Recently, we said in an article on this website that the problem with “preacher-eaters and trouble-makers” in the church is that they do not believe in God. I stand by that statement, although it requires a little clarification.

Theoretically, they do.

Those members who are determined to have their way regardless of the cost to the fellowship of the church, the unity of the congregation, the continuance of the pastor’s ministry, or the sacrifice of programs of the church are not without religious convictions.

They have even had religious experiences.

The problem is they are now living godless existences. Their work in the church is being conducted in the flesh and for their own purposes.

The shame of it is they are almost always unaware of these conditions. They have fallen into a shameless pattern of seeing nothing but what is in their own field of vision, of wanting only what they see as important, and advocating nothing but their own program. They are not knowingly mean-spirited people. They are self-deluded.

They are atheists in the strictest sense.

Whatever belief in God they possess is theoretical. God was in Christ, yes. He was in the past. And He will be in the future, they believe, when He takes them and others like them to Heaven.

As for the present, alas, they are on their own.

What, you ask, would lead me to say such outrageous things about some people who are members of good Baptist churches and who frequently get elected to high positions of leadership in those churches?

Two things.

1) I have a half-century of dealing with them. I have met them in every church I ever served. However, it took me decades to identify the problem.

2) The clue to their atheism is simple: There is no fear of God in them.

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It’s risky talking about the typical anything in church–people are as varied as their fingerprints, voice patterns, and DNA–but once in a while, it’s safe to draw a few general conclusions. Here’s one:

The average Christian who goes forth to witness for the Lord leaves out fully one-half of the equation between God and man.

Here’s what that means.

Suppose I decide to join the New Orleans Saints football team. Their offices and facilities are not more than 2 miles from my house, so one morning, I drive down, park my car and walk inside. A guard meets me.

“I’m here,” I tell him. “It took some doing, but I finally relented. I’m ready to give myself to this team.”

Being of a suspicious bent, the guard looks me up and down and says, “What are you talking about, mister? Why are you here?”

“I’m joining the Saints,” I say. “I’ve heard by the commercials that you need the support of the community. So, I have studied up on everything–talked to people, read the books, watched some games on tape–and I am now ready to join the team.”

“Oh, you are, are you?” he says.

“Yes sir,” I announce confidently. “In fact, I want Mr. Benson (he’s the owner) to know that I trust him. I believe he’s got the good of the community at heart. And Coach Payton, well, he’s the best. I feel like I know him personally. And of course, Drew Brees, the quarterback–well, sir, it’s going to be fun working with a champion like him. This is a big day for me.”

“There is only one problem, mister,” says the security guard.

“How could there be a problem?” I ask. “I think I’ve got everything figured out.”

“All but one,” he says. “The Saints don’t want you on the team. You may know them, but they don’t know you. You may approve the owner and the coaches, but frankly, sir, that doesn’t mean squat.”

I’m crestfallen. But the guard is not through.

“Sir, you run on home now. There is no place for you here. The Saints will be on television in a few weeks and you can watch their games from home. Get you a pennant and wave it, wear the t-shirt, put a sticker on your car.”

“But you cannot join the team,” he emphasizes, as he ushers me out the door.

The question before us today, class, is this: Even if you decided that you know Jesus, trust in Jesus, and have received Jesus, how do you know that He knows you, trusts you, and receives you?

After all, if Jesus does not know you, you are not saved (Matthew 7:23).

And, if Jesus does not trust you, you are not saved (John 2:23-25).

If Jesus does not receive you, you are not saved (II Corinthians 5:17).

In explaining how to be saved, many of us have left off the entire divine side of the operation. In so doing, we may well have left a lot of people in mortal peril.

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Earlier this week, I posted this note on Facebook: Wanna hear something funny? I certainly do. If you saw something, read something, heard something funny or unusual, pass it on. The rest of us need laughter in our lives, and if you have some to share, you are Heaven’s gift to us today.

What I anticipated is not what I received. I figured some FB friends would agree on the need for laughter. What I got was funny stories.

Here they are. All of them.

1) After an especially hard landing by an airline overseas, the captain dreaded standing at the galley door looking people in the eye and thanking them for choosing this carrier. He knew someone would have some sarcastic remark about his landing on this particularly windy day. However, no one commented until near the end when he spotted one little lady approaching him with a cane. As he thanked her, she said, “Sonny, I have one question for you. Did we land or were we shot down?” (from Gordon Donahoe)

2) A riddle from M-Fuge camep: How did they dig up gold and silver in Old Testament times? Answer: Miner Prophets. (from Keith Jones)

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“We are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. (Luke 23:41)

Every other day, it seems, the New Orleans newspaper tells of some group angry at a government entity for not “giving us what we have coming.”

Following Hurricane Katrina (August/September 2005), the federal government (in embodiments such as FEMA and the Corps of Engineers) arrived with billions of dollars to restore the city of New Orleans and help people rebuild their flooded homes. I have no idea how many billions were paid out, but the lasting remembrance some of us will carry to our graves are the disgruntled home-owners complaining about “not receiving my fair share.”

Recently a lawsuit was settled with the government handing out additional truckloads of cash. Plaintiffs claimed their homes had been appraised by the feds on the basis of what they were worth pre-Katrina and not what it would take to rebuild them.

The letters to the editor page regularly features stories from citizens not getting their fair share.

Watch for it in your area too. It’s coming. Belly-aching residents who are not getting what they deserve. It’s a national disease.

It’s all about justice.

In justice, I get my fair share. I get what’s coming to me. What I deserve.

Last week, as I write, untold millions watching the Casey Anthony trial from Orlando were stunned when the jury acquitted her of any responsibility in the death of her little daughter. A hue and cry went up from across the nation calling for justice.

I don’t know about you, my friend, but I do not want justice. Not in any shape or form.

I want mercy.

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Let me say up front that I do not have 7 ways to name your sermon. The title is stated this way as a concession to the fact that people like reading articles that offer 10 ways, 5 principles, 7 shortcuts, whatever. That is what this article is about!

Recently on this website I wrote an article which I called “Worship: Doing It the Wrong Way.” It was a one-idea theme, basically that when we go to church to “get something out of it,” we’re doing it all wrong. We ought to go to “give to the Lord the glory due His name” (Psalm 29:1).

As with many other articles we post here, the little essay was promptly picked up by an online sermon service that repackages my writing and forwards it to something like 100,000 of their closest friends. No problem whatsoever with that. And in case anyone wonders, no, no money changes hands. No blogger that I know of makes a dime from articles which these services pick up and send out. That’s not why we do this. Certainly not why this farm boy does it.

What was interesting about that, however, is that in selecting the article and sending it out, the sermon service felt they should rename it in order to make it more attractive to readers. For reasons that I find baffling, they redubbed it “Seven Things We Get Wrong About Worship.”

I went to their site and enjoyed reading a large number of comments from readers. Most were positive, a few were combative, but not a one picked up on the fact that there were not seven things or even five or three things in that article which people get wrong about worship. There was just the one.

By now, I’ve done this enough to know that editors seem to gravitate toward articles that offer bullet points–7 things, 10 easy steps, 5 insights. I suppose it’s a concession to the reading habits of the modern male. Male? Since something like 99 percent of ministers are male, yes, that would be who these headings are directed toward.

Someone says, “I thought men weren’t readers.” Fact: ministers are. They have to be.

Only, they just like 7 points. It’s easier to follow. After all, they do not plan to devote a lot of time to any one article.

So, after giving it some thought, I’ve hit upon some titles for which I’m considering writing articles and posting here on this website in the near future. See what you think.

How many are there? You know the answer to that.

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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Half the people I know in church have this list of Christlike qualities memorized. But I find myself wondering if they also know the list of counterfeits which precedes it. In some respects, it’s every bit as important to know the negatives, the dark side, the alternate universe if you will, of those wonderful positives.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also toldyou in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Note that these ugly traits are:

1) Of the flesh. Man-generated. We can’t blame them on God.

2) Against the Spirit. “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” (Gal. 5:17)

3) Anti-love, every one of them. Earlier, Scripture says, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (Gal. 5:14). Each one is a perversion, a corruption, of true love.

4) Your ticket to hell. “Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

At this, the beginning of a series on the fruit of the Spirit, let’s take a closer look at these counterfeits.

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I know precious little about humility. However I know one big thing: God requires it in His people.

Scripture is filled with teachings, examples, violations, commands, and encouragements regarding humility. Even our Lord Jesus Christ was humble and became our example. (Try these passages for starters: Matthew 11:29; John 13:14-15; Philippians 2:5-8.)

Scripture tells believers to put on humility (Colossians 3:12), be clothed with humility (I Peter 5:5), and to walk with humility (Ephesians 4:1-2).

The Lord wants His children to be humble so badly that He has given us seven aids to accomplish this and to keep us that way.

1. Common sense.

Look around at the billions of people. You’re just one of them. Look above at the zillions of stars. You’re sitting on one small planet circling one humble star. They’ve been around for eons, while you have only a few more years of life here. If that doesn’t humble you, you’re not paying attention.  (See Psalm 8)

2. The Holy Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, humility…. (Galatians 5:22-23).

3. Our family.

I heard the wife of a well-known preacher say on television once–and probably shocking her audience–“I tell my husband, ‘Don’t start that big shot thing with me. I saw you in your shorts this morning.'”  (My wife thought the woman spoke out of turn, that she should not have said that publicly.)

The old adage says, “No man is a hero to his valet.” To the Obama children, Barack is simply “Daddy.” To Billy Graham’s offsprings, he is “Daddy.” None tiptoe into his presence and genuflect.

4. Our friends.

Our closest friends are not in awe of us. They will tell us our breath smells bad, we need to use a hankie, or that we have a stain on our clothing we had not noticed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy (Proverbs 27:6).

5. Affliction, hardship.

You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you…. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

6. Failure.

Scripture cites so many instances of this, it’s hard to know where to start. God let Israel fail to conquer the tiny city of Ai to humble them because of sin in their camp. He let Samson fail because of his headstrong ways. Same with Nebuchadnezzar. Time and again, God allowed foreign nations to conquer Israel and dominate them until they humbled themselves and cried out to Him.

A friend told me that after his wife left him, thus ending his pastoral ministry that had made him a household name in his part of the world, God truly humbled him. I said, “My guess is you are doing far better work for the Lord now than before.” He said, “Before, I was working for myself. Now I work for Jesus.”

7. Criticism.

Nothing drove Moses to stay close to the Almighty like the constant carping of the Israelites. Many a pastor has stood in the pulpit and preached God’s message before people looking for flaws and eager to pounce on any mistake he made. It’s an awful way to live, but God can use this to build character in him and deepen his commitment to Christ.

A gospel song says it like this–

I thought number one would surely be me;

I thought I could be what I wanted to be.

I thought of myself as a mighty big man.

But I can’t even walk without You holding my hand.

Question: Why do we have to keep learning these lessons? Why does pride become such a dominant, malignant factor in our lives?

Answer: Because we live under a constant barrage of forces that neutralize humility.

Here are 7 forces that work against humility.

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Apparently President Obama is not denying it. According to my source, back in January of 2009 he said, “If this economy hasn’t rebounded in three years, I’m a one-term deal.”

Count on his opponents in the next election to make him wish he’d never uttered those words.

This week TIME magazine’s cover article on the U.S. Constitution says every president wants the debt ceiling raised, including President Obama. However, before he ran for the White House, Senator Obama resisted President Bush’s call for the debt ceiling to be raised and called it a “failure in leadership.”

Be careful whom you step on, on the way up, the old saying goes, because you’ll be meeting them on the way down. We might create a variation on that, and say: Be careful what you say about the presidency when you aspire to the office, because one day you might be its occupant.

We’ve all heard the expression that his mouth wrote a check he couldn’t cash. (There are variations, some cruder than we’ve stated it here.)

It’s about over-promising.

The young man trying to persuade the lovely young thing to be his bride promises he will go to church, hold a steady job, and be everything she ever wanted in a husband. She buys that line, meets him at the altar, and soon sits in the pastor’s office seeking counsel on how to get her now-husband to church.

The fellow vying for a sales jobs promises the sales manager, “Set a high goal for my territory, then watch my smoke. I’ll be your number one salesman within two years.”

The would-be coach tells the athletic director, “If we don’t win the conference within three years, you can fire me.”

The pastoral candidate tells the search committee, “God has gifted me with the ability to resurrect dying churches. I should have no trouble with your church.”

The prospective staffer tells the pastor who is considering employing him: “I have great leadership skills. I’ll double your youth group (or choir or Sunday School) within a year.”

File these under “Famous Last Words.”

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Early coal miners carried canaries into the deep pits with them as indicators of the presence of methane gas. Being more sensitive to these deadly fumes than humans, the bird would die long before the gas posed a problem for the miners. If the bird was dead, they ran for their lives.

We could all use a few canaries in our spiritual lives, to warn us when we were on dangerous ground as well as assure us when we were doing well.

Lately, I’ve been dwelling in Colossians 3:1-17. In fact, last Sunday, on Father’s Day, I urged the men in the Winnsboro, Louisiana, congregation to live in this passage for the next thirty days. Those who will read it often and think about it regularly will gradually learn a great deal about themselves and what it means to live for Christ. In time, they will begin seeing patterns in this text.

One evidence that Scripture is God-breathed and Spirit-powered is the multi-layers it possesses and the multi-dimensions on which it functions. A sixth-grader will read this passage and find that fits his life perfectly, while his grandfather will see something entirely different but incredibly beneficial.

What this grandfather sees in this passage today will be, I predict, different from what will stand out a month from now when I leave it. And yet, both will be true.

Here are four harbingers–four canaries, so to speak–(or measurements, signs, indicators) that alert the child of God who is growing in Christ that he actually is growing in the Lord. And when we finish, we’ll turn it around and see how the opposite of these likewise serve as warnings.

Four things begin to be prominent in your life as you grow in Christ.

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During the 1980s, a government scandal that took place during the Reagan administration went by the name of Iran-Contra. As a Senate investigation committee looked into matters, Colonel Oliver North was called to testify. He’d been what’s called a “White House operative” during that period.

North sat at a table in the hearing room accompanied by his attorney, Brendan Sullivan, member of a high-powered Washington legal firm. During the questioning period, a senator would ask North something, he would turn and confer with Sullivan, then turn back to the microphone and answer. Another question would be asked, North would confer with Sullivan, then answer.

Once in a while, Attorney Sullivan would respond to a senator’s question that it was vague or out of line or mistaken. Finally, in exasperation, the chairman of the committee, Hawaii’s Senator Daniel Inouye, erupted, “Sir! We would like to get a straight answer from Colonel North without your interruptions. Could I just ask a simple question and get an answer without you butting in?”

Brendan Sullivan said, “Well, sir…I’m not a potted plant. I’m here as the lawyer. That’s my job.”

I was watching that hearing from my living room couch and recall thinking, “Zing! You got him there, Mister Attorney. Great answer.”

That day, “I’m not a potted plant” entered the vernacular in American life. Google it or type it into a wikipedia search and it comes up on that Senate hearing.

When we say someone is a potted plant, we mean they are a non-entity, a nobody, a zero, a cipher, someone who does not count for anything, who can be safely ignored.

There is such a man in the 18th chapter of Luke’s Gospel. We call him Blind Bartimaeus. His community treated him like a potted plant. But he receives my nomination as the “smartest man in Jericho.”

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