Leadership

This is Church

Sunday morning when I asked, “Who is going to need a new roof?” virtually every hand in the room went up. I think we all can say, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” In the midst of adversity, there is always opportunity. I have been so inspired seeing the church love one another and love our neighbors during these times. Boarding windows, sweeping glass, opening doors, preparing food, giving dollars, lifting prayers, and sharing hugs: “this is church.”

How ca12512643_10209302675829480_5666941601308330611_nn you help? Well, there are several things you can do:

Love your neighbor—Spend some time walking down your street checking on and extending help to the people who live near you. You’ll be amazed at the friendships that can begin during difficult times.

#rebuildwylie—I spent the morning ministering in east Wylie today. The damage to people’s homes and cars will break your heart. I am very thankful for FBC Wylie and the love they are demonstrating in rebuilding Wylie. The rebuild will take some time. When you see or hear of a need, do what you can to meet it. Loving others is something you can do.

Pray—Every day take time to pray for those who have had their lives disrupted. Teach your children to pray for others, and pray for God’s power to sweep over our communities. God often uses difficult moments to reveal His power. There will be many questions, and there will be many who turn to God. Take delight in seeing God at work.

Worship—This Sunday I looked out and saw people worshiping God and resting in His goodness. In some cases, their cars were demolished and their homes were full of holes, but their faith remained. I was humbled to see such a display of genuine Christianity.

Be Thankful—We can replace roofs, windows, carpet, and cars, but we cannot replace the ones we love. Yes, we need a new roof, but thank God we have a roof under which to live. I give thanks to God that, though things have been damaged, we are okay.

Give—Our church maintains a benevolence fund to help with needs. We will use monies given to help those in our community. You may also be able to give meals, tools, time, and expertise to the cause.

Talk—As you go, talk to people. Ask them how they did during the storms. Everyone around you has a story. As you engage the people around you, I promise you will be blessed with opportunities to pray, serve, and lead people to the saving love of Christ.

I’m proud to be a part of this community and church. During the coming weeks, I will be preaching a series entitled the Opportunity of Adversity. I look forward to our times of worship. I look forward to hearing the stories of God. I look forward to seeing the church be the church.

Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer Romans 12:12
Pastor Lash

When Pride Meets Love

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Pride is an interesting word. You can’t say pride without saying I and without saying ride. We all ride pride sometimes through the streets of life. Pride is odd in that it can be a positive word conveying love or admiration, or it can be a distasteful word conveying egotism, vanity, rebellion, and sin.  

In pride, I am the object of my faith. Pride elevates me to a position that rightfully belongs to God. Pride focuses on my needs and selfishly views God and others as existing to serve me. Pride is confusing; it shuffles my perspective and causes me to embrace rational lies. I see my arrogance as confidence. My superiority expresses itself in cynical humor. The ride of pride leads me to a fictional world where I am all knowing and everyone around me is trapped in foolishness. Pride draws me in with that new car smell and soft ride. Pride drives fast and reckless; the law does not apply when I grip the wheel of pride. But in the end, the ride of pride leaves nothing more than a mangled mess of broken dreams, manipulated relationships, and a cold soul. 

 The Bible teaches, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).” Three times in Scripture we are reminded that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34, James 4:6, I Peter 5:5). By contrast, “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited. . . (I Corinthians 13:4).” Pride is to sin what love is to grace.  

The ringing of Calvary’s hammer is a collision of pride and love. The cross is necessary because of my pride, but it also necessary because of God’s love. The cross is a clumsy display of my hideous pride and a graceful display of God’s forgiving grace. On the cross, love is pierced by pride and grace is crowned by evil. On the cross pride drains the veins of love: drop by drop pride’s antidote puddles below. When His head bowed in death, pride raised his head in victory. But when the earth stood still and the tomb stood opened, it was pride that had died and love that was alive. 

The antidote to pride is the cross. When I look upon the humility and love of the cross, I see the magnificence of His love for me and I have nothing left in which to boast. From the cross the purity of His righteousness shines into the corners of my heart exposing the darkness of my sin and contempt is poured on my pride. From the cross the glories of money, power, and fame lose their allure and my richest gain I count but lost. At the cross, my broken dreams, my manipulated relationships, my cold soul collide with love. When my pride surveys His love, I bow beneath the cross, my faith is transferred from me to Him, and the drops of grace cleanse me and make me fully whole. At the cross, pride dies and love comes alive. 

Lash Banks is Lead Pastor at Murphy Road Baptist Church (murphychurch.com).  For more on this subject you can listen to Lash’s sermon When Pride Meets Love http://www.buzzsprout.com/17504/151296-faces-when-pride-meets-love  

Inspired by Isaac Watts’ great hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

12 Things Good Leaders Have

12 Things Good Leaders Have

  1. A purpose—Leaders realize that without a purpose you’re not leading: you’re wandering.
  2. A love for people—The people are the task. You can’t lead things; you lead people to accomplish things.
  3. An ability to speak optimistically and think pessimistically—Leaders must be able to see what has to change, but communicate it in a way that inspires instead of berates.
  4. Repetition—Leaders know that vision is like a steam engine: it constantly needs a water source to keep moving.
  5. A mentor’s mentality—Leaders find joy in seeing people mature and learn to use their skills.
  6. Integrity that begins in the heart—Leaders understand that what’s inside you always reveals itself in time.
  7. Accountability—Leaders have people who can tell them the truth and ask the hard questions.
  8. A plan—Leaders know a dream without a plan is just wishful thinking. Leaders dream big, assess the challenges, and develop strategy to make the dream come true.
  9. Smart people—Wise leaders realize the areas in which they aren’t so smart and actively seek people who are smarter in those areas.
  10. A tolerance of change—Leadership always involves change; if you want to be estranged from change be a happy manager instead of a frustrated leader.
  11. Perseverance—A leader will face unexpected challenges, criticism, setbacks, pain, and doubt, but leaders persevere when others quit.
  12. Humility—Pride is a ride that leads to destruction. Great leaders realize that they have been deeply blessed and are willing to give of themselves to help others.

Lash Banks is Lead Pastor at Murphy Road Baptist Church (murphychurch.com).  Weekly podcasts are available at http://www.buzzsprout.com/17504

5 Things to Do When Criticized

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5 Things to Do When Criticized.

If you want to be a criticized person all you have to do is do something. The truth is there will always be those vision vandals, managers of the mundane, champions of the Eeyore fan-club that like to drain your enthusiasm and criticize your actions. So how do you react when criticized? Here are five steps to handling criticism well.  Okay, maybe not well, but at least a bit better. . . 

1. Consider the Source—It may be this is all you need to do.  If the source is way off base, then move on and don’t worry about it.  But sometimes, the source of criticism has merit and the criticism isn’t meant to be vindictive but constructive.  Sometimes the critic has a sincere desire to help.

2. Consider the Criticism—Criticism always stings.  But beyond the sting, there is often some truth that may help you to do better in the future.   In most cases, criticism requires some type of response.  Often all people want is to be heard.

3. Check your Heart—Pray about it! Perhaps some apathy, anger or attitude have taken up residence within you. The Lord may show that sin has crept in and the criticism can be God’s tool to renew your heart and help you to do better in the future.

4. Correct as Led—Having considered the matter and prayed about it correct as wisdom and the Holy Spirit lead you. It may be you change nothing, or God may use the criticism to take you to a whole new level.

5. Continue in Ministry—Whatever happens, do not quit honoring and serving God. “Jesus said you are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say everykind of evil about you because of Me (Matthew 5:11).” There’s no quitting in ministry.

There will always be people who don’t understand you. If you spend all of your life trying to live up to everyone’s expectations, you are going to be exhausted. Do one thing and do it really well: honor God. In every word, action, attitude, honor Him.  Collisions 3:17— And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

For more thoughts on this listen to the Enjoying the Journey podcast:
http://www.buzzsprout.com/17504/147924-faces-enjoy-the-journey

No Other Gospel

Christ has rescued us from the world by giving Himself for our sins according to the will of God.  Those who repent of sin and believe in Christ, receive the grace and peace of God and live for His glory forever and ever.  This is the heart of the true gospel that Paul  describes in Galatians 1:3-5:

3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. 5 To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The gospel of Christ is the most uniting force on earth because it answers our universal problem of sin and our most basic need of forgiveness.  The gospel empowers me to live a life of true significance where success is measured by eternal rather than earthly means.  The gospel causes me to lose control and discover the joy of life beyond the box.  It demands that I take the risk of faith and get beyond my sanitized world of control and power.  The gospel frees me from the prison of self.  To be God’s means that I no longer have to spend all of my energies trying to be God.   “I do because I am not in order to be.”  I pursue holiness because I am God’s child rather than attempting to be God’s child through my holiness.

 In Galatians 1:6-7, Paul dropped his jaw in amazement that those who have experienced the liberating power of the gospel, abandon freedom in favor of enslavement to selfishness and pride.  Paul wrote:

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah.

False gospels are subtle, because they wear Christ’s robes while stripping His message, they speak Christ’s language without God’s dictionary, embrace Christ’s love while ignoring His holiness, and desire the benefits of the cross but not the savior.

In Paul’s day, the Judaizers were luring the young, Gentile Christians of Galatia to a false gospel that taught Jesus + Judaism = Salvation.   Today, the equations of apostasy may read like this:

  • Gospel of Friendship–Church Activities + Friends = Community
  • Gospel of Accommodation–Your goodness + Jesus’ love = Success
  • Gospel of Legalism–Jesus + Rules = Control
  • Gospel of Self–Jesus + Opportunity = Admiration
  • Gospel of Exhaustion–Pleasing People + Doing Good = God’s Love

Paul’s response to the false gospel was, to say the least, rather firm in Galatians 1:8 he wrote:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!

Now, just in case you missed it or thought maybe Paul was just blowing off some steam.  Paul and, if you have a high view of Scripture, the Holy Spirit say it again in verse 9:

9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

False Gospels are such a BIG deal that they make Paul curse!  In Greek, the word translate “curse” is anathema.  The root idea is that false gospels should be banned, excommunicated, shunned to extinction.  What gets really scary is that if we plunge into our souls there are times when all of us are tempted to settle for a message that only resembles the true gospel.  It is often comfortable, encouraging, self-empowering, containable, and rewarding to listen to or communicate.  False gospels can win friends, draw crowds, increase budgets, provide comfort, build careers, and elicit cheers.  But, in the end, they fail to satisfy, fall short of grace, and enslave you into a prison of works producing a heritage of pride of selfishness.

So Paul brings us to the eternal conclusion in verse 10:

For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.

Christ has rescued us from the world by giving Himself for our sins according to the will of God.  Those who repent of sin and believe in Christ receive the grace and peace of God and live for His glory forever and ever.

Let us shun to extinction any other gospel.