"Highly Illogical."

Back in the 1960s one of my favorite shows as a 5th grader was Star Trek [the original series] and my favorite character was Mr. Spock. The Vulcan Mr. Spock would often say, "Highly illogical" when commenting on human behavior. Of course you don't have to be a Vulcan or even play one on TV to realize humans are not only highly illogical but are highly emotional and highly unscriptural.

On my way to a men's prayer breakfast this morning I was approached by a man who had left our church and caused (directly or indirectly others to do likewise). I was somewhat wary as he approached me and he said (among other things) that he "still wanted to talk" to me. I was sincerely shocked and said, "Really? Because that's not what you said when Brother "Anonymous" and I called you a couple of weeks ago in tears to try and set up a meeting to work this out. You told me then in no uncertain terms 'there is nothing to discuss.' " Further I had sent him a lengthy letter weeks earlier (than the prayer breakfast) and had gotten no response.

His reply was that "we probably will never agree. I think I'm right and you think you're right." I am still somewhat confused since I have never been told all that I have supposedly done wrong. Remember- there was nothing to discuss. One thing I knew about was that some of the people who left did so because they thought I had "aimed" a sermon at him. In the letter referenced above I wrote this:


Sunday morning’s message was NOT aimed at you in any way shape or form. I can actually prove that as long as you believe that I am an honest man. Let me explain. This past weekend late Saturday afternoon I had already finished Sunday night's message but had yet to finish Sunday morning's. This is not a position we preachers like to find ourselves in (even Spurgeon had this problem occasionally according to a recent biography I read). After midnight I finished! Then I had a strong indication that I should not preach the message I had just labored over for many hours, at least, I should not preach it later that morning. To be quite honest, the reason I felt so impressed was I thought you might think it was meant for you! Ironic, huh? It wasn’t, by the way.So there I sat- tired, frustrated, and confused. I asked the Lord to guide me.

Remember, this is after midnight in the early morning hours of Sunday and I still haven’t slept yet. I pulled out notebooks of older sermons I had preached. Someone once said, "If a sermon is not worth preaching twice, it wasn't worth preaching once." Nevertheless, I try to not repeat sermons very often, and if I do, I try to make sure they are over 10 years old and then I generally revamp them. Hopefully, I have grown in 10 years and have a little more insight.I found two messages, revamped one and laid the other aside "just in case". Sunday morning came and I had no idea which way I was going. Brother Henry [the adult Sunday School teacher] and I shared with each other that we both had problems with our morning messages. It seemed the ol' devil was working overtime. I told him, "I have 3 messages ready and I don't have a clue which one I'm going to preach." He said, "Preacher, I'll pray for you." After Sunday School and deep into the morning service I still had no clue as to which of the 3 messages I was supposed to preach (if any of those) and I finally decided to preach what I thought would be a message of encouragement to all of us. I certainly needed it. I did not have you in mind as particularly needing it because you already told me you weren’t quitting serving the Lord and I believed you. It was the unrevamped message pulled after midnight. I preached it from an outline first preached on April 14, 1999. The only other time I had preached this message was at Camp Blanding to a group of Officer's Candidates (those guys needed encouraging) on June 2, 2002. Apparently some in the congregation needed it, too, as several told me after church the Lord knew they needed it. On Monday night I showed "Brother Anonymous" the outline I preached from Sunday morning, the same one I wrote out by hand way back in 1999. Since I don’t know where you were in ‘99, it seems unlikely that I had you in mind when I wrote it. When I chose it early Sunday morning I wasn’t thinking about anybody. I was just trying to pick a few messages at what I hoped was the Lord’s leading as possibilities for Sunday morning’s 11 AM message and then try and get a little sleep. I even thought I may have to preach one the Lord would give me on the spot! Thankfully that doesn’t happen too often.


How was I to know on the way to church you told your family I was going to preach on “Quitting”? When you said that I didn’t even know what I was preaching. As a matter of fact, Clydie [my wife] noticed during the offertory I was still looking at my notes in such a way she knew that I still did not know at that point what I was preaching right after the special! Did I preach the wrong message? I don’t know. Not according to some. As I was writing this letter I got the following email:

Good evening I was trying to mow a little earlier but the mosquitoes are really bad.
I really am glad that you were lead to the message you preached last week.
It really hit home and it changed my attitude for the better.
I really was feeling down and I’ve had a different outlook all week.
You couldn't have had a better one for the way I was feeling.
I just got my computer up and running. The LAN card went out. Later

The only other thing I can do is tell you honestly--- it was not aimed at you. If it was aimed at anyone in particular… it was aimed at me! Quite frankly I have felt like quitting more than once in the past few years and have to be reminded that God didn’t call me to quit. So brother, if I hurt you Sunday morning it was completely unintentional. You got hit by a stray bullet, perhaps, but not by one that was aimed by me at you.

I told him to feel free to share the letter with the others in his family. He told me this morning that some in his family still believe I was preaching at him on purpose, and so did he. I replied, "I can't help you then. I have explained I didn't. You have to believe I am lying to say otherwise. Furthermore you are judging my motives which the Bible forbids [Mt. 7:1]. The problem is now between you and God."

I did everything I could that Sunday NOT to preach a message he would think was aimed at him and yet he still did. I have discussed this situation with many others from other churches without mentioning names and the response I get is almost aways the same. "You may not have been aiming at him but it sounds like the Lord was." I don't know for sure as that is not my job, that's between them and the Holy Spirit. My job is to preach what I honestly believe the Lord is laying on my heart. I had 3 messages ready to go. That's the one I felt the Lord would have me to preach so I preached it. Several, not knowing of this man's feelings, told me the message was for them and rejoiced! I have to conclude the Lord, as always, knew what He was doing.

I would have thought some of these people would have known me better than to think I would "aim" a sermon at one individual and then that I would lie about it. Another man in my church reminds me repeatedly, "You don't do that preacher. You're just not that way, you're not a striker [1 Timothy 3:3, Titus 1:7]."

In 52 years I have left 5 churches. I left 2 because of clear Bible teachings that I had to obey. I left 2 because I moved from one state to another. I left the other because I had been called by God to go pastor another church. Whenever you join a church you should make it a matter of serious prayer, soul-searching, and obeying God and the Bible. Whenever you leave one--- same thing.

As he left me that morning he told me to have a nice breakfast. With my stomach now in knots I replied, "That is no longer possible." I wasn't trying to be ugly. I was just being honest. I went to the Men's Breakfast and was blessed by the 4 testimonies in the 2 hour meeting but I didn't eat or drink anything. It would have been highly illogical to do so.