Four Lies I Believed About Ministry Exposed!

The Word of God declares Satan is the Father of lies (John 8:44), but as Christians, pastors, and leaders in a local church do we ever spend enough time thinking about the lies that Satan whispers in our ears? Satan doesn’t come to us and say, “OK I’m going to deceive you now, here is the lie!” I think some lies we cling to and desperately hope that they are not true. The Word of God says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11)


1. Any Church has the potential to have explosive growth.

As a pastor I hate to admit it, but most small churches do not have the same potential to be a mega church or even a medium size church. Churches have a growth ceiling that is based on several factors including but not limited to surrounding demographics, the congregations willingness to following leadership, confusion on what healthy church growth, and good solid biblical leadership.

2. God is not in the business of closing churches down.

A bit of clarification is needed here, not all “churches” who claim to be churches are alive and belong to Jesus. Revelation 2:5 speaks of the “removal of the lampstand.” Also in Revelation 3:1, reference is made to the church at Sardis the Lord says, “you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.” Just because a group of people waves a banner in front of their building that says “church” doesn’t make them a church or God’s people. They must be a gospel-centered, kingdom-driven people of the Word of God.

3. I must be sweeter than Jesus to be a good Christian, especially a good pastor.

I give credit to my friend Dr. Nunes for helping me see this one. It is a worldly concept that Christians and especially pastors must be nicer than anyone including Jesus. The Bible reminds us that passion and even anger is not inappropriate for Christians (Ephesians 4:6). While it is inappropriate for us to get angry in the flesh, the things that anger God should anger His people. What if I told you I knew of a faithful pastor who in the middle of a church gathering flipped over the Lord’s table out of anger and began whipping those in the crowd, many “long standing” members of the church! (Mark 11:15–19, 11:27–33, Matthew 21:12–17, 21:23–27 and Luke 19:45–48, 20:1–8) Would we say that he had lost his mind or was disqualified from ministry? Is this not the reaction Jesus has to people who treat the church as any other social gathering, institution, or club? Jesus said hard things and did hard things; we must be like Him in His ways.

4. All fights will be fair in the church.

I once heard someone say that Baptists were just like cats, we just fight and multiply. While we are not as good at multiplication as we use to be, we still like a fight. Just stop and think about this for a second the Bible warns us about the following people being in the church double-minded men (James 1:8), warped men (Titus 3:1), false prophets (Matthew 24:23-27), false brothers (Galatians 2:4), and wolves (Ephesians 4:14). Do you think any of these groups fight fair? No they will seek defection and division through gossip, slander, and creating fear. All of these tactics are warned against in the Word. Keep praying for the Lord’s protection, the enemy has many tactics, but the Lord is greater!

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

10 As soon as He came up out of the water, He saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending to Him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven:

You are My beloved Son;

I take delight in You!

-Mark 1:9-11

As a young believer, I was always confused about why Jesus was baptized. He never sinned and this was a sinner’s baptism. So why? The answer is not simply one thing. Like so many events and teaching in Jesus’ ministry it is “multi-faceted” (Ephesians 3:10-12) meaning many reasons are be accomplished in one event. Here are some of those reasons:

1. Jesus’ baptism inaugurated His Public Ministry.

He came for a small town in the middle of nowhere. Jesus was a nobody from a nowhere town. This event is for the Servant King to ascent to the public stage!

2. Jesus’ baptism identified Him with sinful humanity.

Jesus neither repents of sin nor confesses His sin because he has no sin (see 2 Cor. 5:21; Hebrews 4:15). Jesus aligns Himself with those HE came to save!

3. Jesus’ baptism associated Him with John’s Ministry.

There is no hesitation for Jesus to show affirmation and alignment to John the Baptist in regard to the fulfillment of prophecy and his message of repentance. No one had higher praise for John than Jesus.

4. Jesus’ baptism demonstrated His approval by His Father.

Immediate and important work in Mark’s gospel is often times translated “as soon as”. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus though an opening in the sky. Jesus sees the heaven being “Torn open.” This is the same word that is used to describe the temple curtain being torn from curtain in two from top to bottom! Isaiah 64:1 predicted this event.

5. Jesus’ baptism revealed the triune God.

We see all three persons of the Godhead at Jesus’ baptism. The Son is baptized, the Father speaks, and the Spirit descends into Jesus “like a dove.”

6. Jesus’ baptism showed His total dependence on the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 42:1 and Isaiah 11:2. Like a dove (it was not literally a dove), in gentleness and purity, the Spirit came into Jesus, and He was equipped for His ministry. Even though the Spirit came into Jesus, this is not “adoptionistic” Christology. He did not become the Son of God at the moment of His baptism. NO, He was declared to be empowered as the Son of God for the Suffering Servant ministry.

7. Jesus baptism declared the type of Messiah he would be.

Mark 1:11 is surely one of the most important verses in the Bible! It is echoed again at the transfiguration in Mark 9:7, along with the admonition for the disciples to “listen to Him.” It is a combination of three massively significant Old Testament texts. The phrase, “You are My Son” comes from Psalm 2:7, and in quoting this Davidic psalm, the Father announces, “Your are the Messiah King, the grater Son of David who will rule the nations.” In calling Christ “beloved,” we are reminded of the way Abraham saw Isaac, the son who was called to sacrifice in Genesis 22:2. IT BEARS THE WEIGHT OF CHRIST BEING THE “ONE And ONLY” Son of God. The third phrase, “I take delight in You,’ comes from Isaiah 42:1 , which is the first of Isaiah’s Sufferings Servant songs. These passages climax in the great Isaiah 53 text where God crushes the Servant as He bears the sins of the world!

What mentality shifts must occur for the local church to thrive in the future?

"I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some."

-1 Corinthians 9:22

We all have a mentality, and many times it is unspoken. We view and understand the world through the lenses of our experiences, some good and some bad. Here are a few mentality shifts that faithful local churches must make in order to thrive in the future where the baby busters (those born from 1965-1983) and mosaics (those born from 1984 to 2002) make up the majority of the population.

1. “If you Build it, they will come!”

The movie Field of Dreams is a great flick, but its philosophy does not work in the local church. This has been a predominate mentality over the last fifty years but has not shown the same fruit in the last ten years. Just because you have a big building, doesn’t mean people will fill it. The church is not a brick and mortar building, it is people. Jesus did not come to develop real-estate, he came to save and transform lives!

2. “Ours is a family church!”

This sounds positive and to some degree it is. However surely the church Jesus has built and continues to build should be and must be more than that! Furthermore, when interpreted from within our predominately Western experience or (and assumptions about) the middle-class nuclear family, it can seriously limit – perhaps even damage- our understanding of the mission of the church.

3. “The Church is the guardian of society’s morals!”

This seems hard to disagree with, but it really does come form the assumption that we’re the central religious institution of society, that we have the inherent right to speak with authority into the moral situation. In a post-Christian, post-church, secular culture, the church no longer has that kind of status, legitimacy, and permission in the eyes of our culture. In other words shouting louder at goats because they are acting like goats will not help our witness! This kind of mentality can tend to make Pharisees of us all. Rather than trying to resolve this, we must return to the image of witness and not presume we have the cultural right to correct other people’s morals. We point to Jesus though faithful witness, not prescribed behaviors.

4. Understanding the difference between biblical principle and practice.

This most often takes the form in speech of “We haven’t done it that way before…” Like a ship, which stays in the sea, barnacles can cling to the bottom of the vessel. Some traditions in local churches are extra, but not necessary to smooth sailing. We must be able to see that buildings, Sunday’s service times, programs, order of service, musical style, etc… will change, but the gospel and church remains! When we ask people to adapt to the church culture we are most comfortable with, we are not following the example of Christ and reaching people where they are. Jesus left the comfort of heaven to become a man, live a perfect life and die as a perfect sacrifice in our place. We must never sacrifice our message, but our methods may need to be reconsidered.

5. Moving from Heavy Ministry to Fluid Ministry

From the 1950’s though the 1970’s the cars built were very heavy and not as safe as cars built today. Back in that time, books were written on heavier weight paper, furniture was built heavier, etc…. Today our cars are lighter and designed to take the force of a wreck, and many of us don’t even use a book to read with, but a lightweight phone or tablet for reading books and paper. We are more mobile than ever in our history. Trying to apply how we did ministry during a very “heavy, rigid” culture will not work in a lightweight, mobile fluid culture. We need to think not in terms of “three to thrive” (Sunday Morning, Evening and Wednesday Night), but in terms of building community. With longer drives to and from work, the schools becoming the cultural centers, and more options competing with church time, our churches must learn to be fluid in meeting the lost where they are. This is one reason why cold visits, door-to-door evangelism has struggled with our current culture.

Who are the 144,000 in Revelation 7 and 14?

“Then I looked, and there on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him were 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads.” –Revelation 14:1

When one approaches the book of Revelation, I would encourage you to view this book as an apocalyptic book. Apocalyptic is a type of Biblical writing. To approach this book with a very wooden literal approach, will land you in some hard to prove and to follow interpretations. For example, Revelation chapter 7 opens with four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. No one would argue that this means the earth is flat with four corners. In addition the Bible uses the four winds to describe the judgment of God. We must understand the language John uses is symbolic in nature when speaking of the 144,000.


Many think they are literally Jews, the sons of Israel. That makes good sense since John says they are sons of Israel, and then pauses to list 12,000 from 12 different tribes. However, I believe that it most logically refers to the whole people of God- Jews and Gentiles that are saved. In other words all of us as Christians are part of the 144,000. The reason I hold this views is for the following reasons:


1. Revelation points us to the reality that the church is God’s people instead of ethnic Jews. Revelation 2:9 says that unbeliever Jews are not true Jews but are a synagogue of Satan. Revelation 3:9 is a direct reverse of what we see in in Psalm 86 and Isaiah 49 which says that unbelieving Jews will bow down before Gentile Christians. And Revelation 5:10 calls the church a kingdom of priests, which is what Israel is called in Exodus 19, but this blessing now belongs to the Church. Please note that this does not favor anti-Jewish views, as John was a Jew. All people are made in the image of God and need Jesus Christ! It simply shows that God’s people are those who have trusted Christ as Lord and Savior.

2. Revelation 14:3 describes the 144,000 as those “who had been redeemed from the earth.” This simply means those who are saved, that is all Christians.

3. The listing of tribes in Revelation 7 does not fit with any other listing of the tribes in the Old Testament. They are never listed in this order elsewhere, signifying that it should be read symbolically.

4. 10 of the 12 tribes listed have been lost to history to intermarriage with Gentiles after the northern kingdom was exiled, which would have been true when this book was written.


5. The literary technique used by John as he writes signifies the he speaks symbolically. For example, the same technique is used in Revelation chapter five where John is TOLD that Jesus as lion would conquer, but when he looked he SAW a lamb. It is the same person! In a similar fashion in Revelation 7:4, John hears the number who are sealed, but then in Revelation 7:9, John looks, and sees a great multitude which no one could number! Same literary device/technique that he used in Chapter five. What John HEARD and what John SAW referred to the same reality, but two different perspectives. On the one had, the redeemed are God’s true people: the true Israel of God. On the other hand, they are an uncountable multitude.

Who are the “false brothers” in Galatians 2:4?

“This issue arose because of false brothers smuggled in, who came in secretly to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us”

  There are several references in the Word of God to how the powers of Satan organize against the local church, which include false brothers, false prophets, and wolves.  

In a previous post, I wrote about wolves you are welcome to check that post out in the archives.  In Galatians 2:4, the apostle Paul writes about false brothers.  False brothers are unbelievers placed in the midst of believers for the purpose of division.  These false brothers appear to be non-believers sent from the Jews to cause destruction from the inside of the church.  The Apostle Paul speaks of the “spying on their freedom.”  

While the Jews may not send these false brothers today, the attack remains one recycled by the enemy.  Today, false brothers come in different forms and degrees. Some “false brothers” may not even be aware they are lost and working for the enemy.  But I believe that the enemy has placed them in local bodies to be a point of disruption and division.  Again you can pick them out by the destruction and devastation they leave in their wake!  If you encounter a false brother you should show them grace, but not be afraid to rebuke them.   If you sit and listen to their lies, your silence will be scene as agreement.  False Brothers are looking for numbers to bring about their destruction.  So be wise and be bold as you adhere to truth.

Battery Saturday Report

Today was a great day at Grace Baptist Church.  Our Church family stopped by 147 homes around our church campus.  Of the 147 homes, we make 62 contacts, prayed with 2 homes, and had 16 prayer requests.

In addition to the contacts and requests, we installed about 42 fire alarms in 20 homes.  Special thanks to Danny Birkner, Fire Marshall Jack Buckles, and all the volunteers of Grace Baptist Church (Greeters, Drivers, Installers, and the Kitchen Crew).  

Six teams of three greeted our neighbors' homes and four teams of two people installed smoke alarms.

Quick Review of the day:

• 147 homes received packets!
• 62 homes had a personal contact!
• 2 homes were prayed with by a Greeter Team!
• 16 homes gave our church prayer requests!
• 42 fire alarms were installed in 20 homes!

We showed Christ love by meeting a physical need and spiritual need today.  As I told one homeowner who asked why were doing this, "We don't want anybody to burn here or in eternity!" 

Notice:  Fire alarms are still available for free!  If you or someone you know in Elizabethton who would like a free alarm installed, call either the Elizabethton Fire Department @  (423) 542-5421 or the Church Office at 423-542-5551 to set up an installation appointment.

Have a blessed day!

Does Everyone Go to Church for the Same Reasons?

A Warning on Wolves

"Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.” Matthew 7:15

No!  Some people do go church for the wrong reasons.  One bad reason to go to church is to have control or be in charge of something.  Do not forget the warnings on wolves given from Jesus and the Apostle Paul.  Remember a wolf does not announce he or she is a wolf, but pretends to be a true follower of Jesus Christ.  In order to heed this warning you must exercise discernment.  Wolves are often referenced throughout the Bible in a metaphorical sense. The Bible highlights a wolf’s hunger (Gen. 49:7), destruction (Jer. 5:6), or vicious, fierce, or ravenous conduct regarding the innocent (Ezek. 22:27; Hab. 1:8; Zeph. 3:3; Matt. 7:15; Matt. 10:16; Luke 10:3; Acts 20:29).   The wolf is out for one thing, himself or herself.  It is not unlike the sinful pride of Lucifer when he said, "‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north" or Diotrephes "who likes to put himself first" and “does not acknowledge our authority" (3 John 9). The pattern is the same every time.  All wolves desire to be first or win and reject any authority, except their own authority.  The connection between Satan and Diotrephes is that they are both individuals who hate authority!  Why do they hate authority? It goes back to rebellion against God himself, they hate God.  The wolf wants to feed his own appetites of self-importance.  The wolf wants to win and receive the glory for himself.  A wolf has no interest in being beaten or defeated, he will fight at all costs to the bitter end.  The wolf only sees value in the win or the kill, depending on the fight. Wolves know only one of two options: fight or flight.  And they will not engage in a fight unless they are confident their pack will win.  Wolves can be identified by the carnage they spread; bad attitudes, negativity, division, and bullying tactics.  So stay clear of the wolves, they are one of Satan’s favorite tactics in the local church.