The Greatest Sin of All

“Pride is a vice, which cleaves so fast unto the heart of men, that if we were to strip ourselves off all faults, one by one, we should undoubtedly find it the very last and hardest to put off.”  Thomas Hooker

  Today is Palm Sunday. It’s the ticker tape parade of the New Testament. It’s the victory march. It’s recorded in all four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and is referred to as the “Triumphal Entry.”

  As I was contemplating all of this, one amazing fact stands out to me. Though thousands were there to welcome Him, though Jesus was being acclaimed as the King of the Jews, though His way was paved with His followers garments and layers of palm leaves (hence the expression “Palm Sunday”), yet in spite of all of this Jesus did not give in to the one sin that torpedoes all of us over and over and over again – PRIDE. That to me is astounding. But catapult that event 2,000 years. Can you imagine a sports hero or elected official being welcomed by a ticker tape parade like a conquering hero and yet not succumbing to pride? Can you imagine them not thinking about how great, talented, attractive or wonderful they are? Yet, our Lord, though He’s worthy of our praise and worship never once succumbed to pride. That’s amazing!

  If you listed out what you think are the vilest and most hideous sins, would pride even make your list? Yet, pride is the seed for every other sin. Someone wisely said, “There are only two safe places for a Christian—in the dust and in heaven. And of the two the dust is safer, for Satan fell from heaven.” Pride is the very first sin in all of God’s creation. It destroyed the perfect beauty of heaven and quickly invaded earth. It is truly the sin of Satan. It was pride that brought Lucifer down and cost our first parents Paradise. It’s the first sin to enter a man’s heart and the last to leave. No sin is more offensive to God than the sin of pride. Pride has been called the “complete anti-God state of mind.”

  Pride condemns more to a Christless eternity than any other sin. We’re in the Easter Season. When I talk to someone about heaven or hell, rarely do I meet someone who has not been deceived by pride. Most think that they’ll go to heaven because they’re basically a “good” person, or they go to church, or have obeyed the Ten Commandments. The Cross of Christ nails that pernicious lie to the doors of hell. If there were any other way that we could go to heaven, if there were any other way that our sins and crimes against God could be paid for so that God could be just in forgiving us – would a loving Father sacrifice His own Son? Isn’t that the meaning behind Jesus’ prayer in the Garden, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39). It wasn’t. There was no other way. It’s Jesus only and only Jesus. The Bible teaches the exclusivity of Jesus Christ – He is the only way to heaven (John 14:6).

  Pride causes more cowardice on the part of Christians than any other sin. I like to be liked. It bothers me when people whisper about me behind my back or suggest that I’m some type of fanatic or wacko. Being caricatured with some of the “Christians” that are “so out there” weighs on me. And I find that my pride can shut my mouth and silence me faster when it comes to sharing the gospel than any other sin I deal with. While I may not be driven to be popular, I at least like to be liked…don’t you?

  Pride produces prayerlessness. Humility is detestable to the independent self-made man or woman. What’s the most difficult act for most of us? To ask someone for help, to admit that we can’t do it, that we haven’t got our act totally together. Isn’t that why we only tend to become serious about prayer when we’re desperately desperate? We pray when our marriage is falling apart or when our child is going off the deep end and nearly every other avenue has been explored. We pray when we’re sinking financially, or a loved one is facing a terminal illness. Sure, we pray at other times but let’s be honest, it’s more like a “wish list.” There is little intensity and certainly no desperation. Humility always precedes true prayer, but prayerlessness is the first sign of pride. Proud people don’t pray. Why would they? They don’t need anyone really, even God.

  Pride gives birth to conflict. It’s hard to say you’re sorry or admit that you blew it, and are wrong. Even when we do, we often fudge our admission with some type of rationalization. It’s pride that ruins relationships and massacres marriages. Pride is often at the root of church splits or church drifts, as believers just grow cold to their church family and just drift away. “Where there is strife, there is pride” (Proverbs 13:10). Just as pride erects a barrier between us and God, it builds walls between us and others. Love builds bridge; Pride erects walls. It’s pride that keeps us from apologizing when we’re wrong and causes us to defend yourself. It can cause us to look down on others and steals some of our most treasured relationships in life. “I was wrong. I’m sorry. Will you please forgive me?” are healing words that only a humble soul will use.

  Pride is horrible and perverse sin. No wonder Andrew Murray said, “Welcome everything that helps you on toward humility.” Listing the various forms of pride are nearly limitless. Arrogance and conceit are as common as the air we breathe. Pride must become a sin to be hated, a sin to be confessed, a sin to mourn over, a sin to flee, and a sin to fight against. The bottom line is that pride must die or nothing of God can live in us.

  Humility is trait that always marks God’s people even though it’s our toughest battle. Obviously, the first step toward becoming humble is realizing and confessing to God that we’re proud. Continually, we must drag our pride to the foot of the Cross. It’s only by contemplating Christ’s Cross that we can begin to defeat this heinous sin.

  And if pride is the evil of evils, then humility is the virtue of virtues. Humility is a fruit of God’s grace. It’s only as we rely on God’s grace and His Spirit that we can have victory over pride but pride dies hard. Just when you think you’ve killed it and are finally humble, it’s once again been resuscitated. Yet, it is only in humility that we can truly walk with God and have His hand of blessing on our lives. So fight and don’t quit!

Creflo Dollar, Prosperity Theology and me

"The lack of money is the root of all evil." Mark Twain

Apparently, that’s what Creflo Dollar, prominent Georgia megachurch pastor and evangelist believes. Creflo Dollar teaches what’s known as Prosperity Theology, as do many popular TV preachers (Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer…to name a few). Prosperity Theology or the “Prosperity Gospel” is tragically a very popular heresy in America. It appeals to our materialistic driven culture, perverted view of success and this world appetites. Essentially, it teaches that if you’re blessed by God, one of those that God favors – you will have material wealth. During the last week Creflo has been all over the news because he’s really “needy.”

  It seems that Creflo Dollar, (rather appropriately named), at a mere $27 million net worth is feeling impoverished. Unfortunately, his jet is wearing out so he’s asking for donations to buy a new luxury one valued at more than $65 million. His website asked people to “Sow your love gift of any amount” to help the ministry buy a Gulfstream G650 airplane. “We are asking members, partners, and supporters of this ministry to assist us in acquiring a Gulfstream G650 airplane so that Pastors Creflo and Taffi and World Changers Church International can continue to blanket the globe with the Gospel of grace,” the ministry's website says. Sadly, they’re blaketing the globe with something, but it’s not the gospel, nor is it the grace of God found in Scripture.

  Few theological heresies are more repulsive to Scripture than a focus on storing up treasures here on earth as a primary goal of faithful living. The gospel of prosperity turns Christianity into some vapid bless-me now club, with a doctrine that amounts to little more than spiritual magical thinking: If you pray the right way, God will make you rich.

  But what if you're not rich, then what? Are the poor cursed by God because of their unfaithfulness? If God is so concerned about 401(k)s, Mercedes and mansions, why did He allow His Son, Jesus to be born into abject poverty? Jesus was born poor and died poor. During His earthly tenure, Jesus spoke time and again about the importance of spiritual wealth and health. Whenever Jesus talked about material wealth, it was usually to warn His hearers as part of a cautionary tale.

  Nowhere has the prosperity gospel flourished more than among the poor and working class. This heresy is one of our worst exports to the dire poor around the globe. It’s cruel to tell those who truly are poor, beyond most of our worst nightmares, that wealth and prosperity is a sign of God's favor. Desperate followers pray fervently, give to charlatans and strive for trappings of luxury that they can little afford in an effort to prove that they’re blessed spiritually.

  Yet, prosperity theology does not just appeal to us financially. It’s very subtle and exploits the evangelical inclination toward an attractional model of ministry, which focuses on having your “best life” now. It sneaks in softly, gently, not with the BLING BLING of the Preachers of L.A., but with a nodding and sympathetic, “You want a healthy marriage? Jesus wants that, too.” Of course, that’s true. Yet little by little, the Bible becomes a handbook to your best life now and church morphs into little more than a therapy session. God and His gospel exist for you, your benefits, well-being and pleasure.  

  Often undetected by Bible-believers, it assumes the gospel and leads its adherents to focus on things like financial planning, diet and exercise, as well as strategies for self-improvement. In contrast to the hard prosperity gospel, which offers miraculous and immediate health and wealth, this softer, subtler variety challenges believers to break through to the blessed life by means of the latest book or pastor-prescribed technique.

  Please understand, matters of personal stewardship like money, health, and leadership skills should be woven into a whole-Bible theology of Christian discipleship. The trouble comes when the Church places greater emphasis on these temporal, secondary matters. What we choose to preach or listen to says much about our values and worldview. Too often this, “it’s about me” theology devolves into a Christless Christianity with no Gospel.

  So what if you have a happy marriage, great family, comfortable life, fit body – if you don’t know Jesus as your personal Savior? Isn’t that exactly what Jesus warned us of: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

  None of this is new. It goes all the way back to the Garden, that we can somehow have a good life without God. It’s Satan’s lie, “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). The tragedy of the soft prosperity gospel is that it focuses on this life only benefits. By offering hearers their best life now, eternal realities of heaven and hell are lost. This brings the very real possibility that many who hear the soft prosperity gospel are and will remain eternally lost. If you have the good life now, what more could you need or want?

  Yet, as I look within my own heart, I must confess that I’m drawn to the soft prosperity gospel. Imagine you’re driving to church on a miserably cold, Sunday morning, and you get a flat tire. What’s your immediate thought? “God, really? I’m going to church. Isn’t there some drug dealer or abusive husband you could have afflicted with a flat tire?” That’s the prosperity gospel in my own soul. Maybe you don’t get that promotion at work, your child gets sick, or you’re gossiped about by a “friend.” The usual result? You get mad at God because you were overlooked, troubled, or disparaged. That’s the prosperity gospel in your own soul.

  The idea that God owes me a relatively trouble-free life and the anger I feel when God doesn’t act the way I believe that He’s supposed to act, betray a heart that expects God to prosper us because of our good works. That’s the prosperity gospel. It’s loving the presents of God rather than the presence of God. It’s what Satan falsely accused Job of.

  As believers, we must learn to recognize the errors of anything that takes away from or even adds to God’s standard of truth, the Bible, even soft prosperity. We need to confess the ways that desires for a happy life or earthly success have often invaded our own souls and drawn us away from our first love (Revelation 2:4). We must not be deceived by longing for temporal pleasure or success that distracts us from eternal riches. We must determine by God’s grace and the power of the Spirit to live for the real world, God’s world and not just for your “best life now.” 

Caring for the Hurting

“Do you want to know that your [Christian] life is real? Commit yourself to a local group of saved sinners. Try to love them. Don’t just do it for three weeks. Don’t just do it for six months. Do it for years. And I think you’ll find out, and others will, too, whether or not you love God. The truth will show itself.”   Mark Dever

  When you read your Bible, do you find that the Psalms are encouraging? Do they often touch your heart? As you read them, do you sometimes feel that David has been peeking into your soul? Think for a moment. Do you think his greatest burdens, heartaches, sorrows were physical or emotional?

  I think we’d all have to agree that they were emotional. As you read the Psalms, it’s apparent that David was not struggling with physical pain but emotional pain – depression, fear, rejection, loneliness…to name a few.

  Most of our greatest hurts are not physical. They’re emotional and they’re spiritual. God powerfully brought that home to me just recently.

  Recently, I ran into a friend that I’d not seen in several months. Looking back, somehow I knew that something wasn’t quite right. Eventually, in our conversation he shared that he and his wife had gotten divorced. He was a broken man. I remember previously, just a few years before when he’d shared with me about their recent trip to China for the funeral of his wife’s father and how fulfilling that had been for him. Yet, here he was in retirement, looking forward to spending his retirement years with the love of his life, now attempting to put on a stoic face, but broken, hurting and confused.

  Let’s go back to the book of Psalms – here’s David, a man who Scripture describes as “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22), baring His soul not only to God but to us. The reason we find such encouragement and hope there is that we are reminded that we are not alone. We are not the only ones who struggle with depression, discouragement, worry, fear and a myriad of other emotions.

  Interestingly, for some reason anger or impatience are appropriate emotions to express and admit in our culture (maybe they’re seen as power emotions while others are seen as signs of weakness). But depression, grief, anxiety, fear or discouragement are possibly admitted to the closest of friends, but often not even there. We often wait until we find someone we can “pay” to share our heart with, a therapist or some other professional counselor. Sometimes we might share them with a pastor because he’s considered “safe.”

  If you’re a parent, you’ve gone through this. Your child came home from school. They’re discouraged, hurt or wounded. It probably started with a conversation like this. You notice something is wrong and you ask, “What’s wrong?” They retort, “Nothing!” Usually, eventually, particularly if you have a healthy relationship with them, it all comes pouring out.

  But what if you’re child never shared that they were hurt or struggling, would that be normal? Healthy? Of course not. Often you may not have the answer but what they most need is for you to listen and to care. They need you to pray with them and for them, not necessarily give them the solutions right away. That’s what family does. We love, care, help and pray with each other as we walk through life’s hurts. If that’s normal for family, shouldn’t it be normal with our church family? So why isn’t that the case?

  1). We really don’t know each other. Most of us won’t share our hearts with those we don’t know. Please understand, we can’t know each other unless we spend time with each other. That’s why even activities like last Sunday’s 60’s Party are so important – we start getting to know each other. It’s why small groups and Sunday Morning Live classes are so important – we start getting to know each other. That’s why we break you into even smaller groups in those classes – we want you to get to know each other, to begin to peel back the layers. If we don’t know each other, we’ll never feel safe with each other, safe enough to share our burdens and cares.

  2) We must realize that God has designed all of us with emotions. Usually, when someone shares their heart, there’s a sense of discomfort both on their part and everyone that just heard their “feeling.” Wow! What’s going on here! Someone let a feeling get loose. How did that happen? Someone catch that feeling and stuff it back in a drawer. We can’t have feelings running around loose. Yet, we all have feelings, even pastors. Every emotion that you feel and struggle with, everyone else at our church has too. Do you worry? So does everyone else? Do you get discouraged? So does everyone else? Do you periodically feel hopeless, depressed? So does everyone else?

  Currently, it weighs on me that our building hasn’t sold yet. I know that it’s in God’s hands and we’re on His timeline, yet it still weighs on me. I know that until we’re able to move and build a new facility, our ministry is terribly handicapped. The needs of our community and the many lost and hopeless folk I meet, weigh very heavily on my heart. I need your prayer support that my faith will deepen during this point in our church’s history.

  3) We must want and be ready to help. Simply put, we must care and love others. As believers, we have the best heart medicine available. We’re to love each other as God loves us. We have the Father’s promises (that means that we must know our Bibles). We can pray for each other (that means we need to know how to pray).

  Please understand that I’m not suggesting we indiscriminately share our hearts. Yet, as we’ve been working through in our current series, Me to We, God designed us for relationships. It’s part of our DNA. It’s who we are as image-bearers of God. So in a church family, we must build those relationships with brothers and sisters outside of our immediate family that we can share our hearts with and who can share their hearts with us. It will lighten our burden and help us grow – both by caring, being cared for and even having someone share with us those things that we can’t see because we’ve lost perspective.

  That’s normal church family and the church that the Father intends for us! At Grace, we want our church family to grow by seeing lost folk come to know Jesus and we want to grow by having His love pour through us as we love, care and share with each other as a church family! 

When Paradise is closed!

“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?” 
Five Man Electrical Band

  Recently, I was in Paradise. Okay, it wasn’t really Paradise. It was Fort Lauderdale but with temperatures in the mid-sixties, compared to Wisconsin that was below zero…it sure felt like Paradise J.

  Because Chicago traffic is unpredictable, when I’m flying out of O’Hare, I always try to take an early flight so that I can beat the traffic. Jane and I flew out at 6:45 am but couldn’t get into our hotel until 4 pm (our flight arrived around 9 am). Lots of time to kill, but after all, we are in Paradise.

  After we rented our car, we decided to head to the beach. I love the ocean, particularly the Atlantic. There’s just something about hearing waves crashing, the smell of salt air and warm sand between your toes. It goes back to when I was a child and my family went to Florida every year for vacation. I truly can’t get enough of the ocean.

  Because we had so much time to kill, after grabbing a bite to eat, Jane and I headed to the beach. But we never saw it. The vast majority of the beach has hotels and condos with restricted parking for “guests” only. But these buildings block the view, so not only can you not walk on the beach because you can’t find a place to park, you can’t even see it. Unfortunately, our hotel was near the church where the Conference was being held – miles and miles away from the beach. While there were a few public beaches, every parking spot was filled. We and several other hundred people were circling the same lots like sharks looking for prey. And while there were hundreds of empty parking spaces, they were all clearly marked with large signs, “No Parking! Violators will be towed!”

  Because we had lots of time to kill, we just kept driving up the coast.  Ultimately, we drove some thirty miles along the coast and never once found a parking space. We were never were able to get out of our car and couldn’t see the ocean or hear the waves crashing. Finally, we gave up and headed to our hotel to check in. Here we were, right on the front porch of “Paradise” but couldn’t get in. Why?

  First, it was overcrowded and there just wasn’t any room. There were so many license plates from Quebec, I wondered if the entire province was in Fort Lauderdale.

  Second, “the golden rule” worked against us. Not the golden rule that most of us are familiar with. No, the pragmatic golden rule that unwaveringly holds that those “who have the gold rule.” Because Jane and I don’t own a condo or beach house, because we were staying at a “cheap” hotel miles away from the beach, we were prohibited from enjoying the ocean and beach.

  Third, we didn’t know the secret entries. Probably, there are places to park and ways to circumvent the system BUT you’d probably have to be a local to know them. As visitors, “Paradise” was a closed community to us. For all practical purposes, “Paradise” might as well have not even existed. We weren’t getting in no matter how hard we tried.

  What a contrast to Heaven! There is no place on this earth, not even Fort Lauderdale in February that can hold a candle in comparison to Heaven. The reality is that the very best in this world, the most beautiful places are inner city ghettos compared to Heaven.

  I’ve always marveled that Heaven is so wonderful that God in His Word has to tell what is not there, rather than what is there. Humanly speaking, we just couldn’t comprehend it. Yet, the entry to Heaven is very different from any “Paradise-like” places on earth.

  First, there is plenty of room. Heaven will never put up a “No Parking” or “No Vacancy” sign up. One of my favorite parables is that of the Great Banquet in Luke 14. “Then the master of the house…said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room’” (vss. 21-22). There is more space than we could ever comprehend.

  Second, entry to Heaven is not based on what you have or what you have done. There are no rich people in Heaven and there are no good people there. You can’t buy your way in or work your way in to Heaven. The entry to Heaven is based on the fact that you absolutely shouldn’t be there. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” What could be clearer than, “not a result of works”? What do you do to earn a “gift”? Nothing! You just accept it!

  Heaven is free but it’s not cheap. For anyone to go to Heaven, Jesus paid a great price. He had to die on the Cross and pay our great sin debt, “  (1 Corinthians 15:3).

  What an insult to God the Father to even consider that any of us could pay Him back for the death of His Son! Or, that we could be good enough or do enough right things to compensate Him for Jesus! Heaven…our salvation is God’s gift of love that we must accept by faith. It’s what the Bible calls the Gospel, or “good news.” Because the Gospel is true, then even someone like me can go to heaven. In myself I see much that displeases me, and much more that must displease God. The good news of the gospel is that sinners can be saved while they are still sinners simply by trusting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Because of the Gospel, you can know with certainty that should you die tonight, you’re going to heaven.

  Finally, the very best part is that it’s not a secret. Jesus said, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world…” (Matthew 24:14). Jesus’ last words before He left this earth was to command His followers to tell the whole world that Heaven is free, anyone can go there, if they’ll just trust Christ as their personal Savior.

  It may be hard to get to the beach in Fort Lauderdale but it’s simple to get into Heaven. It’s a free gift and the price has already been paid, but you must personally accept it. Have you done that? Have you accepted God’s free gift of salvation?  

Some times I just don't say thanks enough....

“The things we take for granted are dreams to many people.”

  Forgive me. I’m having a full blown senior moment…I truly hope that I’ve said this before. If I haven’t though, I apologize. Sadly, I know though I haven’t shared this in a long time. So please do not take that as ingratitude. It’s not. I am very, very thankful! In fact, Jane and I both are.

  Every year since I became your Pastor, our church has willingly underwritten the costs for me to attend a conference. Sadly, that is not the case for some of my colleagues (though today it is for most).

  One of my greatest fears in preaching is growing stale, or worse, irrelevant. Like you, I’ve sat under someone’s preaching and wondered at times, what I was doing there and how can I graciously extricate myself? I truly hope that you don’t do that here. Yet, when a pastor is isolated, it is easier for that to happen. Age adds to the isolation.

  The Bible reminds us that “iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17). Yet, just as nearly every field needs continuing education, the same is true of pastors. Yet, one of the handicaps of being a pastor is that you rarely are able to personally hear and experience preaching and Bible teaching…but every believer needs it. 

  One of the verses that staggers me is 1 Corinthians 1:21, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” In other words, God has chosen to use the “foolishness of preaching” to work in hearts and bring glory to His Name. That amazes me! There certainly seem to be more effective tools that God could use, like a miracle or two. Even a drama or well done animation would seem to be more effective. Yet, God has chosen what seems like, humanly speaking, to be a poor choice as a communication tool to share His Word and message. And I know that often feel very inadequate to the task and awed that God would use me.

  While I seek to feed my own soul by spending time in the Word and prayer, there’s something about being under Bible teaching that feeds your soul in a way that “self-feeding” will never do. And though I work at focusing on the worship music when we sing together as a family at Grace, there is something very freeing about sitting in a worship service where you have no responsibility for any parts of the worship service.

  Probably, all of you can relate. You know what it is to have the whole family, extended family with cousins by the dozens, over for a huge meal. Maybe something like Thanksgiving or Mother’s Day. You’re trying really hard to enjoy the meal, to focus on the conversations and interactions. Yet, in the back of your mind, you’re wondering if the gravy is burning, or if the pie tastes okay. Because you’re the host, when the toilet backs up or they run out of ice, you’re the one that they come looking for.

  As a pastor, I pray before I come on Sundays and then must work to stay focused on worship and the main thing every Sunday. But if it’s too warm in the auditorium, or if the slides aren’t working correctly, or if no one showed up to teach a class or work in the nursery, or even a child is crying in the midst of the service, my mind turns to what is taking place.

  Add to that, the burden of the burdens coming into the worship service each week. As a pastor, I often know what others may not know: someone struggling with a difficult marriage or child; an individual being defeated by sin or doubt; someone seeking and checking out this “Christian” thing to see if it’s real. It could be a brother or sister with a loved one in a crisis. Every pastor who is seeking to be faithful to God’s calling on his life feels that burden. Yes, he rejoices with those who rejoice, yet he weeps with those who weep. Joseph Parker used to say, “If you preach to hurting hearts, you will never want for a congregation; there is one in every pew.” 

  So there is something freeing about sitting in a worship service and being totally focused, and having the Spirit touch your heart through the music or preaching. Many a time, I’ve wept as I’ve been in those places, as the Spirit worked in my own heart. I’ll never forget sitting many years ago under the preaching of John Piper as he bared his soul. John, like me, grew up in the Deep South and was raised in bigotry. I remember him sharing his own journey and tears poured out of my eyes, as I realized that his journey was also my journey…and I had never quite seen it like that before.

  Last week as Jane and I sat under the preaching of J.D. Greear, Paul Tripp and Steve Brown to name a few, our hearts were stirred. Our souls were stretched. We grew! And you made it possible. We even heard a new version of the Doxology that I can’t wait for us to learn and sing at Grace!

  Conferences are filling and exhausting. Maybe it’s because preachers are cheap, they usually start early in the morning, go all day and then end late at night. You find yourself stuffed spiritually, a bit exhausted, but it’s a good tired.

  Let’s be honest, with a church budget, there are seemingly an infinite amount of items where we could direct our funds. (If you don’t believe me, ask our Church Treasurer). Thank you for making our soul care, spiritual growth and sanctification one of those focuses. Thank you so much for not begrudging us that time away. Thank you to so many for stepping up and taking on extra responsibility so that we could focus where we were at, knowing that things were in willing, capable hands here at Grace.

  And most of all, thank you for letting an aging, bald, “well-rounded,” geezer be your pastor for over a quarter of a century. God has so greatly blessed me with you and this local community. Please don’t tell, but I know that I’m the richest man in town and I have one of the biggest and best families! May our Father bless each one of you as you are a blessing to Jane and me!