I’m struck by Paul’s tribute to Stephanas in I Corinthians 16. Along with his circle of family and friends, this brother in the Lord did three things earning him an “honorable mention” in Holy Scripture—

1. Stephanas and his circle of family and friends were addicted to ministry. That’s quite a tribute. In our day, when people see needs, they do as the Lord’s disciples did in the early part of John 9 and get into debates over who is to blame. But there are among us a few who have no time for such pointless dilly-dallying. They jump in to see what they can do to alleviate the situation.

2. Stephanas and his gang filled the cracks of service. Paul says, “They completed what was lacking on your part.” It would have been so easy for Stephanas to become angry over dropped commitments and failed promises. But he didn’t. When the pledges of support from Corinth did not arrive as promised, Stephanas stepped in and ministered to Paul in whatever ways he required. (There’s no way to know, but I’m betting Paul needed some cash!)

3. As a result, Paul says, “they refreshed my spirit.” (I Corinthians 16:18) All around the great apostle were people who were bleeding him dry — draining his spirit, eroding his strength, exhausting his patience. Then, along comes Stephanas and his friends. When they depart, Paul is recharged, renewed, refreshed, and ready to go again.

That’s the kind of person I want to be. “Lord, make me a refresher. I want to be one who finds the brother in the ditch or sprawled along the wayside where life has felled him, and stands him on his feet.”

I like finding signs with misprints. Often these are the results of a miscommunication between the person who orders it and the one who prints it. For instance, a sign in front of a local neighborhood center announced: “A DULT DANCE — Thursday 7 pm.” It was repeated just like that on the other side.

I read that and wondered, “What is a dult? And why are they invited to the dance and no one else?”

In a book, this misprint gave me a chuckle: “They are up there hugging one anther.” Someone had written underneath, “I’ll hug an anther. Show me one.”

That all brings to mind a famous bit of graffiti observed on a New York subway. Someone had scrawled, “I love grils.” Underneath, another person had written: “Girls.” And under that, a third person had penned: “But what about us grils?”

I was preaching a revival in Reform, Alabama. After Sunday morning church, we were standing in a line, about to be served lunch in the fellowship hall. A man ahead of me gave me one of the best cartoon lines I’ve ever heard. He remarked to a friend, “This morning I told my wife, ‘I’m coming back this afternoon and see if I want to sleep on this pew as bad as I think I do!'”

A critic said, “Reverend Jones’ sermons have too many points. Pastor Smith’s sermons are pointless.” You just can’t please some people.

I’ll end with this bit of foolishness I penned six or seven years back. It embodies some of my peeves….

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED…

–that the cheaper the preacher’s doctorate, the more gaudily he displays it?

–that the better prepared a sermon is, the less time it takes to deliver?

–that the better educated a pastor is, the less he calls attention to his qualifications?

–that the more effectively someone prays, the less they mention how long they pray?

–the better informed church members are, the less they tend to argue. Or put another way, the less they know, the more they insist that what little they do know is “the” truth.

–the more a preacher mutilates the rules of good grammar, the more some will love his preaching.

–the bigger a car the guest preacher drives, the better offering the members will give him. (I actually heard an evangelist claim this to be so.)

–the meaner a preacher is from the pulpit, the more some people are convinced this is old-fashioned prophetic preaching against sin.

–the sillier a pastor is in his preaching, the more some think he’s doing that to attract young people and that the youth really like it.

–the less a pastor reads the newspaper and keeps up with world events, the more some members will insist he is preaching only the pure word of God. If he never uses an illustration or tells a story, they will praise him for his great expository preaching. (They do this, in spite of Mark 4:34 telling us Jesus never preached without stories or Luke 13:1-5 where Jesus refers to current events; these people would not like Jesus’ preaching!)

–if the pastor’s sermon has three points and all begin with the same letter of the alphabet, there’s not a pulpit committee on earth that can resist him.

–the Sunday the pastor ends a series on a Bible book and drops in a topical sermon, some first-time visitor will decide not to come back because ‘we like expository preaching.’

–the very week the pastor is planning to preach on tithing, someone will brag on him publicly for not always harping on money.

–and lastly, have you ever noticed that when a man spends forty years in the ministry, he starts making grand pronouncements like these!!!

Guilty, your honor.