Saturday night, I had a wonderful opportunity to perform my first-ever vow renewal service for one of our Deacons and his wife. It was their fortieth anniversary and they celebrated with about a hundred friends or so in a beautiful setting. While speaking about the virtues of a godly marriage, the passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians about love brought me to my knees (at least in my heart that is).
I suddenly realized that I’ve had a tendency at times to become a little bit like “sounding brass.” That is, I say all the right things to people, but inside my heart, I still struggle with issues that are the opposite of love. I began to insert my name where “charity” appeared and turn each descriptive statement into a question…
- Does Brandon suffer long, like love? Sometimes I’m impatient.
- Is Brandon always kind? At times I become unkind because of a critical spirit.
- Do I envy not? Perhaps this one is not as much of a struggle, but sometimes I do look around and think, “why does that guy have it so easy?”
- Do I refrain from self-promotion? One of the most difficult aspects of ministry is dying to the praise of others.
- Do I refuse to be “puffed up?” Pride is the root of most of our sins, mine are no exception, especially considering that pride takes on different forms.
You get the picture. Love is the principle thing, the most important of all virtues, the defining attribute of God (though He defines love, not visa versa). We can have tremendous faith, be great public speakers, or even servants who bend over backwards, but if we don’t do it all with love, it fails to glorify God and our efforts become wasted. Love is dominating, it’s everything.
I think we sometimes get a little sidetracked by focusing on our outward behaviors and assuming that they will make us holy and godly. The reality is that what happens on the inside of our souls is of far greater significance.
I enjoy stopping at Lambert’s restaurant in Springfield, Missouri. It’s “the home of the throwed roll” and the dining is always a great experience. Just inside the front door is an antique “love meter.” You put the quarter in and it tells you what kind of lover you are. It’s silly, of course, but the principle is worth noting. Why not take Scripture’s love test on a regular basis. Are you loving like Jesus? You see, His name always fits the passage perfectly.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” -2 Corinthians 5:17
There is much to be said for the power of our identity. The way you live your life, make decisions, and carry yourself all depend on how you define and identify yourself. We all have certain labels we apply to ourselves such as conservative or liberal, old-fashioned or cutting edge, outgoing or shy. We use these terms to further define who we are in the world. Here’s a new term for every believer to remember… “new creature.”
Have you realized yet that if you’ve trusted Christ as Savior, you are now a new creature? In fact, you are “in Christ.” Your life is hidden with Him. He’s now your new identity. You can wear Jesus’ namebadge knowing that He died to cover you with His identity and to forgive you of all of your sins by the blood He shed for you. If you’ve committed your life to Him, then you are now blood-bought, sanctified, set apart for God’s usage. You’re a child of the King. You’re the heir of the Lord of the universe, a joint heir of Jesus. You’re bound for glory.
So smile today. Know who you are! Have you received Christ personally? If so, He’s received You as His very own and He would claim you as His child in front of all of humanity. Walk in the confidence of His forgiveness today. Old things are passed away, all things are new. Meet the new you today!
“So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” -1 Corinthians 3:7
In six days, God made the world, then He watched it grow. He made flowers to bloom in the spring, trees to turn from sproutlings into giant oaks. He made man to develop from a tiny embryo to a full grown adult. God gives growth.
This is true in our spiritual life as well. God gives us spiritual growth. He did not save us for the moment but for a lifetime and for all of eternity. We are not merely trophies in God’s trophy case, we are living and flourishing creatures. Our hearts and minds and souls are to grow by a steady diet of the Word of the Lord. We’re to develop our gifts, go for our dreams, and determine to accomplish God’s great purposes on earth.
Are you growing? God has given you the tools of prayer, fellowship, and His Word. He’s given you 176 hours this week in which to grow. He even gives you trials and tribulations so that you might grow spiritually and develop depth and strength. It is God that gives growth! So flourish today under the green thumb of God’s special care.
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” -1 Corinthians 15:57-58
When I was in Junior High, I had a Nintendo game system and a particular baseball game in which you could pre-program the statistics of your team to make them better. You were allowed a certain number of homeruns for the season and you divided them among your lineup as you felt best. I would stack the first seven batters with all of the statistics so that I would end up winning almost every game against the computer. In a 162-game season, I’d end up winning about 150 games! Cheating? You decide.
One thing I know is that the odds are already stacked in our favor. You may feel like Satan’s punching bag today, but God has already insured your success. Satan is defeated, or at least he is as good as defeated. When darkness shrouded Jesus on the cross, Satan had his brief glimmer of limelight, but when the tomb was opened, Satan’s doom was sealed! Now God’s Word says clearly that every believer has sure victory, certain success, absolute assurance of final conquest.
We often wonder at God’s ways. If you want your people to work hard, why guarantee their salary? Why not give them a quota, some incentive to earn their keep. But remember that the very nature of salvation is that it’s a free gift from God. The gospel would not be so glorious if it could be earned by our labor. Instead it is too lofty, too high for us. It is so glorious it is unattainable. God’s eternal riches are reserved for those who, in absolute humility, fall on their faces before His throne in worship and adoration. May His name be praised! We’ve won, now let’s get to work!
Let all things be done decently and in order.” -1 Corinthians 14:40
The spirit of mediocrity smothers and suffocates us. Perfectionism is an equally deadly extreme, but settling for second is not an option. We seem to live in a world of “good enough.” As long as it’s good enough to get by, it’s okay with us.
In the movie Remember the Titans, the T. C. Williams football team has worked hard all year to be near-perfect. They have come down to the championship game against the legendary coach Ed Henry and after the first half, they are floundering. Coach Boone gives them permission to lose but to walk off the field with their heads held high. He is interrupted by one of the star players who asserts, “Coach, you demanded perfection. I’m not perfect and none of us is, but together, as a team, we’re perfect.” For Coach Boone and T. C. Williams, losing was simply not an option. They had to win.
Where is that great spirit of conquest and excellence in our age? When will we decide that it’s worth it to go the extra mile? I don’t encourage people to beat themselves up over not being perfect, but I also don’t think anyone needs to settle for simply getting by. Whatever you do, do it well. Wherever you work, work hard. When you pray, pray long. When you sing, sing loudly (singing well may not even be an option for you). Give it all you’ve got!!
Paul communicated that our worship must be carried out in excellence. I must admit I struggle with perfectionism, so I’m especially frustrated with tardiness and half-heartedness. I’ve come to realize that we should strive for perfection, accept our weaknesses, learn from our mistakes, laugh when we fall, and then we must get up and strive for perfection again. As one old gospel song puts it…
Hear ye the Master’s call, “Give Me thy best!”
For, be it great or small, that is His test.
Do then the best you can, not for reward,
Not for the praise of men, but for the Lord.
Every work for Jesus will be blest,
But He asks from everyone his best.
Our talents may be few, these may be small,
But unto Him is due our best, our all.
“I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.”—1 Corinthians 15:31
Have you noticed that no matter how well you feel that you handled life yesterday, today always brings new and greater struggles? Here’s the bad news: that struggle which is renewed every morning will continue until you die or the Lord comes back for you. Here’s the good news: God means the struggle for your growth and therefore each new day’s struggle is an opportunity to become more like Christ, to fulfill our ultimate purpose on the planet.
Therefore, like Paul, we should be willing to get up each morning and die to self all over again. We can’t read Paul’s words about dying daily without reading further to verse 34, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” You see, it’s not just about putting ‘self’ to death each day, but about waking up to righteousness. He even shames his listeners by reminding them that most people don’t know God and you can tell it in their behavior. We should be different. We should die daily to self and to sin, and live our lives in freshness and newness.
We’re only going to survive the daily struggle of dying and rising if we put God first and give Him the supremacy and preeminence in our lives. After all, His mercies “are new every morning.” (Lamentations 3:23)
“But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”—1 Corinthians 11:3
It is in our very human nature to resist authority and to tend toward rebellion. Therefore, when one speaks of our need to “submit” to the headship of another, we automatically cry out “Tyranny!” But God is far wiser than we are. Paul made a rather bold statement about headship in the home and no matter what may make sense to us, God’s plan is always better, always smarter.
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“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth graet things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” -James 3:5
Yesterday, as I was trying to act goofy to get a laugh out of my daughter Ella, I bounced off our bed and my kneecap landed square against the angle-iron of our bedframe. For several hours, I wondered if I’d broken it. I couldn’t straigten it out, bend it, or lift it. It was red, swollen, and hot to the touch. We proceeded to go to the Mall twenty minutes away for a family outing and I hobbled around until I couldn’t stand it any longer. If it didn’t get better by Monday, I was heading to the Doctor.
Thankfully, by Sunday morning, I could bend my leg and the swelling was gone. The whole experience was a reminder of how much one little body part can mean to the body. With an injured kneecap, there are so many things you can’t do that you normally don’t think twice about.
James says our tongues are like that too. Compared to the rest of the body, we wouldn’t think the tongue such a significant part, but it can do great damage to people’s lives. There again, it can also build up and edify others. A word we utter may demolish or establish someone’s confidence.
God has designed the world in such a way that little things matter a lot. From the tongue to the kneecap, to the people who might be passed over as insignificant by the world, God uses little things in big ways. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul makes this same application to the church as the “body of Christ.” Every member is important. Every role is significant. And every member is dependent on every other member, no matter how “small” a role they may play. You may feel “small” today, but God can use you to hold His church together, to influence a lost soul for eternity, and to change a life forever!
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”—2 Corinthians 4:7
When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards. Occasionally I would hear a story of someone who discovered some old cards tucked away in a special place. One such story relates to a man who found an old rusty coffee can that contained a T-206 Honus Wagner card from the early 1900’s. He sold it at auction and the famous hockey player, Wayne Gretzky and his coach split the cost of $451,000. What a treasure… in a coffee can.
We walk around every day with the gospel in our hearts. The gospel is perfect and life-changing. It is God’s message of good news and it has the power to convert people from lost to save, to radically transform lives for all eternity. Why would God entrust such great wealth to us? So that the “power” might be of God, not of human beings.
It’s quite easy to persuade people to join a movement or to follow a charismatic personality. It’s quite another to be the humble servant, pointing people to the all-powerful God of creation and to His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. What a treasure!!
“Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel… Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose the third day according to the Scriptures.” -1 Corinthians 15:1-4
I can still remember pacing back and forth down the long dirt pathway behind Scottsville Road Baptist Church the night I preached my first sermon before the small crowd of family and friends. My hands were sweating, my voice quivering, and I ran through my notes in less than fifteen minutes (oh for those days again, huh?). Out of that humiliating moment which all new preachers must endure came three enormous blessings.
One, a lady responded by coming to the altar for prayer. Two, my uncle Glenn commended me for preaching the simple gospel of the cross and admonished me to keep doing that, expecting that God would always bless me. Three, God gave me a passion for the gospel of Scripture and I’ve yearned to preach it over and over since that night. I thank God for saving me, for calling me to ministry, and for assigning me to be His undershepherd at Bethel Baptist Church. But I’m thankful most of all for the gospel, His good news, as told us “according to the Scriptures.” May His gospel reach our world today through our lips and through our lives!
I'm a Christian, a Pastor to 
