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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastor Michael Clement

Michael Clement
Some years ago, a pastor friend of mine in another city went through a difficult situation where he had had an assistant pastor and things didn't work out. And after it was all over, he shared with me some thoughts on needs within the Christian community. And he took those thoughts and developed them into a message with three points, and we're going to break up those three points that have three programs. One on each of those points. So the question is, what is Christianity's greatest need today? And I'd like to suggest that the first one is: a need for committed Christians. Let me read from Ecclesiastes 9:10. It says, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Friends, God has given us not only this life, but He has given us things to do. And in this life, is the only chance we have to do those things. The Bible tells us very little about what we're going to do in eternity and very little about what heaven's going to be like. We have some things in scripture, but not very much. And I think in part, that's because God wants us to be focused on here and now. And one of the things that I see is a need for Christians who are committed. There's generally a need for commitment in American culture today, but what is a problem for our culture is deadly for the church? A lack of commitment. Let me define that a little bit. For instance, we need believers who are first of all, committed to the Lord. You've heard what Jesus said, "if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." And that's not only in one of the gospel accounts. It's in Matthew 16:24, it's in Mark 8:34, and it's in Luke 9:23. God has included that statement of Jesus three times in His word. So what does it mean? Well, to deny yourself and to take up your cross and follow Him is the idea that we come to the Lord. Not just for salvation, not just so that we can have our sins forgiven; not just so that one day we get to go to heaven, but it's a commitment to live for Him. One of the great things that I enjoy doing is reading Christian biographies. Most of them are about missionaries, but some are about others that weren't missionaries, that served in some other way. And what I like to see and hear are Christians who take their Christianity home with them on Sunday. They live it in their homes with their family and they take it to work with them, and they live it in the workplace. And then they even take it when they're involved in entertainment and recreation and Christianity influences their whole life. That's a real joy to me as a pastor, and I believe it's a joy to the Father as well. Some years ago, I heard of a young man whose father was a minister. He was a teenager and he had just gotten a job working with a number of men who were not Christians. He came home one day, kind of discouraged, and his father asked him what the problem was. He said, "well," he said, "at lunchtime the guys always go to a bar, and they invited me and I said, 'no thank you,' but I didn't really give a good answer." He said, "I mumbled something about, 'my parents we're Christians and my church and so forth.' Dad, how can I be a better witness in a situation like that?" Well, his father prayed with him and gave him some advice, and one of the things his father said was, "maybe the next time something like that comes up, you can say, 'I gave my heart and life to Jesus Christ as my savior and my Lord, and I just don't think that's something he wants me to do." Well, the next day when the boy came home from work, he was all excited and he said, "Dad, I need to tell you what happened." He said, "same thing as before: at noon they all drove to this bar and they asked me to come in and I said what you told me to say, 'that I've given my life to Jesus Christ, my savior and Lord, and that's not something that I thought he would want me to do." And he said, "there's an older fellow there, and he looked at me and he kind of gave me a look of disgust." He said, "Dad, I just knew that guy had been around lazy Christians." He said, "so the rest of the day I worked twice as hard as anybody else." He said, "I really threw myself into it, and frankly, it almost killed me. But at the end of the day, that gentleman came up to me, put his arm around my shoulder and said, 'kid, you are all right."

Michael Clement
I love that story. Obeying the Lord should be my first priority. Oftentimes, I hear people say to me, "well, we moved but we couldn't find a church to go to and now we're struggling." And frankly, I think that if at all possible, that should have been a part of the decision whether or not to move. Some years ago, a family called me and they were living in another state and they started asking me questions about our church. What was it like? What did we teach? And after the guy got done talking to me and questioning me, he told me what was happening. He said he was, like, a foreman working in his company and the owner of the company had wanted him to find a place where they could buy another business like the one that they had there, and they wanted it closer to Kansas. And so he began calling around. He called different churches in different places, and he told me what he wanted to do was first find a church that he thought their family could go to, and then start looking to see if there was a business for sale, and that's what they did. I love that kind of thing. Find the church first. It also means that we need believers who are committed to their family. In 1 Timothy 5:8, it says this, "but if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." In recent years, we've had some fairly well-known Christians who have not just walked away from Christianity, they have publicly declared that they're no longer believers in Jesus Christ and that they're no longer participating in Christianity. And that was tragic. Many of you may know that in recent years there's been just a deluge of Christian young people who have gone to secular schools and then ended up, not just leaving one church and going to another one, leaving Christianity entirely and not going back at all. If somebody was to do that, we'd say, "well, that's just terrible." But this verse says that if somebody doesn't provide for their own families, then they're just like that person that walked away from the Christian faith. In fact, it says they're worse than an infidel or an unbeliever. We need Christians who are committed to their families. That are, first of all, they're concerned for the spiritual wellbeing of their family. They don't just send them to church, they take them to the church. And those kids get an opportunity to watch a mom and a dad who are committed to the Lord Jesus and showing them how to live. And then third, we need believers who are committed to their church. In Hebrews 10:25, it says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as a manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as you see the day approaching." The fact is today, that there are many who don't think a whole lot about the importance of the local church. Now, I believe in what's called the church universal. The church universal is comprised of all the believers who have ever received Jesus as their savior from the day of Pentecost until the rapture of the church. But that church hasn't had a single meeting. There's one planned. The first one is in the air when Jesus comes again for the church. But people that oftentimes will neglect the local church will likewise neglect prayer, they neglect Bible reading. They don't have somebody to encourage them to do what they're supposed to be doing. And so they need to be in church. Now, it's not so that it won't be empty. It's not so that the offerings would be bigger. And it's not so that visitors would be impressed. First of all, it's to meet your needs. People need a local church. Christians need a local church. And then it's for them to find a place to fulfill their duties and their responsibilities. And then finally, it's also to not be a stumbling block to other people. And I might add, it's also an act of obedience. In Matthew 18:6, Jesus said, but whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." Oftentimes, Christians don't think about how their behavior, how their decisions, and how their lifestyle is affecting other people. But it does. We all need others. And that was said by God in the book of Genesis when he said, "it's not good for a man to be alone," and that then He created a woman to be with him. We need other people to encourage us and to keep us doing what we should be doing. And then also, we need believers who are committed to their calling. In Nehemiah 6:3, when Nehemiah was asked if he would go and talk to some of his critics and some of his enemies, he said, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?" Some could have said, "well, Nehemiah could have been a witness. He could have shared who Jehovah (God) was with these people." But that would involve him walking away from his first priority. And his first priority was to do what God is calling him. Building a wall is more important than witnessing to the lost. Well, not really, but doing the will of God is more important than anything. There's a song that is oftentimes sung in church. It's Blessed Be The Tie That Binds. And the story behind that was, there was a pastor who had been a pastor for a very long time in a very small church. And he finally was noticed by a bigger church in another city and they invited him to be their pastor. Well, he was planning on leaving and the church got together for a farewell. And when they did that, people one after another stood up and said what that pastor had meant to them and how he had been a blessing to them until finally the pastor said, "how can I leave? You people are breaking my heart." And he sent a message to the larger church and said, "I'm sorry. I can't come. This is where God wants me to be." We need Christians who are totally committed to the Lord in every facet of their work, and I pray that's you. May God bless you.