A Word about Healthy Prayer

Today I want to share a word about healthy prayer as I comment on Matthew 6:7-13, which reads:

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” 

We're in the middle of a series on the characteristics of healthy churches as taught by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. As our churches rebuild their ministries after the ravages of a year of dealing with COVID-19, they should consider how they can be rebuilt in a healthy manner. The IMB teaches that a key element of a healthy church is the practice of healthy prayer.

I will be the first to confess that I do not know enough about prayer. I do not know how prayer works and I also know that my prayer life could use improvement. That being said, this passage of scripture does teach us all that we need to know about prayer, which is logical considering this is our Lord's central teaching about how to pray. 

What does this passage, which we often call the Lord’s Prayer, teach us about healthy prayer?

First, Healthy Prayer is Relationship:

Dr. Ken Hemphill, in his study “The Prayer of Jesus” said that prayer is really about a relationship with our Father. Prayer should be an on-going, day-long conversation with Him. We see this in the preamble to the Lord’s Prayer, because in Verse 7, Jesus assumed that the disciples would pray regularly because He said, “when you pray . . .”

When I say I don't understand how prayer works, what I mean is that we know that God knows everything and that He is all loving and all caring for His people. So, therefore, if He knows everything and loves us why does He not just act without us praying?

In truth He often does act without us praying, but the issue is God wants a relationship with His children. Like a human parent who loves a child, Our Father loves us, and He wants to relate to us. He wants to talk with us, and like with Adam and Eve, He wants to walk with us in the garden in the cool of the day. 

Therefore, prayer is not transactional; we ask God for something, and He responds, like the way a college student may call home asking for money. No, prayer is relational; it is us spending time in fellowship with our God and our Father.

Next, Healthy Prayer is Recognition:

As Jesus moved on to teaching about how to pray, He began with a recognition of who God is. 

First and foremost, He asserted that God is Our Father. We know that human fathers are frail and limited but Our Father in heaven is not. He is the ultimate example of a father to us. As we pray, we need to be praying as if we are speaking with the best father ever, because He is!

Of course, God is more than Father He is also Lord. He is mighty and lifted-up and He is sovereign. And He deserves to be praised and honored!

So, this opening to prayer sets the stage for our relationship with God. Our relationship with God is both personal because he loves us, and also transcendent, because he is the God of the universe. This is an amazing, if pithy, expression of God's ability to balance all parts of our relationship with him. 

Humans struggle with having a balanced life, but God never does, and our prayer life must be founded on this balanced relationship with him.

We Also See That Healthy Prayer Is Resolution:

Because of whom Our Father is and because of our relationship to Him of love through our Lord Jesus Christ we can resolve to commit ourselves to Him. 

This portion of our prayer recognizes that God loves us and His will for us and for this world is perfect. It is an expression of our alignment with God's purposes, intention, and will. It is also an expression of our trust in our Lord because we commit ourselves to his timing also.

To say that we don't always understand what God is doing is an understatement. If we understood God, what kind of God would He be? What we need to know is that God has the best of intentions for us, and we need to align our hearts with His purpose.

It is easy for us to accept God's will when it is pleasant and easy. It is another thing entirely when God's will is a time of testing or trials for us to endure. Yet as we pray in accordance with Jesus’s model, we need to express our commitment and our resolution to bow our knee to Our Father and to trust Him with our entire being.

Finally, We See That Healthy Prayer Is Reconciliation:

Like any good father our God expects His children their petitions to Him. Good fathers love to help their children with their problems. I think where we go wrong in our prayer, however, is how we understand God’s priorities.

As we bring our needs to God we often focus on our temporal needs: our health, our wealth, our happiness, and our security. God is concerned about these things, and He is happy to help us with them. The thing that we forget, however, is that God has more serious issues that he wants us to deal with.

God does want us to be reconciled with our day-to-day circumstances, but the prayer that Jesus taught us reveals that God is more concerned about our reconciliation with Him and with our brothers and sisters in Christ, than He is with our everyday issues of life. 

As we see in the Ten Commandments, God is concerned about our relationship with Him and with the other people whom He created. I believe if we focused more on that issue rather than our own well-being, our prayer life would be much healthier.

This is also borne out by Verses 14 and 15, which instruct us, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

If we are to practice healthy prayer, reconciliation must become more important to us than it is for God to respond to our personal needs!

Conclusion:

While we call this prayer the Lord's Prayer, in truth it is better termed the Model Prayer or as some people call it, our Family Prayer. If we really wanted to see the Lord's prayer, we should consider the High Priestly Prayer found in John Chapter 17, but that is an aside.

The fact is healthy prayer does not have to be perfect prayer. Prayer is like anything else we do in life; it is an iterative thing. The more we pray the better we will be at it. In fact, I think a great model for us as we pray is Daniel, so I will close with his example. 

Even though King Darius had signed an immutable law which prohibited anyone from praying to another god except him, Daniel 6:10 tells us,

“When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.”

Persistence in prayer goes a long way toward making up for our deficiencies in prayer. As we develop healthy prayer in our churches and in our lives, let us follow the examples set for us by Daniel, and by our Lord Jesus!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Healthy Fellowship from 1 John 3

A friend wrote me recently to share with me some ways he knew that he lived in Alabama:

In Alabama, possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air. 

There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in Alabama. 

There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Alabama, plus a couple of species that no one has ever seen before. 

In Alabama, if it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites. 

In Alabama, “Onced” and “Twiced” are words. 

In Alabama, it is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy. 

In Alabama, fire ants consider your flesh their picnic. 

In Alabama, people actually grow and eat okra. 

In Alabama, “Fixinto” is one word. 

In Alabama, there ain't no such thing as "Lunch". There's only dinner and then there's supper. 

In Alabama, “backards and forwards” means I know everything about you. 

In Alabama, “Jeet?” is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"

We are in the midst of a series in which we are studying the characteristics of Healthy Churches as described by the International Mission Board. One of those characteristics is healthy fellowship which is also a major topic in the First Epistle of John as the writer told us at the very beginning of this letter, saying, 

“. . .  that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

In 1 John 3, John wrote to tell us the ways we can know that we are living in God’s Kingdom by describing the characteristics of healthy fellowship. Let’s look at these together today.

First, We See that Healthy Fellowship is Child-like:

Verses 1 and 2 say: 

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

In Luke 18:15-17, Jesus said that we all come to Him like a child:

Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”

What this means is that we all must come to Jesus with a genuine, simple faith. We must come without secret, hidden agendas and we must come prepared to receive what Jesus has for us.

We must note, however, that a child-like faith is not the same as a childish faith. Once a kindergarten child was asked by a teacher, “Are you going to eat your lunch or just sit there and stare at it?”  He answered, “I’m going to sit here and stare at it.”

To be childish is to be petulant, demanding your own way. It means to be self-centered and selfish and stubborn. Also, to be childish is to be fearful.

Paul taught in Ephesians 4:14-15, “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ . . .” 

As Paul told us, we need to grow-up in the Lord in the same way we want our children to grow. We love to see our children crawl, then walk, then run. We love to hear them babble, then speak words, then converse.

On the other hand, if our children don’t grow, we get very concerned and we should. For example, I knew a couple who were concerned that their son was not growing. They had his joints examined to see if he was going to grow any taller. Likewise, God want us to grow spiritually as well.  If we don’t, He is saddened, as Paul expresses in I Corinthians 3:1-3:

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.  I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”

Next, We See that Healthy Fellowship is Pure: 

Verses 3 through 9 say:

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

To grow good things, you must have good material!  Therefore, you don’t plant seeds in bad soil. This was a major point behind the Parable of the Sower. Rocky soil inhibits germination and growth, and weeds will choke out anything that does sprout, so farmers don’t plant seeds in soil that they haven’t prepared. In addition, they don’t neglect the watering of the seeds, nor the application of fertilizer.

The soil for spiritual growth is your heart, and if your heart is not prepared spiritually, you will not grow spiritually. If your heart isn’t pure, you will not grow and if your heart is not committed to God, you will not grow

An African proverb says that when people sit and converse, everything hidden under the bed will be pulled out and revealed. If we are not pure it will show in our lack of maturity. Consider what Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-20: 

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Also, consider James 3:8-12:

But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?  Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

God cannot abide sin! If we are to have fellowship with Him and His people, we must be pure in our hearts and in our actions.

We Also See That Healthy Fellowship Is Love: 

Verses 10 through 15 tell us:

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

God’s kind of love is not natural for us. 

Physical love is known to us.  

The kind of love that says “If you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours” is known to us.

The infamous words from the movie “Love Story” are known to us and they reveal our misunderstanding of love.  It is not true that “Love means never having to say you are sorry.”

In Greek, God’s love is represented by the word Agape. The King James Version translated this term for God’s love as Charity. Agape is giving, self-less, sacrificing love. This is foreign to sinful humanity. So, God has had to teach us love

Remember, God wants us to grow, but before we can grow, we must learn love. God leads by example, so God taught us how to love by loving us.

As Acts 5:6-8 reminds us: 

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God didn’t try to explain His love logically. He didn’t say, “Do as I say, not as I do!” No!  He leads us and teaches us by example! And, if we are to be in His Kingdom, we must follow His lead!

Finally, We See That Healthy Fellowship Is Action: 

 

John closes this passage by reminding us that fellowship is an action word in Verses 16 through 24:

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Like love, fellowship is an action word. We can only show our love by our actions. We can only show our spiritual maturity by our actions. We only show our healthy fellowship by our actions. Therefore, we must be externally what we are internally. Like the saying from Alcoholics Anonymous puts it: “If what you say and what you do don’t match, then what you say is a lie and what you do is the truth!”

John’s is not the only epistle to speak of this need; James also taught this truth very strongly, as he does in James 1:21-25: 

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Clearly, the writers of both epistles were making the same point: true faith, or a healthy faith, will produce works. If there are no works that make themselves evident, then there may never have been any faith to begin with!

What are some of the works of fellowship?

We love God, and so we obey and worship Him.

We love people, and so we meet their needs.

We love God’s Word, and so we make disciples of ourselves.

We obey Christ’s commands and so we go into the world and make disciples of all people. 

Conclusion:

So, how does our fellowship match these standards? 

Are we child-like or childish?

Are we pure in our hearts, our motives, and our goals?

Are we generous and sacrificial in our love?

Are we intentional and active in our fellowship with God and people?

As a former pastor of mine liked to say fellowship is more than just Kool-Aid and cookies. He described fellowship as two fellows in one ship and that meant they were going through life together. And, as the prophet Amos asked, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

I think John would agree with both men, and I also think that John would say that it is past time for our fellowship to become healthy.

Every blessing, 

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Healthy Discipleship from Ephesians 4

Today I will be sharing a word about healthy discipleship as I comment on Ephesians 4:11-24.

We have been looking at the characteristics of a healthy church as defined by the International Mission Board.  We’ve seen how the how healthy worship is our “Job 1.” We have also seen how God has given us a commission to proclaim the Gospel. 

Our text for today gives us a clarion call to become disciples.  Let’s look at Ephesians 4:11-24 as we investigate healthy discipleship in our churches and our lives:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

FIRST, WE NOTE THE ABSENCE OF DISCIPLESHIP :

Consider that the world is a bent and broken and dying place. 

A popular urban legend from the US Army concerns a retired Sergeant Major who tried to reenlist. Pointing over his shoulder he told the recruiter, “There’s nobody in charge out there!” Regardless of the veracity of that tale, the sad fact is that the world is not what it was meant to be. It has fallen far short of the glory of its Creator.

Consider that the world doesn’t know what to think:

• In the 1980s’ everyone was eating salads, until they realized that with the meat, croutons, and salad dressing, salads can have as many calories as any other food.
• Medical researchers have debated for years if mammograms and other preventive diagnostic tests are useful or just a waste of time?
• Early proponents of nuclear power said that it would make electricity so cheap it wouldn’t be metered.
• And on and on it goes

Consider also that the world doesn’t know how to act: Chinese people are rude to strangers, but polite to family/friends. On the other hand, Westerners are rude to family/friends, polite to strangers. The world is a crazy mixed-up place at times.

Because the world doesn’t work the way God intended it to, the world can’t give us life, either an abundant life in the here and now, nor eternal life in the hereafter.

NEXT, WE NOTE THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP :

We are not the world: We live here, but we aren’t from here. We are from God and so like Abraham, we are strangers in a strange land. We must learn to live as if we are from God:

• We must learn His truth.
• We must learn His attitudes
• We must learn His way of treating people.
• We must learn His way of love.

The mother of pastor who baptized me would tell him, “Remember whose you are” when he went out to play as a child. He was confused by this and one day asked her, “Don’t you mean remember who I am?” She replied, “No, I want you to remember that you belong to God!” And so must we!

To learn about the things of God, must become life-long learners: We can never know all there is to know. I remember when, after seminary and several years of being a pastor, I was studying Luke Chapter 2 during the Christmas season one year. I discovered the prophetess Anna, someone I had never heard about before. Hers is a wonderful story of devotion to God, but I did not even know she existed! There is always more to learn! We can never know all there is to know about God.

WE ALSO NEED TO NOTE THE PURPOSE OF DISCIPLESHIP:

We learn to put into practice because knowledge in the abstract is a dead end. Knowledge that is not used is wasted, like example of the young lady I once knew who had graduated from college with a teaching certificate but decided instead to work as a clerk.

What are some specific things we need to learn to do?

• Do the work of the ministry because knowledge of subject best cure for nervousness.
• To be come unified in the faith like the way that missions can unify the Southern Baptist Convention
• To speak the truth in love because sometimes we are so kind that you never witness.
• To become and to act mature in Christ like the worship leader in my home church who became its de facto interim pastor.
• To become and act as Godly people so that living our God’s Word becomes natural for us.

As we live out the Word in our daily lives we will benefit from its by-product; we will enjoy the abundant life here on Earth!

As Matthew 6:31-33 reminds us:

Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

The fact is that those who live out the Word ministry are most blessed by it. This was even true in the life of Jesus as Luke 2:52 says: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

FINALLY, WE MUST NOTE THE TOOLS OF DISCIPLESHIP:

We need tools to do work. A workman without tools ids greatly handicapped. My dad was a truck mechanic and when he retired, he had a barn full of tools. When we were in African, a mechanic’s tool kit might be a plastic bag with a kitchen knife, a screw driver, pliers, and strips of rubber from inner tube. Can you guess who was the more effective mechanic?

We are blessed that God has given us an abundant tool kit:

• The Word of God, our manual.
• Prayer, our customer-service line.
• Pastors, deacons, teachers, and elders: our instructors
• The Holy Spirit, our guide, and our on-line help source.

We need to use our tools! We need to read the Bible and to attend Bible study. We need to pray and to reflect on God’s Word. 

CONCLUSION: 

For far too long, the church has mis-read the Great Commission. Jesus did not command us to make converts, but to make disciples. Because of this mistake, our churches have suffered, our witness has suffered, and the Kingdom of God has suffered.

The time is long past when churches should have focused on making disciples. Now that we are mostly on the backside of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of our churches are rebuilding their ministry efforts now is the time to reinforce the discipleship efforts of our churches.

We must make hay while the Sun shines and we must strike while the iron is hot!

Every blessing,

Dir Otis Corbitt

A Word about Healthy Evangelism

Today I like to share a word about Healthy Evangelism as I comment on Acts 1:6-11, which reads:

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

We have been looking at the characteristics of a healthy church as defined by the International Mission Board.  We’ve seen how the how healthy worship is our “Job 1.” Today we will see how God has given us a commission to proclaim the Gospel.  As I began thinking about this message, I was reminded of a joke sent to me by a friend:

A mom was preparing pancakes for her sons Kevin, 5 and Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.  Their mother saw a chance to teach a moral lesson. She said, “If Jesus was sitting here, he would say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake.  I can wait.’”  Kevin turned to his baby brother and said: “Ryan, you be Jesus!”

So often that’s our attitude about evangelism, missions, and outreach. Like our trash, we’re glad that those things are taken care of . . . by someone else!  That’s not a healthy Biblical attitude, though. Let’s consider Acts 1:6-11 and see what our attitude ought to be.

WHO WAS JESUS SPEAKING TO? US!

In the South we have our own vocabulary. For example, the plural of “You” is “Y’all” and the plural of “Y’all” is “All Y’all.” The plural of “Us” is “Us’ns” and the plural of “We” is “We’uns.”

When they are asked to proclaim the Gospel, some people will reply, “Who, me?”

Who was Jesus talking to here? Not pastors, they didn’t exist yet. Not deacons, they hadn’t been selected yet. Not to the world, they didn’t believe in Jesus. He was speaking to the church, those called to follow Him. He was talking to “All Y’all” and to “Us’ns.”

Heathy churches enlist their entire fellowship to be witnesses for Christ. 

WHAT WAS JESUS ASKING US TO DO? WITNESS!

God wants to communicate His love to people. He invested all He has in saving mankind and this would be wasted if people did not hear. As the second half of  2 Peter 3:9 tells us: “[God is] not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

We have simply been asked to tell what we know; to witness is just to tell what we have experienced firsthand. Even physical, forensic, and documentary evidence must come into court by way of a verbal witness.

Our personal testimony is powerful, because no one can deny what we have personally experienced. It is portable because we can take anywhere that we ourselves go. It is persuasive because the best way of promoting something is by word of mouth. As missionaries to South Vietnam used to say, “What was whispered in Hue in morning will be shouted in Saigon by the afternoon.”

The truth is, we will be witnesses whether we like it or not, but what kind will we be? As a hospital marketing director once told the Board of Directors, “Everything our employees do is marketing, some of it good, some of it bad!”

Heathy churches give a good witness to Christ.

HOW WAS JESUS ASKING US TO DO THIS? BY GOD’S POWER! 

Doing a job without the right tools is frustrating and dangerous. For example, many people have cut themselves badly while trying to use a knife as a can opener. I remember how eye-opening it was for the first time I cut a loaf of bread with a real bread knife! It was so much better than using a butcher knife or a steak knife!

God knows that witnessing for Him is difficult; Jesus witnessed, and he was reviled by His enemies. Not only that, but Jesus witnessed, and he was misunderstood by His friends. In the end, Jesus witnessed, and he was killed by a distant, unfeeling government

God has made provisions to help us, however, First, He sent the Holy Spirit to us and though the Spirit He gave us Spiritual gifts. He also gave us pastor/teachers to train us and lead us. Finally, He promised He’ll give us the words to say in our time of need.

If we say “I can’t” we are right. If we say that “God can’t use me” we are wrong!

Healthy churches allow God to empower their evangelism and outreach.

WHY WAS JESUS ASKING US TO DO THIS? THE NEED IS GREAT!

There is a world of hurt out there:

• COVID-19 has killed untold numbers of people in the world who have died without Christ.
• We have a continuing problem with substance abuse and the resulting addictions.
• Suicide is becoming a serious problem in western society.
• Political and social unrest are common, and the cancel culture is in full bloom.

There is a world of lost people out there:

• There is no county in the USA which has more Christians than it did ten years ago
• Our birthrate is outstripping rate of baptisms.
• Overseas baptisms now top baptisms at home.
• About one billion people in closed countries have never heard Gospel.
• People are dying and going to Hell!

Heathy churches understand that this world and everyone in it need Jesus!

WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO? 

Healthy churches:

• Are good witnesses for God in our words and deed.  
• Take every opportunity they are are presented to witness for the Lord. 
• Invite people to their church.
• Pray that the harvest will increase.

Everything in nature that is healthy reproduces. A heathy church will reproduce itself through evangelism!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Healthy Worship

Today I want to share a word about healthy worship as I comment on Psalm 100, which reads:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! 

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his;  we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! 

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

The last time that I posted, I reviewed the Characteristics of a Heal
thy Church as taught by the International Mission Board to the new churches which they help plant. 

I asserted then, that as our churches in North America begin to rebuild after a year of the ravages of COVID-19, they should also consider these characteristics so that they can rebuild to be even better and stronger than they were pre-Corona virus.

Several decades ago, when imported cars were gaining in both market share and consumer rankings over domestic models, the Ford Motor Company came out with a new slogan, which was: “Quality is Job One.”

Our first task, our “Job One” as God’s people is to worship Almighty God. We have a commission to worship that is basic to all we do and that is what we will look at together today.  

WE WORSHIP BECAUSE GOD IS WORTHY:

Humans, from the beginning of time, have needed heroes. We love to sing others praises: We dance with joy when our political candidate wins. We whistle and clap for our favorite actor or actress. We jump for joy when our ball team wins the big game. We put our favorite race driver’s number on our pick-up.

The sad fact for us is that all of these will fade away: Every politician will eventually retire. Every actor or actress will get old and ugly. Every ball team will eventually lose. Every driver will eventually lose their own personal race.

Only God is truly worthy of our praise! He is powerful and just forever. He is loving & beautiful forever His race never ends.

We will worship; it is our nature as people. The question is this: Is what we worship worthy of our praise?

WE WORSHIP BECAUSE GOD INHABITS OUR PRAISE:   

We need to feel connected with God. Loneliness is an increasing problem in America today. People are more and more isolated from each other and this has never been more true, as more and more people are in work from home jobs after COVID-19.

When we were missionaries in West Africa, we learned a saying from our local friends. “Never stand in sun when you can stand in the shade; never be alone, when you can be with a friend.”

When we are alone, we can feel isolated and that feel ing of isolation is terrible. We feel small and helpless. We feel insignificant and purposeless. We can be full of fear and anxiety. However, God is present with us when we praise and worship Him. Psalm 22:3 tells us:

Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

This has also been translated as:

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Also consider Matthew 18:20:

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

God is present with us in our praise. He occupies our worship. If we want to experience the real presence of God in our lives, we must worship!

WE WORSHIP BECAUSE IT IS THE BEST PART:

We have a lot of options about what to do with our time: In church we can worship, study the Bible, fellowship, and do ministry. Outside church we can work, visit family, attend school, enjoy entertainment and sports. We have so much we can do that a 24-hour day isn’t long enough anymore.

Luke 10:38-42 illustrates this dilemma: 

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Martha chose to do good. She was caring for her family & guests. She wasn’t sinning, she just was busy doing good.

On the other hand, Mary chose the best part. There is nothing like true worship to satisfy our souls. We all need to sit at the feet of Jesus and bask in His glow!

The saying that “The good is the enemy of the best.” applies here. If we are too busy to worship, we’re too busy!

WE WORSHIP BECAUSE IT IS OUR DESTINY: 

Everything God created has a purpose:

• Sun, moon, and stars.

• Earth, land, water, and sky.

• Fish of the sea, beasts of the field, trees and grass of wilderness.

• Humans have the highest purpose of all.

Our purpose for living is revealed by Psalm 100:4: 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Revelation 7:9-12 also tells us will be doing that for eternity we will worship God, we will praise God’s name, we will bless Him, and acclaim Him. Maybe that is why worship mentioned over 380 times in Bible.

This fact illuminates the reason why we do many other things in a healthy church:

• Our purpose for discipleship: To learn about God so we can praise Him better.

• Our purpose for evangelism: So all nations will worship Him.

• Our purpose for ministry: So those who are blessed will praise God.

• Our purpose for stewardship: To honor the God who blessed us with this wonderful world

Since worship is our destiny, why would we not want to get a head start and worship God today in spirit and in truth, with all our hearts, souls, and minds?

CONCLUSION:

When I was a youth our youth choir sang a cantata that had a song entitled “Get All Excited” The main theme stated: “Get all excited, go tell everybody that Jesus Christ is King”

Before we go and tell, we need to get all excited about who God is and what He’s done for us.  If we do that, we’ll come to truly worship Him with the devotion He deserves.

Are we excited about God?  Do we truly worship Him? A healthy church does.

Every blessing, 

Dr. Otis Corbitt