Am I Righteous?

I am currently preparing for a message on Sunday from the book of Philippians. It has led me to seriously ponder the following question; what does it mean to be righteous. As I have examined and approached this subject, I have come to the following conclusion. Our culture has completely abandoned what the Biblical term righteous implies.

When we use this term we think of what people do. For instance, if we were to ask many red blooded Americans whether or not Muslims are righteous, the response would be staggering. Fact of the matter is; Muslims are devoted. They are serious about what they do. Our culture has redefined righteous to mean one who is zealously devoted.

Amazingly, the Biblical term righteous is not an action. It is a state of being. To be righteous is to have right standing with God. It is to something that is declared upon us. This Sunday night I will be preaching on what righteousness really is. It is to understand our complete inadequacy and to fall humbly before Christ trusting that what he accomplished on Calvary is our salvation. This humiliation of ourselves is the basis for righteousness. Our righteousness is found at the foot of the cross purified in his blood.

I AM AN AUBURN MAN!

I am an Auburn man. I am not ashamed to admit it. I take every opportunity to tell the world that I am an Auburn man. War Eagle! That statement flows from my mouth more frequently than Terrell Owens changes teams. I have Auburn ties, which I wear very frequently, Auburn socks, Auburn pens, Auburn jackets, Auburn polos, and the list goes on and on. Needless to say, living in suburban Atlanta these trinkets definitely make a fashion statement. My associate Jason is a huge Georgia Bulldog fan. I pray for him frequently that God will grant his repentance and bring conversion, but it baffles him how sincere I am in my devotion to the Auburn Tigers. I have an Auburn shrined room in my house. When I get talented enough with this internet stuff, I will post a picture of my Auburn room on the web.

As I reflect upon the preposterous nature of my devotion towards the Auburn Tigers it leads me to a perplexing dilemma. There is no doubt where my allegiance lies. Here is where the proverbial rubber meets the road; I wonder if the world can look at my life and see the same passion towards Christ. My studies have led me to one definitive answer. We don’t hide those things that we care most about. We reveal to the world those things that our hearts are passionate about and our souls long for. The problem with the church today is not music, it’s not style, it’s much deeper and darker than that. The greatest tragedy in the world is to bet eternity on a propositional truth; namely Christ’s atoning work on Calvary and then live the rest of our life as if that truth does not matter or at minimum that it is irrelevant for the events that transpire today. No wonder the world looks at the church as if she is a hypocrite. By definition we are.

Well I am preparing to preach tonight. It is amazing how many distractions there are in this world. More than likely, it is probably the fact that I am ADD and struggle staying focused, but nonetheless I have a Kamikaze red cardinal which is right outside my office window who continues to fly beak first into my window almost mocking me that he is free to fly away and enjoy himself at the local golf course and I am confined to this office where I will continually think about that golf course. It is quite humorous though and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching him catapult himself into my office window all the while, personally I am not accomplishing a great deal.

Tonight I am preaching on leadership. This will be a new approach. I have learned often that it is most profitable to learn from your own mistakes, but it is substantially less painful to learn from other's mistakes. That will be the approach tonight. I will preach, expositorily of course, from 1 Kings 12. This passage gives us insight into Godly leadership by watching Rehoboam do everything wrong.

Leadership is a focus of mine. The more I watch our bel0ved SBC, the more convinced I become of the need for Godly leadership. Unfortunately, in many cases far too many leaders have the character traits of Rehoboam and the result is much the same as occured in Israel. There is division and strife. May God call us to himself. Anyway, here is the outline, feel free to critique.


1. Godly leader’s are revealed in a crisis (v.1-5)
a. When we are squeezed what’s on the inside comes out
b. Rehoboam inherited the mess that was left to him by his father Solomon
and grandfather David
2. Godly leader’s surround themselves with wise counsel (v. 6-10)
a. Unfortunately, Rehoboam doesn’t heed wise counsel
b. You can tell a great deal about a person’s character by the people that he listens to, not
who he surrounds himself with, but with those he really listens to.
3. Godly leader’s make decisions based on Godly discernment not a personal
agenda fueled by pride (v. 11-14)
a. Rehoboam had a real opportunity to advance peace, but his personal ego was the
dominant characteristic rather than his discernment.
b. Far too many churches have been terrorized by this same characteristic in their leaders.
c. Sometimes the right decision based on Biblical discernment is to go against our initial
emotional response.
4. Godly leaders look at the big picture not simply the temporal perspective
(v. 16)
a. Rehoboam was more interested in being right and enforcing his will than with leading
God’s people.
b. In all honesty, it is this characteristic that separates the good leaders from the great
leaders. Great leaders understand the eternal perspective.
c. Jesus is the greatest example.
5. Ultimately God is in control (v.15)
a. Lest we think to highly of our abilities, God throughout his Word reminds us that he is
working to bring his will to fruition.

Well the new year is here. I am sure that most of you are like me and somewhat ready for the change. For those of you that serve in churches, it seems that Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year. I am looking forward to this new year. It is sure to change my life. Christy and I are entering into a time of great promise and I am ecstatic about the future.

For those that don't know this already, Christy and I are expecting our first child. Actually Christy is the one that is expecting, I am just kind of here to watch and go get pickles and cheerios at her request. I have to admit; for the first time in my life I feel like I am all grown up. It is amazing what the expectation of being a parent will do to your psyche and prayer life. I have learned a lot about myself over the past few weeks. I have learned how selfish I am and how utterly unprepared I am to be a parent. I have learned how weak my prayer life is and God is calling both me and Christy to really grow in that area. I saw a picture the other day and realized how fat I have become. Believe it or not, it is true that in many cases the man gains as much wait as the pregnant wife and I don't eat pickles. With that said, I also have realized the joy of escaping the selfishness I have lived with for 27 years and truly learn the selflessness that only comes with parenthood. I have learned the depths of love that a parent has for his children. I have become adamantly resolved that a major component of my ministry will be to champion the fight against abortion. I am sure you parents understand all these things.

Well, I will end this blog today. I need to study. I am preaching tomorrow night out of 1 Kings 12. The message centers around the the lessons we can learn about leadership from the mistakes made by Rehoboam. I am passionate about the need for real, strong, conviction based leadership in our churches. There is a leadership crisis in our churches today, whether we are willing to fess up and admit or not. It seems that every time you read in the blogosphere there is another leader who is not living up to God's expectation and robbing God of his glory and causing his church to wander aimlessly without a shepherd.

The issue at Bellevue is truly breaking my heart. I don't know the facts so I will remain silent on who is right and who is wrong. I will simply comment that this situation is not good. I pray and ask you to pray for the leadership of Bellevue. May God give them insight and discernment. I also entreat the Lord to give the people of Bellevue and submission to his sovereign rule. May God bring repentance and restoration to that congregation where God's Word has been preached faithfully for many decades.