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Many years ago Julie and I used to sit towards the front of the auditorium and then for some reason we decided to change our seats and moved to the very back row. That turned out to be a good move for us. Here’s what I’ve learned.
As an Elder when you are sitting on the back row you can see the whole flock. When you are sitting in the front you can’t. Things that can be seen from the back include things like who is missing, visitors and any activities that might need to be addressed.
Sometimes strangers with requests including homeless come in the after services have started. It’s good to have a person in authority in the back to address those folks.
Sometimes members come up to me with a note about something that needs to be announced when they ordinarily would not feel comfortable walking to the front to give said note.
Sometimes I see members crying during the services or who walk out crying that may have needs that I can address.
I do a little bit of texting during the services. If there is some kind of issue I can text the other Elders and inform them. If there is a security issue where the security person in the back may need a little help I can text the other security people.
If there are several visitors who need to be greeted after services and I know I can’t get to all of them I can text my other hospitality experts to help out. I can even surreptitiously take a digital photo from my cell phone of the visitors and text it to our super greeters.
Once services have started I can assess who is missing and text a message that we have missed them.
When the kids are filing out to go to class I can give them all a “fist bump”.
One of the down sides to sitting on the back row is some of the members like to slap me on the back of the head or tap me on the opposite shoulder to make me look the wrong way. Just joking… that’s not a downside… they’re telling me that they are comfortable with me and that they love me.
I’m not saying that all the Elders need to sit on the back row but at least one does because it’s hard to shepherd the flock when you can’t see the flock.
Julie and I didn’t move to the back row because we did some in depth analysis or because of the wise council of a spiritual sage. We did it by accident and like a lot of things in our lives it just worked out for the good.
There’s a subtle shift in the New Testament in the use of miraculous powers given to humans by God.
For instance, if Jesus needed money he could pull a coin from the mouth of a fish. If he needed to feed a mass of people he could feed thousands with just a few pieces of fish and bread.
And yet in the book of Acts we find that there is a famine in Judea and instead of miraculously manufacturing money and food the Apostles relied on the sacrificial giving of Gentile Christians. Oh they still did miraculous things but it was more on the order of casting out demons, healing the sick, tongues and prophecy.
So why would God begin to limit the miraculous gifts he had given to Spirit filled people? I think the answer is obvious… if God continuously spoon fed his children they would never become the spiritually mature men and women they needed to become.
That spiritual maturity could only come about by sacrificial living best demonstrated by Jesus Christ. God’s people begin to become like God when they sacrificially give of their resources just like he did.
So fast forward to today… what does that mean for us? One thing it means is don’t be continually asking God in prayer for things that we can provide for ourselves. In many areas he has already given us everything we need to become successful in life.
Another area of application would be the use of church resources. Don’t let the church and her resources (building, funds, etc.) be our primary source of fulfilling our social and financial obligations to each other.
Have people into your homes. Support Evangelists and ministries out of your own pocket. Use your money to be kind to others, etc.
Grow up… don’t continually be babies nursing on the breast of the church.
The church grew exponentially in the first century and a big reason was God stepped back and didn’t provide every single thing that his people needed when they could provide those things themselves… and they grew into the mature spiritual stature of Jesus Christ himself.
There’s a lesson in that for us as well.
We’ve been in a drought here in South Texas since before January. We really never had a spring it’s been so dry. Of course you can keep the plants alive with city water but they really don’t thrive. To compound that in early February we had a historic freeze that killed a lot of vegetation that wildlife lives on. So it’s been pretty sad around here.
For the past two days we’ve had rain… four inches of rain at my house. This morning when I got up and went outside the White Wing dove were singing their hearts out and as I checked our plants they were putting on new growth and leafing out.
That city water has been worked over pretty hard by the water department and is laden with chemicals so it can be safe for our consumption. It can keep plant life alive but just barely. The water that falls out of the heavens is really what vegetation needs and thrives on… and it’s what people need too.
I see congregations that are watered with “city water”. The water has been sanitized, chemically treated, bottled up and labeled by human beings. When congregations are fed this kind of water they’re kind of like plants… stunted and not much growth, collectively or individually,
When congregations are fed the “living” water which comes from Heaven people are growing spiritually and the congregation is growing collectively because people would rather live in and are attracted to a garden watered from Heaven.
As leaders let’s do our best to provide what the plants in God’s garden need… the kind of water they can thrive and grow on. And if we look at our “work” and see that it’s stunted and sad let’s take a long look at what we’re doing and make whatever corrections we can.
The Old Testament categorizes sin. Two of those categories are “un-intentional” and “defiant” sin.
The commonality between the two types of sin is guilt. Whether the sin is un-intentional or defiant the party is guilty and the sin has to be accounted for.
The un-intentional sin can be remedied by sacrificing an animal (Lev. 4)
The defiant or intentional sin is classified as “blasphemy” for which no animal sacrifice will suffice (Numbers 15). God requires the blood of the perpetrator. Make no mistake… God can forgive blasphemy if he wants but the perp is completely at the mercy of God.
So that’s the Old Testament… what about the New Testament? Let me suggest the example of Judas Iscariot. He knew who Jesus Christ was. He had seen his power and his miraculous abilities and yet he defiantly blasphemed against God by being complicit in the murder of Jesus Christ. He was sorrowful and went to the priests for absolution but received none because there was none so he killed himself.
What about Peter? He denied knowing Jesus even though he had been warned by Jesus that this particular temptation would occur. It seems defiant but God had other plans for Peter and he was forgiven.
Keep in mind that both Judas and Peter were still under the old Law when they committed their sins.
How about Ananias and Sapphira? They lived under the new Law but defiantly “lied to the Holy Spirit”, which was blasphemy as defined above, and were killed by God for it.
I find it interesting that as Jesus hung on the cross he told his Father… “forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing”
They seemed like they knew what they were doing but Jesus asks God the Father to categorize their sin as “un-intentional” because despite the miraculous proof they thought they were just killing a human being who they thought was guilty of blasphemy… not the actual son of God.
What does this mean for us today? We all know people and family members who were baptized believers but have blasphemed by denying Jesus Christ.
Hopefully at some point they will return to Jesus Christ and hopefully Jesus Christ seated by the right hand side of God will whisper in his ear… “forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing.”
I hope that’s the case but their blood may be required for their denial. Knowing that, let’s take “defiant” and “willful” sin seriously and never put ourselves in that dangerous situation and watch for those who are headed in that dangerous direction.
There are a couple events in the life of Jesus Christ (and how they are connected) that are very intriguing to me.
The first is Jesus' Baptism. Of course Jesus' immersion and arising out of the waters mimic and foreshadow his death, burial and resurrection.
Immediately after this figurative resurrection Jesus goes into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and temptation.
The second is Jesus’ actual death, burial and resurrection. In which he, immediately upon his resurrection, spends another (but different) 40 days demonstrating his power over death. Hooray!
Of course all of this is an example for us. Nothing happens by accident in the scriptures. Let me take a swing at this.
When Christians figuratively die and enter the waters of baptism it symbolizes our death to sin and our old way of life. We arise out of the waters brand new people… squeaky clean.
Immediately we become Satan’s number one enemy but as we learned from Jesus (during the 40 days in the wilderness) Satan has no power over us. We equip ourselves with the armor of God and go out to rescue as many people as we can from our great enemy... Satan. Also, we no longer rely on physical food but hunger for that true spiritual food that only God can provide.
When Christians literally die and are resurrected… like Christ... we are no longer tempted by Satan… he is out of our lives for eternity. Our fight is over. We gather with all the others of humanity who have conquered death and clothed with immortality we witness to “principalities and the powers in Heaven” the marvelous wisdom of God.
Here’s the thing… we can’t experience the good things associated with our literal death until we experience our figurative death… baptism. Don’t neglect or trivialize baptism.
“A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” Deut. 22:5
Here’s an interesting Old Testament verse. It says that we shouldn’t wear clothing of the opposite sex. I don’t think that means women shouldn’t wear pants or that Scot’s shouldn’t wear kilts. What I do think it means is that a woman shouldn’t try to look like a man and a man shouldn’t try to look like a woman.
But wait a minute… some might say… that’s the Old Covenant and that verse doesn’t apply to us because we live under the New Covenant. Hmmm…
Consider 1 Corinthians 6:9…
“Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men (homosexuals)…”
This verse says men should not be “effeminate”… defined as “having or showing characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; unmanly”
Okay so now we see God wants men to look like men and women should look like women in both Covenants.
In my office we see all kinds of people and more and more frequently I see people who I don’t know what their gender is… not a clue. That kind of behavior is often associated with homosexuality.
Since God “detests” that type of behavior then my advice is to not get caught up in being transgender at any level including your dress and how you present yourselves to others.
If you see young scripturally naïve Christians trying to be “cool” like some of their friends. Please, please, please share with them God’s word on this matter. Who knows you might help them save their souls.
Luke 10:25-37.
In this text a Jewish religious Lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to be saved. Jesus, in part, tells him to “love his neighbor”
The lawyer, of course being a lawyer, tried to justify himself and asked “who is my neighbor”?
Then Jesus tells him the famous parable about the “Good Samaritan”. First let’s identify the characters…
The Priest and the Levite were probably of the Pharisee class. As such they were doctrinally correct. They correctly believed in the afterlife and taught correctly about things like “tithing”.
The Samaritan was doctrinally incorrect… he didn’t worship in the correct place, he only believed in the first five books of the Old Testament, etc.
In this parable the doctrinally correct Priest and Levite ignore the plight on the hapless individual who had been beaten by robbers and was “half dead”. However the doctrinally incorrect Samaritan showed “love to his neighbor” and helped him.
Then Jesus asked the loaded and poignant question to the religious Lawyer… “which one proved to be the neighbor?” The Lawyer correctly answered… the one who showed mercy (the Samaritan).
Keep in mind the question has to do with salvation and Jesus elevates the doctrinally incorrect Samaritan over the doctrinally correct Priest and Levite.
Here’s another story. I know of a congregation who had a member who happened to be the son of the Preacher. This young man got hooked on drugs and while on drugs made several mistakes including evil mistakes and ended up in jail.
To my knowledge no one from his congregation went to visit him in jail. However, a denomination in the same town had a little jail ministry going on and visited this young man in jail and with their help he got clean and repented and had a much greater appreciation for the grace of God.
Here’s my question… which congregation proved to “love his neighbor”?...the one where he grew up or the one he met in jail?
Those are hard questions but here’s a learning point… we need to be correct doctrinally but at some point the rubber has to hit the road and we have to “love our neighbors” no matter what our neighbors have done
.
The Pharisees and religious Lawyers had become spiritually elite and spiritually arrogant as if their religious correctness was enough. Well guess what… it wasn’t.
Thank God there are religious people out there who may not have everything figured out (scripturally)… like the Samaritan… but whose hearts are in the right place.
