It is interesting reading the news and listening to a few podcasts about current events and the struggle going on in our government over who is in charge and who is the leader. Jesus had a different way to lead.

Mark 10:42-45
Calling them to Himself, Jesus *said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, 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. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Leadership is influence, it doesn’t mean that you get to be the boss of other people. Influence is based on character, it is a result of serving and caring. God says that He is the one who exalts one and humbles another based on humility and character. Those who are wise seek influence with others but are always cautious about power and the ability to Lord it over others. It is difficult to have power and not be corrupted by it, which our government is a classic example of. In all of our relationships and associations, we want to be a positive Christian influence on those around us. We can become growing biblical leaders who are bright lights and salty salt by following biblical principles and guidelines on being an influencer of people.

On Monday night I usually meet with a bunch of guys at the men’s conference room at JBC where there is a very big TV on the wall, and we watch Monday Night Football. Tonight in the first quarter a player collapsed to the ground. They did CPR on him and took him away in an ambulance. Almost all of the players from both teams knelt down together and prayed for him. I don’t think I have ever heard so many comments about prayer in such a short amount of time from the commentators and others who were interviewed; something about prayer was the common theme. It was quite amazing in light of how godless we have become as a nation.

About 40 years ago a friend invited myself and four other friends to lunch. He was studying to get a Doctor of Divinity degree, and was getting ready to write his Thesis which is like writing a book on a particular subject. The title of his Thesis was, “What America Believes and Does it Make any Difference.” He invited us to lunch because he needed our help in taking a survey for his Thesis. He wanted us to take 100 survey papers and fill them out after surveying 100 people. He said he would buy us a nice dinner and we could talk about our survey results and experiences that we had in the day talking to people. We all agreed and spent our day in a large mall walking around asking people if they wouldn’t mind taking a short survey. There were twelve short questions that required only a “yes” or “no” answer. Some of the questions were, “Do you believe in God?” “Do you believe in heaven?” “Do you believe in hell?” “Do you believe in prayer?” As best as I can remember I had to ask about 300 people to get my 100 surveys filled out. That evening we ate a very nice dinner and talked about some of the strange conversations we had as well as some of the very nice ones. One of the most interesting observations from the survey was that of the 600 total surveys there were only two people who gave a “no” answer to the question, “Do you believe in Prayer?” But there were slightly over 20 who gave a “no” answer to “Do you believe in God?”

I wonder how many of the people who were talking about prayer tonight really pray, or personally know the God they assume that they are praying to. Most people ignore God, deny God, and rebel against God until there is a crisis in their life that they have no answer for and no control over.

January 1st, the beginning of a new year. How was 2022 for you? Thinking back on it what were the most enjoyable experiences for you? What was most disappointing? What new, for the first time ever people did you meet that were very memorable? Do you think that you grew spiritually in 2022? A little or a lot or not at all? Did you catch many fish? Did you kill an elk or a deer? There were 365 days in 2022, did you make the most of each and every one of them? What is your biggest regret for last year? By survey the biggest regrets had to do with family. How will you keep that same thing from happening again this year? How did you do on your goals last year? Do you have your goals for 2023 all done? Do you feel confident that each of your goals is God’s will for your life? What goal or dream did you not write down because it was too crazy, too scary, or you were afraid other people would think that you were crazy? How did you do with time spent with family? If the rapture had occurred last year how would you have done at the “Judgment Seat of Christ?” What ministry involvement did you have in your church last year? If you had died last year would that have made any difference in your church, would you be missed because of what you did? Are there any people who you have not totally forgiven? If there are, what defense are you using to justify that? Are you truly anxiously looking for Jesus to come back? How many days did you miss reading your Bible? How many weekends did you miss attending your church’s worship service? Did you witness to anybody last year? Think about witnessing? Did you invite anybody to your church? Are you praying for any lost people? How would you do if Jesus was personally asking you each of these questions at the end of your life.

If we jump out of an airplane, with or without a chute, gravity pulls us down, without a chute fast, with a chute slower, but down is where we are headed. In the same way our flesh pulls us down. Down is away from God, doing our own thing, selfish, prideful, and angry. The Bible talks a lot about our natural self and how it is the seat of all our sins and problems. To go up, closer to God, loving others, selfless, full of joy and peace requires that we have some energy to push us forward and upward like a jet engine on a plane. That energy to fly comes from God, but He doesn’t give it randomly, He gives His power to those who want it, who seek for it diligently, who know that without it they are going to sink like a rock.

Isaiah 40:31
Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

To wait upon the Lord is to pray, to read His word, the Bible, to memorize it and meditate on it, to gather with other believers regularly, to worship God, thanking Him constantly for everything.

What happens is that we get busy and miss a day on our Bible reading and because it didn’t seem to cause any bad things to happen, no new golphers in our yard we miss again in a week or so and then again, each time we miss it gets a little easier to do. All of our spiritual disciplines rise and fall on our Bible reading.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new year and it is a good time for new goals. Make some 2023 goals, if even just a couple, and get back to flying.

We went to a wedding this evening that was a lot of fun. Great food! It is the only wedding that I have ever attended where one of the wedding party came up the aisle doing back flips and front flips very high and very athletically. A cool thing about weddings is that you often see people you haven’t seen for a while. The trick is to remember their name before you go over and talk to them. Going to a wedding always prompts me to take several strolls down memory lane, both for our wedding and for our kid’s weddings. I had the privilege of doing seven of our kid’s weddings and involved in the eighth. It is kind of funny, not ha ha funny, but weird funny how little of our wedding I can really remember, but I discovered tonight as I was whispering comments to Patty throughout the evening how little she remembers! It was nice to get an invitation to this wedding. I am sure that they are going to do a lot for the Lord together. I am pretty sure that if I hadn’t married Patty that the totality of my accomplishments for the Lord wouldn’t have amounted to much.

The wedding I am looking forward to is the one I will be in.

Revelation 19:7-9 Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are true words of God.”

I am so thankful that I am invited to this greatest of all weddings; in fact, I will be part of the Bride of Christ, His eternal companion, forever and ever. There are a lot of people who will not get an invitation to this wedding, they should think seriously about that before that day.

Isaiah 46:9-11 Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure. . .
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, surely I will do it.

God declared in this passage that He is God and that He can control the future. He plans out the future and because He is God He can make His goals happen. God’s ability to control everything is called sovereignty; He is all sovereign. God gives some of His sovereignty and His authority to us. That little bit of sovereignty given to us by God is a stewardship entrusted to us. If we prove faithful as stewards, He will increase our level of sovereignty.

When we set a goal for the future believing that it is God’s will striving hard to make it happen we are exercising the sovereignty that God has entrusted us with. As we continue to be faithful as stewards God will continue to increase our level of authority, and our ability to accomplish our goals will increase and we will change things and accomplish things that will show up under our name at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

I am restoring a 1969 Ford, Mustang with my grandson. I have been working on the electrical system for the last couple of months. I bought a new “wiring harness“ and then connected all the different electrical parts in the car to the harness. The lights, horn, starter, heater, distributor, etc. I got it all done, turned on the key, and only about half of everything worked. The turn signals didn’t work, the horn didn’t work, only half the dash lights worked, and the electric fuel pump didn’t work. That was a frustrating few minutes as I discovered how unsuccessful my wiring job had been. Now I needed to figure out what the problems were and fix them. I have been working on that for a couple of weeks now and am about to have it all fixed. Most of the time, it was just a simple thing to fix caused by a simple mistake once I figured out what was wrong. The fuel pump wouldn’t work because a fuse was missing. The turn signals didn’t work because they were LED lights and required a different set of “flashers” than what came with the wiring harness. The park lights didn’t work because the ground was bad.

I tried as hard as I could to do everything perfect as I did the electrical work on the car, but I still made a bunch of mistakes. The main reason was because of my inexperience. On the next I car I restore I probably won’t repeat those same mistakes. When we get the car completely done I am going to drive it to a friends shop who has a “lift” who is very competent in auto stuff and have him check everything out, steering, suspension, brakes, brake lines etc to make sure the car is safe to drive and that there aren’t some mistakes that I have made that I am unaware of.

Mistakes are part of life. I not only make them on cars but I also make them in living life with other people. I usually am not aware of the mistake until later, and with most relational mistakes there are several options once the mistake is discovered. I can ignore it and hope that it fixes itself over time. I can blame someone else that is in the mix of the problem and expect that they will fix it. Or I can take responsibility, figure out the where, when and why of the mistake that I made and fix it as best that I can.

Relational mistakes usually take a measure of humility to fix ourselves, that is why many people will go with option one or two because it is easier and appears initially that we will save face. Options one and two are in and of themselves bigger mistakes and will need even more fixing. Options one and two are bad choices, I try and not make that mistake.

After I went out on my first date with Patty when we were both Sophomores in college, the first thought that came to my mind when I returned to my dorm room was, “does she like me?” I wasn’t sure if she liked me, and if she did, how much? And I wasn’t sure how to figure out if she liked me. I suppose the best thing to have done, to save time, was to ask her, “Hey, do you like me?” “You do!” “On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like me?” I didn’t consider that option because I wasn’t sure if I could handle the rejection if it ended up that I was a 2.

Do you ever have those kinds of thoughts when you hang out with a bunch of friends or family or work associates or church people? Do you ever wonder if it seems like someone is less friendly than usual if they are upset at you for some reason? As a pastor when I finish preaching I wonder, did they like it?

It all seems kind of silly, doesn’t it? I am a grown 74 year old man, I should be past that insecurity stuff. I wish I was, it makes me kind of uptight, wondering who likes me and who doesn’t, who I am a 10 with, and who hates my guts.

I hear people often say, “I don’t care who likes me and who doesn’t!” When I hear that, my thought is, “Yeh, right. Are you lying or just self-deceived?”

What I try to do is treat everybody like a 10. I know I fail at that because of lack of social skills, but that is my goal, and I work at it diligently. A principle that I have found to be true; the harder I work at making everyone feel like a 10, the more I like them, and the less I think about whether they like me. That is a cool principle.

I did discover that I was a 10 with Patty! And that is pretty cool as well!

Way back in1976 when I left the family Dairy and started Pastoring at Jefferson Baptist Church I had no clue what I was doing. I grew up going to church and the last 16 years had been in small churches like JBC. About 20 people were attending when I started, so I mostly did what I had seen my pastors do.

Growing up on the farm, especially with my Dad’s influence, I had a strong work ethic. My Dad would say, “there isn’t much you can’t do if you’re willing to work hard enough.” His general opinion of Pastors was that they were lazy and didn’t work much. He used to say, “Every pastor I know is fat and they all play golf.” That is the main reason I didn’t play golf until after he died.

With that influencing me, I picked up every job there was to do in the church and created a bunch more. I was typing the bulletin, running it off on the old mimeograph machine that got ink all over everything, Patty and I swept the gym on Saturday nights that we were meeting in, and then set up the chairs and cleaned the bathrooms. We led worship, I preached, and we led a Youth Group, a college-age group, and several home groups. I followed up on all visitors and went door knocking all-over town several days a week. I was doing marriage counseling, weddings, funerals, and hospital calling. It didn’t take too long before I started to get weary, but would get past it with reminders to myself of the power and virtue of hard work. I then went to a seminar where the speaker said that it was the Pastor’s job to train the people in the church to do the work of ministry, not to do it all himself, and in fact that if he was doing it all himself he was depriving those in the church from being a fully functioning part of the “Body of Christ.”

As a result of that seminar I made a personal goal to get rid of at least one of my jobs every year, handing it off to someone in the church. As I worked at recruiting people to do the work of the ministry in our church I made some observations which I wrote down in my personal book of Leadership Axioms. One of them was, “People won’t commit to doing anything that they aren’t 99% sure that they can succeed at.” I was sure that the only way that would happen is if I trained and taught them how to succeed in anything I asked them to do.

I started teaching a class that I called “Pastor’s Leadership Class.” My definition of a leader was anybody who was doing anything in the church that was a ministry whether it was mowing the lawn, teaching Sunday School or typing the bulletin. The class lasted eight months and was an hour every week. What I taught wasn’t typical discipleship stuff. I taught the importance of setting personal goals and how to do it successfully. How to manage your time well using “todo” lists and goals. The impossibility of succeeding as a Servant of God without accountability. The importance of establishing daily disciplines and routines of what I called the basic disciplines of the Christian life such as Bible reading, prayer, reading good books, memorizing Bible verses, and others, there were seven that I emphasized.

The content went through constant upgrading and improvement over the years, and became a curriculum with notebooks, quizzes and grading. I now have been teaching it every year for over 40 years at JBC, and is one of the reasons I can go on two month-long bicycle trips, fishing and hunting trips to Alaska and mission trips and come home and find things have gone better in my absence than when I was home.

The staff at JBC are amazing and there is a high percentage of people in the church involved in ministry of one sort or another. One of my goals is to work with at least six different people helping them start a ministry and coaching them as needed to help them be a success at it.

I am teaching a seminar at our church January 16th and 17th on the importance of leadership training and how to do it. I am so thankful that I went to the seminar that I went to way back in 1978 and the difference that it made in my life and ministry and the difference that it made in JBC over the years. If you know any Pastors pass this information on to them. Information about the seminar and how to register is on our church website http://www.jbc.church

Today was a very enjoyable day with lots of family here eating barbecued brisket and a whole bunch of other food as well. It was pretty much non-stop eating all day. We have 46 people if all eight kids, spouses and all grandkids are present, and we had 23 today, and it was a full house of feasting and fun.

Christmas is a celebration remembering the second point of the gospel of Christ. There are five points in the gospel, just like your hand has five fingers. (1) Jesus is God, equal with God the Father, one with the Father, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal, without beginning and without end.

(2) Jesus became flesh, just exactly like us, was tempted like we are and experienced all of life like we do.

Hebrews 2:17-18
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

(3) Jesus never sinned, not even a little sin of thought or attitude. In order to be our substitute and to be the atonement for our sin He needed to be perfect.

Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

(4) Jesus was nailed to a cross and He took our sin on Himself, He became our sin, and God the Father punished Jesus for our sin, He died for our sin.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

(5) Three days later God raised Jesus from the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you. . . Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,