If I go fishing tomorrow and limit out on Chinook salmon is that a good day? If I go through today and I am self-controlled in my eating and exercise a lot and lose two pounds, is that a good day? If I go through today and nothing unexpected happens and everything goes as planned, that for sure sounds like a good day. The apostle Paul describes a good day as one where the gospel is heard and understood. Paul is in prison and he writes and says that the gospel has spread because of his imprisonment, that makes it a good day.

Philippians 1:12-13 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else,

So, how is your day going? Catch any fish, lose any weight, is everything going as planned? But what about the gospel? What about Jesus being better known through me and you? On that basis my day has been lousy, not much has changed in any person’s heart or life because of what I have done or said today. I want my life to make a huge difference in the lives of many people. I will pray every morning and ask God to give me opportunities to influence people even if that means no fish, and I will pay attention so that I don’t miss any open doors.

I voted and I voted what would be called conservative. The biggest factor in my voting wasn’t the economy, or crime, it was abortion. I believe that an unborn baby is a living soul and that abortion is murdering that living soul. I believe that when Jesus Christ left heaven to be our savior, He left at the point of Mary’s supernatural conception.

So because I voted conservative and Oregon is mostly liberal I probably am going to be disappointed in the results of the election. But there are other factors in life that I consider when I think about government and politics.

– Will the results of the election make any difference in how much I can share the gospel with people who are not presently headed for heaven? I don’t think so, at least not yet.

– Will the results have any bearing on our church’s ability to influence people and the culture around us to live for God? Same answer.

In fact, it seems that the worse things get, the higher gas goes in price, the more uptight people become, the more they begin to look toward God for security.

The driving desire of my heart is that we would see revival in Oregon and that maybe it could start in Jefferson. I don’t really think that the results of the election are going to be much of a factor in whether God brings revival or not. What will decide that will be how much people pray.

Jefferson Baptist Church has a “Five Day Prayer Event” coming up in a couple of weeks. Someone may say to me tomorrow, “are you disappointed in the election results?” What will disappoint me is if the number of people who show up for the “Five Days of Prayer” is small. That disappoints me to the point of tears. Prayer changes things, prayer brings God’s blessings, prayer brings people to faith in Christ, prayer changes Governor’s hearts, prayer heals people, prayer restores relationships, prayer is powerful. I get so disappointed when people don’t pray.

In the physical realm of my life I have disciplines to help me stay healthy. I ride a stationary bike almost every night, I brush my teeth every day, I control my eating to maintain a healthy weight, I work at getting a minimum of 6 hours of sleep every night, I go to the doctor for a checkup every two years, and I avoid climbing letters😂.

For my spiritual health and my relationship with God I practice spiritual disciplines as well. If you read books on this topic you will discover about 21 different disciplines that have been practiced and written about over the years, but I have reduced my list down to seven. (1) Bible reading, memorizing, and meditation (2) praying by myself, with Patty, and with my church family. (3) Gathering together with other believers regularly in large and small groups. (4) Seeking wisdom by reading good books, regularly listening to good speakers and teachers live and recorded, and getting counsel from those around me who are experienced and competent in the areas of my life that I am weak and struggling in. (5) Giving my money to my church, other worthwhile ministries, and needy people. (6) Worshiping God well at corporate gatherings and all day long, where ever I am and whatever I am doing, to say thank you to God, my creator and savior, often. (7) Examine my life and behavior and confess all known sins to God daily.

I have written goals for each of my disciplines that are measurable and I read them every day. I share my goals with others that I am in an accountability relationship with.

“The Disciplines” are called that because they take discipline and self-control to do and be faithful in.

One of the basic disciplines of the Christan life is to worship God. A basic way to worship Him is with other believers singing together.

Psalms 100:1-2 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing.

Ephesians 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

During the worship time at our church service each week I work hard at controlling my thinking and not letting my mind drift, but focus on the Lord and direct my words to Him.

Matthew 15:8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.

When I worship God with others I sing as loud as I can. I think that the Psalms that admonish us to shout joyfully to the Lord suggest volume. I am not a good singer but I don’t let the intimidation of what others might think keep me from singing from my toes.

Psalms 98:4 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.

A key principle is that if I worship well corporately, I will worship well privately. I will rejoice about everything, thanking the Lord all day long, and not complain and grumble about anything. But if I am distracted during the worship time in my church and just go through the motions thoughtlessly, not thinking about the Lord, if I worship poorly during corporate worship then during the week I will find myself taking things for granted, not appreciating what God has done for me, and I will grumble and complain a lot.

The principal again, “If I worship well corporately, I will worship well privately.” Try it and see what happens in your life.

Very few things wreck corporate worship in our own heart as much as a consumer spirit does. That is when we start thinking that the worship time is supposed to bless me, and I get critical about the quality of the music and the choice of songs. I have been in every kind of worship experience possible, with lively contemporary songs and also really old hymns, I have worshiped with amazing worship bands and also with an old lady playing a piano with one finger. In all of the variations I could still choose to worship God well as my creator and savior. Often the best worship experiences, where I sensed God’s presence most powerfully was in the simple setting that many would find dull.

Yesterday I said that the problem with pride is that we can have it and not be aware of it, a blind spot. Like high blood pressure, you think you are fine until you get it checked and you find out that it is in the danger area. I fantasized a bit about a device that would measure our pride level and we could use such a device to check all preachers, teachers, and singers before they taught or sang to make sure God would bless them. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if, right before I was scheduled to preach, my pride level was checked, and it was way too high , so someone else had to take my place? As they began, they announced that I wouldn’t preach because my pride registered 160/100. Twenty-four years ago, I weighed 247 lbs, and after much nagginge from Patty, I went to the doctor and had a checkup; my blood pressure was high, as well as my blood sugar and cholesterol. The doctor wanted to put me on some medication but I suggested that I try exercise and weight loss first. I started running that very night, ran the Hood to Coast relay with a team from the church four months later, and a couple of months later I ran my first of twelve marathons which I did over the next 15 years. It didn’t take long before I had lost 40 lbs and my blood pressure was down to 110/70.

So if such a pride measuring device really existed and I really did have a very high measurement what would I do to bring it down so that I could preach again? I don’t think running and dieting would help much, but I should have some plans. Here is my plan for pursuing the character trait of humility.

1. I will read the Bible daily with a schedule plan, pondering what I read. Deuteronomy 17:18-20 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen.

2. Psalms 119:11 “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” I will identify Bible verses that speak directly to pride and humility and memorize them and then meditate on them daily so that the power of God’s Word will work on my heart from the inside out, such as Philippians 2:3-8 and 1 Peter 5:5-6

3. I will journal three times a week minimum and write about events during the week where I got my feelings hurt by someone and found myself thinking about it over and over or was offended to the point that I verbally responded negatively. I will write about the situation examining my own life and motives and confessing to God all sin of pride that I uncover.

4. I will worship and praise God sincerely at weekend worship services, and I will sing as loud as I can. I will spend at least 15 minutes with God in prayer every day, and I will spend much of that time thanking and praising God for all the blessings He has brought into my life.

5. I will write at least one note each week to someone thanking them for how they helped or blessed me that week.

6. Every morning I will pray a prayer of commitment to the Lord declaring Him King of my life, and that I will follow and obey Him that day. I will make several specific commitments to Him, and one of them will be that I will diligently pursue humility as a character trait and ask for His power to succeed.

7. Whenever I become aware of someone being upset at me for anything, I will take the initiative and seek peace and reconciliation.

Psalms 10:17 O Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear

Psalms 25:9 He leads the humble in justice,and He teaches the humble His way.

Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes dishonor,
But with the humble is wisdom.

Isaiah 66:2 But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

James 4:6 God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Micah 6:8 what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Matthew 23:12 Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

Humility as a character trait is a big deal to God, and it also is a character trait that we value greatly in other people in our life; we don’t like spending time with the proud and arrogant; they push our buttons.

Pride is a very difficult fault to see in ourselves. There are a lot of people who are on God’s bench, not in the game, not doing anything with their life that matters because of pride. You can want to do something significant with your life, but if God doesn’t give you something to do, you will just spin your wheels

We all need to pursue humility with great diligence. The admonition is to be humble like Jesus was. That seems impossible, but it must not be if it is clearly stated in the Word, but it certainly won’t be easy.

Philippians 2:3-5 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. . .Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

Pride in us is like high blood pressure, you can walk around with high blood pressure and not know it until you get it checked. I got mine checked the other day as part of a doctor visit and it was 130/80 and it has been 110/ 70 for year’s. Not super bad I guess, but an added incentive to lose weight. Now what I would like is a device that could measure our pride level. We could make it available for anybody who wanted to check it in the foyer. We could make it mandatory for all preachers, teachers, singers and leaders to make sure that motive was pure. Yikes, that would be embarrassing if I had to cancel a sermon and hand off the responsibility to someone else. “Why isn’t Pastor Dee preaching at the Wednesday night sermon?” “Oh, he didn’t pass the Pride check, maybe next week!”

Imagine that you have a power, a supernatural ability, to influence people all around you. You exercise this power by looking at people. There comes out of your eyes this light that when it lands on other people, especially their eyes, they become very open to the gospel. If they are mean, they become nice; if they are resistant, they become open; if they are obnoxious, they become super gracious. The strength of this power changes constantly and it is easy for you to see the change because the light gets bright or dull, sometimes almost going away. It doesn’t take very long for you to notice what causes the light to become very, very bright and for it almost to disappear. And because you want to be used by God to influence people to become Christ followers you conscientiously work hard at doing those things that makes your gift super bright, and avoiding the behavior that causes your light to grow dull.

In the New Testament this power from God to influence the people around us is called authority.

Matthew 7:28-29 the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Matthew 9:8 But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Matthew 10:1 Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

John 19:10-11 So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above;

If you could see this authority, this power from God grow strong or weak, at the moment of certain behavior, you would be very motivated to practice that behavior. I can tell you what that behavior is because the Bible tells us clearly what it is.

God states the first clearly and emphatically, this behavior will make or break you as a successful servant of God. It is humility in relationship to other people and in our relationship to God.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Mark 10:43-44 but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.

1 Peter 5:5-6 all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,

The world teaches that the key to becoming a person of influence is to be assertive, strong to the point of being overbearing

There are two arenas of leadership in the world, those leaders who have a position and title of leadership like the boss you work for, teachers, police, and politicians, and those who do not have the position or title but are leaders because of the power of their influence on the people around them. In the church, it is the same, the official leaders are the Pastors, Elders, teachers, and those in charge of particular ministries. But there are also those who have great influence on the culture in a church and the direction it is going who have no title or position. All of us should strive to be a positive influence on at least part of the people we spend time with. Those who have the most influence in any group of people like a family, a church, or at work have common characteristics that can be observed and learned.

These characteristics are ones that I have learned about from others who have them and from reading the Bible and many other books on leadership written by smart people, and I have also recognized the power and value of these characteristics as a Pastor experiencing and witnessing the impact of highly influential people at Jefferson Baptist Church over the years who have these characteristics.

I said that I have learned about these characteristics, not that I have learned to practice them, to live them, they have not yet become strong character traits in me, though I am growing and making progress as I press forward in my quest to become a strong, positive influencer of people, a real leader.

I teach this information in my “Leadership Classes,” at JBC so I thought I might also write about it in my blog.

The most important characteristic of strong leaders is not really a character trait as it is an awareness of the power of influence, an accurate assessment of our own ability to influence, and a super strong and relentless pursuit of becoming more and more a person of influence.

Last night we held our Halloween outreach event called “Trunk or Treat” and it turned out great. We had about 50 vehicles in our far parking lot along with canopy tents behind every car because of the rain, and most of the cars or pickups were decorated and all had a ton of candy. Parents brought their kids down to JBC and they walked down the rows of cars saying “trick or treat,” collecting candy from each “trunk.”We also had free hot dogs and hot chocolate in the gym, giving away 700 hot dogs. I had my pickup and my canopy set up and I gave away a lot of candy, there was a huge crowd of people. This ministry provides a nice alternative for parents who can bring their kids to our place instead of the street and have a big gym with warm food and a bouncy house to play on. As each kid reached in my cooler and got a handful of candy I would pray for them, their parents and family asking God to work in their life and to draw them to Himself, and that being there on our parking lot, and in our gym would plant seeds in their heart and that at a later date those seeds would sprout and they would come to a regular church service and would become part of our church family and part of God’s family.

There are so many different tools available to us as we work to reach the lost. Many different people have used their strong desire to save the lost to stir their creative minds to think of ways and methods and simple ways to influence lost people to trust Christ. I was sitting in my lawn chair last night looking at all the kids that were everywhere around me and I thought, “I wonder who invented this simple spinoff of the old traditional “trick or treat”, and what prompted it.

It was a lot of fun seeing all those kids and imagining the potential that was walking by me of future disciples of Jesus.