You Will Never Have Peace

 Peace 4

          Thus far, in our blog series on peace, we have defined it eight ways. Peace is organization and order. Peace is the absence of armed conflict. Peace is the absence of noise, the presence of calm and quiet. Peace is the absence of worry. Peace is harmony in our personal relationships. Peace is freedom from unsettling thoughts or emotions. Peace is a quiet confidence that God will take care of you. Peace is our final rest in Heaven.

          Wicked people will have none of that wonderful list. None. There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked (Isaiah 48.22).

          This is not because God does not long to bring them peace. It is not that God is incapable of bringing them peace. Rather, it is that they will not follow the simple commandments through which God brings peace to men. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea (Isaiah 47.18). A river flows continuously, through all kinds of terrain, through all kinds of weather, day after day, week after week, month after month, assuming it is constantly being fed by springs or rain. That is what the saint’s peace is like – continuous, quiet, through all kinds of weather, assuming he is walking with the Lord and obeying Him. But if you do not obey His commandments, if, instead, you embrace a wicked lifestyle, you will have no peace.

          How does this happen? What robs the wicked man of any hope of peace?

          The first reason is that their conscience bothers them and the Holy Spirit convicts them. Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another (Romans 2.15). Our conscience is the God-placed innate sense within each of us that there is right and wrong. When we behave wickedly this conscience gets uncomfortable. It begins to hassle us. Quietly at first, but with gradually growing ferocity, it attacks our peace of mind and heart.

          We understand, scripturally and practically, that the conscience can be strengthened or weakened, corrupted or purified. But when the wicked weaken, corrupt, or sear their conscience in an effort to get some internal peace the Holy Spirit picks up the slack. When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16.8). The wicked person lives in an internal uproar that will not be stilled, stirred up by his conscience and the Holy Spirit.

          The second reason the wicked man has no peace is he imagines pursuit where there is none. The wicked flee when no man pursueth (Proverbs 28.1).

          Regardless of how the wicked man attempts to justify his wickedness, to find some rational reason to assert that it is not wickedness, he knows better. His conscience and the Holy Spirit tell him the truth. Deep on the inside, he knows he is guilty. When you are guilty, you are conscious at all times that justice just might catch up with you.

          The fight-or-flight response, first identified in the 1920s, teaches us that our bodies respond to stress by secreting certain hormones. These hormones enable us to better fight our way out of danger or run away from danger. I believe wicked people live with constant stress. They are always conscious that they may be attacked at any moment. They need to be ready to fight at any moment. They need to be ready to run away at any moment. No matter how much alcohol they ingest or illegal drugs they consume, they cannot rest. No matter how many guards they have, or how many layers of protection they think they have incorporated between themselves and being found out, they cannot relax. It is not that they are found out and must deal with it; it is that they are constantly worried about being found out.

          There is no peace here.

          The third reason the wicked have no peace is they are not doing what they were made to do. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 1 that he was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. He says this is the will of God for his life. I believe for each of us, God has a specific, ongoing path He wills for us to walk. When we refuse to walk in that path we will not be at peace for we are violating the intent for which we were created.

          In my decades as a soul winner I have knocked on thousands of doors. It is quite common for a dog to begin to bark immediately and continue through all attempts of his owner to shush him. Why? That is his nature. He was made to warn. He was built to bark. If you try to quiet him, to muzzle him, to channel his nature in a way he was not built to go everybody will be frustrated. Can you train a dog to be quiet? Sure. But on the inside, he will still be barking. He will quiver and shake, even if he holds himself perfectly still. He is violating his nature and there is no peace inside of him.

          Every time I come face to face, personally, with an out-and-out homosexual or transgendered person I think of this. I hurt for them. In following their deceitful heart into sin they have twisted their nature or attempted to twist their nature into one impossible bend after another. There is always an air of desperation about them. No matter how cool and calm and collected they seek to portray themselves, it is not hard to see through. They are unsettled in their core. Their life, their heart, and their mind are in a constant never-ending uproar. They are violently violating what God made them to do and be, and they will never be at peace.

          The last and most important reason the wicked have no peace is very simply that God is after them. He will not allow them rest. The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the Lord shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace. They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the Lord (Jeremiah 12.12-13).

          In our current state of cultural declension the police departments of America have a target on their back. Literally. More than at any other time in history, criminals are emboldened to assassinate police officers. Yet even this illustrates the point. When a police officer is wounded or killed, no rest is taken until he/she who committed the crime has been tracked down. Such fools purchase to themselves the open, active hostility of entire police departments. They picked a fight with the wrong enemy.

          The parallels are obvious, are they not?

          The verse I opened the post with is one of the rare verses in the Bible that is repeated, word for word, elsewhere. Why? Because God intends to emphasize the point – there is no peace for the wicked. It does not matter what you do, what you buy, what you scheme, what you invent, what you decide – if you live a wicked life you cannot and will not be at peace.

For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, And he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; And I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (Isaiah 57:17–21)

Peace and the Sovereignty of God

Peace 3

          God is sovereign. God does what He wills with whomever He wills. Doctrinally, this concept is birthed in the omnipotence of God. God is all-powerful. There is nothing He cannot do and no one who can restrain Him. Ergo, He is sovereign.

          How does this relate to peace?

          There are two underlying causes for the lack of a peace in a person’s life, inward causes and external causes. The latter, the external, consists of circumstances outside of us, things entirely beyond our control.

For example, two weeks ago our church scheduled a Sunday evening service at Washington Square Park downtown. We wanted to use it as an outreach event. While the park does have a gazebo it does not have a shelter to rent. You can, however, rent the entire park. So we did. And spent hours working on permits and insurance and bad weather evacuation plans, etc. As the day drew nearer, the weather forecast got increasingly problematic. In actuality, the rain became a line of thunderstorms that birthed at least one tornado that touched down in Dubuque County that night. Obviously, we canceled the event downtown and met in our normal location indoors instead.

I am at peace with that cancellation. Yes, it was disappointing to our church, but the weather is entirely and only within the control of God. We could do nothing about it. It was only in the control of God. He chose to allow severe summer weather for His purposes. I rest in knowing that.

Before we go any further, let me stress this peace that comes by way of an understanding of the sovereignty of God is not fatalism. Fatalism says, “Well, there is nothing I can do about it so I might as well not worry about it.” Christianity is not a fatalistic religion, even though we have a God who can do anything He wills. Why? Because God is perfectly willing to be moved, and to move others, on the basis of our prayers.

The weather is an example of external circumstances entirely beyond our control, but a better example is the authority figures in our lives that often make life difficult. We cannot change another person’s heart, especially one that holds power and influence and one that harbors hostility toward us. But we can ask God to change it. He has that capability. The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it withersoever he will (Proverbs 21.1). I am not sovereign. I am powerless to change the heart of authorities set against me. But God can change any authority figure’s mind and heart He wishes to. And He often does as a result of our prayer.

We see this from one end of the Bible to the other. For example, Psalm 106 opens with a long litany of the crimes Israel had committed against God. They did not understand Him. They did not remember Him. They provoked Him. They forgot Him. Their lives were filled with envy and lust. They rebelled against their God-appointed rulers. They worshipped idols. They despised the land He gave them. They complained. They obeyed incompletely. They intermarried with the heathen around them. Their sacrificed their children. Consequently, God poured out His judgment upon them using the nations around them.

Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; And they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, And they were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times did he deliver them; But they provoked him with their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity. (Psalm 106:40–43)

          Yet the same God that moved those heathen authorities to punish His people was affected by the cries of His people for mercy. And God turned right around and moved the heart of those authorities to be kind to His people.

Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, When he heard their cry: And he remembered for them his covenant, And repented according to the multitude of his mercies. He made them also to be pitied Of all those that carried them captives. (Psalm 106:44–46)

          God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wills with whomever He wills, including with the king. Often, He does so in response to a request from me. Yes, I am powerless, but I am not fatalistic. It is not that nothing can be done about my situation. To the contrary, something can always be done – by God. So if God chooses not to do so and leave me powerless in uncomfortable circumstances I accept it. I am at peace with it.

          Perhaps the finest example of this in Scripture is how God changed Nebuchadnezzar, that proud heathen monarch. When we first meet in Daniel he is egotistical, vain, and mad with power. Yet we find Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4 humbly kneeling before Israel’s God, Jehovah.

Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. (Daniel 4:1–3)

          Nebuchadnezzar’s heart had been changed. Curious, is it not, that this life changing experience led this man of warfare to wish for peace to be multiplied? Whatever changed his life led him to peace and to value peace. So what changed him?

          Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. In that dream a great tree was unceremoniously cut down, and someone watching the tree fall made the following announcement:

Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. (Daniel 4:16–17)

          That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He chooses is a perfect expression of the sovereignty of God. God does what He wills with whomever He wills, and no one can say Him nay.

          Daniel, in much astonishment, takes an hour or so to consider this dream. He then reveals to Nebuchadnezzar its meaning. The king himself is this great and proud tree, and God will cut him down to size so he will learn that God alone is sovereign.

That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. (Daniel 4:25–27)

          Daniel begs Nebuchadnezzar to accept the sovereignty of God, and promises him that with that acceptance comes tranquility. Nebuchadnezzar refuses, and correspondingly pays the price of his refusal.

All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. (Daniel 4:28–33)

          Finally, with his reputation gone, his mind in tatters, and his kingdom ripped from him Nebuchadnezzar bows in the dust to the sovereign God of Israel.

And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? (Daniel 4:34–35)

          I am not asking you to be fatalistic about events beyond your power. God can do anything, and He is often affected by our requests to change people and things outside our control. I am, though, asking you to rest content in the sovereignty of God. He can change it, no matter how big. He can change them, no matter how powerful. If you ask Him to and He chooses not to do so rest tranquil in the knowledge that He is in perfect control. He designed this, or at least designed for you to endure it.

          He is in control when we are not. Rest in Him and be at peace.

What Else Peace Is

 Peace 2

     

        Last week, we began an exploration of peace with four biblical definitions of peace. Peace is organization and order. Peace is the absence of armed conflict. Peace is calm. Peace is the absence of worry. In today’s post, I want to offer you four more definitions of peace. As before, we will draw these from the Word of God.

          Fifth, peace is harmony in our personal relationships. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace (Ephesians 2.15).

          In context, Paul is dealing with the roots of the religious/ethnic strife that dominated so many early churches. Christianity has its roots in Judaism, and the more observant the Jew the more racist he was. Paul’s method of starting churches was to enter a synagogue, reason with the Jews from the Old Testament that Jesus was their Messiah, persuade them to believe in Christ, and then take the resulting group of believers out of the synagogue and form a church. So far so good, but when Paul began to preach the same message to the Gentiles, and to bring believing Gentiles into the church all sorts of mayhem broke loose. Paul offers us a scriptural solution to ethnic/religious racism in Ephesians 2 by showing us that in Christ we are no longer separated; we are one. There was no longer Jew and Gentile, God’s people and the unclean. Now there was the church, God’s people, period.

          Though Paul has the ethnic squabbles of the early church in mind here the application is much broader. There can and ought to be harmony in every personal relationship we have. God and I ought to live in harmony. Parents and children ought to live in harmony (yes, even teenage children.) Husbands and wives ought to live in harmony. Brothers and sisters ought to live in harmony. Friends ought to live in harmony. Employees and employers ought to live in harmony. Neighbors ought to live in harmony. Church members and their pastor ought to live in harmony. Teachers and their students. The list could go on and on.

          Life is not what you do, where you live, how much you have, or what others think of you. Life is a matter of relationships. The Word of God is first and foremost the revelation of God, but that revelation of what God expects of us does teach us how to live in harmony one with another. And what peace there is in such harmonious relationships.

          Sixth, peace is freedom from unsettling thoughts or emotions.

          Have you ever lain awake at night, troubled by what to do? Have you ever been frustrated by the course of events? Have you ever been upset by the circumstances in which you found yourself? Then what you need is God’s peace.
          Sometimes, God brings that peace by taking away what is troubling you. In Luke 8 we find the story of a confrontation between Jesus and the woman with an issue of blood. For twelve years she had dealt with it, moving from doctor to doctor in an increasingly desperate attempt to solve an intractable physical problem. Having heard of Jesus, and of His ability to heal, she reasoned that if she could get close enough to touch Him perhaps the touch of Christ might heal her. And it did. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace (Luke 8.48). Twelve years of emotional stress, frantic effort, and physical weakness were gone in a moment when she threw herself in simple faith at the feet of Jesus. She was freed from it all. She was at peace.

          Most of the time, however, God does not calm the storm rather He calms the child in the storm. Paul tells us we ought to let the peace of God rule in our hearts (Colossians 3.15). Where do these unsettling thoughts and emotions arise? In my heart. Then there must be a solution in my heart, not just in or even if there never is a solution in my circumstances. So often, external things contribute to my lack of peace but they are not the cause of it. The cause of it is that I have failed to learn how to let the peace of God rule in my heart. So I worry instead. I fret. I gnaw obsessively over my concerns like a dog with an old bone. In such situations I have no peace and neither does anyone else around me.

          Seventh, peace is the quiet confidence that God will take care of you. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me (Psalm 55.18). When the Syrian army surrounded Elisha at Dothan his servant panicked. Elisha, though, was perfectly calm. Why? Elisha saw what the servant did not see, the protective angelic host encircling the city (II Kings 6.15-17). Martyn Lloyd-Jones, England’s last great preacher, defined faith as a refusal to panic. Not coincidentally, peace is the same thing or perhaps I should say the result of the same thing. It looks bad but I am at peace. Why? Because I know God will take care of me.

          Several times in my life God has granted me such peace in unusual circumstances. At nineteen, while soul winning in a particularly violent neighborhood in Chicago, a young man high on drugs pulled a gun on me. Staring at me glassy eyed over that wavering barrel, he accused me of all kinds of things. God’s peace flooded my heart and greatly enabled me to defuse the situation. At twenty-five, poor as a church mouse I was striving to get an infant church off the ground. One day, out on visitation, I wrecked my car, totaling it. I had no money. I had no credit. I had no friends. GoFundMe did not exist. I knew I needed a car to serve the Lord with, but had zero prospects to obtain one. Once again, God’s peace flooded my heart. I knew not just that He could take care of it but that He would take care of it. And He did.

          Lastly, peace is our final rest in Heaven. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age (Genesis 15.15). Rest in peace has become a graveyard cliché, but like most cliches it has its origin in truth. Someday, if the Lord tarry His coming, I will rest in peace. It will not be because I pick precisely the right spot under the shade tree in the Garden of Consolation. It will be because death is the door that opens for me on my long Home. I will lay down with finality the burdens I have carried, burdens of pastoring, parenting, mentoring, witnessing, studying, writing, encouraging, pursuing. Most of all, I will lay down the burden of my flesh. In that long Home there will be no world, no flesh, and no devil. Sin will never again rear its ugly head in my mind, my heart, my tongue, and my life. I will be with Him. I will be like Him. And I will be at peace.

          Is that what you want? You can have it, if you like. The peace of God can rule in your heart no matter your circumstances. Such a peace does not come by way of the world. It only comes by way of Christ. Peace begins with Christ, continues with Christ, and finds its ultimate expression in our lives when we are finally at Home with Christ.

O soul, are you weary and troubled?

No light in the darkness you see?

There’s light for a look at the Saviour,

And life more abundant and free!

 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

-Helen Howarth Lemmel

Peace: An Introduction

Peace 1

 

          Peace. My soul craves it. Peace of mind. Peace of heart. Peace of conscience. Peace with God. Peace with man. Peace at home. Peace with my neighbors. Peace with my enemies. Peace and quiet.

          When I made the decision to come to Dubuque a year and a half ago, I set out to build a peaceful life. My sixteen years in Chicago were many things but peaceful was not one of them. So I created peaceful working spaces in the office. I bought a home in a peaceful neighborhood, and named it Saints Rest, of all things. I have sought to build a peaceful relationship with my deacons, and with my leaders and teachers and workers. I have tried to promote a peaceful relationship between our church and the community. I want to be a man of peace living a life of peace. That way lies contentment. That way lies purposeful production. That way lies quiet contemplation. That way lies soul health and spiritual growth. That way lies knowing God.

          I am quite sure I am not alone in this desire. All over the world, people are desperately searching for peace. The United Nations and the American Secretary of State pursue it ardently. The Brexit negotiators have tried to obtain it. Arbiters and life coaches, television personalities and New Age gurus of all sorts promise to bring it. Pharmaceutical companies sell it. Television commercials for cars sell it. Real estate agents sell it. False prophets sell it. Or perhaps I should say a version of it.

          I am most interested in peace, but I am not interested in the world’s version of it. I want to know what God says it is. Oprah, Dr. Phil, Ellen, Sigmund Freud, Maya Angelou, Henry David Thoreau, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all clamor to offer us their perspective. It interests me not at all. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2.13).

Let us, instead, begin with God. What does God say peace is? In today’s post, I will give you four answers to that question, and chase that with another four answers next week.

First, peace is organization and order. God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of  the saints (I Corinthians 14.33). The context here is directly related to the church service. God’s house is to be a peaceful place, organized, smoothly functioning. Personality conflicts ought be kept to a bare minimum. Throwing your weight around should be unheard of. Chaos is an exemplar of the devil’s realm, not our Father’s. Schedules should be known and kept. Kindness and forgiveness should rule. As our forefathers would say, a place for everything and everything in its place. Peace and anarchy cannot cohabit.

Second, peace is the absence of armed conflict. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land (Leviticus 26.6).

Augustus Closing the Temple of Janus
Louis de Silvestre, 1757

On the Roman Forum, near the Basilica Aemilia, stood the Temple of Janus, the two-facing god. For hundreds of years, the temple was the public mark of a republic/empire at peace or at war. Inside the temple lived Discord and Fury. When Rome was at peace, the doors were shut. When Rome was at war, the doors were opened. Needless to say, the doors were almost always open, at one point for four consecutive centuries.

I have never lived through war. I have pastored men who have endured it in Afghanistan and Iraq. It haunts them, and probably will for the rest of their lives. War brings famine, disease, misery, and death on a wide scale. Let us thank God it has not come to our lives.

Third, peace is the absence of noise. It is the active presence of stillness and quiet. Peace is calm. And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm (Mark 4.39).

This kind of peace can often be found in God’s creation. Over the years, He has shown Himself to me in some beautiful places. The Blue Ridge Parkway. The Outer Banks. A desolate spot on the sand dunes of the Lake Michigan shoreline. The bluegrass horse farms of Kentucky. The rolling hills of upper New York. The long, green bayous of Louisiana. The Smokies. The aching blue of the Pacific off Malibu. The high desert of California. The pine-scented air of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Where the Rockies meet the ocean in Vancouver. The jungle waterfalls in Puerto Rico’s interior. The vast sweep of the Mississippi mere blocks from my home.

Again and again, in Scripture, we find the Lord pointing people toward His creation. Yes, He intends it to be a source of praise, but also a source of peace. When God created the world He put man in a garden. When man created the world he put man in a city. Make no mistake, there is a difference, and that difference is not just a reflection but also a driver of the presence or absence of peace.

Fourth, peace is the absence of worry. And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them (Genesis 43.23).

How much time and mental energy do we waste worrying about money? Will we make it to the next paycheck? The end of the month? Will we have what we need for the next phase of life? Can we afford children? Will we ever be able to buy a house? What about retirement? We forget so easy God’s manifold promises of bodily provision.

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety (Psalm 4.8). How much time and mental energy do we waste worrying about our physical safety? We have locks and chains and bolts and bats and knives and guns and security systems and panic rooms and disaster plans. What we do not have is peace. I am not advocating being imprudent, foolish, or unprepared, but I am advocating trusting the Lord for your physical safety.

Peace. It is such a wonderful word. Let it roll around in your mind today. Let it marinate in your heart today. God’s peace. ‘Tis a glorious, priceless thing, and it is available to you. For the next four months on this blog we are going to explore it. We will define it, as we have done today and will do further next week. We will discuss its relationship to God’s sovereignty. We will see what will ensure we can never have it. We will look at eight specific scriptural ways to obtain it. We will find there is peace with God, great peace.

Join me each Monday, won’t you? And may the Lord give us a richer appreciation for and apprehension of His peace along the way.       

Of Least Resistance

Note: Thirty-four years ago, I began writing poetry. From time to time, generally between blog series, I like to share one with you. Today's poem I wrote just prior to finishing high school. I was contemplating life, what kind of man I would become, and the part doing the difficult thing would play in that. Stay tuned; a new blog series launches next week.

Of  Least  Resistance

The other day, while on a stroll

I spied a rippling brook

Where tender little trout and perch

Await the fisher's hook

It coursed along, 'tween stones and things

Meandered here and there

Beneath a bridge, around a rock

Or made some tree roots bare

I turned upon a whim

Traversed its winding path

This laughing brook enchanted me

From scenes of former wrath

It gurgled merrily on

As if without a care

I followed it from stone to stone

We wandered here and there

Then 'midst the sunlight and the leaves

The pebbles and the trout

I realized what that guy had meant

When he was talking 'bout

The similarities between

Bad men and brooks, no doubt

He said one day, upon a chance

That which I'd pondered late

"The path of least resistance

Does not make rivers straight"

It makes them change their course

Avoid the rocks and trees

Wind in and out and back and forth

Like flights of bumblebees

And so it is with men

Who throughout days of life

Have chosen to avoid

The hardships and the strife

They wander here and there

Just like that little brook

The path of least resistance

Makes a man a crook

- by Tom Brennan

April 1, 1991

Nine Ways to Build Your Sunday Night Service

 

          Last week I wrote about why the Sunday night service is the sweetest service of the week. In that post, I mentioned that for many years our evening service was moribund at best and often downright depressing. The Lord in His grace, however, turned it around and it truly became the sweetest service of the week. In this post, I want to describe what I did to turn it around. I am not saying everyone should copy my approach, but you may find an idea or two here that is helpful if not key in edifying your own church.

          At the outset let me say that this turnaround was gradual rather than sudden. I do not know how to do anything in a hurry, and the older I get the less that bothers me. Slow growth is often solid growth. When I arrived in Chicago our membership was over 600 with an average Sunday morning attendance of about fifty. Sunday night was dismal. In the early days, we struggled to get to twenty. Over time, it grew in both number and spirit and the last five years saw us routinely fill the expanded auditorium in the evening.

          First, I would urge you to emphasize the Sunday night service in the Sunday morning service. I know it is a regular on the schedule. Announce it anyway. You do not have to hassle people about it. Simply mention it. One way to do this is to announce your sermon title/topic for the evening. This keeps the idea of the evening service before the people.

          Second, package other things around the evening service. In our case, choir practice precedes the evening service and our leader’s meeting is held after it. If you like music and you want to sing, it brings you back on Sunday night. If you want to serve in some capacity beyond the simplistic, an organizational/training meeting is essential. Since we do that on Sunday night that brings in those folks as well. It goes without saying we do not schedule these during the service, but around it.

          Third, take your Sunday night service on the road. You can do this literally by having the service somewhere else. In Chicago, in the summer we would often hold the service on the front yard. That reminded our people that the building was not the church, and it put us in front of the neighbors. The vehicle and foot traffic was noisy, but we had good times in that yard. Here in Dubuque this summer we will be holding three Sunday night services in the Washington Square Park downtown. It will be the regular service, but at the same time it will be unique.

          There are other ways to do this. When our Chicago church was smaller but growing we labeled one month of the summer Evangelism Month. That month we took the entire church out soul winning during the evening service time, and then followed that up with a meal. It emphasized soul winning while at the same time making Sunday night a big deal. Another method of doing the same thing is to bring in guest preachers on Sunday night. That helps build excitement, encourages good relationships with area churches, encourages that pastor, and gives you a break all at the same time. In that case, he is on the road, but you get my drift.

          Fourth, do not cancel your Sunday evening service for family time. I do not think it is wrong to cancel an evening service. Over the years I have done it occasionally for weather reasons. I also do it once every seven years when Christmas falls on Sunday, though that year we have a Christmas Eve service the night before. We just do not cancel other than that. There are five other evenings of the week that are good for family time, especially if you do not overschedule or overdrive your people. When you cancel the evening service for family time it sends a terrible message about what you actually think of that service slot. After all, if it is helpful to a family for them to miss church one particular Sunday night in order to be together than it is helpful for them to do it again. And again. You know what makes good family time? Sitting in a pew together, belting out the hymns, and hollering Amen during the preaching. I am not joking either.

          Fifth, make the congregational singing a big deal. I am weary of the assertion that conservative churches have uninspiring music. It is such a canard. It is hard to have good congregational singing if your tiny group is rattling around in a cavernous sanctuary. It is hard to have good congregational singing without instrumental accompaniment. It is hard to have good congregational singing with a weak song leader. But most of those can be overcome with work and time, and especially with prayer. I cannot count the number of times I have seen the Lord bring a particular laborer to my church in answer to prayer, someone with a skill set we desperately needed. Pray for instrumentalists (and teach the ones you have to teach your young people.) Pray for good song leaders (and work hard at developing the men you have.) Pray for the Lord to fill your empty pews (and work hard at doing so yourself.) And set to, and sing with a will.

          Congregational singing is not a time filler. It is a scripturally mandated, scripturally exemplified, deeply precious part of the church service. Pick songs that are fun to sing. Include a time slot each week for people to choose their favorite number. Pastor, you lead that time slot. Get behind the pulpit, forget about song leading, and just sing along with all your heart. Your enthusiasm will be infectious, and the resulting congregational singing will raise the roof. The interaction with your people between numbers will deepen the sense of joy and delight that God’s people share in each other during the evening service. Make lots of joyful noise.

          Sixth, be persistent. I did not have down weeks. I did not even have down seasons. I had down years, perpetually, one after the other. Every single excuse I hear from other men about why they are abandoning the traditional Sunday night is one I experienced. But I just kept hammering away, month after month, year after year. And one day I looked up and found myself liking what our church had become, enjoying myself immensely of a Sunday night. But that took years.

          Seventh, focus on men. Build men. If you reach men, you reach the entire family. If you build a good, solid, sweet relationship with your men they troop into church of a Sunday night with a grin on their face, a KJV under their arm, and a passel of people in their train. They tell their evangelical friends about the service, and pretty soon you have a row or two of those. They pick up seniors and the handicapped. They go down to the mission and bring a carful. When men love church you have got something pretty special. So build your men, and build your relationship with your men.

          Eighth, preach your best sermons on Sunday night. Eventually, even your bad sermons become good ones on Sunday night just because the atmosphere is awesome, but at first you have to fight the atmosphere. So fight it. Dedicate yourself to put sermons in that slot you really want to preach. Choose subjects that move you. Put more time into the preparation. Be pregnant with truth when you get up to preach of a Sunday evening. People ought to look at each other in the car on the drive home and say, “Wow, but we surely heard the Word tonight.” Make those sermons something that cannot be missed.

          Ninth, believe in it contagiously. For forty years Lee Roberson pastored the great Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. My father trained under him. He was known for many things, but particularly for this statement: everything rises and falls on leadership. In our generation such an idea is controversial if not downright rejected. We manufacture excuses. We embrace philosophical approaches that minimize the importance of leadership and of the pastor’s responsibility to set the pace. Under the guise of a rejection of lordship over the brethren we have succumbed to the siren song of mediocrity. We think if the Sunday night service is a problem it is an intractable one, one best solved by throwing in the towel.

          Away with such foolishness! A call to pastor is a call to lead. If your Sunday night service is wretched, fix it. Throw yourself into it hammer and tongs. Give it everything you have got. Work. Prioritize. Promote. Pray. Preach. Think. Sing. Organize. Lead the thing. Thermometers get their temperature from their environment; thermostats determine it. Be a thermostat. Stop buying into the defeatist atmosphere of your people. Believe in the importance of the Sunday night service. Practice that belief. The result will be stronger music, stronger men, stronger families, stronger preaching, and a stronger church. The result will be a church that people desperately want to be a part of, one they hate to miss, one they talk about to everyone they know. It will become a church you want to be a part of, one that is easier to direct because it is on the move.

          Pastoring is a joy when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. New converts get plugged in quickly when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. Discouraged saints are strengthened when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. Boys are called to preach when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. Altars are filled with weeping people when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. Spines are strengthened to withstand the spirit of the age when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. Criticism withers for lack of fuel when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. Your town starts to notice when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. People are edified when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. The cause of Christ is advanced when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. Heaven is tasted when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week. Best of all, God is glorified when Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week.

          May God bless your labor and prayer and leadership with the grace to make it so.     

Twelve Reasons Sunday Night is the Sweetest Service of the Week

          Sunday night is the sweetest church service of the week. In Bible college, it was my one service of the week to simply enjoy church. I would show up two hours early, at 5 PM, sit down in the silence, and let my soul rest and prepare to hear from the Lord. As a pastor now for the last 25 years, I have had my share of difficult seasons, entire years where the Sunday night service was nothing more than depressing. But fighting through that made it all the more sweet when we finally got it humming. Now for the past decade or so, it has been sweet indeed.

          The simple truth is our Lord has commanded His people to gather together more as we get closer to His coming (Hebrews 10.25). More, not less. Yet all across America the Sunday night service is withering. What mainline churches abandoned a century ago, and conservative churches laid aside a couple of decades ago, independent Baptist churches are now letting go as well. Gently, but letting go nonetheless under the guise of “family time” or small groups or this or that the other. I realize it is often an uphill struggle to establish a thriving Sunday night service. I will speak more to how to do that next week. But in today’s post I want to give you some of the many reasons Sunday night is the sweetest service of the week.

          First, it is the sweetest service of the week because the Lord’s day is not the Lord’s morning. Yes, I am one of those people who believe Sunday is the Lord’s day (Revelation 1.10). No, it is not the Sabbath. It is the first day of the week, set aside specifically by the New Testament church in honor of Christ’s resurrection on the first day of the week, Sunday. Each Sunday, morning and evening, I am privileged to assemble with God’s people in remembrance and celebration of our Saviour’s triumph.

          Second, it is the sweetest service of the week because more preaching is better than less preaching. It pleased the Lord to reach us and change us through the foolishness of preaching (I Corinthians 1.18). I cannot speak for other men but I do take the liberty of speaking for myself – I think my best preaching is my Sunday night preaching. And I think the messages I have heard from other men on Sunday nights are generally their best preaching. I have my opinion as to why that is, but regardless of that opinion or whether I am correct that it is generally good preaching it is at the least, preaching. Preaching is wonderful. The saints crave it. The sinners fear it. The Lord uses it. Sunday night means preaching, and that makes it sweet.

          Third, it is the sweetest service of the week because we get to participate in the offering. Giving is an act of worship. It is not a commercial, a pause in the service while people re-arrange themselves for what comes next. The New Testament church service was preaching, music, fellowship, and giving. God has been so good to provide for my needs through these years. It is a privilege to honor Him with my substance by participating in the offering.

          Fourth, it is the sweetest service of the week because the shift worker is able to attend. Some people are blessed with a Monday through Friday, nine to five job. Many are not. Many of God’s people, though they desire differently, are forced to work on Sunday morning. Having a Sunday night service allows them also to observe the Lord’s day, and that is sweet.

          Fifth, it is the sweetest service of the week because people from area churches that desire more preaching yet do not have a Sunday night service are able to attend. I said above, the saints love preaching. There is something in us that stirs with anticipation when it is time for preaching. Like a baby bird, we sit there with open mouths and wait eagerly for the Lord to fill them. God has many good people in churches other than the independent Baptist kind. Those churches are often the kind that have mistakenly laid aside the Sunday night service. I long ago lost track of the number of times such precious people have walked into our church building of a Sunday night, sheer delight written across their face as they soak in their second church service of the day. Sweet indeed.

          Sixth, it is the sweetest service of the week because the whole family can be there. Father. Mother. Children all lined up in a row. Sharing the same pew, the same hymnbook, turning in their dog-eared King James Bibles together, having church together. I am not against age-specific ministries in churches. We have them and I think they have their place. But if the children are separated from their parents in Sunday School, in the mid-week service, and again during the Sunday morning service when do they ever get to sit together as a family? Their concept of church is childish at best, a series of events catered to them. In such churches, something valuable is lost. As a pastor’s son, I can count on one hand the number of times I was able to sit with my father in church. I treasured it. I want that for the families who attend the Bible Baptist Church in Dubuque. It is good churching, good childing, and good parenting to share a pew with your entire family every Sunday night.

          Seventh, it is the sweetest service of the week because the whole church family is there. Our desire to minister to people’s needs has produced a concept of church in which God’s best servants, those with a heart to serve Him by serving people, are generally busy in other ways during many of the church services. Yet on Sunday night almost all of that pauses. Almost everyone who gathers does so in the same room. The family is together. Like Sunday dinner, when everyone’s schedule finally permits them to gather round the table, it is sweet.

          Eighth, it is the sweetest service of the week because the more spiritual church members are there. The service is open to all, but at the risk of being criticized (a risk I accept) I assert that the more carnal of God’s children generally confine themselves to the Sunday morning service only. No, I cannot measure any man’s spirituality by his church attendance. That is ever and always a matter of the heart. But I can measure when it is absent. If I choose to purposely absent myself from assembling with God’s people, and I do so on a consistent basis I evidence nothing more than a lack of desire for God and the things of God. The saints do not have to be begged or badgered to attend. They delight in that which Jesus shed His blood for. They come early and stay late on Sunday night. Voices are lifted in song. Smiles glow. Amen’s echo around the auditorium. Verily, sometimes I think Heaven is just one big Sunday night church service. How sweet such services are!

          Ninth, it is the sweetest service of the week because there is not a time limit. In Sunday School, in order to be organized, everyone must dismiss on time. On Wednesday night, logic tells us people must get up early for work and school the next day so we are conscious of the time. On Sunday morning, lunch beckons. As a pastor, in each of those services I watch the clock. I give myself a time limit, follow a schedule almost to a T. But on Sunday night all of that goes out the window. I preach until I am done. And God’s people soak it in and want more. I about preach myself to death of a Sunday night and they listen like their life depends on it. It is a labor of love on both sides, a sweet mingling of giving and receiving, of teaching and learning, of sowing and growing.

          Tenth, it is the sweetest service of the week because it builds a committed church. As American society moves further and further away from a biblical perspective it manifests itself in a variety of ways. The ugliness of our political discourse. The violence on our inner-city streets. The rise of drug addiction. Young people routinely dishonoring their parents. Greed in business. Corruption in the legislature. Pride marches. Ball fields full on Sunday while churches are empty. Decreasing enrollment in Bible colleges. And a thousand other ways.

One of those ways is a decrease in commitment. Divorce abounds. Job changes proliferate. Quitting anytime something becomes hard is a veritable pandemic. Including church. It is one thing to get people involved; it is entirely a different matter to bring them to the place of commitment. Yet how does this generation of American pastors seek to produce commitment? By asking less than ever from their church people – less time in service, less money in the offering plate, and less services in the pew. Newsflash: you will never raise commitment by lowering the bar. You only raise commitment when you raise the bar. Troops do not advance when you bring the flag back to their position; they advance when you move it forward and call them to follow. The independent Baptist churches of America have more committed people than any other religious group. I genuinely believe the Sunday night service is a key contributor to that wonderful fact.

Eleventh, it is the sweetest service of the week because Paul attended it. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight (Acts 20.7). That is only possible if you have a Sunday evening gathering. And for a variety of reasons that is exactly what they did.

Twelfth, it is the sweetest service of the week because Jesus attended it. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you (John 20.19). This is not the first church service. Jesus started the church the summer before His death in the mountainous region around Caesarea Philippi. But this is the first church service after His resurrection. It was on a Sunday night and He was there. Somehow, I feel entirely sure, that if Jesus was in your town next Sunday night He would not be found strolling along the riverfront, ice cream cone in hand. No, I am quite convinced He would be in church. Now would not that be sweet?

We are in good company on Sunday night when we assemble together. We do so for eminently good reasons. Retreat? Set it down? Lay it aside? Let it go? God forbid. It is the sweetest service of the week.    

 

         

 

         

 

 

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