Not for Ladies - Just for Men
|
"Make Your Own Sunshine"
|
|
Dr. Dan Woodward is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dwight, Illinois.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) We have gotten so caught up in what’s going on right now, I’m afraid that some of us are guilty of losing the opportunity to glorify God. We are so angry and offended that we are quarantined, I’ll just put it out there, that we’re on a glorified house arrest. During one of our many talks between Brother Anglea and myself, I probably don’t have this story right, but this is the gist of it. Brother Anglea was talking one day with family members, I think it might have been one of your daughter-in-law’s, one of the young ladies, and they said, “I wish the sun would shine.” He said this to them, “You need to make your own sunshine.” I haven’t forgotten that piece of advice. I have entitled this message Make Your Own Sunshine, (not Make Your Own Moonshine!) Make your own sunshine. I’m seeing a problem with us, in the spirit and attitude of the people of God. They have gone back to griping and complaining, being a black cloud. What happened to our victory? What happened to our trust in God? What happened to wanting God to be glorified through our lives, no matter what circumstances we face? Brother Gomez, when we were in Bible college, there was a guy that, no matter was going on, his response was “Well, we shouldn’t do that” “I don’t know about this” “Things are terrible. College is so hard.” Brother Gomez said, “Hey, Black Cloud why don’t you be quiet?” He called him “Black Cloud.” Critical, backbiting, negative, jealous! Hopeless, can’t be done, it will never work. By the way, you college students listening in, friendships matter. Friendships matter. What you hear you will carry on. The friends that you spend your time with and you listen to their counsel, they are going to affect you and affect your ministry and service to God in the future. The day will come when myself and Brother Gomez will be gone off the scene, just as our leaders from when we were in Bible College. Are you going to be faithful? Are you going to stand strong and firm and not change? I remember twice Brother Hyles preached a message called “Brighten the Corner Where You Are.” He told of it in Saturday night preacher boys meeting “Brighten in the Corner Where You Are.” I love the words to that song. Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do Do not wait to spread your light afar; To the many duties ever near you now be true Brighten the corner where you are. Brighten the corner where you are Brighten the corner where you are Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar Brighten the corner where you are. Here for all your talent you may surely find a need, Here reflect the Bright and Morning Star. Even from your humble hand the Bread of Life may feed Brighten the corner where you are. Brighten the corner where you are Brighten the corner where you are Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar Brighten the corner where you are. You see, you can sunshine right where you’re at with what you have. It is a choice. Having compassion and making a difference. The truth is that it says, ‘and some.’ That means some will and some won’t. I want to be a part of the some who will. I began to think about this thing of sunshine, and let your light so shine. My friend, one day we will stand before God and give an account, and we will see how much glory God got or how much glory Dan Woodward got from what I did with my life and my opportunities to serve the Lord. I thought about, what are the elements of wanting to spread sunshine? I loved hearing the old boy sing, “And the sun’s coming up in the morning, and like an eagle I will take to the sky.” Where are those eagles today? Too many people want to fly down with the buzzards picking at road kill on the ground. We are going to look at the elements of sunshine. “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:22-32) First and foremost, I want you to see that if we are to have sunshine and not be living moonshine, it starts with the new man. There are some things about this old carnal self that have got to be put off. You know, we won’t know it until we get to Heaven to see the conversation in cars on the way to church. The kids have got to be so confused when they see us rushing around getting ready for church. Now my wife and I usually go to church separately. My wife has got to get the last bed made, the last load of laundry in. It is not good if I’m waiting for her. During this time that families are together 24/7, much more time than we are used to being together stuck in the house, we are seeing every fault and weakness. Again, we are spending a longer time together than we ever had before. Folks are off work. Kids are off from school. It could be an opportunity for some quality time and conversation, but if we’re not careful, it will just become of time of knit-picking and belly-aching and getting on each other’s nerves. Don’t let your time together degenerate into that kind of mess. We better not forget that we have got to put off that old man, and we need to put on the new man after God created righteousness and true holiness. We have got to remember that Christianity is even more important at home. Where is the desire among God’s people to put on the new man? I laughed at Keith Harrison. I teach a Providence Baptist College every Tuesday. Right now, I would be teaching on Zoom four hours straight. I go to the church. I am in an empty auditorium, get the Zoom camera all set, and I just teach myself! Brother Harrison posts a picture, and he shows from here up he has a suit and tie, but pajama bottoms the rest of the way down. I love it. So, I wear my jammies and just put a shirt and tie on! We have got to put on the new man. On purpose, we have to choose to be the Christian God instructs us to be. Where is the desire of God’s people to put on that new man, after God created in righteousness and true holiness? I love this phrase, “renewed in the spirit of your mind.” I like the words renewed and restored. I like to take old things and clean them up, fix them up and make them like new. It is a fun little hobby I have. I have done it with old cars and old tractors. I have two tractors waiting to get renewed, redone, restored “to make new.” I am going to tell you that need to be reminded daily. We have got to be reminded daily where we have come from and where we are going. I want to say this, it takes effort. It is not easy. It is not easy to catch your tongue and hold it. It is not easy to say what is kind that you should say, instead of the complaint and criticism and frustration that is on your mind. Words spoken can never be taken back. “What is the matter wife?” “Oh nothing.” “Oh nothing” means “Oh, something!” You have got to find out what it was, and that takes effort, hard work. It is hard work to be creative in this time with your little ones. We have two grandkids that live with us while Micah and Beka are remodeling a home that they are going to move into, so those two cute little redheads live at our house. One is Emmy Jane, and the other one is Lucy Lou. Lucy Lou is one-year-old, and she is a redhead to the core. A fiery redhead, and she acts like it. I saw her the other day grab something that belonged to her older sister, grab it and run and laugh and laugh, while the older sister is crying that she took it. If I say, “Come to Papa,” usually her answer is “NO!” The other day, I had an ice cream bar. I looked down and there she is standing right by me smiling. I said, “Do you love Papa?” She goes, “No.” I said, “Would you like a bite?” “No.” I said again, “Would you like a bite?” “No.” I held it out there to her, and she took a bite. “Is that good?” “No.” “Do you want any more?” “No.” “Good, you’re not having anymore then.” She is a handful. It takes prayer and hard work to keep things at home going the right direction. The problem with us today is that we are too lazy to work at those things. My dad helped me one day on the farm. He said, “It is okay to be lazy, son.” Lazy to me was fishing, pheasant hunting, quail hunting, and we loved to do that. Again, he said, “It is okay to be lazy.” I thought, “Wow! My dad has finally got it. Man, it took me a while to train him, but he has got it. It is okay to be lazy.” His next words were, “As long as you get all of your work done first.” Aha! I kind of held on to that because I like to hunt and fish and do what I wanted to do. I learned hard work from that philosophy, to get my work done first and then do the fun things. I have learned that in life. If you are going to be lazy in relationships and lazy at working, it is going to make your life miserable, but get your work done and then enjoy yourself. I like this in verse 25, be honest. I have never seen so many people that are lying to themselves and afraid to be honest. We need a generation that will embrace the truth. “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:” (Ephesians 4:26) My wife and I, we try to make sure we don’t go to bed unless things are right. Usually if it goes any longer it is usually not her, it is me. The hardheaded German that I am gets mad, but again, the Bible warns, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” Even in this day and age that we live in, we are commanded to be angry and sin not. Brother Corle I am sick to death of people that say, “He’s angry, and he shouldn’t be mad. That’s wrong.” Folks you talk about a fire burning, where are the young men that get fired up about sin and get fired up when things go against the word of God? I was driving up the other day, listening to the radio and trying to stay awake getting to the college. I leave really early in the morning and sometimes if I had a late night it is tough to get there. On the way, I was flipping the talk radio station. When you own a station you get interested in what is going on in other stations, so I heard this guy, and I listened. The more I listened, the madder I got. Again, making a mockery at sin and carrying on and people calling in saying the craziest things that I have ever heard. What a picture of how things are today, so passive and worldly and carnal and making fun of sin, like it’s not important, just a big joke. We have become so passive today. One of my men said, “Preacher I am so stinking mad right now!” I said, “What are you mad about now?” He said, “It is so wrong that we couldn’t have our Easter Sunday drive-in service.” Six days earlier, our Chief of Police calls me and says, “Hey, are you planning to have a drive-in Easter service?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “I just told three other churches they couldn’t, and I knew you wouldn’t call me so I am calling you.” He said, “Please don’t have the service. We are under a mandate.” I have known him a long time, and he has been chief for 30 years. I don’t want to wreck that relationship. Listen, out of respect for him, because he called and asked me, I did not have a drive-in service. Of course, we were making plans for people to stay in their cars, going to obey all of the mandates, 6’ apart, in your cars and windows up, and they pull in and listen to our radio station and I would preach the Easter service. That’s what we were planning to do, but he said we can’t have that. “We will come in and arrest you and break it all up.” However, the high-school had a senior night. Six days later, the high-school seniors have a drive-in get together. They parked in individual parking spots right next to each other, windows down, hanging out the windows, rock-n’-roll music blaring over the outside and the townspeople driving through and honking their horns and the Police Department parking all their cars on one side of them and the Fire Department all on the other side of them, to keep anyone from bothering them so they could have their rock music party. Buddy I was smoked. I am still upset about it. By the way, we decided we are going back to church. I was furious that they treated our church that way, but you know what blessed my heart, that young man was furious. He said, “We are going to organize, and we are going to bombard them with letters and do all of this and that.” I loved it. I said, “Stand down.” I said, “Listen to me, he has already hung himself because my church is furious.” Other church members texted me and said, “Preacher, we are with you. When you are ready to go, we will be there on the front row.” I love it. You know, we need a generation that can be angry about not being in church, angry that our first amendment liberty is being trampled on. Get angry that the government can dictate to us and ignore the first amendment. We were under a mandate, but it is done! Our state constitution says that he has 30 days, and he is done. You say, “Well, that doesn’t sound very sunshiny.” That is the problem, you don’t know what real sunshine is.” In order for the sun to shine, you have got to set things in order. You need to obey the Bible. You need to have church and proclaim the Gospel. The next element is “ Neither give place to the devil.” I am going to tell you, we have got a whole bunch of Christians that have been too comfortable hanging out with the devil! Giving place to the devil! By the way, he gets embedded and rooted in our lives and it is hard to get out. It is hard to get him out. What things give place to the devil? Gossip, mean-spirited people being mean to one another, bitterness, unforgiveness. Oh, listen to me dear people of God. The truth is that we need to start living on the sunny side. “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” (Ephesians 4:28) Whatever you used to do that was wrong, quit doing it immediately! Whatever the Bible says to do that is right, start doing that immediately. I like this, it is living a changed life that people see. I was in the grocery store, and I hate the grocery store. All the ex-church-members go to the grocery store, and they treat you like you are invisible. It is so crazy. “Hey, how are you doing?” I am passing out my a tract that my son-in-law wrote on Covid, and it is just a card, so they are easy to give to people. I have only had two people refuse to take them. Both of them were Democrats and I think they were wearing hazmat suits and they wouldn’t take them! They were afraid. I am walking around the grocery store, gathering some stuff for the wife and I am passing out these cards. Someone came running and said, “Hey, are you Pastor Woodward?” I said, “Yes I am.” “Why?” He said, “I knew you were Pastor Woodward, you are the only one in here smiling.” I go to the meat counter to get lunch meat. By the way, I don’t send my wife to get the lunch meat. I tell them, “Set that thing so it slices them big thick slices.” At the counter there was a guy over there fussing because he didn’t get a piece of chicken in his order. He drove all the way back over one piece of chicken that he didn’t get. Now, I probably would have came back for a thigh too, but he is just fussing at this guy behind the counter. “I want my thigh. I didn’t get it.” He is just shook over a piece of chicken. (He needed to watch Brother Oliver demonstrate how to eat that chicken leg!) The worker behind the counter said, “Sir, sir, it will be just a minute.” I said, “No problem.” “No problem.” “Just take care of him.” The guy has got his Democrat mask on, and he is down there looking at me, and there was no problem. After three or four times, I said, “I will wait.” He said, “You are Pastor Woodward aren’t you?” I said, “Yes, I am.” He said, “When I was a little boy, I came to a big day at your church, and I remember you.” I said, “We are not having church right now, but we are live streaming, and in a few weeks we are planning to have our services again.” He said, “You have been so kind to me, and I think I am going to watch your service next Sunday.” Hello, I love this story. We were on the radio doing a Saturday morning live and talking about different things. Somebody texted in that one of our ladies went by her house and put a cup of coffee on her doorstep, rang the bell and then went back out to her car. They fellowshipped with her out front when she came out to get the coffee, even though they were shouting across the yard, and they had a great time. She said, “That was an encouragement to me. It just blessed my heart.” Now, is the time to look for opportunities. It is! There are so many wonderful things that we can do to show people that we care, to check in with people who have needs. But I am going to tell you dear people of God, you are going to have to be creative and you are going to have to think a little bit. You can make your own sunshine, and you can spread it around to be a blessing to somebody else who needs it. I want to say a couple things in closing. Don’t get caught up in the business of making moonshine. Don’t help the devil do his job. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) All the fussing and fighting needs to stop; especially among the people of God. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” Listen to me, the only grace that I can have for people to be like Jesus is what comes out of my mouth. Think about that. Grace! Then, this warning. “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30) I am going to tell you, sometimes it’s scary to think about what have we done! Dear people of God, what have we done? We have grieved the Holy Spirit of God. There are two illustrations in the Bible that tell us that they wist not that the Spirit of God had departed. One of those instances was Samson, but the truth is that some of us are the same way. We don’t know the Spirit of God. We aren’t even aware that we have grieved the Holy Spirit in our lives. We have been home for weeks now, and we don’t even know that the Spirit of God is gone from us as far as His active speaking to us, but what we have been doing and what we have been saying? Shame on us! How are we going to have the power of God when we come back together to church if we haven’t had the power of God for these weeks at home with our families? Now is when we ought to be praying. We ought to be in our Bibles. “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:” (Ephesians 4:31) Folks carry things forever carry a grudge. I am shocked. I will be counseling a couple, and they bring something up from many years ago. “Well, I am still mad at this or that from years ago.” Life is too short. Brother Anglea and Brother Corle, if the Lord tarries and a man lives three score and 10, at age 63 I have got just seven years left. If God gave me four score, maybe 17. Seven years of life to live and I am going to waste it and carry on like an idiot? Seven years and I am going to harbor bitter things in my heart towards people? What a waste! By the way, one day I am going to wake up in Heaven and find out that those people I was bitter at are my neighbors. They might live in the mansion right next door. Don’t tell me it’s not so. God has got a sense of humor. Put them away, oh dear people, put them away. Get rid of that evil that hides in your heart. “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:31,32) Again, no excuses. Kind, tenderhearted. Oh listen to me people, kind, tenderhearted, forgiving. You know, I don’t know if this is the beginning of the end. I do not know that. Things are going crazy in this country this year, and it could be because the Rapture is just a heartbeat away. No man knows, but I am going to tell you that if it isn’t, this is what it is going to taste like when it starts. Until then, I love the words to this song. Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do. Do not wait to shed your light afar. To the many duties ever near you, now be true. Just brighten the corner where you are. Make your own sunshine, and then spread that light around to others. |
|
