There is a Good Reason for Joy

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Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

I believe in rejoicing.

I believe in rejoicing when things are going great and when they are falling apart.

I believe in rejoicing when you feel like shouting “God is good!” and when you wonder whether He knows you are still in this mess and still needing His help.

I believe in rejoicing in worship services and in private.

My favorite–and most often preached lately–sermon I call “Rejoice Regardless,” based on three texts which loom larger and larger in my mind as the days and years go by.

The basic “regardless” text: Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines. Though the yield of the olive should fail and the field produce no food. Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet, I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

The Lord Jesus emphasized the same point: Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20) You won’t always have great results and big numbers to report and rejoice over, but if we are rejoicing in our salvation, we will never be without joy.

The third text shows how it’s done. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. (Acts 16:25) In the Philippian jail, locked into stocks and with their bloody backs beaten and left untreated, these two disciples of Jesus broke into prayer and praise. As a result, wonderful things happened.

It occurs to me, that the missing note in almost every sermon I’ve ever preached or heard on rejoicing is the practical aspect. There are good reasons for the Lord wanting His people to rejoice at all times.

Here are three of the most important.

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The Hardest, Best Thing for a Preacher to Do

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(Please don’t miss my story at the end of this article on how the principles in this article work together.)

Malcolm Gladwell is speaking at a forum in New York City soon. The promotion describes him thusly:

The Canadian-born ‘New Yorker’ staff writer Malcolm Gladwell is the author of such best-selling books as “The Tipping Point,” “Blink,” “Outliers,” and “What the Dog Saw.” Gladwell is known for taking a unique perspective on seemingly well understood topics and generating new patterns of thought about them. This provocative thinker joins Luminato to share his latest brainstorm.

Do you ever read a sentence and a day later, it’s still with you, hounding your steps, disturbing your sleep, probing your spirit? That’s what that description of what Gladwell does did to me.

He takes seemingly well understood topics and generates new patterns of thought about them.

Anyone who can do that–who can show us a different perspective on something we thought we knew well and then can draw fascinating conclusions from it–that is someone I want to know.

You probably already know this writer. Many of my friends cannot wait for Gladwell’s latest books and eagerly snap them up as they hit the bookstores. There’s something about his unique way of looking at things that produces “aha!” moments and leaves readers gasping, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

In “The Tipping Point,” Gladwell wrote about how little things can make a big difference. What turns an unusual clothing item into a hot new fashion trend? What are the forces at work to cause strange shoes to go from being oddities worn only by oddballs one day to (ahem) Birkenstocks the next?

Gladwell tries to find the precise act when that change occurs. He calls that moment the tipping point.

In “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” Gladwell focuses on intuition. Far from being a glorified hunch, he says intuition is the result of long hours of work and searching and concentration. His examples are worth the price of the book.

“Outliers” is his latest hot book. Subtitle: “The Story of Success.” Gladwell examines achievers for what they have in common. He says we should not ask “what are these achievers like?” but “where are they from?” That is, what went into making them different from the rest of us? He finds commonalities for them.

Okay, pastor. Malcolm Gladwell is your new role model from now on. Go forth and do with your ministry what he does with the mundane things of everyday life.

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Deceiving and Bewitching as Careers

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O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? (Gal. 3:1)

The bewitchers are among us, hard at work.

I see it all the time.

Beautiful people sit (reluctantly) before me for me to do a quick sketch. I say, “Look at me please. Could I see a smile?” But getting a smile from them–or even eye contact–is next to impossible.

They say variations of, “I don’t smile” or “I don’t like my smile.” Sometimes, it’s “I’m shy” or “This is really difficult for me.”

And I wonder who has done a number on this person to warp their psyche that severely.

A man told me a few days ago, “I had a teacher in high school who said to me, ‘You do not have a nice smile.'” That was all it took, he said. Thereafter he went out of his way to avoid smiling.

Aarrgghh! That’s a good comic book expression that means, “This is awful! I cannot believe this!”

I see intelligent people–men and women and young people who are really brilliant with great gifts and talents–who seem to think they are stupid. Ask them to do something that requires reading or writing or thinking and you will hear a variation of “I’m not good at that” or “You’ve got the wrong person for that.”

Who bewitched them into believing they were dumb? Take your pick: a teacher, a parent, a friend. But someone did it to them. No one comes into the world automatically believing they are morons.

I see godly people oppressed by needless guilt over forgiven sins.

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How a Nobody Can Change the World

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I’m not anyone big or famous. I’m not an over-achiever. Not a Phi Beta Kappa, never voted “most likely to succeed,” and not even close to being a Fortune 500 CEO. No one is ever going to look my way and be impressed that they are in the presence of a mover and shaker.

Maybe so. Maybe not.

But if you are a serious follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can literally change the world and do it in a significant way. This is not unrealistic, not a dreamy preacher-type overstatement, and not out of the realm of possibilities.

Now, there are a few presuppositions we need to lay out before we name the three actions which you can do to change your world.

1) We’re talking about people who have genuinely received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

2) Okay, you’re a Christian in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Next, we’re talking about you taking seriously Christ’s mandate to be salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13) and light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

3) And, finally, we’re talking about you being willing to obey the Lord in whatever He assigns to you. That is, you read something in the Word and sense in your heart a tugging (pushing?) from the indwelling Holy Spirit that this one has your name all over it, and you get up and obey.

If that’s you–if you have received Christ and you are serious about making a difference for His sake and you are willing to obey Him–then, here are three actions for you to take which will be used of God to change your world.

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“We Want You as Our New Pastor. Just as Soon as We Get Rid of Our Old Preacher.”

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My pastor friend told me this.

“From time to time, members of my old church–the one where I came to know the Lord and was baptized, was ordained as a deacon and later to the ministry–will tell me they want me to be their new pastor. That is, they do, just as soon as they get rid of the one they’ve got.”

He said, “I will confess that I’ve thought from time to time maybe the Lord might send me back there to pastor. It’s just a thought, you understand.”

“But when people say that to me, I tell them, ‘Okay, here is the only way I would want to become your pastor. Go see your present pastor. Tell him that you are going to support him 100 percent, that you are going to pray for him every day and be his biggest encourager. Then, if and when the Lord leads him away, if God tells me to become your pastor, I would be honored.'”

“Invariably, though, they say to me, ‘But he’s not giving good leadership. The church is suffering under him. He needs to go.'”

“I tell them, ‘Maybe he would if you would love him and encourage him and pray for him. If you would go out of your way to assure him you are supporting him and that he can count on you a hundred percent. You’d be amazed what that does to a pastor.'”

“Frankly,” my friend admitted, “That is not what they want to hear.”

Maybe not. But it’s the wisest counsel possible to God’s people in that circumstance.

Here’s why.

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When the Preacher is a Joke–And How to Prevent That Syndrome

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It sounded cruel, but he was not a believer and his assessment of the former pastor was an honest statement of how he felt.

After hanging in with a church of their denomination for too long–watching the pastor drive people away by his lack of ministry, his poor leadership, and a neglect of everything that makes a church a church–the entire family reluctantly moved to a church a few miles away. What they found there was striking in its contrast.

The congregation was warm and friendly, the church was thriving, and the pastoral team was outstanding. The minister’s sermons were powerful, biblical, and convicting. When a grandchild went into the hospital for surgery, the pastor left home before 5 am and met the family in the medical center. After praying with them, he stayed until the medical staff reported that the surgery had ended and the child was doing great.

After he left, the son-in-law, father of the child who had just come through the surgery, offered his assessment of the contrast between this new pastor and the old one who was still in the former church. “The other one was a joke,” he said.

A joke.

The family member who reported this to me observed, “We would not agree with Bobby that any minister is a joke. Remember, Bobby is unsaved and was not raised in the church. This is his honest reaction.” Then she said, “But no one in our family can help but be struck with the contrast in the sermons of the two men.”

How were they different? The former minister filled his sermon time with jokes and funny stories then ended with a short devotional thought. The new minister preaches a powerful message direct from God’s Word, the kind of sermon that cuts and convicts and inspires and blesses.

When a conversation (or story or scripture or quote) lodges itself in my heart and will not leave me alone, I know the Holy Spirit has sent me a message. That’s the case with this.

The contrast between those two preachers and those two types of sermons need closer investigation. Let’s attempt to do that here.

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How to Tell You’re No Leader

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Woe unto you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. (Luke 6:26)

Let’s just come right out and say it up front:

Unless someone is not constantly on your case, mad at you, irritated, and upset with you all the time, you are no leader.

The would-be leader who fails to recognize this will be constantly bewildered by the reactions of the people he has been sent to serve.

He comes into a church with a divine mandate. (This is not pious talk. He has been called by God into the ministry and sent by Him to this church. If that’s not a divine mandate, nothing is.) He proceeds to take the reins and lead out. To his utter amazement, the very people he expected to welcome his ministry, to support his vision, to affirm his godliness, to volunteer their service–those very people–stand back and carp and criticize and find fault.

This was the last thing he expected.

Because he’s human, he begins to wonder many things: Did I make a mistake in coming here? Am I doing something wrong? Are these people not God’s children? Should I stay? Should I leave?

I answer: You’re doing just fine, preacher. Stay the course.

Salt is an irritant. We have been sent into this world as its salt (Matthew 5:13).

Light hurts the eyes. We were sent as the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). The brighter it shines, the more darkness resists it, resents it, runs from it.

This is as good a place as any to state the obvious: Many in places of leadership inside our churches are not leaders. I’m talking about pastors, staffers, deacons, and other so-called leaders.

They may qualify as counselors, program directors, consensus builders, negotiators, mediators, affirmers, or even teachers. But they are not leaders.

A leader by the very definition stands apart from the crowd, pointing and pushing and urging them onward to a destination that many cannot understand, do not see, and are not sure they want. The more forcibly he or she leads, the greater the reaction against his message and his methods by some.

Thankfully, not all. But there’s always some who will oppose any challenge to the status quo.

Perfectionism is one of the leader’s greatest enemies. If he waits until 100 percent of the team is on board, they will still be sitting there when Jesus returns.

When a leader insists on the enthusiastic support and complete approval of every last member of the team, the work grinds to a halt and all forward progress ends at that point.

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The Person I Want Praying For Me

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If you’re like me, you’re glad to have the prayers of anyone and everyone. And yet, when we have an urgent need, the kind we want kept in confidence, and for which we need immediate emergency prayer, the people we first think of calling are extremely few in number.

We were facing a family crisis, but the kind you don’t want to write about on your blog or announce in facebook or proclaim from the pulpit. It was more the type every family deals with sooner or later and wishes would go away.

We needed to pray and we needed prayer.

Margaret thought of one person to call and I thought of one. We made those two phone calls and enlisted those special friends to intercede for the situation. We have every confidence in them and in their prayers.

Do I think God hears one person’s prayers above all others? Do I think some people pray better than other people? Would a loving Father choose to answer one child’s requests and ignore the pleas from another?

I have no answer to these questions.

God is sovereign and can answer any request He pleases (Psalm 115:3). If there is a pattern to the way He grants one request and denies another, I haven’t found it yet.

It’s tempting to say it’s all a matter of faith, but we know better than that. People of great faith go through times when Heaven seems far off, when their prayers seem to rise no higher than the ceiling, when God seems deaf or preoccupied, the same as everyone else.

Even so, you and I have a few people whom we think of calling for prayer before everyone else.

Here are the four qualities of the person I call for prayer first.

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“A Loving God Would Always Please Us.” Say What?

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Some guy in Alabama ticked me off the other day.

I was driving back to New Orleans from two weeks of ministry in Tennessee and Kentucky when I bought a Birmingham (AL) News in Tuscaloosa. At a rest stop in Mississippi, I scanned it and was snagged by a letter to the editor written by an outspoken agnostic.

After reading it and steaming a little, I tossed the paper in the trash. Later, wished I’d kept it just for reference here. So I’m going by memory.

The writer wanted the world to know that the recent tornadoes in Alabama proves beyond doubt either that there is no God or if there is, He is a tyrant who delights in doing cruel things.

He was clearly proud of his great letter. Betcha he clipped it and is displaying it somewhere prominent in his house.

I’m wondering now if anyone responded to the editor and answered the letter. Probably not. The Bible cautions against answering fools, and this guy surely fits in that category.

Now, I am not saying all atheists or all agnostics are shallow, non-thinking, or even fools. When Scripture says the fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God’ (Psalm 14:1), it’s not saying everyone who says that is a fool. Only that fools do this. There is a difference.

Many an agnostic or atheist is an honest seeker, and if he/she perseveres will emerge into the light. They are not fools.

But this guy was. I feel safe in saying that.

Think of it. This fellow’s reasoning process goes like this: If there were a good God, He would only do those things that please us. Since there is much in this world that displeases us, there must not be a loving God.

(Hey, I took a course in logic in college. I don’t claim to remember everything about it, but I do know the syllogism.)

Imagine someone looking you in the eye and saying this: “There cannot possibly be a loving God because there are things that take place in the world we don’t like.”

That’s what that bird is saying.

But he’s not alone. He has his friends–birds of the same feather–in churches all across the land, and ensconced in seats of criticism where they sound forth on their ridiculous philosophy.

Remember the J. B. Phillips book from a generation ago? Your God is Too Small answered this foolishness back then. Trouble is, it keeps popping up with each new crop of critics, people too lazy to think matters through, people who want their theology to be easy and go down smooth, otherwise they reject all notions of God.

So, what is the correct answer? Why the tornadoes across the Deep South two weeks ago? Why the flooding in the Mississippi River Valley right now? Why do good people go through suffering while Heaven seems deaf to their pleas?

No one has all the answers. Here are some.

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Signs the Pastor is Not Interested in Reaching People

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I sat in your church and heard you preach. You did not know I was in the congregation because we never had the opportunity to meet.

Now, I was visiting in your part of the state, and the next day moved on to the next city where I’m ministering. So, had we met you would not have greeted a prospective member and probably would not have remembered it the next day. That’s fine.

What concerns me is that I had with me some friends who have moved to your city. I was hoping they would make some kind of connection with you and your church. That did not happen.

Watching what you did and failed to do concerns me. One reason it has persisted in my thoughts is that I’m certain at various times in my six pastorates, I made the same mistakes as you.

Since we do not know each other, I’m assuming you will not read this. So this is not for you. Rather, we post it on this website in the hope that other pastors will look at their own Sunday ministries in view of the newcomer sitting in the pews.

Here is what you did.

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