Ministry

I don't do this very often, but really feel compelled for several different reasons to do this. First of all, if you're reading this, I hope you realize that this is written out of love and not anger, though some of the things I'm about to put out there are going to be extremely straight forward. I've never been one to mince words in my personal life or from behind any pulpit I've stood in. I received a note from the minister of a church nearby, and I appreciate the information it contained because there is a lot of truth in it. The reason I received this note is because, and I'm copying and pasting from the message I received, "Willie, we are sending this info to you about the Gay Gospel. To give you info to preach against this lifestyle. We felt like you were promoting this lifestyle by the statements you have made on a facebook page." I did delete the person's name mentioned, just because it's not relevant to the note.

First of all, I ask God what to preach about and take direction from Him. I lean on Him to help me know what to preach because I only see the outside and He sees the inside of man, so God knows the need of mankind much better than I do. Secondly, I have never backed down from preaching against homosexuality. The Bible clearly states that it is sin, and when God lays it on my heart to preach against it, I have and I do.

But, my comments are made in the sense that no longer are preachers asking God what to preach about, they're taking what they find to be sinful in their eyes and preaching against that. They aren't preaching against sin, but they're preaching against people. I have never, and pray that I never will, preach against any person, because that's not what I've been called to do. I hope and pray that I will always preach against sin and if that begins to deal with a person, then I leave that up to God to take it from there. If we would spend more time preaching against sin and not people, we might see our church attendances increase and people have a desire to hear more of the Word. I have people telling me what to preach all the time, becuase they know someone/something that is going on and they want someone to preach about it.

Well, think about this. There is a divorce rate of over 50 percent in the United States today. Let me give you a few scriptures about what the Bible says about divorce: Matthew 19:8-9, (this is Jesus speaking) "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, committs adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced committs adultery."
There aren't many preachers today preaching against the sin of divorce. Why, because it would affect the majority, according to statistics, of their congregation. I preach against the sin of divorce because it's sin, not because I want to get at somebody. Do I think people who get divorced and remarry are going to hell or are less saved than someone who has been married 70 years, absolutely not.
Here's another. I've sat in churches where preachers brag about how much they're going to eat after the service is over. Let's see what God says about gluttony. "Hear my son and be wise; and guide your heart in the way. Do not mix with winebibbers, or gluttonous eaters of meat; for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags." Proverbs 23:19-21. I don't hear many preachers preaching against the sin of overeating. I hear many taking part of this text, the drunkard part of it, and preaching it to death, but we don't want to preach against things that hit home. We pick and choose. This body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. When we sit and stuff ourselves with every chicken leg we can find, do you think that's good for the temply that houses the Lord? Yet, we don't preach against the sin of gluttony.

I've seen deacons, choir members, ushers and members of churches standing on the church parking lot having a smoke because they're addicted to nicotine. That nicotine that you're ingesting is known to cause cancer, and you my friend are destroying the temple of God. You're murdering the house that God dwells in, yet I don't hear many preachers preaching against the sin of tobacco abuse. Why, because the few people left in the church that weren't divorced or overweight, would probably fall into this category and we'd have no one there to preach to. The church is, and should be, full of sinners, but we want to decide which sinners we let into the house of the Lord, God help us!
It's time that the Christians of this world quit shoving "their" doctrine, "their" beliefs, "their" idea of Christianity, and start preaching about Jesus and preaching against the sin. If we were to preach against the sin of divorce and gluttony, first of all, well over 75 percent of the pulpits would be empty because the preachers wouldn't be able to preach against the sins they're in the middle of, but our churches would be empty.

I'm amazed that we want to crucify, and I mean crucify, homosexuals because of their sin and we want to brow beat them into feeling they are less than human, not worthy of the love and mercy of God, yet we want to laugh and make fun of the fact that 40 percent of our country is obese, nearly 60 percent of every marriage will end in divorce, that we have churches on every corner because people can't get along, so they start they're own church with their own doctrine. If churches, preachers, ministers, christians, would get into the word, realize that we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God, and pray one for another, we could see great things happen in our world. Again, I'm not condoning or promoting any kind of sin, but I'm telling you that we're all sinners and that there are no degrees to sin. Sin is sin, plain and simple, that's what God has told us.

God put each of us here and He makes no mistakes. Humans do. I'm a far cry from perfect and struggle with sin just as much as anyone. I'll be the first to admit that I have failed, and fail God, in many areas of my life, but there isn't a single one of my 1775 friends on here, or a single one of the 6 billion people in the world, that can tell me that the grace and mercy of God doesn't cover my inequity.

Preacher friends of mine, if you want to continue to seperate and segregate the sins that you're going to preach against and about, you have that right, but just remember when you stand before the Lord, you're going to give an account as to what you preached. Instead of asking the "Mecca" of your denomination what you should be preaching, some should start seeking God and asking Him what to preach. Many ministers today get their sermons from the internet and God help them when they stand before the Lord. I know I said this earlier, but I'm gonna go at it again, don't preach against people, preach against SIN!

Many families are torn apart because the "christians" in the family can't show the love of God to other family members. If I were to walk away from family and friends that were divorced, that were overweight, who had an occasional drink, who have committed sins in the past, well, I'd be living in a lonely world, plus the fact, they wouldn't want to be around me, because I'm guilty of sin.
So, for anyone to assume that I'm "promoting" any lifestyle, you're wrong and I'm not afraid to say it. For anyone that says I'm condoning any form of sin, you're wrong. For anyone to tell me "here's information for you use to preach against ___________(you fill in the blank)", you're wrong. When God tells me to preach something, I'm going to preach that because it can't be wrong. If you have a problem with someone's life, pray for them, don't toss them to the side, that in itself is sin, but hope that they would do the same for you.

There are so many other sins that are listed in the Bible, and that's just what they are, sin. From idle words, overeating, being a drunk, being a homosexual, being an adulterer, being a stumbling block in someone's way, those are all sin and we need to preach against the sin that's being committed, not turn away from the sinner.

I know that this is a novel, and I apologize, but I'm tired of us as christians, picking and choosing who and what we're going to consider sinful. God has already done that, now it's up to us to help each other in this world of sin that we live in to find the love, grace, peace, mercy and forgiveness of the one who sent His only begotten Son to die to give us eternal life.

And finally, for those who are going to leave critical comments, tell me that what I've just typed is sinful or going to cause someone to sin or live in sin, I'm never ever going to stand before you for you to judge me, nor will you stand before me to be judged. But, when I stand before the Lord, I hope that I've been faithful to what HE has called me to do.

I just read everything I typed to make sure I want to put this out there, and I do. I know there will be some who will never come to hear me preach again, and I can live with that, because whether you like it or not, I'm going to preach the Word of the Lord, not the word of Willie. There may be some churches that never call me to preach for them again, in fact there might be some who call and cancel some preaching dates I already have, and guess what, I can live with that too. Taking a stand as a christian isn't always the easiest thing to do, especially with other christians, but tonight's my night and I'm going to do it.

Whoever you are out there, whatever you are, where ever you've been, whatever you've done, just remember this one thing...."God's grace will always be greater than sin."