This is the outline of a sermon I have not preached at a church but only on A Fresh Start TV Program. It was first aired on April 13, 2010 on WVLR in Knoxville and was aired twice that week. It has not been shown again on WVLR. The sermon aired on A Fresh Start on WTWV in Memphis the first and second week (three times each week) in January 2013, and has not been aired again on that station.
Every week now I read or hear about things that have become issues in churches that are in no way representative of what God meant for a New Testament Church to be. Too many churches have become ingrown, full of church members who are more concerned with their personal wants and desires being met instead of being committed to doing what God desires and wants us to do.
If any of the characteristics listed below are representative of a church, that church has “ingrown eyeballs.” Were any of these characteristics in a church I pastored? I wish I could say they weren’t, but I experienced firsthand being a part of a church with ingrown eyeballs a few times but did what I could do to help lead that church back to “20/20 vision spiritually.” For most of the characteristics given below, I am thankful that I did not have to experience them firsthand but was enlightened about them from fellow pastors who did experience them firsthand. I already have learned of more characteristics of churches with ingrown eyeballs than those listed below, so there will be a Part Two down the road.
THE CHURCH WITH INGROWN EYEBALLS
I. MORE CONCERNED WITH BEING MINISTERED TO BY THEIR PASTOR THAN BEING MINISTERS TO ONE ANOTHER, EXPECTING THEIR PASTOR TO DO THOSE THINGS THAT ANYONE ELSE CAN DO THAT KEEP HIM FROM DOING THE THINGS HE CAN DO THAT NO ONE ELSE CAN DO
II. MORE CONCERNED WITH THE RUNNING OF THE CHURCH AND RUNNING THE CHURCH THAN THE REIGNING OF CHRIST IN THE CHURCH AND OVER THE CHURCH
III. MORE COMMITTED TO TALKING MISSIONS AND EVEN TAKING MISSION TRIPS YEARLY OR EVERY FEW YEARS MORE THAN WALKING WITH THE LORD DAILY WHERE THEY LIVE AND LOCALLY IMPACTING THE WORLD AROUND THEM FOR CHRIST
IV. MORE FOCUSED ON THE FORMALITY OF THE WORSHIP SERVICES, GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS, AND GETTING IT OVER THAN MEETING WITH GOD, GIVING WAY TO THE SPIRIT, AND GETTING A WORD FROM GOD
V. MORE INTERESTED IN CHURCH AS THEIR SOCIAL ACTIVITY CENTER THAN A SPIRITUAL LIFE CENTER WHERE THEY ARE CONTINUOUSLY MOTIVATED TO GROW IN THE GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST
VI. MORE ABLE TO DRAW SOME OF ITS LARGEST CROWDS EVER ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, NOT FOR THE STANDARD PRAYER SERVICE MANY CHURCHES CONDUCT FAITHFULLY EACH WEEK, BUT FOR A BUSINESS MEETING DEALING WITH CONFLICT CAUSING ISSUES WHICH ENDS WITH THE WINNERS BEING THOSE WHO WERE THE MOST EFFECTIVE IN THEIR GETTING OUT THE VOTE CAMPAIGN
VII. MORE KNOWN FOR SPREADING GOSSIP THAN PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL
VIII. MORE LEGALISTIC THAN WAS EVER INTENDED IN FOLLOWING THEIR CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS BUT WILL IGNORE AND EVEN CHANGE OR OVERRIDE THEM WHEN THE BY-LAWS ARE NOT TO
THEIR ADVANTAGE
IX. WILL NEVER ACCEPT THE BLAME FOR WHAT’S WRONG OR WHAT’S NOT RIGHT IN THEIR CHURCH BUT ALWAYS BLAME SOMEONE ELSE OTHER THAN WHERE THE PROBLEM REALLY IS WHICH IS WITHIN THEMSELVES
X. THE BEST PASTOR THEY’VE EVER HAD IS THE ONE THEY’VE NEVER HAD OR ONE OF THE PREVIOUS ONES THEY RAN OFF
Christians are among the most vocal today about what’s wrong with what they don’t like in our country, especialy regarding political issues, but it is time for “judgment to to begin at the House of God” (1 Peter 4:17). We need to get the church back to what God meant for it to be from what it has become.
A reading of how the Lord dealt with His people over and over again in Old Testament Books like 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles reveals that God allowed pagan and corrupt political leaders to be over His people at times when they strayed from their dedication and obedience to God’s Word. God’s purpose was not for them to put the blame for what was not right in their lives on the political leaders they disliked and what was wrong with those political leaders, but for God’s people to focus on what was wrong with them and to get their lives right with God. Christians in America need to get their focus on what’s not right with our country off The White House and get it on what’s not right in God’s House. From Capitol Hill to Calvary’s Hill is where we need to take our plight.
“THE THREE TREES” at Halle Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee where I met with the Lord and prayed most every day after jogging from June 1977 – June 1981.
BACK TO THE BASICS MINISTRIES
JUNE 2015 UPDATE
“Keep in the Word, on your knees, loving God, loving each other,
building godly homes, worshiping together, sharing the faith,
supporting the Lord’s work financially, living life abundantly”
P.O. Box 32486 Knoxville, TN 38632 www.drbobbymullins.com
100th EPISODE OF A FRESH START
The second week of May I taped the 100th episode of A Fresh Start, which was titled “The Best Is Yet Ahead”. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! The first broadcast of A Fresh Start was the first Tuesday in November, 2009.
On network television, getting to the 100th episode is a milestone. Twenty-six new programs a year was once the standard number for most network TV programs per year, but now it has tapered down to 13 per year for some TV series. Our goal has been to tape around 16-20 new programs per year. We do not mind repeating every new program at least one other time each year because to the thousands of vacationers who view the program in a hotel, cabin, or chalet in the Smoky Mountains corridor of towns, they don’t know if a program airing is a new one or one previously aired. I do tell some of our faithful weekly viewers that we don’t show as many repeats as network programs like NCIS, Duck Dynasty, or 19 Kids and Counting, etc., so please bear with us in being good stewards of the Lord’s money and getting more than one week of airing out of each program of A Fresh Start.
We usually get four new programs from a three hour taping session, but a handful of programs have been edited without a taping session by editing portions of previously aired programs into a new program. So, to get to the 100th episode of A Fresh Start has taken about 23 separate taping sessions and $23,000.00 to cover the costs of those taping sessions. Your generosity through your financial donations to Back To The Basics Ministries has made it possible to tape those programs and to provide for the $100,000.00 it has taken to air just over a thousand broadcasts of the program on WVLR in Knoxville and WTWV in Memphis. The airings of the program on the Creative Christian Network are free. Thank you, Lord!
Click on the following link for a special preview of the 100th episode of A Fresh Start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8te30XcI5Fc
BETRAYED BY A FELLOW CHRISTIAN
The message for the 99th episode of A Fresh Start is titled “Betrayed By A Fellow Christian”. I have only preached this message twice prior to its scheduled airing date of June 11, 13, and 14. I preached it initially on Sunday morning March 29 at Fellowship Baptist Church in Hernando, Mississippi, then for a revival service at White Hall Baptist Church in Trenton, Tennessee on April 21. From the response at both of those churches and from those who heard me preach it while taping the TV program this past May 13, this message really hits home with those who hear it. I had wanted to preach such a sermon for many years, but I wanted to do so at a time when I was not mad at anyone or about anything that had happened at a church where I was serving or what had happened to one of my ministry friends.
Every Christian has been betrayed at some time by a fellow Christian, and often by one of their closest friends. I don’t really have anything profound to say about how to deal with someone who has betrayed you in some way. It is just pretty basic Bible principles that we need to follow on how to get through it. But, the first point of the message is one that does catch some off guard who want a quick fix for overcoming what devastates too many Christians, the point being that in most cases there’s nothing you can do to change their mind that caused them to betray you; only God can do it. You can, though, become better, not bitter because of it, and move on beyond it.
The following link should take you to a special preview of the A Fresh Start TV Program “Betrayed By A Fellow Christian”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV2oRZOUTj0
AT SOME TIME WE ALL NEED A FRESH START
Please help us continue to help others to make a fresh start spiritually by sending a tax-deductible donation to the address at the top of the top of the page or going to the web address listed above and clicking on the Donate link.
Blessings,
Dr. Bobby Mullins, executive director
drbobbymullins@aol.com
