I often hear/read phrases like,”I love my church”, “Great church!”, “Wonderful church”, “I’m so proud of my church!”, etc. Really? Why? What makes a church good, great, or wonderful? Have you ever thought about that? Saying it’s so doesn’t make it so.

Why you like a particular church is an important question. Is it because of the pastor’s powerful preaching, or the sensational singing, or the friendly folks, or the camaraderie of the congregation,or the beautiful building? Sadly most folks don’t have a clue when it comes to determining whether a church is good or not. Most people make that determination based on whether or not they enjoy the services– without any consideration for what it believes.

While this could lead to a discussion about numerous doctrines, let’s just stick with one– what does your church teach about salvation? Do you really know? Does it teach that that baptism, or works of any type are necessary for salvation? Does it teach the doctrine of eternal security– that you can never lose your salvation? Naturally we could go on and on with this line of questioning, but if a church is wrong about this there is nothing good about it. Any church, regardless of it’s name, that teaches that which is contrary to what the Bible teaches about salvation is not a place where you ought to be. Those who are guilty of this are condemned in the strongest possible language in Gal. 1:8-9 “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

We hear a lot of talk about joining the “church of your choice“, but you better be careful about the choice you make! It could be fatal. Religion is the biggest enemy on the face of the earth. Those who teach a false gospel deceive people into believing a lie that leads to their eternal damnation. This is a matter that you cannot afford to be wrong about. And being sincere about your beliefs or dedicated to your church is not good enough. If what you believe about salvation is not according to the truth you will spend eternity in a devil’s hell, separated from God forever. Only the truth will set you free, and the truth of the matter is found in Eph. 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:Not of works, lest any man should boast.”.

Dear friend, don’t assume that you are hearing the truth because the pastor is eloquent, or because grandpa and grandma were members of the church, or because it is the most popular church in town. There is too much at stake for you to be wrong. Do as the Bereans did, they “…received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11). If you have a Bible in you hand there is absolutely no reason for you to be confused in you head or troubled in your heart about the way of salvation–God has made it perfectly clear. Here was Paul’s answer to the jailer’s question, “what must I do to be saved?”— “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved..” (Acts 16:31). Any church that adds or takes away anything from that statement is guilty of heresy and you ought to get away from it as fast as possible. Think about it.

It is common to have people ask, “How are you?”, or “How is the church doing?”. I fear we are often deceptive in our answers. I don’t want to accuse anyone of lying, but I suspect that some do. Many are more concerned about saying what they want people to think than they are about the truth. Their pride causes them to distort the truth and put themselves in the best possible light. But probably the biggest problem about this is our ignorance. We tend to think everything is fine when it isn’t.

So how are we doing—for real? Well here are some things you need to consider. Surveys show that more than 4,000 churches close every year. There is less than half the number of churches today than there were only 100 years ago, and 3,500 people a day leave the church. Understand— the word “church” is used loosely here, so let’s narrow it down to the Southern Baptist. In 2014 1,000 Southern Baptist churches closed! That is sad, but no surprise when you consider that 25% of all Southern Baptist churches had zero baptisms! 60%baptized no one between the ages of 12-17 and 80% averaged less than one baptism of young adults (18-29). That is shocking!

In addition to the ever increasing immorality everywhere and the declining churches, there is another problem that needs to be considered. I just read that “On this planet, there are about 7,000 living languages. 1,860 of them do not have a single word of Scripture. 4,500 languages do not have a full Bible. That’s more than 1 billion Bibleless people.” So let’s go back to our question– how are we doing? I would say, to put it mildly, not very well! After all these years we have yet to make God’s Word available to this vast multitude. Why?

I raise this question because until we see the need for it there will be no improvement. As long as we think all is well when it isn’t we won’t do anything to change things. O how easily we deceive ourselves! Even as we look at these facts and figures there is a tendency to compare our church with others and assume that we’re doing very well, when the truth is we could be doing a lot better. We aren’t doing as we should, “doing well”, until we’re doing all we can. God demands our best and if we give less than that we need to improve. So how are we doing?

That question ought to raise the other question—“How are you doing?”. How the church does is determined by what the individual members do. No church can be expected to be better than then members who make it up. If you want the church to be at its best you have to be at your best. It is unfair to complain about the faults of the church and to excuse your own. How are you doing? Think about it !

PS: You might tie a string around your finger or use a “Post it note” to remind yourself to do this until it becomes a habit. Good idea or not, we need to know that words have great power to help or hurt. Use them wisely. Think about it!

“Without natural affection“–2 Tim. 3:3
Something terrible has happened! I know– you can think of a lot of things to put on that list, but I’m talking about something worse, something that probably  causes the things on your list. I’m talking about the loss of natural affection. The older I get, the more things change, the more I am reminded of Paul’s statement. Of all the things he mentions this one seems to be on my mind the most. Perhaps because, to me, it is the most shocking. I can’t believe what has happened in just one generation. It is heart-breaking!

God created us as social beings in need of one another and with affection for our family. Even unsaved people have a natural affection for their own– at least they did. But, something has happened to change that–something terrible. We now live in a time when people are so focused on self-gratification that family means little or nothing to them. While this isn’t new ( think Roman Empire) it is worse than ever and getting worse. The lack of affection is so obvious that you can’t miss it. Abortion (1.6 million per year in America), the remedy for those who don’t want to be bothered by a baby, has become so commonplace that hardly anyone raises a protest anymore. So, if people do that to innocent babies, what makes you think they will actually love you? They have no natural affection.

Today, even within the so-called best families, we don’t see the closeness and tender affection we saw in earlier generations. What we see is people who are disengaged, disregarded, disrespected, etc. and pointing out the problem doesn’t seem to do any good—after all, how can you make people who don’t care start caring by telling them they don’t care? You can’t! So why do I even raise the issue? I do so because this is a big part of the problem. Things have become so bad that we’ve developed a “Why try?” attitude– after all, we would be happier doing something else. Right? Now do you see that we’ve become a big part of the problem? We prefer happiness to holiness and we don’t have time or affection for those who don’t aid us in the pursuit of it. We are so in love with ourselves that we have no time for those who might distract us from our goal of pleasing self–even if that person is mom or dad, grandpa or grandma. Our concern for them is conditioned on what we can get from them. So sad! However, regardless of how unlikely it is to help, we ought to keep trying. Although we can’t change the world we can awaken a few folks, and that’s better than nothing. The fact of the matter is that we have an obligation to denounce sin and declare the truth even if no one listens.

Even as I close this message, I feel that I have failed miserably in my effort to explain the seriousness of this sin. We keep wondering what has happened to the family institution when the answer is exactly as I have described. The failure of the family is due to the absence of affection, which is caused by our failure to love God as we should. Unless and until our love for God is renewed there is no hope that things will improve. Call it revival, a spiritual awakening, or whatever you please, it all boils down to the same thing, our love for others won’t improve until our love for God increases.

As I’ve done far too often, I was recently thinking about all those who have dropped out, moved on, or fallen by the wayside during the last year. Then, suddenly in the middle of all my morbid thoughts, God turned my thoughts upside down. I began to think about the other side of the coin– the additions, the success stories, the good rather than the bad. The difference is amazing! As someone said, “A smile is a frown turned upside down”– Well I have a smile on my face and joy in my heart as I write this.

2014 was an awesome year. Whatever bad or sad thing that you can think of, I can think of ten times as many good things. God has added some wonderful people to the church– people who are both able and willing to serve the Lord, who have the talent and are willing to take the time to minister to others. Meeting new people is one thing, making new friends is another, and we have been greatly blessed by the latter. I had no idea these people even existed until God brought them into my life.Thank You Lord!

It has also been a blessed experience watching others grow and seeing God use them. The good Lord has a way of surprising us by using people in ways we never imagined. Time and time again He has proven that He is able when we are willing. Seeing God work in them and through them has been a delight. What He has done in their lives gives me hope that He will do the same in others. Now I see untapped potential everywhere and I am encouraged to not give up on some that seemed hopeless.

And then there are those who have have been steadfast, unmoveable, and faithfully abounding in the work of the Lord. I’ve often referred to them as “the faithful few”, but their tribe keeps increasing. We now have numerous members who can be counted on. They are faithful in attendance, generous in giving, dedicated to duty, cheerful in their service, etc. They are the kind of members that every pastor prays for and the kind in which he knows he can depend on.

I don’t have the words to describe the delight these people have brought into my life. Their faithfulness enables me to do my job “with joy, and not with grief”(Heb. 13:17). If you are among those I have mentioned I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are a great blessing and I pray you will be richly blessed as we labor together in the up-coming year. I have determined that, with God’s help, I am not going to get discouraged by the things I can’t change or control. Rather than focus on the crosses and losses that bring the blues, I am counting my blessings by thinking about people God has put into my life. We had a great year and I have no reason to doubt that this year will be even better.