One Pastor's Thoughts

Miss USA

2009-04-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

Undoubtedly you have heard about the young woman who lost the Miss USA crown because she stood up for traditional marriage when asked by a homosexual activist. Here may be a little insight into why homosexuals have so much hostility towards "Christians."

Yesterday I heard this Miss USA contestant on the radio say that she would answer the question the same even if she knew it would cost her the crown, because she was more concerned with being biblical than being politically correct.

Here is a question for this Miss USA contestant if you are so concerned about being biblical what about 1 Timothy 2:9-10, which states:

9 And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes.10 For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. (NLT)

It as seems that it would be unbiblical for a woman to parade around on a stage in a bikini, flaunting her body. With this type of biblical picking and choosing, it is little wonder why homosexuals think the church is picking on them. Why is the church not condemning this young woman, which would be biblical because she claims to be a Christian rather than condemning the homosexual. WHAT ARE YOU SAYING PASTOR? 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 states:

12 It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, "You must remove the evil person from among you." (NLT)

Think about it.

Rick Warren and Voddie Baucham

2009-04-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here is Voddie Baucham's take on Rick Warren's new flip flop on homosexual marriage.

Click Here

Quick Post

2009-04-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am still alive. What a couple of weeks.

You have to go back to the week before Easter to catch. The Easter program was great. God once again showed us who is in control and is worthy of all glory.

Then we followed that up with Holy Week. We had great music and preaching Monday and Tuesday night. Thanks to Quinton Moss and Lloyd Hopper for delivering powerful messages.

Then on Thursday we had a Love Feast and all that I can say is that if you missed it, you missed a blessing.

Friday night was our traditional "Service of Darkness." It always leaves one awed by what Jesus did for us.

Easter was Awesome. It was our most attend Easter service since I have been the pastor with 196 in attendance. We enjoyed a powerful moment when we saw the darkness flee when the light of Christ took its place. We were joined by the Covenant Players and they were as good as always. Then was our "famous" Easter egg hunt with the church grounds peppered with plastic colorful eggs. The children of HSBC are spoiled with this huge egg hunt. Thanks to everyone for the candy and egg donations.

This was followed up again this Sunday with a great service and numerous people coming forward to express interest in being involved in the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts. As their pastor I can't wait to hear their stories after their first volunteer assignments. God is going to use this to change them and our church.

We also had a child receive Jesus yesterday as his Lord and Savior.

That is a quick recap of where we left off two weeks ago. There is much more that could have been said.

Do not forget the work day tonight anytime after 5:30. Hope to see you there.

A Hard but Good Week at HSBC

2009-04-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

This week has been a very hard week for many at HSBC. They have been at the church every evening preparing for the Easter Program, "A Light in the Darkness". It has been a joy to watch so many new faces plugging into this year's presentation. Everyone has work hard and are doing a great job.

Are there things that could be improved? Yes! Here is the deal, I learned this many years ago in my sermon preparation. If whatever we do is made perfect or great in our own strength then where is our need for God. It is us who did it. As a preacher, I have literally over prepared, over structured, and over crafted what I thought was the prefect sermon that was going to bring the masses to repentance. Those sermons were some of the worst messages that I have every delivered. Why? It was all on paper and all I had to do was deliver it as written. When we think that we have all the variable managed, God likes to remind us that He alone manages all the variables. These are sermons that if I would have went into the pulpit like I came out, God could have used the sermon.

We must not be lazy in our preparation. When we have done all that we can do and we are left with a creaked pot, REMEMBER THOSE ARE THE ONES THAT LIGHT SHINES THROUGH (2 Corinthians 4:4-10). There is going to be a light that goes out into the darkness by means of this play this weekend. God is going to do it in such a way that it will leave no guess that it was HE. I cannot wait to see HIM show up this weekend.

The Easter Program "A Light is the Darkness" happens tonight at 7:00, tomorrow at 5:00 and Sunday Morning at 11am. Do not miss it and bring a friend.

Decline of Evangelicalism Addressed

2009-03-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

What in the world is going on in Evangelical Christianity causing it to decline? The number one reason for a decline of Evangelicalism in America is the lack of biblical theology and doctrine being taught and prized by churches. The modern church has lost its way by trying to fill pews. Successes has been defined for churches by the number of people that sit in it pews on Sunday morning. This has been contributed to by the rise of the field of study called church growth. There is much that pastors should learn from the church growth movement but sadly much of the movement is church growth for the sake of filling pews. There is little to no interaction or consideration of methodology and true biblical theology. We have all heard someone say "Well, look at the church, they must be doing something right because of the way they are growing." We have been told for a generation or more that churches should make unbelievers comfortable in our worship services by preaching practical topical messages that shy away from sin, controversial issues, and theology.

We are now in the post-denominational era of the church in America. No longer are people loyal to denominations. This is good and bad. Good in the sense that the unnecessary divisions among denominations are being erased. Bad because the theological beliefs that divide denominations are being erased. This is bad because people are no longer theologically minded or even have an understanding of biblical doctrine. People today judge a church by worship styles not what doctrine it teaches. What evangelical needs is more theology not less. We need more theology, "study of God", not people studying God less.

With less theology or people studying God less, the church and its members replaces its doctrine with a more socially acceptable philosophy. The church is only willing to embrace biblical truths when is does not conflict with their personal philosophy. The church is not to have a philosophy instead it is to have a theology deeply rooted in the Scriptures. The Scriptures are to the absolute authority not my or your personal opinions.

After a generation or two of philosophy being the authority and not God's Word what are we left with.

19 percent of born again Christians have a biblical worldview.

Look at this quote a direct result from not having a biblical worldview or biblical theology.

[T]he most common definitions of successful parenting include children having good values (25 percent), being happy adults (25 percent), finding success in life (22 percent), being a good person (19 percent), graduating from college (17 percent), and living independently (15 percent). Being godly or having faith in God is mentioned by 9 percent of respondents.

The first step of recovery for evangelical is to close the books, turn off the television and open their Bibles.

Weekend Review and Sermon Notes

2009-03-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a weekend at HSBC! It is weekends like these that really make me glad that I pastor a great church like HSBC. This may sound odd but if you are a Christians you will understand, we had a great memorial service Saturday at noon. The praise team was awesome!! The ladies that prepared the meal were awesome!! The best part was on Sunday when the grandson, of the lady who had gone on to Heaven, received Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

In addition to the one receiving Christ, Sunday morning we heard a report from Lori about her mission trip to India. I love hearing what God is doing all over the globe. The praise team did awesome as always. And I finally finished up presenting a series of sermons on the end times. The sermon notes are at the end of this post for the past two weeks. Next week we continue in 1 Thessalonians. HSBC is a church where people love the Word of God. They are not afraid of being challenged from the Bible.

Between services Sunday, the church was busy with numerous people doing their part to prepare for the Easter program. It is hard to believe that it is only two weeks away. It is such a blessing to see people working so hard for Christ. Please keep the program in your prayers.

Sunday night, our Bible study is in the book of Romans and it is extremely challenging. Danny is doing a great job.

Keep it up HSBC!!!

Here are the sermon notes:

Revelation 20

v.2 - "Thousand years" - indefinite long period of time - 10 cubed

v. 3 - "Bound" - in two ways

1.) To deceive the nations

From Adam to Christ Acts 17:30

Make disciples of all nations Matt. 28:19

2.) Satan cannot gather all enemies of Christ together to attack the church Rev. 20:8

N.T. Examples of Satan being bound

Matt. 12:29

John 12:31-32

Luke 10:17-18

v.4- "Thrones" - Located in Heaven Rev. 3:21

"Came to Life" - Spiritual resurrection takes places at conversion

v.8 - ties to Rev. 19:17-21; 16:14-16 and these all point to Ez. 38-39

v. 9 - "Fire" - Second Coming Rev. 19:20-21

2 Pet. 3:10-13

2 Thess. 2:8; 1:6-10

Matt. 16:27;25:31-32 - ties will Rev. 20:11

Notice no 1,000 yr. interval.

v.11 ties with Rev. 14:14-15 and the reapers in Matthew 13:24-30

v.13 Second resurrection - Physical

of the just and the unjust

Col. 3:1-3

John 5:28-29

Dan. 12.2

Notice no interval between the resurrection of the unjust and just, both happen at the same time.

v. 14 Second Death - Avoid by those who partook of the first resurrection.

God bless you as you continue your studies and look forward to his return.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Decline of Evangicalism

2009-03-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

It has been a depressing week for the church in the media. Monday morning USAToday published the results of a study on a study that shows a decline of Christianity in America. Baptists have dropped over 3% in relationship to the increase of population. 15% of American now claim no religion at all. This makes "No Religion" the third largest group behind only Catholics and Baptist in our country. Of these three only the "No Religion" group is growing in relation to the population.

I received a link to another article from the associational office titled "The Coming Collapse of Evangelicalism." This is another depressing article, however it is somewhat enlightening.

What in the world is going on in Evangelical Christianity causing this decline? Many of these causes have been identified in the preaching at HSBC. I will post more on this topic in the days to come, and hopeful present some ideas of how the church can thrive in the future.

If you read or have read the mentioned articles above, I would love to hear your take on them.

These two articles and the church shooting on Sunday, church we have to remember, THE LAMB WINS!!!

Cheryl is having surgery today. Please remember her in pray.

In the words of Woodrow Kroll, "What good is a good day if it is not a godly day?"

I hope that you are having both a good and godly day.

Associational Mission Mtg.

2009-03-10T06:59:00.001-07:00

WOW!!! Last night was awesome. The ladies that worked with the meal and the Praise Band you all are unbelievable!!! Our congregation should be extremely proud of our church last night. As the Pastor I am.

If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you know that any time the church is doing what it should and it has either received a blessing or is about to receive a blessing the enemy attacks. These attacks will come and in a way they are reaffirming that God is working in our mist because if He was not working the enemy would not be attacking. Our church has experienced an attack. Our response is vital. We will allow Satan to use us to cause disunity, division, and discouragement in God's church. Our other option is to unite in pray and fight the enemy. I do not know about you but I know which side I want to be on. THE LAMB WINS!!!!!!!

Church we must Pray and make sure that we as individuals are not allowing Satan to work through us. If we do this Satan does not have a chance. Satan only wins these battle when we let him.

Pray, Pray, Pray, Pray, Pray, Pray

The Second Coming

2009-03-09T13:58:00.002-07:00

Here are the notes that I said I would post yesterday during my sermon on the Second Coming of Christ.

Revelation 12

v. 7-9 Pre-Creation

v. 1-6 & v. 13-16 Birth of Christ

v. 10-11 Crucification of Christ through the Present along with v. 17

v. 12 Tribulation period in light for 20:3

Revelation is not chronological.

Revelation is divided into 7 sections

1.) Chapters 1-3 - Church's of John's day and of all times

2.) Chapters 4-7 - 7:15-17

3.) Chapters 8-11 - 11:18 (Ties with chap. 19 and 20)

4.) Chapters 12-14 - 14:14-15 (Matthew 13:24-30)

5.) Chapters 15-16 - 16:19-20

6.) Chapters 17-19 - 19:11

7.) Chapters 20-22

There is a passage very near the end of every section that seems to indicate a final event associated with the Second Coming (See the above specific verses).

Judgement (final) is associated with the Second coming

Matt. 16:27; 25:31-32

Jude 14-15

2 Thessalonians 1:7-10

Next Sunday we will pick up in Revelation 20.

Here is a helpful link that might assist you in your studies The RiddleBlog.

Chain Emails (A Teacher Heart)

2009-03-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I received the an email from the Sunday School teacher that sent the email and I want you to hear the hear of this person. The email is below:

I read the blog from yesterday and I was devastated when I realized that I was the one who sent this email out. It was on my computer in the morning and before I left work I just forwarded this out without taking into consideration the ramifications it would have. I definitely take the blame and am truly sorry. I would be willing to step down from all positions in the church as to not offend anyone. I truly do not want to mar our church name or the name of our Lord. I have been extremely sick over this for two days and do not want to mislead or lead my students in the wrong direction. Again I take full blame and am again sorry. I love my church and am truly sorry to those I offended.

We need more leaders who have this type of heart that are willing to confess and admit that they have made a mistake. Do you hear the heart of this teacher? This is the heart of a true Christian leader, they are more concerned about those they have influence over then they are their own pride and position.

Church, there are several important lessons here for us all to learn.

1. Whatever we put our name on or associate with will rightly or wrongly say something about us, our church, and our God.

2. The person who sent the email of concern to the pastor did not gossip but took their concern to church leadership. The issue was brought to light and the mature Christian acknowledged what they did and as a result the entire Body has been strengthened.

3. The church is to be a family that encourages others and makes each other stronger.

4. This is an example on a small scale of how biblical church disciplines works. Notice when all parties are involved are mature Christians and are more worried about the sin then their "rights." It works. Every person that I know that is spiritually mature wants biblical church discipline. It is the rebels and immature that do not want the church to stand against their sin and hard heartedness.

Biblical Parenting (The Lack Of)

2009-03-04T07:00:00.001-08:00

If you have been at HSBC any length of time you have heard repeatedly the statistics that "88% of evangelical children are leaving the church shortly after they graduate from high school". Lifeway Christian Research has released the results of a study that provides some unbelievable insights into why this trend is happening.

The parenting article states:

Sixty percent of parents look a lot to their own experiences growing up as their source of guidance on parenting and another 31 percent do so to some extent.

By comparison, 21 percent indicate they receive a lot of guidance from a sacred text and 15 percent depend a lot on a church. A full 61 percent completely ignore parenting seminars and 53 percent have no use for books by religious parenting experts.

Only 14 percent indicate they are very familiar with what the Bible has to say about parenting, the research revealed.

Here is the reality check. Is our experiences better than the Word of God? If the Bible is not good enough to use to raise our children by then why should our children live their lives according to the Bible? Why do we even bother taking them church?

Chain Emails

2009-03-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

I received an email this morning from a church member that was disappointed by an email that they received from a Sunday School teacher at HSBC. Below are portions of the email exchange between this individual and myself.

Emailed to Me:

I received this email from a church member, someone who is a Sunday school teacher,… I am not sure whether the image will come through to you, but it is a blurry, grainy image that appears to depict Christ on the cross. There is also an area that appears to be a face, and the word JESUS appears at the bottom.

The emails’ subject line states, “do not open if you will not forward”

And the following statement is below the picture:

“The president of Argentina received this picture and called it junk mail, 8 days later his son died. A man received this & immediately sent our copies… his surprise was winning the lottery. Alberto Martinez received this picture, gave it to his secretary to make copies but they forgot to distribute; she lost her job & he lost his family. This picture is miraculous & sacred. Send to 10 people.”

Do they honestly believe that this image has anything to do with GOD? That it carries his grace or blessing? Do they believe that our savior would allow an instrument like the internet, to decide who does or does not receive his grace or blessing? I don’t believe that the BIBLE has any example of using an image to decide whether we will be blessed or cursed. I only know that it is our belief in him, and following his WORD that gives us his blessings, or takes it away from us.

I usually ignore emails like this, but this is someone who is influential in our church. How can I ignore it?

My Email Response:

I apologize that you received this chain email. This email is not sacramental; grace is not communicated through emails. This email is pure superstition and I would go so far as to say a form of witchcraft akin to astrology. Why because it attempts to determine ones future. Ones future is controlled by God not by one some ridiculous email and what one does with it. Secondly, the email provides curses upon individuals; this is a form of witchcraft.

Some church leaders,…, like many people in church today believe that if it bares the name of Jesus, is sold at a Christian bookstore or is simply under the section title Christian then it good. Satan is more then happy to bare the name of Jesus to mislead and deceive people. I am assuming that this leader has not thought this issue through fully and probably just thought it was cute, wrongly.

You are right our blessings are first and foremost determined by Jesus, and secondly by our obedience to him.

I know most people find these silly emails cute and innocent, but we as Christians need to evaluate everything that do through the Word of God. What message are we sending? What are we teaching through simply hitting forward on our email?

Teachers need to remember James 3.1 states, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness.”

These emails should never be forwarded by a Christian. They promote a belief that is unacceptable in light of the Scriptures.

Church we are the light of Christ in this Dark world. May we shine it Bright.