at any moment, so let’s be READY at hand, imminent …

Announce Jesus

Ready to give the right response with great care patience …

If you are ready, willing, waiting, you are saying “COME JESUS, COME”

Announce Jesus