Sinning to Death

This weekend we wrap up our study in the book of James with his admonishment to the church to confess trespasses, pray for one another and even be willing to confront the wayward.  As I worked this week to wrap my mind around this concept and its implications, I was reminded of the fact that to do this requires that I give up the hope of a "normal" life.  What normal person confesses to another person,  what normal person makes it a habit to confront sin?  Normal people don't interfere with someone else's private life, normal people don't whip out the sandwich boards and bullhorns. To live the Christian life, we are to be peculiar.

Someone reminded me of this earlier this week as they related the sentiments of a co-worker that said "You Christians hate everybody."   The reality is that what is often seen as hate is the most self sacrificing form of love. It would be so much easier to pretend to love you by patting you on the back and encouraging your sin, or patting you on the head and making light of your ignorance.  I don't want to be seen as a hater.  I don't want to stand out as the nut-case Christian.  I don't want others to see me, and groan.  I am tempted to sit still and be quiet.  I am tempted to mind my own business.  I am tempted to live and let live.

But I am called to make a difference.  I am called to love people as I love myself.  To place my love for God and His Gospel above all that this world has to offer.  God's word teaches that there is a sin that is unto death.  It is possible for a person, a culture, or a nation to sin itself to death.  We are called to confront a world gone wrong.  We must accept that what is seen as love is actually hatred, and what is loving will be at first seen as hatred.  The doctor who gives the vaccine, or sets the broken arm, know this very well.  The momentary pain and "hatred" they inflict is for the long term good.  In fact, inflicting pain is the most loving thing they can do.  The man on the side of the road screaming at the cars driving by is seen as a lunatic, until the driver learns that the bridge is out.

We must be willing to love.  We must understand that our friends and family are sinning themselves to death and that God has placed us where we are to shine as lights in the darkness.  Harsh, is the unfortunate reality.  Hatred is the perception. But love is the responsibility for every one who claims to know the Truth.

James 5:19

¹⁹Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 

²⁰let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

Methods of Personal Evangelism

I mentioned in the service that I would post some how to methods for leading a person to faith in Christ.

ABC’s / Romans Road

a.      Admit

Romans 3:23 (ESV)

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

b.      Believe

Romans 10:9 - 10 (ESV)

⁹because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

c.       Call

Romans 10:13 (ESV)

¹³For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Way of the Master

1.      Do you consider yourself to be a pretty good person?

2.      Do you mind if I ask you a few questions as a test?

3.      Do you think you have kept the ten commandments?

4.      Have you ever coveted or been jealous of something that did not belong to you? #10

5.      Have you ever told a lie? # 9

6.      Have you ever stolen anything? # 8

7.      Have you ever committed Adultery? #7

8.      Have you ever murdered anyone? #6

9.   If God judged you according to these laws, would you be guilty or innocent?

Four Spiritual Laws

* Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so are there spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God.

1)      God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life

John 3:16 (ESV)

¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 10:10b (ESV)

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 

2)      Man is sinful and separated from God, therefore he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.

Romans 3:23 (ESV)

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3)      Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin.  Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.

Romans 5:8 (ESV)

⁸but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

John 14:6 (ESV)

⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

4)      We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

John 1:12 (ESV)

¹²But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 
Ephesians 2:8 - 9 (ESV)

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 

Skoobalon

I ran across this great toy called Wordle.net that takes a document and summarizes it in a beautiful word cloud.  I plugged in my notes from this past weekend's message and voi'la! If you were at church remember and enjoy.  If, you were not there, here is what you missed.  Click on the cloud to go to wordle.net

Political Fatigue and the Separation of Church and State

Lifeway, a branch of the Southern Baptist Convention is out today with an opinion poll on how political pastors should be in view of the upcoming election.  According to the poll the vast majority of people do not think it is appropriate for pastors to endorse candidates for public office during a church service.  Therefore I have elected to take a post and address the upcoming election and to discuss what I believe to be one of the most important elections of our era on my blog.
First, I do not and will not endorse a candidate for presidential office.  Any candidate fitting my approval are long gone.  However, I believe firmly that as members of a free society, we not only have a right to vote, we have a responsibility.  How dare we complain about the moral collapse of our society without lifting a finger to do anything about it.  More important than electing officials to temporary office, this election season we have a state amendment that will define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.  I believe that this issues is critical to our state and to the ability of the church to continue to teach the Bible without fear of restriction and recourse.  Already in states who have adopted same-sex marriage, we see churches being taken to court and sued for preaching against homosexuality and other sexual sins.  When the State begins to legislate morality, the church will become an opponent of the state and suffer.  I want to be clear that, I do not want to suggest that by voting one way or another that we can enforce a morality on society,  God himself has chosen to give man free will to do what he desires, however every believer must accept his/her moral obligation to stand up on this matter.  I believe that due to the lack of a true conservative candidate on the ballot for president, that many Christians will see their trip to the polls as a waste of time, but the presidential election is not the sole issue on the table in spite of what the media may think.  In most elections, only 20% of the registered voters show up to vote.  The same percentage holds true regardless of involvement in church or not.  It is my prayer that every person I know will go to the polls to vote and that their vote will not be based on the economy or what Hollywood says, but on what they feel God would have them to do.  For more information or to get involved, please visit www.supportmarriage.org 

Million Dollar Posts

Dan Burrell has an awesome article here with some great tips on living smart when it comes to money. and Craig Groechell has a funny video here on the same subject.

Soul Winning

· I grew up in a tradition of soul winners. We would go soul winning every Thursday night and Saturday. Sometimes we would go and stand in front of the movie theater and pass out pamphlets, or at the entrance to the mall. We had training on all the proper techniques and proven formulas for converting everyone from atheists to Catholics to faith in Christ alone.
· Some would come back with stories of doors slammed in our faces, or tracts crumpled and tossed at our feet. We were taught that some would reject God’s plan of salvation and they rejected Christ after all.
· Some were really good at it. Once, I was with a preacher who had a couple praying to receive Christ before I knew what was going on.
· I was never too good at it, Oh, I had a few, but in reality I have always been ashamed at my win/loss percentage. Maybe by sheer determination, I could make some converts, but I have never felt comfortable with the idea of selling Jesus like a door to door vacuum salesman. You come in throw some dirt around, show how their vacuum does not fully cleanse, but how ours can make you whiter than snow.
· I never liked the debate either. As if I could by my power of persuasion convince people to accept Christ. I wish there was a better way. One where I did not feel pressured to “win” people to Christ, one where I did not feel like I had to pressure people into making a spiritual decision, and hoping that they stick with it.
· I believe that the frustration of the church today is that we are adopting the world’s system of conversion. We are trying to spread the good news by army and argument. We teach our kids to sing “I’m in the Lord’s Army” and send out the troops to make disciples. And they come back wounded from the fight, discouraged from the failures of making people become disciples of Christ.
· I wonder if somewhere in this process of sharing our faith that we have taken the good news of Salvation through faith in Christ and are using the world’s system for conversion to spread it. Like broadcasting TV signals from a Radio tower, our message is not getting across because the methods we choose are the system of the world.
· Man’s system is to convert by conquering, whether it be the ancient Babylonians or the modern Islamist, the sword is awfully effective in getting people to adopt religious systems.
· Christianity is better than that you say. Yes there were the crusades, but we are more civilized than that now. We convert through superior argument. We go out to win them over by pointing out the shortcomings of their faith and leading them to Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
· When did we adopt this mindset that we are to be soul winners? That it is our Great Commission to make disciples by conquest and convincing. Is it not the Holy Spirit of god that does the winning? Is it really our place to make converts? When did we begin to equate witnessing with winning? Are we commanded to argue people to Christ or tell what great things God has done for us?
· These are the questions that we will wrestle with this coming weekend.
· Don’t forget, we will be having three services this weekend.
o Saturday 6:30 p.m. – Current Style Worship Service
o Sunday 8:15 a.m. – Classic Style Worship Service
o Sunday 10:45 a.m. – Contemporary Style Worship Service

I love people who sleep in church

From time to time some people do fall asleep during my message on Sunday. Every pastor has to face the fact that it will happen and get over the distraction of totally boring some people, but there are some people who have my permission to sleep (and even snore if necessary) in church. They slip under the radar of most church attenders, but these are the ones who by their very presence preach to me, while I preach to them. For instance last Sunday Ed Gilliand and Chuck DeVane both told me, at separate times that they worked until 3 a.m. on Saturday. I told them both to feel free to take a nap in church, they had my permission. Also, a few weeks ago Polly Bee Amato was caught sneaking into church still in her scrubs from working a 12 hour shift in the Trauma ICU unit. I can't even imagine how tiring that must be, but these people speak volumes to me of what it means to be faithful. So (those of you who are too quick to judge) the next time that you see someone sleeping in church sit in awe of the faithfulness of these faithful few who serve past the point of exhaustion.

Don't Waste Your Cancer

I am finishing John Piper's book entitled "Don't Waste Your Life" It is a good read, not great, but good. I think it is one of those "sermon series transcript turned into book" books. That being said The concept for the book is great and he has a tremendous post on his blog about not wasting your cancer. You can read it here.

Elk Lock Horns and Die

I ran across this picture from the Smithsonian. Apparently like humans, Elk tend to lock horns. They become territorial, take a position and stand their ground. Unfortunately, for this pair and for many who choose to be like them it was pointless for both. How often do we lock horns in our marriages, at our work, and in our churches? Do we take a stand, not on moral principle, but on personal preference. Then, when someone threatens our position, we lower our head state our opinion and lock horns. This Sunday, we will be talking about Words of Affirmation. Words can get us into trouble, the words we say, the positions we take. Words are hard to take back, before we know it we end up defending a position we really do not care about, but for the sake of argument we stand our ground and lock horns. A battle of the wills, a battle to the death. What are you tempted to lock horns over? What arguments should you simply walk away from?

Church Planting & The Olive Tree

I found this and thought I would pass it on...
Today you can travel to Greece and visit the site of the home and one of the early hospitals of Hippocrates. He is the inspiration of the modern medical profession.
There you will find the olive tree of Hippocrates, said to date from his time over 2,400 years ago. The wide trunk is almost hollow except for a thin outer shell. There are a few straggly branches supported by wooden props. The ancient olive tree has few leaves and in season produces only one or two olives.
Just over the stone walls that surround the site are olive groves in every direction. In contrast, these young olive trees are strong and healthy, covered in leaves and in season, burdened with olives.
The olive tree of Hippocrates is still an olive tree, yet a long time ago it stopped functioning effectively. Tourists come to honour this ancient link with the past. But the job of producing olives has been passed on to a succession of new olive trees, now covering the surrounding countryside.