You Know...

A lady was walking past a pet store when a parrot said, “Hey, lady! You're really ugly!”
The lady was angry but continued on her way.

On the way home, she passed by the pet store again, and the parrot once more said, “Hey, lady! You're really ugly!”

She was enraged now, so she went into the store and said that she wanted the bird disposed of. The store manager apologized profusely and promised he would make sure the parrot didn't say it again.

The next day, she deliberately passed by the store to test the parrot. “Hey, lady!” the bird said.

“Yes?” she replied.

“You know.”

What do you do when you hear some truth that you don’t like? Ignore it? Deny it? Silence it? The Bible tells us in James 1:23-25 that the truth of Scripture is a mirror—“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

Whenever I get up in the morning, I sometimes laugh at how crazy my hair can look. (It’s not uncommon for me to look like death warmed over in the morning.) But I can’t imagine getting mad at the mirror for showing me what I look like. It’s just revealing the truth, right? Why then do people get so angry with Scripture when it reveals what we look like to the eyes of God?

The problem is our pride—our self-sufficiency. You see…when we put ourselves in the place of judging which Bible verses are true and which ones should be disregarded, we’re seeking to commandeer God’s unique place of authority. One of my mentors used to say, “There are two things that God will not share—His vengeance and His glory.” I’m convinced (from personal experience) that only in the vain conceit of sinful pride would a person seek to usurp God’s authority.

The only proper response to seeing ourselves in the mirror of Scripture is to address the problem (i.e. repent). If and when you look in a mirror and see your hair disheveled or a spot on your shirt, wouldn’t you seek to correct the problem immediately? Why? Because you’re embarrassed for other people to see you looking like that?

Consider this—“God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). He can see a spot on our hearts. He can see when our motives are out of place. He sees who we are on the inside. We might not like His assessment of our condition, but we need to know the truth about ourselves. “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

To Do List

I just wrote out a "To Do List" for the rest of my week. Listed are three funerals to prepare for...THREE! I've preached many funerals through the years, but I must confess that it never gets any easier. Death is always a kick in the gut that just knocks the breath out of you. Obviously, it's different when it's your loved one who's died instead of being the one preaching the funeral. But it's never easy.

These funerals (and all funerals, really) remind me that life has a beginning and it has an end. As strange as it sounds, death is a part of life. The writer of Hebrews put it this way--"It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (9:27).

One of the most probing prayers that I find in Scripture is one by Moses. It reminds us that our days are numbered. Psalm 90:12--"So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." Our days are numbered, so what are we doing with the time we have? Amy Carmichael, an Irish missionary to India a century ago, said, "We will have eternity to celebrate the victories, but only a few hours before sunset to win them."

Some friends and I went to see the new movie this past weekend starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, "The Bucket List." The idea of a bucket list, as I discovered through the film, is a list of things you'd like to do before you "kick the bucket." Except for some language, the movie was pretty good and had a good message. As we were walking out, someone in the group--Jeff Williams, I believe--suggested that perhaps Christians should develop a spiritual bucket list...a list of everything you want to do for the Lord before you meet Him. I think that's an awesome idea.

In the movie, as you discover from the previews (so I'm not spoiling the film for you), it takes the two main characters battling cancer to do those things they'd always wanted to do but had never gotten around to it. Why is that how we live our lives? Should it really take knowing we're dying to jolt us into living?!? Because I've got news for us all--we all have a terminal condition known as sin. And as a result, we're all going to die. So, now that we have settled the question of our deaths, what're we going to do with the time we have left?

Realizing that this particular blog may be a downer for you...let me shift gears as I close:

Some friends were hanging out one day, and the conversation grimly turned to the issue of death. One of the friends asked the others, "What would you like people to say about you at your funeral?"

One friend answered, "I would want people to say, 'He was a great humanitarian who cared about his community.'"

A second replied, "I would want people to say, 'He was a great husband and father, an example for many to follow.'"

The third friend gave it some thought and answered, "I would hope someone says, 'Look, he's moving!'"

Thanks for reading...

Echo, Echo, Echo, Echo

Karen Watson, a modern-day martyr, was a Southern Baptist missionary killed in Iraq on March 15, 2004. Karen wrote her own epitaph in a letter that she left behind with her pastors. The envelope said “Open in case of death,” and the letter said in part:

Dear Pastor Phil and Pastor Roger,

You should only be opening this in the event of death.

When God calls there are no regrets. I tried to share my heart with you as much as possible, my heart for the nations. I wasn't called to a place; I was called to Him. To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected, His glory my reward, His glory my reward . . .

The missionary heart:

Cares more than some think is wise
Risks more that some think is safe
Dreams more than some think is practical
Expects more than some think is possible.

I was called not to comfort or to success but to obedience. . . .

There is no Joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving Him. I love you two and my church family.

In His care,

Salaam, Karen

Such a heart humbles me and causes me to cry out to God, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.” I’m reminded of Soren Kierkegaard’s words when he said, “When one preaches Christianity in such a way that the echo answers, ‘Away with that man from the earth, he does not deserve to live,’ know then that this is the Christianity of the New Testament. Without change since the time of our Lord Jesus Christ, capital punishment is the penalty for preaching Christianity as it truly is.”

I wonder what the echo of my life is saying…

Dangerous Thinking, Huh?

The following is a recent comment I received from “Anonymous” regarding Bro. Lee Eclov’s article I posted last week. To be honest, I can’t find the quote this person is addressing (and then again maybe I’m blind or have Alzheimer’s)…but here it is: “When the people of the church (or community) start dictating the things the Holy Spirit is directing, fallacies ensue.”

“Anonymous” wrote, “This is dangerous thinking, please don’t forget that the Holy Spirit dwells within the church body too.”

With all due respect to “Anonymous,” I think he (I’m using the male pronoun for simplicity’s sake) misunderstood the substance of the article…perhaps he didn’t read the piece in its entirety. I’m not sure. But his comment prompted me to ask myself, “Is ‘Anonymous’ suggesting that what a pastor preaches should be the result of a majority opinion of the members of a church?”

Can you envision what Noah would have proclaimed if the message he proclaimed were left up to popular vote? How about Micaiah? Jeremiah? John the Baptist? Jesus?!?

I agree with “Anonymous” that the Holy Spirit indwells believers in a congregation…but that’s not even remotely close to the issue discussed in Eclov’s article. His comment was a challenge to pastors to preach the whole counsel of God (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) instead of giving pop psychology pep talks in the pulpit.

Can you imagine what the preaching would be like in an average church if the content of the sermons was left up to church members to decide? Hey! Can you imagine what my sermons would be like if I just preached what I wanted to preach?!? That’s not to disparage myself or my spiritual siblings, please understand. My point is that, by our human nature, we’re going to shy away from subjects or passages that contradict our lives in some way.

When we commit to “preach the word; [and to] be ready in season and out of season; [to] reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2), we’re guarding the prophetic voice of the church. We’re protecting the continued purity and viability of God’s message. We’re ensuring that true men of God stand to declare with holy boldness the true word of God with God-honoring, Satan-defying, sin-killing power on their lives and their lips! That means that we preach what the Word of God says…whether we like it or not.

Sometimes the most uncomfortable thing a pastor can do is to preach the Bible. I’m reminded of a cartoon from a few years ago in which a preacher had prepared the pulpit area like a fortress. He was peering through the crack of a machine gun nest. The caption read something like, “Today I’m preaching from 1 Peter 3:1—“Wives, submit to your husbands.”

That cartoon reminds us that people are not always going to like the taste of every sermon we preach. But regardless of the popularity or the response to a message, still the truth must be spoken.

The Apostle Paul warned in 2 Timothy 4:3-4—“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” Left unto themselves, people will drift away from truth…never toward it. That’s why we must continue to call people back to the ever-constant standard of Scripture!

Peter James Lee was one of the 60 Episcopal bishops who voted in 2003 to approve the consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. In the midst of that controversy, Lee made the statement: “If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy.” Never mind that such heresy causes divisions…the African and Asian branches of the Episcopal church want to expel the U.S. branch unless it promises to change its stand on moral standards and teachings!

There are some people who hear a pastor and a church declare that Jesus is the only way to God, so they go looking for a pastor who says there are many ways to God. Or some people reject the biblical teaching that those who engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage are “fornicators and adulterers” whom “God will judge” (Heb. 13:4). So they look for a teacher who says that the sexual standards in the Bible are not binding in today's world. This reminds us, incidentally, that the most popular preachers aren’t necessarily the most faithful preachers.

No, “Anonymous,” I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you didn’t read the whole article…that you didn’t mean what your words seem to indicate that you were saying. We’re called to preach the Word. And I pray that God will give me strength to fulfill that calling until He calls me home…even when I don’t even like what I’m preaching! ;-)

The Danger (?) of Practical Preaching, Part 3 of 3

I’m on day three of three days in which I’m sharing an article that I recently read by Lee Eclov, Senior Pastor of Village Church of Lincolnshire in Lake Forest, IL. This is not my custom, as you know, but this brother’s thoughts so affirmed core beliefs that I have held for a long time that I thought it sensible and acceptable to share them with you. The title of the piece is “The Danger of Practical Preaching: Why People Need More than the Bottom Line.” Warning: This commentary could change your perspective on preaching forever!

The Ready Mind

It may seem to us sometimes that the Christians to whom we preach are not interested in the truth trails of Scripture; or worse, that they won’t get it. We hear so much about the postmodern mind that we assume our postmodern people will reject the absolute logic of the Bible. It is true that our listeners are susceptible to relativism. It is true that we must not only make clear what is true from the Word, but also demonstrate that other ideas they may hold are not true. But we may forget that converted people have transformed minds. Preaching biblical truth to unbelievers (in a seeker service, for instance) is an entirely different matter than preaching to believers. The truth isn't different. The capacity of the listener is.

God promised Jeremiah that in the New Covenant he would “put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” New believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, almost immediately begin to understand spiritual realities that eluded them before. It is like a gifted child. Sometimes, even before a child starts school, we realize “that kid has a mind for numbers,” or music, or science. We say that because when they are introduced to something new in that sphere they understand it much more quickly than other children. It is like they are already wired for that kind of information. Christians are, from the moment of their new birth, wired for spiritual, biblical information. We “have a mind for it.”

Thus, when a preacher stands and opens before them the logic of the Scriptures—the contemplations of a psalmist or the doctrinal logic of an epistle—they understand it, like a gifted child. And the logic of that text gradually becomes the logic of their own minds.

Truth trail preaching, the careful and persuasive exposition of Scriptural thinking, shapes ready Christian minds for the everyday decisions unscripted in Scripture. When we face an ethical dilemma at work or a discipline problem at home, our minds walk the truth trails we have learned and we are able to reason our way, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to a biblical conclusion, even when no verse of Scripture directly addresses our situation.

When we preach only the principle, the bullet points, the bottom line, or when we try to make every sermon about an everyday problem, we may set truth in the minds of our hearers, but we do not set the logic and pulse of God into their minds and hearts. On the other hand, biblical exposition that lays out the Lord's own logic and heartbeat shapes “doers of the Word and not hearers only.”

Thank you, Bro. Lee Eclov, for such a thought-provoking article on preaching the whole counsel of God!

The Danger (?) of Practical Preaching, Part 2 of 3

I’m on day two of three days in which I’m sharing an article that I recently read by Lee Eclov, Senior Pastor of Village Church of Lincolnshire in Lake Forest, IL. This is not my custom, as you know, but this brother’s thoughts so affirmed core beliefs that I have held for a long time that I thought it sensible and acceptable to share them with you. The title of the piece is “The Danger of Practical Preaching: Why People Need More than the Bottom Line.” Warning: This commentary could change your perspective on preaching forever!

Bottom Line Fallacy

When our goal is to “bottom line” our preaching, we look in our text for the “so” and preach that conclusion. For example, our sermon drives home the truth that we need not be afraid. If we have been effective, our brothers and sisters go home with this outpost of truth established or enlarged in their thinking. But here's the rub. On Tuesday, when some frightening crisis looms in their lives, they may remember, “the Bible says we are not to be afraid,” but they don't know how to be strong. They don’t know the trail, the process the mind and heart follow to fearlessness. We exposed them to the conclusion without the thinking that makes that conclusion work.

Perhaps you have read an abstract of an article—a short summary of a longer work. After you read it, you know what the article is about. You know what the point is. But you haven't been exposed to the careful reasoning, to the illustrations, to the step-by-step logic and careful writing of the author. The abstract may interest you, but without the author's careful development, it is not likely to convince you. Nor is it likely to be important or memorable in your thinking. And you can be sure the author will not think you know what he wrote.

Sermons that are abstracts of Scripture may properly summarize a biblical truth, but they are unconvincing. They do not reorient our thinking. We may know the bottom line, but we don't know how to live what we know. Without a truth trail, people cannot find their own way to the outposts of truth in their own hearts. Sometimes laying down that truth trail, showing the step-by-step thinking of a text, simply cannot be done in 20 minutes.

Practical Fallacy

I only vaguely recall the world of geometry—axioms, theorems, conclusions. I do remember the inevitable question: “Why do we need to know this stuff?” And I remember Mr. Cermak's answer: “Whether or not you use these formulae, geometry teaches you to think logically.”

Some preachers are afraid of the question, “Why do we need to know this stuff?” so they try to make every sermon “practical,” meaning it is about everyday issues like money or kids. Doctrinal preaching, or the week-by-week exposition of a biblical book appears not to scratch where people itch. People want sermons about things they can use on Monday. Like the sophomores in my geometry class.

But Paul tells us, “All Scripture...is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” All Scripture. All Scripture is practical. It is practical, not because it all addresses everyday concerns, but because it all “civilizes” our thinking.

As I preached my way through Colossians, for example, we gradually tromped out a wide path to the truth that simply trusting Christ equips us with greater wisdom and righteousness than any counterfeit wisdom can offer. Put that way, it seems like an esoteric, impractical truth, far removed from the water cooler and van pool. But it was Paul’s purpose, and therefore mine, to show just how practical this is for the believer. How freeing, simple, and safe. When we eventually arrived at the "practical" passages later in the epistle—“clothe yourself with compassion,” for example—we could see not only the command but we had come to better understand the spiritual thinking that makes Christian compassion possible.

The Bible spends much more time on shaping the spiritual mind than commanding particular behavior. We need far more training in the ways of grace, of spiritual perceptions, and of what God is really like, than we do in how to communicate with our spouse. Understanding the glory of Christ is far more practical than our listeners imagine. Properly preached, every sermon based on a passage of Scripture is fundamentally practical. Every author of Scripture wrote to effect change in God’s people. It is our job as preachers to find the persuasive logic of that author and put that clearly and persuasively before our people through biblical exposition….

[Continued tomorrow]

The Danger (?) of Practical Preaching, Part 1 of 3

For the next three days I want to share an article that I recently read by Lee Eclov, Senior Pastor of Village Church of Lincolnshire in Lake Forest, IL. This is not my custom, as you know, but this brother’s thoughts so affirmed core beliefs that I have held for a long time that I thought it sensible and acceptable to share them with you. The title of the piece is “The Danger of Practical Preaching: Why People Need More than the Bottom Line.” Warning: This commentary could change your perspective on preaching forever!

Rob, a stockbroker, thought sermons should be 20 minutes. No longer. To him, a good sermon was what others call the conclusion. “Cut to the bottom line,” he said. “That's what I expect at work, and that's what I want at church.”

Stan, a preacher, didn't see length as the issue, but he was determined every sermon be “practical.” He preached on five principles of friendships, six secrets of managing money, and four ways to win over worry. He believed in sound doctrine, but he felt he had to give people something they could take to work on Monday morning.

We may expose people to a conclusion without the thinking that makes that conclusion work.These men illustrate two fallacies about biblical preaching: The Bottom Line Fallacy and the Practical Fallacy. Both reveal a misunderstanding, not merely of preaching, but of the workings of Scripture.

Picture a wilderness. A pioneer carves out a path, chopping away brush, felling trees, marking the way to a new outpost. As years pass, that path is traveled a thousand times till it becomes a wide, paved road. From it, other trails branch off, leading to other new outposts. Trails intersect, becoming crossroads. More outposts become towns. More trails become roads. More links are made till what was once wilderness is civilized.

Preaching is the work of spiritually civilizing the minds of Christian disciples. Preaching—especially expository preaching—cuts truth trails in the minds of our listeners. Our task is not only to display God's “point,” but to instill God's logic—how he gets to that point.

For example, we do not simply preach the conclusion of 1 Corinthians 13 — that “the greatest of these is love”—but we move people through the dimensions and definitions of love in that great chapter. We show that Paul intended such love be not only at weddings but also at church meetings as well. In other words, we not only establish the outpost—“the greatest of these is love”—but the truth trail as well.

But here is where we confront the fallacies….

[Continued tomorrow]