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STEADY AS SHE GOES

In his book, The Greatest Generation, NBC’s Tom Brokaw tells about growing up in South Dakota right after World War II. There was a young man in town named Gordon Larsen, a cheerful worker who kept everybody’s heating and electrical systems running.

“He had such a lively sense of humor,” Brokaw writes, “that it was almost worth it to have your furnace break down. Gordon always kept up a lively chatter while he worked on it.”

With that in mind, it was surprising one morning, the day after Halloween, when Gordon came into the post office where Tom’s mother, Mrs. Jean Brokaw, was an employee. Uncharacteristically, he complained to her about the rowdy teenagers who had created a disturbance the night before. Trying to lighten the mood, she said to him, kind of playfully, “Well, Gordon, what were YOU doing when you were 17?” And he gave her a long, quiet look. “I was landing on Guadalcanal,” he said soberly, and then left the post office.

And that little anecdote, coming right out of the Brokaw family’s own backyard, really sums up the message of this book. The World War II generation was The Greatest Generation because these men and women did their job. They didn’t hesitate or equivocate. They didn’t pass the buck. They didn’t shirk their duty. They went to boot camps, they trained for war, they got on the ships, and they defeated the enemy. And then they came back and, without deviating from the right course, they built a prosperous and successful America: finishing college, holding down jobs, buying homes, raising families, going to church. They weren’t sidetracked by fads and scams. They didn’t chase pipe dreams. Today we call it “keeping your eyes on the ball”; they didn’t call it anything — they just did it.

“Their everyday lives,” Brokaw writes on the back cover of this great bestseller, “of duty, honor, achievement, and courage gave us the world we have today.”

Yesterday we studied together Ephesians 4:14, and I guess we’re still there as we finish up our week of Bible study together. Notice it again:

“Then” — when we “attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” — “we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”

It’s been observed that you and I need to be childLIKE but not childISH. Meaning that we want to grow into steadfast faithfulness, where we don’t swerve recklessly to the right and to the left every time some new theological or worship fad comes along. The study commentary here in my own Adventist denomination puts it this way:

“We are enjoined to become like ‘little children’” — borrowing the Greek word paidia, which goes back to Matthew 18 where Jesus gives the invitation — “in humility and trustfulness, but NOT in impulsiveness and immaturity. The object of the bestowal of the gifts is that God’s children might grow up into spiritual manhood. There is no more pitiful sight than that of arrested mental and physical development in a person of mature years.”

Pastor Morris Venden puts it this way in a sermon he’s often preached on Christian perfection:

“You can have a newborn baby, and it can be a perfect baby that drools and coos. You can have a two-year-old who sits on the curb and goes blither, blither. And it can be a perfect two-year-old. But if someone is still doing that at age 20, we get a bit uneasy. If someone is still drooling and cooing at age 20, we know something is wrong!”

And friend, our Savior invites us to experience the miracle of maturity in our faith, so that we begin taking steady steps of sanctification, to the honor and glory of God.

In their book Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg point to the obvious reality that when a person is a solid, consistent Christian — not flighty, not in and out, not lurching all over the theological map or all over the lifestyle spectrum — it makes their faith look believable to secular onlookers. “Modeling Over the Long Haul” is how they describe it, and here’s a very telling paragraph that might make us wince:

“It’s not much of a trick to project a squeaky-clean Christian image to friends and colleagues for a short season,” they write. “You can pump yourself up to put on a spiritual facade for a few months or maybe even a whole year. But it’s going to take longer than that to make an impact on some of the people in your world. The hard-core types inwardly smirk and say: ‘This too shall pass. A year from now you’ll be into astrology or crystals.’” Then they add: “Don’t be surprised if this is the attitude of some of the people closest to you, including family members. They’re the ones who have seen you go through all kinds of phases before: earth shoes, eccentric diets, tae kwon do classes, pyramid marketing schemes, subliminal tapes you played under your pillow each night to improve your attitude, and the like. Now you’re coming along and saying: ‘I’ve found what’s been missing in my life all of these years. It’s Jesus Christ!’ And they’re thinking, ‘Yeah, isn’t that what you were saying about those herbal food supplements a couple of years ago? How long is this fling going to last?’” And then they conclude, right out of Ephesians 4: “Untold damage has been done to the cause of Christ because some people gear up for a sprint when they need to train for the marathon.”

This is why the Apostle Paul immediately takes us to verse 15, where we have this invitation:

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things GROW UP into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

Speaking of my friend Morrie Venden, here’s something he’s been saying for several decades of ministry — mostly to himself, but also to any friends who care to listen in and learn from his bumps and bruises — “Take time alone, at the beginning of every day, to seek Jesus in Bible study and prayer.” Because this is how we grow up IN CHRIST. This is how we keep from blowing all over the landscape, fooled by every new debate point to come into our mailbox from some right- or left-wing Christian organization or independent ministry. Back to the same commentary we read from a moment ago — and here’s a bit more:

“The lack of steadiness so often associated with youth is not to be the mark of the believer; patience, endurance, stability, are his characteristics.” James 1:6 talks about that; so does Hebrews 13:9. “Those who are forever seeking after some new thing, and are attracted by some sensational idea, form a feeble foundation for the life of the church. Equally, theological and philosophical speculation beyond legitimate limits makes for instability of belief AND character.”

You know, some of us who live here in southern California and its earthquakes know full well the “Jell-o” feeling of temblors and aftershocks under our feet. But it’s a serious thing to realize that you and I, friend — you and I — are what makes up the Church. If we’re fragile the Church is fragile. If we and our friends and neighbors go off course, the Church goes off course. If our theological tents are held in place by the flimsiest of stakes, and we take our confusion into Sabbath School or Sunday School week by week, then the whole church is soon flapping around in Satan’s sinister breezes, the ill winds of his false messages. And we certainly don’t want that.

We began this week together thinking a little bit about the role of preachers — and with me being thankful for the privilege. And you know, here at the close, we come back to the pulpit and what a pastor is expected to do for the Lord and His people. Verse 14 talked about the winds and the waves and the sharks and shysters out there who will deceive the saints with attractive lies. But the next verse lets us know that God’s men and women who stand in the pulpit don’t get to use those tricks and tactics.

“Instead, SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE,” Paul writes — and he has to obey his own words here — “we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

The Tyndale commentary for Ephesians seconds this mandate.

“The preachers of the truth for their part cannot and must not resort to such methods,” Dr. Francis Foulkes writes.

I can’t come here on the radio and think to myself, “All right, Lonnie, you’ve toyed with the fishes out there for eight minutes — now reel them in with a wink and a half-truth.” Dr. Foulkes continues:

“They must act in all simplicity and straightforwardness . . . they are ambassadors of the truth, and are to be found speaking the truth and ‘dealing truly.’ Moreover, both are to be done in love.”

The commentary for my own denomination adds this, and I’m sure you’ll agree:
“Love and the truth are inseparable. Truth must be not only accurate in idea but loving in manner.”

It’s good news, isn’t it, that in the end, love and truth are going to survive. Those who use those tools are going to meet with success, because they’re using the methods of Jesus. And here at the close of time, God is calling His men and women to really become — if I may borrow the title, Mr. Brokaw — the greatest generation.