Did You Like The Sermon?

   The question, "Did you like the sermon?" makes me think of a quote from the famous Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. Once when asked by a friend, "How did your play go tonight?" Wilde responded, "The play was a great success but the audience was a failure." Preachers have occasions when they want to say the same thing about the sermon! Maybe after a lot of tired, glazed eyes staring up and non-verbally saying to him, "Hurry up and get this sermon over with." Or maybe in spite of the preacher’s diligent preparation and sincere presentation, he goes home after the sermon having experienced what writer John R. W. Stott has called "communication frustration" (p 9, Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the 20^th Century). Be all that as it may, still we hear the apostle Paul’s directive to Timothy; "Preach the word!" (2 Timothy 4:2a). Paul left no room for Timothy to think people would always like his sermons – "Be instant in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (4:2b). And why do that? "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (4:3). I have preached long enough to know some love my preaching and others loathe it. I’m referring to style, not substance, for the aim of every faithful gospel preacher, as declared by Paul in Acts 20:26-27, is to be found "innocent of the blood of all men" having "not shunned (that is, avoided) to declare to you the whole counsel of God."

As the following story illustrates, every preacher (and elder, too) can mark it down that some people are hard to please when it comes to preaching. A young preacher, early in his ministry, preached in a large church. He thought he’d done quite well as he shook hands with people at the door. Remarks about his preaching and sermon were all complimentary. That is, until a little old man said bluntly, "You preached too long." But that single comment didn’t faze the young man in view of all the compliments. Then he was jolted by another negative comment - "You didn’t preach long enough" – and it was the same little guy. The preacher thought it strange the man would come around twice, but before he could gather his composure there he was again a third time! And he blurted out, "You used too many big words." The novice couldn’t stand it and asked a nearby deacon, "Who is that little old man over there?" The deacon said, "Oh, don’t pay any attention to anything he says. All he does is go around repeating everything he hears other people saying." I close with timeless words from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 which provide a patter for preachers and preaching in every age: "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." God always likes sermons like that, even if some people don’t. What kind of sermon do you like?

         By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Do Men Still Matter?

    Paul Harvey once said about fathers: "A father is a thing that is forced to endure childhood without an anesthetic." Fathers are being forced to endure a lot of things these days. One of the most detrimental is an onslaught of "new-age" but really bad and stinking thinking about males in general and fathers in particular. Nearly 50 years ago radical feminists began suggesting (perhaps with tongue-in-cheek, perhaps not) that "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." I would not deny some men are that sorry, but some women are too. I am generalizing, but in the decades since that statement was first uttered, views of women in our culture have improved while views of men have became worse. It is now acceptable to many to denigrate and demoralize men and the roles they play. Paul and Sandy Coughlin (in their book, Married But Not Engaged; p 28-29), summarize all the negative ink and ratings men receive in our culture with provocative words – "The root idea: Men are a serious problem that must be fixed, not a gender to be appreciated. Men are not okay as men. Masculinity, in and of itself, is not okay." They blame the epidemic of negative thinking about men on "extended therapy at the hands of social engineers, media presentations, and dedicated activists." They posit that while much of our thinking about (and treatment of) women was flawed before the social revolutions of the 1960's and '70's, many have not addressed the flaws but have rather sought to reverse or invert them. The real need was to see women as equal with men in human value and dignity and worth in our culture. But some have sought to elevate the view and place of women, not by embracing and enacting positive change in the ways women are viewed and treated, but by tearing down men. It's feminine revenge — "Men have had the upper hand and abused it; now it's women's turn to rule and degrade [the men]" No surprise, then, that Maureen Dowd can ask, with a straight face, in her book, Are Men Necessary?

Enough of that. There are at least two jobs where men still matter – being husbands and fathers! Modern thinking aside, a MAN and a WOMAN are necessary for a God-designed marriage that reproduces offspring (Genesis 1:26-28; Matthew 19:4-6). "Same-sex marriages" may be increasing, but they are not reproducing – offspring, that is. When it comes to reproduction, both sexes are necessary, even if one of them is a man! Additionally, ideally, children need a male / man / father in their lives. A man who will stay on the job he took on when he and a woman he loved and married brought one or more babies into their family through conception or adoption. Not just a male, not just a brute who swaggers and swears and intimidates and / or abuses his wife and children – but a real man who engages with his family to protect and provide and guide, physically and spiritually. The kind of men who matter are described in Ephesians 5:22-6:4 – a man who loves God, his wife, and his children more than he loves himself! Christ-like men who are tender but tough; compassionate and committed; firm, fair, forgiving; godly but gentle; strong enough to submit to God and carry a cross of self-denial. God-fearing men, flawed as they might be, still matter as husbands and fathers. They always have and always will.

       By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN 

Dawdling Disciples?

        Eugene Ormandy was conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 44 years. Ormandy was legendary for the whole-hearted enthusiasm which characterized his conducting. The website bible.org archives an article from the December 31, 1992 Progress Magazine in which Hal Lucock wrote, "I was impressed several years ago when I read that Eugene Ormandy dis- located a shoulder while directing the Philadelphia Orchestra. I do not know what they were playing, but he was giving all of himself to it! And I have to ask myself sadly, "Did I ever dislocate anything, even a necktie?" How do you dislocate a shoulder while conducting an orchestra? There is only one way – with whole-hearted fervor and zeal! Ormandy’s shoulder injury brings to mind Solomon’s 3,500 year old words in Ecclesiastes 9:10 where he called on readers to go about daily life with zest – "What- ever your hand finds to do, do it with your might." Why? – "for there is no work or device or know- ledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going." Solomon’s message is clear – the clock is ticking! So, as long as what we are doing is right and good and within God’s will,"do it with your might"! Get after it and live life with zest and enthusiasm. To quote Tim McGraw, "Live like you’re dying."

Now, of all people, Christians ought to be living with whole-hearted, all-out enthusiasm for Christ! In the book of ROMANS, the apostle Paul used 11 chapters to expound the gospel. He focused closely on God’s love and Christ’s vicarious suffering on the cross for our sins (Romans 5:6-11; 8:31-39). Then in chapter 12 he began to make appeals to Christians to live for Christ since Christ died and rose again for them. One short but fully-packed directive is found at 12:11 – "not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Without getting into any technicalities about the verse, allow me to restate those words in a very loose Southern paraphrase – "As a disciple of Christ, don’t dawdle!" In case you don’t understand that, I’ll paraphrase the paraphrase – "Don’t dally as a disciple!" Both words have to do with spending time aimlessly and idly, moving slowly, loafing, loitering, and lounging. That just won’t fit Paul’s inspired directive so far as our faith is concerned! There is no place for sloth in the body of Christ. A lazy, lounging, aimless, idle, slowly moving church will never get the gospel to a fast- paced and rapidly going and growing world. Rather than loafing and lounging and lagging and lazing around, the apostle directs every child of God to be "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." I have often heard the phrase that someone is "on fire for Christ." Paul’s words in this verse come as near as any in the Bible to fitting that description. The Greek word for fervent is zeo and has to do with applying heat to liquids to the point they boil and bubble, or applying heat to solids or metals to the point they glow. Our ancient brothers and sisters in Christ were on fire with the gospel. They didn’t dawdle or dally. With godly zeal and enthusiasm, they "went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:4). So much so they were at last accused of being "These who have turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6b). A lost world is waiting for the gospel. God help us repent of dawdling and dallying as disciples of Christ.

By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN