Have you ever been talking to someone who will say something and they say “the Bible says. . .” and it sounds right, but it isn’t really in the Bible?  I think there are several of those type of statements, and I will try to deal with them over the next couple of days or so (maybe a week).  One such statement is that “we are to be so heavenly minded, that we are no earthly good.”  Let me say at the outset, I understand the premise of the statement, but I think we as pastors and teachers must be careful how we phrase things.  Paul says in Philippians 3:20, “For our conversation (citizenship-ESV) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  We are to like a kingdom-minded life, but we must realize that part of that life is living on mission here in this life.  According to Ecclesiastes 3:11, God has put eternity in our hearts (He hath set the world in their heart-KJV), and so we as Christians long for heaven and eternity with Christ.  But that does not negate our God-given mission while here on earth.  Jesus told us in Matthew 28 to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them all things that I have commanded you, and I am with you even unto the end of the age.”  Jesus has told us to be a “city on a hill” (Mt. 5:14), “salt of the earth” (Mt. 5:13), “light of the wolrd” (Mt. 5:14), and He told us “to let our light so shine that men see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).  If I am only thinking of eternity and living there, I am highly unlikely to do those things.  I think a better statement would be that we need to be so heavenly minded that we do good on earth by pointing others to Christ.  Kingdom living is a life in which I live like a citizen of heaven (I do the things that please God) who is obeying the King.  I had this conversation with someone on Saturday at a t-ball game, but I believe God is giving His church a unique opportunity right now.  With the housing market, job market, stock market, storms, politics, and other things going on in life right now, I believe people are seeking stability in an unstable world.  You and I dear Christian can offer that, because we can offer Jesus Christ.  This may truly be our last attempt at winning America for God and so we need to live in the here and now, and focus on those who God has put before us, and speak the name that is above every name, the only name by which men may be saved, the name of Jesus Christ!

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

My family and I went to Mineral Springs Baptist this past Sunday night as my wife’s grandparents go there.  On a quick side note I would like to say to all pastors and teachers, it is important that you take time to be fed God’s Word as well.  I realize you spend most of your week preparing to feed other people, but your effectiveness as a preacher or teacher is directly tied to your own spiritual condition.  How can you or I stand before our people and tell them they need to be faithful to be fed the Word of God, when we only spend our time on feeding them and neglect ourselves?  Ok, that was the side trip.

Pastor Jason was preaching on James 1.  In the middle of his message he made an interesting observation.  Many times all the unbelievers only hear Christians talk about what we are against (and let’s be honest the list is long).  I am not saying that as Christians we should not talk about sin and call it what it is.  In fact if you attend Westlake Baptist you will freely hear the word sin mentioned and preached on not only from the pulpit but also in Sunday school classes.  We believe that sin separates us from God and unless we come to faith in Jesus Christ sin will eternally condemn us to hell.  But the point Pastor Jason was making is a valid point.  Many times we as Christians when pointing out what we are against only deal with the symptom and not the root cause.  We do this because the outward symptom makes us uncomfortable.  My question is this, is this not legalistic Christianity the same as it was with the Pharisees in Jesus’ day?  If all we do is focus on the outward behavior then what we are telling people is that they need to conform to certain acceptable standards and they will be fine.  My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that is not the message of the Gospel, that is legalism and I want us to remember that Jesus called the Pharisees “white washed tombs who looked great on the outside, but inside were full of dead men’s bones” in Matthew 23.  Jesus also called them a dirty cup in Matthew 23.  Have you ever had a coffee cup at your office?  Many times we fill it up with coffee and when we are done drinking it what do we do?  Many times we just leave it on our desk.  The outside is nice and clean, but the inside is anything but clean.  That is a physical description of the spiritual condition of the Pharisees and sadly enough many Christians today.  I can hear some of you disagreeing with me so permit me to give you some examples.

Example number one: Why is it that we preach against homosexuality, but seldom preach against heterosexual co-habitation?  It is because homosexuality makes us uncomfortable, but we don’t think twice about a man and a woman living together who are not married because at least they are not homosexuals.  With all due respect that is legalism, that is us as Christians desiring to change a symptom rather than addressing the root cause.

Example number two: Why is it that we preach against alcohol and drug abuse, but seldom preach on gluttony (over-eating)?  I read a book called “Lose it for Life” and in it the author makes this point, “If a preacher were to step into the pulpit drunk or take a pornographic magazine up with him he would be fired immediately.  But we don’t think twice about him carrying an extra 50+ pounds up there with him.”  Now that is getting very personal for me.  I am not picking on my portly proclaimers of the truth (because I am one), but simply making a point.  I hope my point has become a little more clear.

Please understand my heart on this, I agree that the outward behaviors are problems, but we need to remember that sin is sin, and sin is only the outward manifestation of an inward condition.  Do we want people to change their sinful behaviors?  Absolutely we do.  But we must come to realize that their eternal salvation is more important than anything else.  I don’t just want their outward actions to be changed for the sake of change, I want to see their heart changed which will inevitably lead to changes in their and my actions.  The root problem is a depraved heart that leads to depraved actions.  If God changes their heart (through their faith in His sacrifice on the cross) then I guarantee their actions will change because they are not the same person they use to be.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

The Bible tells us that in the last days not only will there be false teachers, but that people will willingly turn away from the truth (2 Tim. 4:3). I think of it as people choosing to believe the gospel of convenience. What I mean by that is that people will pick and choose what parts of the Bible they like and which parts they don’t care for. This isn’t just a problem from those outside of the church, but it is also becoming more prevalent from those inside the church. A good example is a pastor that has taken issue with another pastor by the name of David Platt and David’s call for Christians to live what he terms a “radical” Christianity. I will say at the outset of this that I have read “Radical” and I am currently working on Platt’s newest book entitled, “Follow Me.” This particular pastor says that we need ordinary people living out ordinary lives so that the world will be drawn to Christianity. Again as someone who has read the book and reading another one, my observation of David Platt is that he is calling Christians to live a biblical lifestyle. After all wasn’t it Jesus in Luke 6:46 that asked the question, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Wasn’t it also Jesus just three chapters later in Luke 9 that taught if we are going to be his disciples we must love him more than our family, our possessions, and our plans for our life? The truth of the matter is living a biblical lifestyle is a high calling. It is not something that an ordinary person can do because it is a life that God must live through us. As one pastor put it, if Christianity was easy then everyone would be living a Christian life. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not convenient, but rather it is inconvenient because it tells us, it teaches us, and more importantly Jesus showed us that if we are going to follow him we will not follow the ways of the world. I will admit that taking the easy way out from time to time would be more convenient and more conducive to a comfortable life, but in the end I reminded that the path of least resistance only serves to make rivers and people crooked. The challenge that I see David Platt as giving myself as well as all Christians is a challenge that calls us to true obedience and a lifestyle that pleases God. I see my calling laid out in Ephesians 6:6 which says, “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” The question we now must ask ourselves is this, Will I answer that call and live a life of true obedience to Christ?

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

I apologize for not writing on the blog last week. For those of you who attend Westlake Baptist you know I had a minor mishap that resulted in a broken hand. However  thanks to my parents a couple Christmases ago I am still able to type simply by speaking.

If you joined us at Westlake Baptist this past Sunday you heard a familiar line. That line is,” it’s not a sacrifice if it doesn’t cost you something.” The word sacrifice is used over 200 times in the Bible. In each circumstance it costs someone something. It is really easy to talk about sacrifice when you are not asked to make one. However the proverbial ” rubber meets the road” moment comes when you must give a sacrifice. It is in these difficult moments that many well-meaning Christians often quote Romans 8:28 which says, ” and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” I myself have used that verse on a number of occasions. One thing I try to stress whether I speak that verse to someone or if I am preaching it, is that it says all things work for good, it doesn’t say all things are good. This is where theologians talk about the sovereignty of God. Do I believe that God is in control of all circumstances for do I believe that God is in control of circumstances that turn out the way I want them to? Again, if you are not in the middle of a difficult time you generally answer this question very quickly. However, when you are in the middle of a difficult time the answer comes a little slower, and sometimes your answer is entirely different.  Yet that is the question before us, do we truly believe God is in control? If we trust God in the good times then shouldn’t we also trust him in what we perceive to be difficult times?  After all, who decides what is a good thing or a bad thing? How many times have we thought things were bad only to look back at the end and see that it turned out to be good? The only way we can make it through life is to pray seeking God’s will and then trusting that his will is both good and perfect. You may be asked to give a sacrifice in life, but remember God gave the ultimate sacrifice. And if that ultimate sacrifice was for our good then we can trust what ever sacrifice he asks us to make is also for our good.

If you have ever attended a service at Westlake Baptist you know that when I preach I love to ask questions to the congregation.  I hope that by provoking thoughts with questions, God will lead you to the answer that He has for you.  There have been many times I have asked the question, “how many of you want to suffer in life?”  Then I generally ask, “how many of you want a strong faith and a strong relationship with God?”  It is then that I hit them with the truth that it is nearly impossible to have the second without going through the first.  James 1:2-4 says, “My brethren (this indicates James is talking to Christians), count it all joy when ye fall into divers (various) temptation; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect workd, that ye may be perfect (complete) and entire, wanting nothing.”  James clearly says you can have a strong faith without some suffering.  Now in all honesty we as Christians want a great relationship with God, we want a strong faith, but we want to accomplish it in a way better than Jesus had it.  If we study the Gospels we see that as a result of Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will He suffered immensely.  Now I am not going to say that going through suffering is fun or easy.  But I want to key in on a word that James used in verse two.  The word is “joy.”  The Greek word is “chara” which means cheerfulness or calm delight.  How in the world can I be cheerful or have a calm delight in the middle of a difficult time in life? If you read verses 3 and 4 you will find that answer.  I can be cheerful and have a calm delight in the midst of difficult times if I remember that God is allowing it to strengthen my faith (may be perfect and complete).  It is hard to remember (trust me I know) this when we are in the middle of the storm, but it is true.  Jesus is trying to conform us to His image.  If I were to use the imagery of a potter and clay I would ask, how does the potter form the clay?  He does it by pouring water on it, then spinning it on a wheel, and applying pressure with certain parts of his hand to form it into what he desires it to be.  Sometimes the potter even has to reach into the clay and pull out clumps that are weakening what he is creating.  If I were to use the imagery of a goldsmith or a blacksmith I would ask, how do they form the metal they are working with into the shape they desire it to be?  They do it by applying fire to it in order to heat it up so that it become pliable and they are able to shape it.  Both of these are true in a Christians life as well.  God is a Potter who puts us on His wheel and applies pressure to us and removes clumps (sin) from our life so we are become stronger.  God is a blacksmith or goldsmith in that He applies fire to us to melt the impurities (again sin) out of our life so that what is left is pure and able to be molded into the desired image (the image of Christ).

Therefore, for those of you who are going through a difficult time I pray you will be encouraged by these words. God is up to something in your life, or maybe He is up to something in the lives of those around you.  He has not left you nor forsaken you, in fact He is right there walking with you every step of the way. In good times and in difficult times may we all remember the words of Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  You may not see what God is doing in your life right now, but when you get to the end I guarantee if we allow the Potter and the Blacksmith to form us, the end result will be a masterpiece (see Eph. 2:10).

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

In beginning work for this coming Sunday’s message I have been reading through Romans 8.  This week (Lord willing) I will preach on the power of the resurrection to give us eternal life.  In Romans 8 Paul makes a statement in verse 9, “. . .now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is non of His.”  In other words, if we don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside of us then we don’t belong to Christ.  Christ warned that there would be many who would be good church-going people who believed they were saved only to find out when they stand before Christ that they aren’t His children.  As I read Romans 8:9 a question popped into my head, if the Spirit of God is proof of our salvation, how can we know that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us?  We certainly don’t want to deceive ourselves and be eternally condemned when we have the chance to get it right now do we? I want to share a recent humorous story from my family’s life.  Let me go ahead and say that I did get permission to share this one!

Diana and I were preparing to take a trip last week which meant we needed to get some supplies for the kids to take to my in-laws as they would be watching the children while Diana and I were gone.  Diana took the kids with her to Kroger to get the needed groceries.  They got what they needed and proceeded to the self check-out.  When it was time to pay Diana noticed something, her card was expired.  She had the new one at home and had simply forgotten to activate it and start using it.  She tried to use the expired one and of course it wouldn’t work.  You can imagine what is going to happen with kids with her right?  Our eldest son, Eli asks, “what’s wrong mommy do we not have enough money to buy the groceries?”  “Do we not have any money in the bank?”  You can imagine how Diana is feeling at this point can’t you?  And you know that a small child has no clue what an “inside voice” is.  Diana is trying to explain to our six year old that we have money in the bank, we can afford the groceries, it is simply that her credit card had expired.  We all know the six year old children understand that concept don’t we?  Then Diana has to explain to the Kroger worker that she will have to go get the new card and come right back to pay for it.  Of course the Kroger worker doesn’t believe that she is coming back, but agrees to set the cart to the side until Diana returns.  To her credit (or maybe because Kroger is the only grocery store close to us) Diana went got the new card, activated it, and returned to the store for her items.  I tell you this story because what do you think was going through the Kroger worker’s mind?  I imagine that they have seen this a time or two (or thousands) where people do get too much and they can’t afford it.  I also imagine that they come up with elaborate reasons to tell the workers as to why it won’t go through.  But the truth was, Diana simply needed her new card.  So things really aren’t always as they seem!  Now let’s get back to what Paul was talking about and hopefully tie this up into a pretty little bow.

Remember, I asked the question based on Romans 8:9, how does a person know if they have the Holy Spirit living inside of them, which according to Scripture is proof of their salvation?  I believe the Bible gives us at least 10 ways to know that we are saved.  First, do you enjoy fellowship with God, Jesus, and other believers (1 John 1:3-4)?  Essentially, do you enjoy being in the presence of God and other believers?  Secondly, do you have a sensitivity to sin (1 John 1:5-10)?  Is there conviction when you sin? Third, are you basically obedient to the commands of Scripture (1 John 2:3-5)?  We all know that we are not perfect, but are we at least basically living the way we are suppose to while striving to be better?  Next, what is your attitude toward the world and its values (1 John 2:15)?  The Bible says that a Christian is going to live differently and believe differently than the world (Rom. 12:1-2).  Next, do you love Jesus Christ and look forward to His coming (1 John 3:2-3)?  Next, do you practice sin less now that you have professed faith in Christ (1 John 3:5-6)?  Another proof of salvation is, do you love other believers (John 13:34-35; 1 John 3:14)?  Have you experienced answered prayer (1 John 3:22; 5:14-15)?  Next, do you have the ability to discern between a spiritual truth and error (John 10:3-5; 1 John 4:1-6)?  Finally, do you believe the basic doctrines of the faith as taught in Scripture (1 John 5:1)?  While this is not an exhaustive list nor did I go into great detail on each of them, hopefully it will serve as a jumping off point for you to have an honest conversation with God.  Salvation isn’t a “hope-so, maybe-so, think-so” thing, it is a “know-so” thing.  So if you don’t have absolute security that you are saved, go through these questions and talk through them with God and allow Him to show you whether or not you are saved, because an eternity is a long time to be wrong!

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

Many things have become evident to me since God blessed me to become a father, but one thing has stood out over the years.  When Diana and I started having children, she and I were no longer important.  Even at family functions, people do not ask about Diana and I.  It is generally, how are the kids, where are the kids, etc.  I’m not longer Justin, but rather I am now Eli, Noah, Caleb, and Cataleyah’s dad.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not upset about it it is just interesting to see how life changes you and how society views you as you get older and move into different stations in life.  I’m sure my parents went through it, especially when my sister and I were playing ball growing up.  All of this got me to thinking, am I defined by my identity?  Am I willing to lose my identity in order to follow Christ?

In Matthew 19 Jesus tells a parable about a rich young man.  The man seemed religious enough (never a good thing by the way in Scripture).  After all he told Jesus that he kept the commandments from the time he was a young man until now.  His question seemed like the right one to ask, “what good deed must I do to have eternal life” (Mt. 19:16)?  Of course the theologian in me and in you point out that this young man’s religion was based on what he could do, not who Christ is and what Christ was going to do.  Jesus’ answer seems simple enough, “sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Mt. 19:21).  The rich young man’s reaction told the whole story of who he was, “when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possession” (Mt. 19:22).  You see this rich young man’s identity in the world was that he was rich.  Back then just as today, money bought you notoriety and power.  People valued you based on what you had rather than who you were.  Again this is still true today.  The truth of the matter is that if we are going to make a difference in the world for Christ, it can’t be about us, who we are, or what we have.  It must be about who Christ is, what He has done on the cross, and what He desires to do for all mankind (save them from their sins and eternal judgment).  In order for this to happen we must be willing to surrender our worldly identity.  We have to be willing to get rid of anything and everything that is keeping us from loving the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.  While that sounds easy, I would caution us, if it was easy everyone would be doing it.  But I can say without any hesitation or reservation that the day I gave it all away, I gained so much more.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

I have always found it interesting that the Friday before Easter Sunday is referred to as Good Friday.  Because I have geek-like tendencies I started studying the origin of the term and found out some interesting facts (don’t worry I won’t lay them all out here).  It was interesting to learn that the early church did set aside every Friday as a special day of prayer in preparation for the coming Sunday services.  However, in the third or fourth century the Friday before Easter took on extra meaning when it was a special day of prayer and services.  When this happened it was originally known as “God’s Friday” to symbolize this was the commemoration of God’s judgment being poured out on His Son for the sins of the world.  However, as time went on people thought “God’s Friday” sounded “too holy” and therefore they replaced the word “God’s” with “good” (if I was teaching on this in a service this is where I would say, but that is another sermon for another Sunday).  Suffice to say it focuses on the events of this day in preparation for the celebration of Sunday.

However, you can certainly make the case that this for a Christian and possibly for the rest of the world is a “good Friday.”  I heard Dr. Johnny Hunt say this a few weeks ago, “It’s kind of like when you break a bone and the doctor has to reset it.  He has to hurt you to help you.”  Except in this case, God didn’t hurt us, rather He allowed His Son to be hurt on our behalf.  I have encouraged our church to read Isaiah 53 once per day this week.  Many times we focus on verse 5 which says, “But He (Christ) was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.”  This verse shows that Christ’s crucifixion was substituionary in nature.  In other words, Christ took the wounding, the bruising, and the stripes we deserved.  Listen to verses 10-11, “Yet it pleased the LORD (Yahweh-a reference to God the Father) to bruise Him; He (The Father) hath put Him (Christ) to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for siin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.  He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My Righteous Servant (a reference to Christ) justify man; for He shall bear their iniquities.”  God had to hurt His Son in order to help all of mankind.  Sin had broken the fellowship of man with God and in order to reset that bone, Christ had to lay down His life.

There is only one time recorded in Scripture that when Jesus spoke with His Father Jesus did not refer to Him as “Father.”  It is recorded in Matthew 27:46 where Jesus says, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  The one time in Jesus’ life that He didn’t have a perfect relationship with His Father was when Jesus was paying the debt we owed.  That gives new meaning and understanding to what Paul wrote in Romans 5.  Paul surmises that someone might die for someone they thought was a good person, but Paul pretty much says that no man would be willing to die for someone they thought was bad (after all, do any of us want to face the death penalty for a murder, child molester, addict, etc?).  But listen to Romans 5:8 (which comes right after what Paul just previously said), “But God commendeth (demonstrated) His love toward us, that, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  In other words, when no one else would have died for us, Christ did!

I want to say this in closing, regardless of what the world tells you, and unfortunately regardless of what some Christians may say to you, God loves you and He showed it by giving you His best (Jesus) when you AND I were at our worst.  There is no sin that Christ cannot free you from.  There is no past that God cannot overcome, not because of who you are or what you can do, but because of what Christ did for you on the cross on this day we call Good Friday.

If you don’t have a church home or a place you plan on visiting this Sunday and you are going to be in the Smith Mountain Lake area, I want to invite you to visit us here at Westlake Baptist at 8:30 or 11:00.  If you aren’t in the area I want to encourage you find a place to worship this Sunday, it just might change your life and your eternity to hear again and to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

If you are a sports fan it is a fun time of year with college basketball’s tournament in full swing.  This past weekend it tipped off and as usual provided a lot of excitement and craziness.  There was one game in particular that caught my attention as I happened to be in the car and listening to it at the time.  It was the game between Marquette and Davidson.  Marquette was the favored team to win the game, but Davidson had played almost flawlessly.  In fact Davidson had played 39 minutes (a regulation college game is 40 minutes) of basketball the way they needed to in order to win the game. With one minute left to go in the game Davidson was leading by 7 points and seemed certain to pull the upset.  However, I wouldn’t be writing about them if they had held on for the final minute.  Davidson missed several free throws that could have given them a larger lead and most likely guaranteed a win.  Then all of the sudden Marquette hit two three point baskets to make it a one point game with only eight seconds to go.  Time was still on Davidson’s side because all they had to do was get the ball in bounds and run out the clock.  But the man who threw a pass threw it too far and it went out of bounds giving Marquette one last chance.  If the previous 52 seconds had not been crazy what transpired next sure was.  Marquette threw the ball in bounds and the guy dribbled right down the court and made a lay-up (the easiest shot in basketball).  No one ha guarded him or tried to stop him, they basically let him score.  The crowd went crazy and I saw pictures later that night of the Davidson team who looked stunned at what had just happened.

It got me to thinking about finishing well.  Sometimes we get to the end of a school year and we don’t finish as strong because we are ready for summer vacation.  Sometimes when it is the day before vacation starts we don’t work as hard because we are thinking about our vacation.  Sometimes as Christians when we have walked with Christ for a while, we take things for granted and we don’t do the things we know we should.  The apostle Paul at the end of his life said this in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”  We each have a race to run that is unique to us.  God has certain plans for our life (Jer. 29:11) and our mission should be to run that race and accomplish those plans that God has for us.  One time I heard someone ask a preacher who was getting ready to retire what his plans were.  I will never forget his response.  He said “I may be retiring from being a pastor, but I will never retire from being a Christian.”  Until our last breath on earth, God has a plan for us and we need to pursue it with all we have.  Don’t get to the end of your life and lose the lead in the last minute.  Pursue Christ with every breath until you are out of breaths!

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

The next couple of days hold special significance for my wife and I.  We talked briefly about it this morning before I left for the office.  It was around this time eight years ago that my then fiancee and I were getting into our Dodge Neon (yes the same one we have now) and traveling to Sevierville, Tennessee to get our marriage license for our wedding the next day.  I can remember the anticipation of that Thursday night.  Even though I had worked my forty hours that week, which meant long days, that Thursday night I couldn’t sleep.  There was so much excitement surrounding the coming days events.  I believe if we all think real hard we can remember the excitement that I am talking about.  In some ways it is hard to believe that we have been married for eight years and in other ways I really can’t remember a time in which she and I weren’t married.  I can honestly say that I love Diana more today than I did the day I said “I do” in Gatlinburg, TN.  There have been ups and downs like every couple.  Something invariably happens over time however.  The wedding day nervousness and excitement seems to fade over time as you settle into a routine.  In our short married life we have been blessed with three boys, “adopted” a little girl, I have been in ministry nearly seven years, we have moved four times, and other things.  Being a man who likes routines and generally gets flabbergasted when my routine is broken, it is natural for some excitement to wear off.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t love Diana or that I’m not excited to be married to her.  However, I think there is a problem with being okay with letting the excitement wear off.  When we are no longer as excited about being married we tend to take the other one for granted.  Sometimes we mistreat them because we think they will be there forever.  Where we use to never criticize them or raise our voice, now we find our selves critiquing our spouse over everything and yelling to prove our point.  Please  understand I am aware that it is natural for some excitement to wear off, but I think we should fight to save as much of it as possible.  One exercise I have couples do through counseling is to write down the top 10 reasons they fell in love to begin with and see how many of them have changed during the course of marriage.  That leads many people to discover that excitement again because they haven’t changed all that much.  For others it breaths excitement back into their marriage because they realize they are still in love and the changes have been for the better.  I would recommend every couple who reads this blog to try it.  But that isn’t the purpose of this blog (although I have written much more on it than I planned).

The purpose of this blog today is to say that the wearing off of the excitement of marriage is a lot like the wearing off of the excitement of our salvation.  When Jesus was talking to John in the book of Revelation and giving specific messages for specific churches there is one church by the name of Ephesus.  We find it in Revelation 2.  God names some good things about the church, but then comes a big word.  That word is “nevertheless.”  It is equivalent to our “but” in modern English.  God says “as good as you are, I have something against you.”  God’s charge against the Ephesian church was that they had left their first love.  The excitement had worn off.  They were so busy doing ministry that they forgot why they did ministry and who they were doing it for.  Have you ever been there?  Has church ever seemed like a chore to you at times?  There is a high burn out rate for pastors, teachers, and volunteers.  When we first begin it is exciting and we see it as a new challenge, but after a while it becomes a load we carry.  I am not an expert on the topic of burn out other than to say that there have been days in which I have felt that way.  I am not saying this is the case in your life, but I want to share what God taught me through those times of struggle in ministry.

The first thing He taught me was that my focus had shifted.  Believe it or not dear Christian it is possible to do the work of God, and not being doing a work of God.  I was so busy keeping my job, that I wasn’t doing my job.  What I mean is that I was going through the motions of what a pastor is suppose to do (pray, read the Bible, visit, teach, preach, etc.).  I think we have all had days where we show up for our job simply because it was expected.  God showed me that was a focus issue.  Our focus in ministry must be the glory of God.  Too many times we get caught up in the three “B’s” in ministry: buildings, bodies, and budget.  Those three things can sap the strength out of any worker in the church.  Another thing God showed me was about love.  It is easy to talk about the love of God, but that leads to many times us taking God’s love for granted.  This is where the marriage exercise came from.  I had a trusted friend in ministry tell me to sit down and write out the top 10 reasons I serve God.  After I was done he told me “if love is not top on that list, then your priorities are out of balance.”  Love has to motivate everything we do.  That is what Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 13.  If love is our motivator then a task will mundane and will seem more like a job than something we enjoy.  The final thing I will write about is God showed me about passion.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am a passionate person (perhaps too passionate at times about certain things).  I heard a Tim Tebow quote one time that spoke about passion.  He said that anyone can have a desire or a willingness to be great, but that desire and willingness leaves you on the football field when a 300 pound defensive linemen falls on top of you.  If you don’t have passion you won’t get up and go to the next play. I thought that was an impressive statement.  In ministry it is about passion for the One who loved you enough to die for you.  It is about saying “I don’t care what happens today God, I will still love you and serve you no matter what.”  Without that passion to serve God and see others come to Christ, I fear you will leave your first love at some point.  Go back to the day you said “I do” to Christ, remember why, and allow that passion from then to stoke your fire today!

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him