Helpful Sermon from Fellowship Church Worth Watching - Help for Those Who are Enduring Longterm Struggles

Tracy Barnes is one of the pastors at Ed Young's Fellowship church. I urge my readers to listen to his sermon last week. I wish I could embed it here on the blog, but the best I can do is give you the link here:

Tracy Barnes Sermon - Pain Management

Tracy spoke last week in the current series "Pain Management". Tracy's family has endured the incredible hardship of having their two young boys - Roger and Phillip - diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy back in the late 1980s. This awful disease causes a wasting away of all muscles. It is diagnosed when children are very young, and death usually occurs around age 20 to 25 from respiratory complications. Their son Roger died a few years ago, but Phillip is still bravely living with this disease, with the love and constant help of his parents.

In the sermon Tracy speaks from his heart to help people deal with painful life trials that have no end in sight. He gives three "stop signs" to help people live with joy despite living in a life-long struggle. A video is shown early in the sermon of how Tracy's wife Debbie has endured, her devotion to Phillip's care, and she speaks of her faith struggles and victories.

If you are dealing with long-term struggles and disappointments in life, Tracy and Debbie's story and the lessons Tracy shares in this sermon will be of great help.

There are so many touching parts of this story that will help you - from Tracy and Debbie's devotion to their boys, to the story of one of Tracy's daughters carrying the gene who decided to adopt a child from Haiti vs. birthing children, to seeing Tracy speak a word of encouragement and love directly to his son Phillip.

Thank you Tracy and Debbie and Phillip for telling your story. One of the most moving, touching, helpful sermons I've seen.

I hope my readers will take a few minutes to watch this.

Prestonwood Baptist Doesn't Call the Cops on the Molester, But They Call the Cops on the Church Member Who Asks Questions About the Molester

Readers - it is hard to believe another SBC mega church has banned a long-time church member for daring to demand questions of its leadership through social media.

Sound familiar?Don't these guys learn from each other's mistakes in how they try to bully critics and questioners?

At Prestonwood Baptist Church, a long-time church member - an educated, professional, family man - recently became aware of the church's non-reporting of molestation of  several young people at the church at the hands of John Langworthy of Prestonwood back in 1989. Brett Shipp of WFAA covered the story here, and ABP covered it here. I wrote about the Prestonwood/Langworthy scandal here, here, and here.

This church member then did the unspeakable - he dared to use social media to ask questions of his church leadership. He had questions like, presumably, why did the church leadership NOT contact the police so they could investigate? Did the church warn the next churches or schools that Langworthy went to work at? This church member posted a few posts on the church Facebook page, which were promptly deleted. He then called the church to schedule a meeting - but it was abruptly canceled, and when he showed up at the church anyways he was turned away and told he was no longer welcomed at his church. You can watch the video of his visit to the church here, and you can visit his Facebook page here. You can follow his Twitter feed here.

The church then played the "he might be a threat" card by filing a "Suspicious Person Report" with the local police. Sound familiar?

Prestonwood knows this man and his wife and kids. They know he is not a threat. They even know his questions are completely legitimate. But they would rather ban this man from his church, disrupt his family life and punish he and his wife for asking questions. Are they worried how this will affect this man's wife and children to have their husband and father banned from their own church under threat of arrest - just for asking questions of the holy man of God and his friends?

The Wartburg Watch is going to cover this story more in depth tomorrow, so stay tuned.

I hope this church member continues to use social media to expose their attempts to bully him and intimidate him, and more importantly shine more light on the Prestonwood/Langworthy scandal.

But how ironic is this: Prestonwood apparently did NOT issue any trespass papers or "suspicious person's report" against Langworthy when he was found to be touching young boys at the church....but let a church member ask questions about how they handled the Langworthy case, and HE gets the boot.

Don't call the cops when the music man is molesting minors...but quickly call the cops when the faithful member wants to know why the cops weren't called to report the molester.

Don't report the molester to the cops...but report the "suspicious" church member who wants answers to his questions.

Can things get any crazier in the Southern Baptist Convention?

"World-Wide" Evangelist Shows How to Handle a Talker in the Audience

Below is one of my new favorite preacher videos.

Readers, I introduce you to Mr. Larry Smith, traveling evangelist, sole proprietor of the "Larry Smith World-Wide Ministries".

By "world wide", I think Larry means "KJV churches mostly in northwest Indiana, and small churches like those where Ergun Caner now preaches".

In the clip below, from Larry's January 20th sermon at First Baptist Hammond, Larry yells at, and attempts to humiliate some man who is apparently talking in the audience. Watch this. It is classic. Notice the fake smile, and his inability to ignore the talker. And his sarcastic "Love you"  - and a pronouncement to the talker that "you reap what you sow". I guess in Larry's bible Galatians 6:7 reads, "Do not be deceived. Larry the Evangelist is not mocked. You will reap what you sow." This will make you laugh, then it will make your skin crawl.

You can't tell it from the brief snippet, but this is from Larry's classic sheep-beating tithing sermon that he regularly preaches, entitled "Does Your Wallet Have a Hole In It?" [sadly, I've heard a few SBC pastors preach about God poking holes in your purse] posted at his website. Larry tells people point-blank that the tithe is a debt they owe, they need to tithe on all Christmas gifts received to avoid God's curse on their finances, and real Christians will develop a payback plan to pay God for any income or gifts on which they have not tithed in the past.

Larry might think he is "world-wide"....I think in this video he shows he is more "world-class" - as in world-class horse's patoot.

Although he does tell the young man "I hope to God you're not a Hyles-Anderson student; I hope God not".

Amen, Larry, I hope not either. And if he is, I hope your little tantrum caused him to wake up and get out of Dodge.

H/T:  Stuff Fundies Like

Christian, You Have Been Released from Servitude to God

Readers - below is a repeat of my 2nd post from July 2011 based on Wade Burleson's January 2, 2011 sermon.

These four posts - with the third and fourth coming in the next week, are some of my favorites.

I hope you enjoy!

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"You and I are released from servitude TO God. In other words I rest from my efforts to produce for God...because I have been released from my servitude to God....'I thought when I became a Christian I became a servant OF God.' No, No....you became a SON of God" Wade Burleson

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In part 2 of our look at Wade Burleson's January 2, 2011 sermon, we see above Wade tell us that we have been saved and been made sons and daughters of God, and we are not slaves or servants to God. Our debt has been paid and we can rest.

In Part 3, we will look at the concept of a "bond slave", and in Part 4 Wade explains his view on the tithing doctrine as an example of how Christians have been released from having to perform FOR God. What Wade says in Part 4 is so simple yet profound, and something that you just won't hear in most pulpits regarding the truth on Christian stewardship.

Stay tuned....

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Part 1: "Christian, Jesus is Your Jubilee, and You Can Rest" - July 21, 2011

Jeffress Opens a Can on Tebow - Says Tebow "Wimped Out" - And Five Reasons Why Tebow Backed Out that the Press and Pharisees Both Missed

In a 10-minute response in front of his congregation yesterday, Robert Jeffress yesterday showed the world that Tim Tebow made the right decision to not speak at Jeffress' church, when Jeffress said Tebow "wimped out":

"I am grateful for men of God like these [Vines, Graham, Mohler, etc.] who are willing to stand up and act like men, rather than wimping out when it gets a little controversial and an inconvenient thing to stand for the truth. God bless men like that." 

Sorry, Robert. God bless men like Tebow. And shame on religious men like yourself who attack a young man who has lived out his faith in the most challenging circumstances, and a young man that has shown the world what a true Christian looks like. Robert and friends need to read my article from November 2011 in which I wrote about how pastors need to learn from Tebow on how to face criticism and adversity.

Watch the video of Jeffress for yourself here. After Jeffress said Tebow "wimped out" he goes on to mock those like Tebow who claim they are called to "preach the love of God", saying one can't preach the love of God without also preaching the judgment of God. Jeffress come across as a sniveling, whiny wimp who didn't get his way, and wants everyone to know all the Holy religious men of God are on HIS side and not Tebow's.

But the question still remains:  why DID Tebow back out of his FBC Dallas speaking commitment?  Was it over Jeffress' comments on homosexuality, Mormons, and Catholics? Probably not. After all, Tebow's own pastor came forward over the weekend to confirm there is not "a wisp" (Greek for "a bit") of difference between the theology of Jeffress' church and Tim's church.

Predictably, both the secular media AND the religious Pharisees missed what were legitimate reasons a person like Tim Tebow wouldn't want to speak at FBC Dallas. The religious Pharisees are so preoccupied with the issue of homosexuality, they assumed Tim caved to pressure - or as O.S. Hawkins said, Tebow "capitulated" - on this issue. Likewise, the secular media's darling issue is gay rights, so they also assumed Jeffress' stand on gay rights was Tim's primary reason reason for backing out.

I submit both the religious Pharisees AND the secular media have it all wrong.

To understand why Tim would have backed out, we have to answer the question: what ARE some  distinctive positions or characteristics of FBC Dallas and Robert Jeffress that would cause someone like Tebow to not want to speak there? These reasons are quite obvious - unless you are a religious Pharisee who constantly rails about homosexuality, or you are in the secular media and think all Christians are gay-bashing homophobes.

Here are the top five reasons why a Christian like Tim Tebow would not want to be associated with FBC Dallas and Robert Jeffress:

1.  FBC Dallas' Construction of $130 Million "Crystal Campus" - it is no secret that FBC Dallas is constructing the most expensive, over-the-top church facility complex ever conceived in modern evangelicalism. Perhaps Tim didn't realize the scope of this building program, and what a tremendous waste of resources this is. You see, Tim Tebow is not into raising money to build Crystal Cathedrals. Tim has consistently used his notoriety to raise money for sick children and needy families. Tim is into raising money for orphanages in the Phillipines. On the other hand, Robert Jeffress likes to manufacture his notoriety through outlandish and divisive statements, to help him raise funds for his new church building. That is NOT what Tim Tebow is all about. Here is an excerpt from the website of Tim's foundation:

"Unlike many other organizations, we pride ourselves in keeping our overhead costs as low as possible that way virtually every penny, of every dollar donated reaches the people that truly need it most. Together with your help, we will make a difference!"

2.  FBC Dallas Construction of Waterfall as "Architectural Invitation" to Jesus Christ:  As I blogged about here back in 2010, Robert Jeffress sold his church on the bright idea that to reach people for Jesus, they have to build a three-story high water fountain with computerized nozzles. Jeffress told the FBC Dallas peeps that they needed their church to be an "architectural invitation to the gospel". I don't think Tim is into glorifying spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for architectural invitations to Jesus. This was done all over Europe already - and at Tim's church back in the 1990's. Maybe Tim just isn't into this and doesn't want his name to be associated with it.

3.  Jeffress Fund-Raising Tactics:  As I blogged here, Jeffress preached a sermon to his peeps when he was in full fund-raising mode for his campus, in which he said:

"The greatest thing you can do for your spiritual health, would be to take a large chunk of your assets, and give them to this campaign. Just slice off a big hunk of 'em [as he slices with his hand] and give them to this campaign."

That is pure hogwash. Tim doesn't want to lend his name to the opening of a new facility built using these fund raising tactics, where the pastor says the greatest thing a Christian can do for their spiritual well-being is to take your assets and give them to a Crystal Cathedral-type building program. That is Bennie Hinn territory. Tim is a relentless fund-raiser himself - but he does it to help people, and he doesn't do it through manipulation and scripture twisting like Jeffress.

4. Jeffress' Divisive Political Statements: there is no mainstram evangelical pastor that was more  involved in the 2012 presidential campaign than Robert Jeffress. As I pointed out here, Jeffress once said he would never endorse a politician, either publicly or privately, yet he eventually endorsed Texas governor Rick Perry at the Voter's Value Summit in October 2011. Also, Jeffress' statements about Obama paving the way for the Antichrist - Tim likely doesn't want to be associated with divisive political rhetoric that alienates people that he is trying to live out the gospel before.

5. Jeffress' Over-the-Top Statements About Islam:  Jeffress has made statements that don't help to reach Muslims in this country with the gospel. As I wrote about here, Jeffress claimed that Islam "promotes pedophilia", and that "all around the world you have Muslim men having sex with 4-year old girls." Those statements are way over the top. Why does Tim need to lend his name to help promote the grand opening of a new church facility, where the pastor makes these kind of statements? That is not Tim Tebow's style.

So there you have it. There are others I could have cited, but these are probably the top 5 reasons why Tim Tebow doesn't want to be involved in the Grand Opening of the FBC Dallas version of the Crystal Cathedral.

And Robert, your comments about Tebow in front of your congregation show you to be a very small man. Tebow is too much of a gentleman to reply to you - but that is perhaps one of the few instances where we see Tebow is NOT like Jesus - else Tim would quickly declared about you, Jerry Vines, Jack Graham, and Albert the Pious, like Jesus said to the Pharisees in his day:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous....You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?" (Matt 23:29,33)

But as I said, Tim is much too kind.

So the Watchdog said it for him.