This year Gary Burton is celebrating his 40th anniversary as the pastor of Pintlala.  He has given remarkable leadership in this “country church.”  It has continued to grow and be influential in Montgomery County.

I have always admired Gary and we have been good friends.  He referred to my church as being Pintlala East and I’ve called his church Frazer South.  

Gary is probably going to set records for long term tenure in the same Baptist Church.  I understand that he now ranks fifth in number of years served in the same church.  I really expect him to serve several more years and I am sure will wind up in first place and break all records!

The real records that Gary Burton has broken have been in terms of his witness and commitment to Jesus Christ.  He had many opportunities to go to bigger, more influential churches.  He has chosen to stay in the Hope Hull community and make his church a force in that community.  He has done that.

As you might know he has had two Presidents of the United States attend his church.  Of course, having a church member like Ray Scott, the founder of BASS, and owner of one of the finest bass fishing areas in the country, helped get both President George W. Bush and President George H. W. Bush to Pintlala.  I could tell you some funny stories about that.

I attended his 40th celebration.  He had different members of his family participate in special music, prayers, etc.  The congregation sang his favorite hymn.  It is not the most familiar hymn but it has a trememdous message that expresses Gary’s faith.  Here is one verse and chorus:

My faith has found a resting place, Not in device or creed; I trust the ever living One, His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument, I need no other plea, It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.

Gary has been a trememdously progressive leader in our community.  He has never shied away from taking strong stands.  He has been willing to try things that are different.

While his ministry has withstood a lot of huge challenges and overcome a lot of obstacles, he has been brave enough to invite me to come down and preach again at his church.  He survived my other visists.  I hope he can survive this one!  He may break the record for having a Methodist in his pulpit!

God is looking for people to break records worth breaking!

Dr. Bright, in his later years, developed emphysema. He spent the last few months of his life under an oxygen tent. He had a passion to finish some books, which he did – while under the oxygen tent!

A few days before he died, President George Bush called him. When some of his friends heard about that, they said that must have been a big thrill. Dr. Bright’s response was that God had given him about 15 things to accomplish in his last few weeks, and he had accomplished all of them. He said that completing things God gave him to do was a bigger thrill than having a phone call from anybody – even the President!

At his funeral Dr. Adrian Rogers said that he learned three things from Dr. Bright – he learned how to dream – how to dare – how to die.

I received a call one day from Dr. Bright when he was under the oxygen tent. He spoke openly about fulfilling God’s purpose here on earth and his strong certainty about eternal life. He was ready to continue living, or to die – whatever God willed.

My Dad knew how to live and how to die. Spending time with him the last few days of his life, he had the quiet, calm assurance of God’s presence and of God’s faithfulness in all that the Bible taught. He taught me how to live and how to die.

I have a great friend, Frank Woodson, whose Dad died the early part of 2012. He shared with me a couple of paragraphs that his Dad, Earnest Woodson, had typed on his computer before he died. He knew how to live and how to die. He wrote

“Life begins when we are born. We proceed, totally dependent on mother or someone else into childhood. These early years are followed by teenage into adulthood. Through that growing period we see some stillborn, some accidental deaths, many die from cancer and a multitude of other diseases. The toll from earthquakes, plagues, storms, and other natural event is enormous. We cannot forget wars and terrorism.

Death is the last part of this life. It is something that is tragic at times, horrible at others, but it can also be very sweet relief from long suffering and pain. For those believers in God our creator and Jesus our savior this is the answer to prayer. This is what I believe and at my death I want everyone to celebrate with me.”

The Apostle Paul knew how to live and how to die. When he spoke about his eminent death, he proclaimed “As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.” II Timothy 4:6, 7 (NLT)

Thank God for people who teach us how to live and how to die!

The old adage is “you are what you eat.” If that is true, I am ready to start laying eggs! I am making efforts to eat healthier the older I get.

David Murdock is an 87-year-old billionaire. He is really taking seriously his eating habits and is convinced that he can live to be 125-years-old.

Murdock says he has never had a backache, or headache, or anything else that most of us think of as being a part of growing older. He attributes good health to his healthy eating.

He has already spent $500 million building a massive research campus in North Carolina. He believes that the key to longer life is a low-fat diet rich in vegetables, fruit, and antioxidants.

Three times a day he drinks smoothies consisting of ground up orange rinds and banana peels and his meals mainly consist of seafood, egg whites and nuts. If he is eating in a restaurant and a waiter brings butter, he says “take the death off the table.”

His wife died in 1985 of ovarian cancer. He is convinced that if he had insisted that she eat more healthy, he could have saved his wife’s life. He doesn’t necessarily try to proselytize people today to his way of thinking. He just says, “it is okay if you eat that way. You’ll go before me.”

While I have tried to maintain something of a healthy lifestyle, I have a lot of improvement to make in the area of eating. When you see me at a restaurant eating fried chicken, don’t judge me too quickly. While I am making some strides towards better habits, I am nowhere near the place that I need to be.

Part of my rationalization is my Dad. He did eat not very healthy and lived to be 96. I remember one day at age 94 he was eating a big plate of fried chicken. He looked at me a little quizzically and said, “Do you think I could have lived longer if I hadn’t eaten so much fried chicken?” Good question.

A convicting passage of scripture is I Corinthians 6:19, 20. Paul says “Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

With all the obesity in our nation, and I understand Alabama ranks at the top, all of us need to do a better job of practicing healthy habits and teaching them. I am looking to grow in that area.

So, please pass the broccoli!

Shania Twain, at age 45, discovered that her husband, Robert “Mutt” Lange, and her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébauld, were involved in an affair. She confronted her best friend Thiébauld. She said, “I had a total panic attack. I just told her that she was a bad person – that’s all I could get out!”

She then lost her voice. She developed dysphonia, a condition in which spasming vocal cords make singing impossible. Her inability to deal with her unfaithful friend became her trauma. She kept writing ugly letters. She would ask her why she was torturing her and she constantly encouraged her to find somebody else to love.

Revenge will most often lead to physical and psychological problems. The one who suffers most in revenge is the one initiating the revenge. Shania says that she is working at her relationships and has slowly been finding her voice again.

Joe Kapp and Angelo Mosca are 73-year-old former Canadian Football League players. They were recently attending a promotional event to heighten the awareness of concussion injuries suffered by Canadian Football League players.

Back in 1963 Kapp and Mosca had a big misunderstanding and exchanged some blows. They have continued to badmouth each other for the last 48 years. They both have looked for opportunities to get revenge.

At the banquet, Joe Kapp took a decorative flower off of the banquet table and walked over to Mosca and taunted him. Mosca took his walking stick and hit Joe Kapp across the head. Joe Kapp stepped back and unloaded on Mosca, knocking him off the stage. The whole situation was amusing and sad. Here were two 73-year-olds still carrying a grudge for 48 years! Both of them said they would “never forget.”

Last month a Quebec man put a 20-ton boulder in the driveway of his ex-wife. Danny Lariviere explained to the police that during their ten year marriage his ex-wife always complained that he didn’t give her “a big rock.” Now she couldn’t complain anymore!

Jesus spoke very simply when He said that we need to learn to forgive. Regardless of how bad someone has mistreated us, the only healthy response is forgiveness.

Jesus said, “If you forgive other people their sins, God will forgive you. If you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14, 15)

A forgiving spirit cannot be dispensed by a doctor in a prescription. Forgiveness is the only medicine that will bring healing, health and wholeness. You can’t buy insurance to take care of injustices – the only remedy is forgiveness.

Don’t lose your voice, or get in a fight, or instigate a bad trick. Forgive! The forgiven are always forgiving!

In memory of Mary Holman   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig and Ronnie & Linda Poole

In memory of Marguerite Craft   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Weldon Doe   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Nathan Duplantis   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Allison Bronner   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Marion Lorino   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Dr. Jesse Littleton   -   Gaeton & Cindy Lorino

In memory of Bill Taylor   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Craig Donley   -   Dottie Blair

In memory of Matthew Newell   -   John Ed & Lynn Mathison

In memory of Tony Rane   -   John Ed & Lynn Mathison

In memory of Don Harrington   -   Ronnie & Linda Poole

In memory of Fran Webb   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Mary Buchannon Snow   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Margaret Tankersley   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig and John Ed & Lynn Mathison

In memory of Susan Horton   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Chandler Scott   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Bob Cannon   -   Jules & Jane Davis

In memory of Emory Folmar   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Billy Livings   -   Bubba & Barbara Lewis

In memory of Mary Eloise Peters   -   Bubba & Barbara Lewis

In memory of Murlyne Clements   -   John Ed & Lynn Mathison

In memory of Bill Nunn   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In memory of Bobby King   -   John Ed & Lynn Mathison

Honorariums

In honor of Elsa & Evelyn Precht   -   Ronnie & Linda Poole

In honor of Eunice Henig   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In honor of Tommy & Marlene Henig   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

In honor of Phil & Marilee Tankersley   -   Mike & Jenny Lynn Henig

Sometimes this is done without really realizing what we are doing. Sometimes it is just an honest mistake. Other times it is just sheer hypocrisy.

A couple of cute things happened to high profile public figures recently. President Obama accepted an award for supporting government transparency. That is good, except that it was at a private ceremony from which the media and public were excluded!

In early June, Fox News ran a report on whether or not Sarah Palin would be running for president. The network mistakenly showed Tina Fey imitating Sarah Palin, instead of Palin herself. A producer at Fox has been disciplined, and any such repeats of the error would lead to dismissals.

Jesus really came down hard on people who were hypocrites. Read Matthew 6:1-18 and Matthew 23:2-36. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek drama when one actor could play more than one part by simply changing masks. Most of us have become pretty good at acting different ways in different situations.

The Pharisees were a major target for Jesus teachings. They enjoyed bragging about keeping all of the laws, but they didn’t keep the two most important laws of loving God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and loving their neighbor as themselves.

What I say is not nearly so important as what I do. I have heard my Dad say many times, “The best sermons are those sidewalk sermons that lay people preach everyday as they live their lives.” He would also say, “What I do speaks so loudly people don’t hear what I say.”

Consistent Christian behavior is one of the most needed commodities in today’s world. I have many areas in which I need to improve. Cognitive dissonance is a hindrance to kingdom work.

Jesus says in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven..”

Christian growth is the process of converting cognitive dissonance into transformational living.

Surveys discovered that 9 out of 10 Americans celebrate the holiday, even if they are atheists or agnostics or believers in some non-Christian faith.

The survey indicates that a gap is being created between what we say we believe and what we do. Belief and behavior are at odds.

Most respondents in the survey indicate that Christmas is “primarily” religious, but for most people that doesn’t translate into Christian practices. For example 89% give gifts, 86% enjoy a meal with family or friends, 80% put up a Christmas tree and play holiday music.

When it comes to religious activities, only 58% say they “encourage belief in Jesus Christ as Savior.” Only 47% attend Christmas Eve or Christmas Day worship, and only 28% read or tell the Christmas story from the Bible.

There is definitely a disconnect between saying that Christmas is a religious holiday, and practicing it as such. It appears that Christmas is becoming more and more secular rather than sacred. Scott McConnell, the director of Lifeway research, says that most people “give a head nod to Jesus while they spend their time and dime pleasing themselves.” Most people who say that Christmas is religious, skip church, omit Jesus, and zero in on the eggnog.

The songs we listen to at Christmas indicate what the day means to us. In the last five years the song played most often was “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.”

The list of top 25 most performed songs during the Christmas season was recently released by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). This is a radio air play monitoring service. “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” or “Silent Night” did not make the top 25 list. The only explicitly religious song, “Little Drummer Boy,” made the list coming in at number 8.

The best way to change anything in society is to begin with me. Then let that move out to my sphere of influence. I do enjoy putting up the decorations, celebrating with the parties, but it is up to us to practice the priority of remembering whose birthday it really is. Christmas is not about my need to get and to give – it is about Jesus. It is not my birthday – it is His. It is not about my entertainment but about my worship of Him.

Let’s start a new trend. Let’s make this a Christ-centered Christmas. Let’s focus, in belief and behavior, on the fact that “Unto you is born this day…a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)

When God gave a gift, He didn’t buy it at the store – He gave Himself, His Son. The best gifts at Christmas are not bought – they are a sharing of who we are.

Matt Hoffman discovered this. He was a senior defensive end at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. His college had an on campus drive in the spring of 2009 to enroll students in the Be the Match registry for the donor program. Hoffman was one of 371 people who signed up.

There was a road maintenance worker in Brenham, Texas, named Warren Sallach. He was going to die if he didn’t receive a blood stem cell transplant to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Matt Hoffman was a match for Warren.

It wasn’t a simple gift. When he was identified as a match, he had to receive shots for five consecutive days before the transplant so he could raise the blood stem cell count. The offshoot of this was that the medication enlarged his spleen, which put him at risk of a rupture if he played football. His team had one more game. He decided to sit out his final college game in order to save the life of somebody he had never met.

As you are aware, the confidentiality of recipients and donors remain anonymous to one another for at least a year after the transplant. They can only make contact if both parties give their consent.

Can you imagine the feeling when Warren Sallach, 59-years-old, met Matt Hoffman, 21-years-old, for the first time? He met the man that had given a gift that saved his life. It was a gift that wouldn’t be swapped – it was a gift that could not be reciprocated.

Matt knew that he had missed out on a few sacks in his last game. He wasn’t just an ordinary player. This past year he was named the New Jersey Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

While Matt Hoffman gave a great gift when he gave up playing in a football game in order to save the life of a man he had never met, God gave up His Son who would be persecuted and die for millions of people who had not even been born yet! While Matt’s gift met a need for this life, God’s Gift met the deepest need of mankind for eternity!

Christmas is about the greatest Gift that God could give – the gift of His Son Jesus Christ.

Paul writes, “Thank God for His Gift that words can’t describe.” (II Corinthians 9:15 CEB)