About a year ago there was a State mandate that we couldn’t gather together, not even family. When the Church first started Peter was commanded by the authorities to not teach or speak about Jesus, and his response in Acts 5:29 was “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” In Hebrews 10:25 it commands us to “not forsake our own assembling together, as is the habit of some.” Christians all over the world gather together secretly with the threat of losing their jobs, being sent to prison, and even being killed, but they meet anyway. I once attended and preached in a service in a country where gathering as Christians was strictly forbidden. There was about 100 people squeezed together, sitting on the floor, in a room the size of our living room and they insisted that I preach for three hours. In talking to them I learned that almost all of them had been persecuted in some way in the last several years for their illegal gatherings. Some were beaten, others had their crops destroyed, many had family members in jail, and a number had family members who had been killed. For me, it was a no brainer that we would gather together in person, worship, fellowship, and hear the Word taught, it is commanded by God and we don’t grow without it. During this last year our church has had it’s greatest growth in the 40 year history of our church. Many who came were from churches that weren’t meeting, but now that churches are opening back up many of those people are returning to their home churches. But many who started coming were looking for answers during these turbulent times, looking for peace, and looking for the security that they would spend eternity in heaven if they did get COVID and die.

A sad thing for me is that many are now very haphazard and irregular in their gathering together because they are camping, fishing, traveling, going to the coast, and on the list goes. I am headed for Alaska in a couple of days but I will be attending a church in Soldotna. The reason I will is because God says “don’t forsake gathering together, as is the habit of some,” I either believe the Bible is the Word of God and follow it or I don’t. Jesus is either Lord of my life or He isn’t , depending on if I obey Him. Many tend to pick and choose what is convenient. Being faithful to our church is not an issue of being saved and going to heaven, because heaven is free, a gift received by faith, but it is an issue of growing, of commitment, and Loving the Lord. It doesn’t mean that we never miss, but it does mean that it is not done lightly.,

What does it mean to be motivated? For me, it means that I get out of my recliner and do something. “Self-motivated” is a term that is applied to successful people. The way I motivate myself is to think, ponder, meditate on my goals. My goals are what I want, the stronger my want the more motivated I will be.

What do you want?” That question was asked of me by a waitress that was obviously having a bad day, judging by the manner in which she asked me the question. She continued her rude manner of talking to us as she took our orders and brought the food, but in spite of her gruff personality the service was good, and the food was excellent so I gave her a nice tip. Later as I thought about the encounter, I sort of zeroed in on the question for some reason, “what do you want?” Jesus often asked people that question before He healed them, and God asked Solomon that question, and he answered “wisdom”, and God gave it to him.

What do I want? I would like it to be sunny tomorrow, I would like to go fishing, I would like to catch fish when I do. How many “wants” do I actually have? If I identified every single want that is in me, and I ranked them from the strongest, most passionate want down to the ho-hum casual desire, I would discover what motivates me. A second question would be, “what are you willing to do to bring the number one want into reality?” The stronger the want the more I would be willing to do.

The stronger my want the more I will do, the harder I will work, the more I will sacrifice, the longer I will pray, the more money I will give, the harder I will fight, and the more successful I will be.

Very few things motivate a person as much as writing goals and reading them several times each week. It is a simple discipline that very few do, but those who do are motivated.

I am headed up to Alaska on Saturday to go salmon fishing, and I am really excited about it, and looking forward to it very much. Some people say I am addicted to fishing. I am not sure exactly what that means so I googled it. According to one site there are obvious signs that fishing has moved beyond a hobby to an addiction, here are a few;

-you have more pictures of fish then grandkids.

I counted, it is a tie.

– the amount of money you spend on fishing equipment, fishing trips, and guide fees is greater than a car payment each month.

I don’t have a car payment and what I spend on fishing isn’t quite as much as my house payment, so I think I am fine.

– You remember the date of upcoming fishing trips more successfully than your wife’s birthday or your wedding anniversary.

That one isn’t fair!

-You get up in the middle of the night and watch YouTube video’s of fishing shows.

Only when I can’t sleep.

I read where they use fishing as a remedy to help people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, it is called “replacement treatment.” Addiction to fishing is so much stronger than addiction to drugs or alcohol that it replaces it.

Jesus was baptized at approximately age 30, the Apostle Paul was baptized, the Church began in the book of Acts with 3000 people getting baptized, and the “Great Commission” given by Jesus minutes before He ascended into heaven commands the Church to baptize people as they make disciples, baptism is clearly the will of God for each of us as fully devoted followers of Jesus.

Yesterday we had JBC’s annual “Baptism at the Lake” with a big pot-luck, great worship, amazing testimonies by those getting baptized, and 20 baptisms. The weather was great, the food was delicious, the place where we hold the event at Talbot, Lake Charles, was beautiful and tremendously suited for this event, and the fellowship with all the people was sweet.

As I sat and listened to the testimonies of each person getting baptized and heard the stories of their unique journey’s with Christ, their trials, experience’s, and lessons learned I was amazed at the sovereign working of God in each person’s life to bring them to Himself and shape them into the image and likeness of Himself. It was a beautiful day and once again was my favorite day of the year.

If you want to be blessed watch the short video of our baptism service yesterday using the link below.

A principle of life is that change produces growth. If a business is going to grow it must change. If churches are going to grow they must change. If individuals are going to grow they must change. The more change that happens the faster they grow.

But often change doesn’t cause growth, it causes just the opposite. Why? We don’t like change as individuals or as groups. Change makes us anxious, afraid, and insecure about the future.

Churches can choose to change, plan change, and make goals to change, but change in churches often causes disunity which results in a sick church and decline. The leadership must lead well to maintain strong unity during the change process in the midst of the church family, and then growth happens, often very rapid growth.

Individuals can choose to change, plan changes, and set goals for change, but they can become so fearful in the process that all the positive, growth-causing elements of change are negated. Individuals must learn the skill of self-leadership so that they can pursue change with faith and confidence.

The stronger the leadership the more change can happen and the faster the growth. Because people don’t like change, they and the churches they attend choose not to change, but to stay in a rut, it is more secure to them.

God will then sovereignly make changes in order to produce growth, but if there isn’t good self-leadership and good church leadership growth won’t happen but decline.

For the last year we have had an incredible amount of change. Many people because they are good at leading themselves have managed the change in a healthy way and have grown tremendously. Many churches as well have grown more this last year than in any other year in their history because of solid and wise leadership.

The key element is trusting God. In the midst of the change God causes an important discipline is always rejoicing, never complaining.

A person who regularly and systematically sets goals to change, and rejoices always in the change God causes will grow rapidly. And churches that see change as a good thing and maintain strong unity will reach many people with the gospel.

Talking mean to people has always been something that a few people did to others, but now it is very common, it seems most do it. Telling people off, especially on social media, is becoming part of life. Saying rude, and insulting, things about a person to pay them back, put them in their place, or to let them know that we don’t like them is becoming part of the culture.

Ephesians 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

Matthew 15:11 It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

Matthew 12:36-37 But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb,Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Every morning in my prayer of commitment I say to God, “today I will only speak words that give grace to those lislisteng, I will not speak words that tear down, hurt or offend,”

God is listening to what we speak out of our mouth, and (1) He gives us greater authority and power to influence people with our words when we are disciplined on how we talk, (2) He blesses or curses our entire life based on how we talk, and (3) our self-worth goes up as we build up others with our words., we always reap what we sow.

I regularly say things that I ought not to say. I always feel bad when I do, and confess it to God as sin, and recommit to talking nice and asking God for the power to succeed.

There are 328 million people in the United States, and I am just one person, you are just one person. When you read or watch the news and see all the crazy stuff going on, and Oregon one of the craziest it is very easy to feel like a victim. A victim because you didn’t cause what is happening to happen, and you don’t have any way to change or stop much of anything. It is like being in a big flood of water with a life jacket on being carried away by the water trying hard to keep your head up out of the water with no clue where you are being washed away to.

Jesus was one man , and He accomplished a lot with His life, with most of it being in just three years.

John 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.

But Jesus was God, you say, but He was living and functioning as a man, a human being,

John 14:12-14 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

This is one of the coolest passages in the Bible. I have the potential to do greater works to accomplish more that matters than Jesus Himself. Every Christian hast potential, but very, very few do much of anything to influence their culture.

1. You have to believe you can. If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains. The best way to grow strong in faith is to read your Bible every day, more than a couple of verses. Memorize and meditate on key Bible verses. I have memorized John 14:12-14 and often fall asleep going over it in my mind.

2. Pray a lot for and about every injustice you see or hear about. Notice the second half of John 14:12-14. “Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do!”

Luke 18:7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?

Notice the phrase, “day and night, ” which means to pray a lot.

Most could very easily read their Bibles for 15 minutes and then pray for 15 minutes. That 30 minutes a day will move you into the category of being a champion for God, a Daniel, a David, an Esther.

The Bible is full of stories of one person making a huge difference in the world.

Ezekiel 22:30I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.

In this verse God is saying He only needs one person to work through to change history. The book of Esther is about one man and one lady that save the nation of Israel from extinction. The book of Daniel is about one man who made a huge difference in history, so what was their power?

Our nation in one year has gone incredibly crazy, very lost, and rushing away from God and His blessings. God calls me to be salt and light, to make a difference, to be a leader, an influencer, so what can I do?

Let me share my strategy on how to be a world-changer with you.

1. It is so important to remember that God is doing the changing, the fixing, and the conquering. But He doesn’t do what he does except through a person, and He only uses qualified people, so be one. The people God does great things through are humble above all else, they are kind to others, they seek God through Bible reading and prayer.

2. Our greatest world-changing weapon is prayer. The kind of praying that God honors is that which costs us time, not easy, convenient, prayer. Prayer warriors are systematic, not sporadic, they have a place and a time and are faithful to it. They set goals, make commitments, and keep them.

3. If you are pursuing righteousness and being the kind of person God uses keep an eye open for opportunities that God will provide, don’t miss them because of your busy schedule.

I think a lot about the future. It is a combination of planning and anticipation. The thinking that I do is a major source of energy and joy for me, it simply gets me excited.

I am going to go fishing one day this week. I am going to go fishing at least one day next week. I am going to have three more meetings this week with groups of guys that love Jesus and want to grow, and next week I am going to have seven of those extraordinary meetings. This Sunday is our annual baptism service with over 20 people getting baptized and an enormous pot luck with great food and I am going to walk around and talk to many, many different people, all of whom I love and pray for every week. In ten days I am leaving for Alaska to go fishing for sockeye salmon with a bunch of guys from the church, it is going to be such a fun time. In August I am going to climb Mt Adams, 12,307 feet high. I am going to camp at the 10,000-foot level and have a great time looking out on what looks like the whole world beneath me. In September I am going elk and deer hunting with my bow in the Steens Mts, the most beautiful place in the world. In the first weekend of October I am starting my Leadership classes. I will teach a total of six different classes each week, and I am so excited about the impact I know the classes will have on those attending. At some point in August I am going tuna fishing. I have never been and I am so excited about this new experience. In January I am going to teach a seminar to a bunch of Pastors that will totally change their ministries, I can hardly wait for this to come. There so many other really cool things on the calendar in the next six months.

If you are like me, a lot of the new words being thrown around in the news today are confusing. One of them is “ Critical Theory” and another is “Wokeism”.

Woke (/ˈwoʊk/ WOHK) is a term referring to awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial equality, and it has also been used to refer to awareness about broader social inequality on issues such as gender and sexual orientation.

There is a new religion called wokeism. It is growing very fast in our country. This religion masquerades under the guise of compassion and justice, but underneath it is evil. This movement did not start in Minneapolis on May 25th, when George Floyd was killed, it has been growing for decades.

When I graduated from High School in 1967 and went off to a Christian College I learned about Secular Humanism. In one of my classes we read the Humanist Manefesto written in 1933. In the Manefesto was this statement, “Humanism is a new “religion”, and Humanism as a religious movement will transcend and replace all previous religions that are based on allegations of supernatural revelation.” Since the first Manifesto, there have been a succession of new ones written intended to update and clarify the doctrine of Secular Humanism, the last one being in 2008. A few of the doctrines, principles, and goals are; (1) Evolution is our God, (2) No deity will save us; we must save ourselves, (3) We are responsible for what we are and for what we will be, (4) abortion should be free and available to everyone, (5) ethical relativism, the belief that no absolute moral code exists, and therefore man must adjust his ethical standards in each situation according to his own judgment. Humanist Max Hocutt says that human beings “may, and do, make up their own rules… Morality is not discovered; it is made.” (6). A one-world court and government would be most effective for achieving equality (7) The pursuit of personal property and riches, capitalism, is the main cause of evil and inequality in the world (8) racism is the ultimate expression of inequality, as is sexism, and judgmentalism toward someone else’s sexual orientation.

When I was a Freshman in college, it was recognized that secular Humanism was rapidly taking over secular Colleges and Universities in the United States which was their stated goal in the second Manefesto written at the end of World War II. Today most would agree that the “takeover” is complete, and is now moving into public education and has moved aggressively into Christian Schools as well.

Out of Humanism comes the idea that the more government controls a culture the more equality will exist, which results in the welfare state, Socialism and Communism.

In the early 20th century, a German school of philosophy called the Frankfurt School developed a social philosophy based on Humanism, called Critical Theory. The stated purpose is to “liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them, that which is oppressive.” In Critical Theory, the only things that exist are hierarchies of power, and those hierarchies must be torn down.

Critical Theory started to become prominent in the United States in the 90s and eventually infiltrated almost every university. In recent years, the ideology has left the university and has made the jump to media and corporate culture, establishing itself as the primary moral culture of our country.

Concepts such as logic, wisdom, natural law, and reason are viewed as tools of the oppressors, as are values like individualism, hard work, punctuality and delayed gratification. Critical Theory has become much more than a social philosophy and is the primary philosophical driving force behind the new civil religion of wokeism.

God is oppressive, saying something is right is oppressive, the expectation put on me to be responsible is oppressive, the fact that others have more than I do is oppressive. . .

Those who have convinced themselves that they are oppressed, that they have been treated unjustly scream, yell, and make a big fuss in an attempt to be free and equal, but it doesn’t work.

The only hope for our country is Jesus Christ.