As a child, our Church sang a hymn that is important for all of us to remember.  It applies specifically to election seasons and political candidates.  Edward Mote wrote it in 1834 as he pastored in England.  The story goes that he was writing the song, and he spent an afternoon visiting an extremely ill woman.  She invited him to sing to her and he began singing his own song while continuing his writing at the same time.  By the time the day was done, the woman had received comfort, and he had written six verses to his new hymn. 

Soon after, he contacted some publishers and told them to distribute his new song so that others might receive the same blessing as this sweet lady.  He wrote at least 100 other pieces in his life, but this one remains his best known and still touches lives over 165 years later.  The song is titled “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less.” It is also called “On Christ the Solid Rock” because of the chorus. 

The verse states, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” All our hope is placed in the one who gave his life for us.  He is the one who knows the will of God above all others.  No matter how bad or how good life has become, I will not trust those moments but place ALL my hope in the work of Jesus. 

Then comes the chorus, “On Christ, the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand.” ALL other ground is sinking sand.  It may look firm and give the appearance of hope, but real hope is only found in Christ. 

When the election is finally over and your candidate has won or lost, it doesn’t matter.  Jesus will still be on his throne, and he is the only one worthy of our trust.  Nothing and no one less than him will ever supply our deepest needs.  Days and seasons like this remind us to ask one central question about our lives:  Where is our hope built?

by Ozark Chistian College President Matt Proctor

Father God,
As we approach a national election, we pray first for peace. We lift up prayers and intercessions, as Paul told us, for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives. We seek, as Jeremiah did, the peace and prosperity of the city and the nation in which we live, for if it prospers, we too will prosper. In a time of division, protect us from national upheaval, and give us peace so that we may live in all godliness and holiness. We pray for peace. 

Lord, we pray second for discernment. The issues of our day are many and weighty: racism, abortion, immigration, war and peace, health care, economic justice, the role of government, and the freedom to practice our faith. Help us to understand the truth of your Word, and what we lack in wisdom, we pray you would give generously. With the gospel, form our conscience that we may vote wisely. We pray for discernment.

Lord, we pray third for grace. Open our eyes to see those with different opinions, not as enemies, but as precious souls, made in your image, for whom Christ died. Fill us with a spirit of charity toward those who may see us as enemies, and when we are opposed and even attacked, give us the patience of Christ himself, who asked forgiveness for those who drove the nails. We pray for grace.

Lord, we pray fourth for faith. When fear and anxiety seek to overwhelm us, fill our eyes with a vision of you, our King, on your throne in sovereign power, and may the puny politics of this world, which seem to loom so large, resume their proper size. Remind us of the temporary nature of nations and the eternal nature of your kingdom, and keep our trust in you. We pray for faith.

Lord, we pray finally for repentance. For all the blessings we enjoy, we are a people far from you. Convict us of our personal sins, forgive us of our national sins, and spark revival in the land. May every heart turn toward you and every knee bow before you. May we return to you like the prodigal son, and when we do, crown us with your compassion, cover us with your mercy, and embrace us with your love. We pray for repentance.

And above it all, through it all, we pray that the name of Jesus Christ would be the name on every lip, that his name would be magnified in this nation and in all nations, for your glory and for the world’s good. We pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Sunday sermons are a unique experience.  As a preacher, I have delivered thousands of sermons over the years, and each week is still an amazing event. 

Take yesterday, for instance.  During the sermon, I looked out on my congregation and saw people sleeping.  Through the years, I have become used to being the soothing sound that ushers people into a restful nap.  I don’t like it, but I have gotten used to it.  Well, yesterday, for whatever reason, lots of people were napping during the entire sermon. 

After the program was over, I was walking through the lobby, and one of my leader’s wives grabbed me and said, “I heard it was a good sermon today, but I didn’t get to hear it yet, and I am excited to go home and listen to it online.”  She went on to tell me that two ladies came out of the first program raving about what I had said and how meaningful it was to them.  There was laughter about the enormous differences in response to the words I preached in the back of my mind. 

The fantastic part of the story to me is that events like this happen all the time.  Some people sleep, and others are awakened to spiritual growth.  A preacher thinks his sermon bombed, and someone heard something that altered their views for a lifetime.    

The wonderful thing about serving a living God is that he has the ability to speak his truth to people at unexpected times.  I firmly believe that if you are looking for the will of God in your life, his voice will tell you what you need to hear even while other people sleep through it. 

I praise God that the ultimate success of a sermon does not depend on me or any other preacher.  God is in control, and he patiently uses us to communicate his message at just the right time to some faithful heart.  If you keep listening and opening your life up to God, you will hear the words you need to hear one day.  

One monthly project for me is to pick out popular songs for our worship program. We use them for our countdown to start, the communion time, and our exit music. I usually try to pick songs that tie into the sermon for the day or the month’s theme. This process usually takes me a couple of hours to find songs for four to five weeks.

This coming month has been more complicated than expected. The theme for this month is community. I am focusing on the table as a place of community for the people of God. As I search for popular songs in contemporary Christian music, I find a few songs about this one topic.

There is an excellent side to the music today. Many of the songs are written about God and our relationship with him. Songs of praise and blessing abound. The downside is that it is always on a personal level. I am praising God. I am thanking God for what he did for me. The community aspect is absent.

I am curious how Covid-19 will impact the topics of songs being written. Almost everything popular now was written and produced before shutdowns and quarantines. Perhaps the absence of a community will create a longing that will be represented in songs.

The New Testament continually teaches about the community of faith as a critical element of following Jesus. The “one another” passages abound. We are to love, encourage, serve, greet, fellowship, and be hospitable to one another, to name a few. Faith is never described as a “personal matter” in the Bible. It is always a community event. We are here to support each other when we are down, instruct when we are wrong, and forgive when we fail. The love of God is present in the people of the Church grandly and gloriously. Even with all its faults and failing, the fellowship of the people who follow Jesus is still the single most incredible group of people in the world. The musical world may have lost this truth, but I pray that Christians, in general, do not.

She said something that stopped me in my tracks.  Her words sounded like truth, but it was not found anywhere in the Bible.  From the way she said it, there was a clear impression that she believed it was the word of God. 

My question was direct, “Who told you that?” 

She froze as if no one had ever questioned her statement before.  “Why?” she said, “Is that not correct?” 

“Well, it is a popular idea, but it is not very good Bible teaching,” was my response.  For the next few minutes, I walked her through the flaws in her thinking along with what the Bible actually said in other passages. 

Unfortunately, because there are so many voices teaching about the Bible today, it is easy to accept something we hear or read as truth without ever actually reading it in the pages of the Bible.  One key question for discerning what the right Biblical stance on anything is to read what it says for yourself. It is quite possible that you have substituted something a preacher or teacher said for the word of God. 

Whenever you think about your beliefs it is important to ask a simple question, “Who told me that?”    

I have posed this question to several of my friends and Church members lately.  What is the one thing Christians should stop doing?  Asked another way, I tell them to fill in the blank in this sentence.  I wish Christians would stop … (blank)

My quest was to find one thing that I could write a blog about for you today.  Instead, it opened a can of worms that generated several funny, insightful, and often agitated responses.  A few of the most interesting things were things like Christians need to stop talking about politics and a particular candidate.  Christians need to stop ranting on social media and sharing fake news.  Others thought that Christians must give up their hypocrisy and ignoring certain sins.  The list of possibilities was long and contained seemingly no pattern. 

The only connection I could make is that everyone agrees that people who claim to follow Jesus have at least one thing they should stop doing.  The quest to become like Christ keeps pushing us to find the next area of our lives on which to work.  Our actions, attitudes, beliefs, relationships, and views must be continually reassessed.  There is no point in which a Christian can say they are doing everything God desires.

My single lesson from this experiment can be summarized this way.  Christians need to start asking themselves daily, “What is the one area I need to become more like Christ?” If you are unsure where is the best place to start, then ask a trusted friend, “What is the one thing I should stop doing?” I am sure they have an answer if you are willing to hear it.  There is a long list of possibilities for change, and each one of us needs to keep improving on this side of heaven. 

This question keeps rattling around in my head lately.  It is the result of several encounters and conversations.  It is one of life’s most fundamental questions; “What do you want people to say about you once you are gone?” More than a eulogy or a statement about the sickness you bravely endured till the end, what is the lasting memory you want people to have of your life?

I think the best description a believer could have is simply, “They worked hard to become like Jesus.” This one statement captures the heart of a follower of Jesus, along with our struggles as humans.

First, being a Christian is hard work.  It takes a concerted effort every single day of your life.  We can choose the easy way or can walk the path of faith.  We can follow our instincts of the flesh or listen closely to the voice of God.  Would it not be excellent for people to the work you put into your faith? There will be times you fail, but you keep getting back up and trying again.

Second, the goal of our belief was to be transformed to be like Jesus.  This is a lofty ambition, but it is helpful to set the bar high.  For most people, we like to compare ourselves with the people around us. “Sure, I am not perfect, but do you see how much better I am than other people,” we tell ourselves.  True believers set the bar to the life of Jesus.  We know we will never attain it, but we keep working over a lifetime to be transformed into the son’s image.

When our lives are over, I want my life to be remembered for its total trust in God, and I hope you do too.  Spending every day growing in our thoughts, words, and actions.  It is nice if people think of us as great parents, spouses, children, and friends, but when we try to become like Christ, all those things naturally come along with it.  Working hard to become like Jesus is much more significant than fulfilling your earthly role.  It is greeting every day with faith, action, and love in each encounter.  It is a lofty goal, and it works itself out one day at a time, even on days like today. 

Recently I saw a meme that went around social media that caught my attention. This one I even “liked” when a few people I know posted it. It looks like this:

For some reason, the statements’ sentiment appeared to ring true, but I could not just let it go. I kept thinking about it until I figured out what was wrong. The statements do not reflect how life works, especially in the eyes of a follower of Jesus.

Most of the time, being undisciplined is easy. Anyone can do it. It does not become hard until down the road, and you need the advantages that being disciplined alone can bring. Skipping exercise every day is easy. Sleeping in is terrific, but down the road, maybe in 40 or 50 years, you will want the benefits that a lifetime of good health will bring, and only then will life be hard. The real issue is not choosing which hard life you will lead. The question is, will you lead a comfortable life now that will turn out to be hard later or a hard life now that will have benefits further down the road? No one has difficulty choosing which hard thing they will do. People have trouble deciding if they want an easy life now, knowing the dangers lie ahead in the distant future.

Every day and every week we wake up, we have a choice. Will we pay the price today knowing the rewards will come later, or will we take it easy today and pay the price somewhere down the road? I believe this is true in this life and in the one to come.

This has been an unbelievable week at our Church.  In 8 days, we will have held a family visitation for the passing of a Church attendee, a funeral and luncheon afterward, youth group with food, along with a wedding rehearsal plus dinner and the wedding.  This on top of two worship programs on each of the Sundays.  All of this on top of Covid season, where we are continually cleaning and disinfecting to keep everyone safe.  Yet, everything is set up to be completed in two days without a glitch. 

The only way our Church was able to accomplish all this over was because of wonderful people who willingly serve others with their time.  There has been a steady stream of people who have been here to set-up, tear down, clean, cook, and prepare the building.  The number of people who have pulled together to make this week happen has been outstanding when you consider that only a couple of us are paid to do anything, that makes it even more impressive. 

This week has reminded me why the analogies for the Church are so fitting.  Believers together are like a family, always looking out for each other.  The followers of Jesus are like an army who work together to accomplish their tasks.  Christians are like a body, and every part has an important function.  Some get recognition, and others do not, but that does not make one more significant than another.  In today’s analogy, I would say the Church is like a team where everyone plays a vital role in winning. 

The New Testament continually gives instructions on how we are to live with one another.  The group is essential to the work of the Lord.  This week I saw everyone playing their part, and other people were blessed because of it.  The Church is far more than a preacher and a meeting on Sunday.  Everyone here is important, and we could not exist without you. 

I am embarrassed by what I said and did.  It might not seem like a big deal to other people, but it was a colossal failure to me.  While I hate that story being a part of my life, it was the catalyst that moved me in a new direction. 

That one failure forced me to come face to face with my sin.  I had to rediscover my time with God each day.  It helped me to appreciate my wife and family at a deeper level.  From those days until now, I have taken a different approach to life as a Christian, husband, father, and pastor.  That one mistake radically altered my future even though it is a stain in my past. 

My experience has taught me two things. First, no matter what you are going through, God can use it for good.  The overwhelming pain, unbelievable embarrassment, and sheer disappointment in yourself that you feel now could be the event that makes you a better person and believer.  It is hard to imagine that something horrible could make your life better in the long run, but it can. 

Second, when someone is going through a traumatic breakdown because of their sin.  Do not be quick to judge, point fingers, and spread gossip.  The thing that person is going through at that moment may be the thing God uses to change their life.  It might be the wake-up call they needed. 

The people who make it to the finish line of faith are scarred people. Most of them have a story or two which they never tell in public.  They are forgiven, but it is still embarrassing.  I hate that I had to go through it, and I feel sorry for your pain too.  But if we allow God to use it to redirect us, it can be the event that makes us more like Jesus.