It looked like nobody could tame Tiger Woods just like it looked like nobody could tame Michael Jordan.  It was said that the only person who could hold Michael Jordan’s score under 30 points was Dean Smith (his very conservative coach at UNC).  Apparently, the only person who could keep Tiger from being remembered as the greatest golfer ever to live is Tiger himself.  Count me as badly disappointed – make that disgusted. 

             I have said since he burst onto the scene that my greatest admiration for him was not how far he could hit a golf ball, how well he could recover from a bad shot, or how he could putt under pressure, as impressive as all that was.  It was how he handled himself as a young man with unlimited money, unlimited success, and unlimited amounts of admiration.  Now it turns out that was a fake.  It is certainly symptomatic of our culture where people believe they can do what they want as long as they don’t get caught. 

             The question for all of us is will we say to ourselves, “It doesn’t matter”?  Will we join all of these weak-spined, moral nobodies in saying, “People just can’t help it”?  It’s just like eating and breathing – I just have to do it.  Or will we be people who will say, “We live for God and believe God’s will for us is more important than the satisfaction of personal urges”?  If this is harsh, so be it.  We are in a hole and digging it deeper.  The problem really is NOT Tiger Woods.  It is the culture in which he lives – our culture. 

             In my next blog, I plan to write about the ups and downs of the morality of culture.  But let me say right now the moral fiber of our culture is weakening steadily.  I’m afraid things will have to get a lot worse before we finally decide enough of state-sponsored gambling that takes advantage of the poor, enough talk about legalizing drugs, and enough talk that divorce doesn’t matter or people can’t help it.  Count me as one who is fed up.

I never think of sermons as being for either the 10:00 or 11:30 service.  I always think of them as being for both, and 90 percent of the content is the same in each service.  However, this past Sunday it appears God had a different idea. 

             A few months ago when I felt led to preach the four sermons for Christmas, I was bothered because I wasn’t going to read the Christmas story and the sermons were coming from the Gospel of John, which doesn’t recount any of the birth narratives.  Yet I felt strongly led to do it.  The sermon I felt the most strongly led to preach was the one from this past week titled, “The Gift of Eternal Life.”  However, I felt it was a little out of place at Christmas.  Every time I thought about changing it, the Spirit of God said, “Don’t do it.”

             At the 10:00 service, I felt good about the message and how it went, but at the 11:30 service when the invitation was given and a lot of young people who were here for the Chick-Fil-A Classic Basketball Tournament came forward, I thought, “That was God’s purpose in putting this on my heart.”

             The experience this past Sunday was very different from many of the other times we’ve hosted these young people from around the country.  We had about 20 or 25 people come forward at the end of the worship service making different kinds of decisions but all moved by the Spirit of God.

             I’m grateful to the Lord that He led me to do that and gave our church the opportunity to see that kind of response to His message and the work of the Holy Spirit.  Keep praying that the Lord would work in my heart, in the hearts of each staff member, and in the hearts of the lay leadership in our church.  God is good.  He is at work in this world of ours to will and to do for His good pleasure and for His glory.  It is a joy to be a part of that.  I hope it is for you too.

A few weeks ago, I spoke of fear of the Lord (See Fearless Sermon Series).  I made brief mention that parents should not use God as the heavy club in the discipline of children.  It is a wonderful thing to teach your children to honor God and even to fear God, but it has been delegated to you to discipline your children.  So don’t try to delegate that back up to God by saying things to your children such as, “God is not happy with you” or “God sees what you’re doing” or “God is going to get you in ways you cannot imagine.”  Simply take the authority of disapproval yourself by saying, “I don’t like that,” or “I told you to do that.”  Take the responsibility yourself for confronting your child rather than “playing the God card.”  Later on when it does not involve a present problem, talk with your children about God’s will for them. Teach them that you love God’s will and they can too.

             When you make God out to be a nitpicker or one who doesn’t ever cut us any slack, you really paint a God who is different than God’s revelation of Himself.  Let’s be sure to be honest with our children about the grace, love, kindness, and mercy of God while at the same time holding up the holy and righteous standards of God for life.  I hope as you raise your children to fear the Lord, it’s the beginning of wisdom, and they will NEVER be wise unless they do.  But make sure they are confident that the Lord they fear is full of love and mercy for them.

In my last blog I spoke about the three levels of relating within marriage.  Let me talk about the two levels of relating in most of life.  They are submission and compliance.  In submission you place yourself under the authorities in your life – God first, governing authorities, your boss, your board, and the needs of your family.  Compliance is very different.  They can appear to be about the same, but what’s going on inside you is completely different.  Compliance asks the question:  What do I have to do to get what I want or how much can I get away with?  Submission is a relationship of trust, and it is extremely peaceful.  It doesn’t mean you can’t get another job if you have a boss who is impossible, but it does mean you decide that while you are there under his leadership you will recognize God has put governing authorities in your life, and it is your job to treat them with respect and deference. 

 The compliant person is the kind of person who will say yes and then go around and talk about what you don’t like or how dumb the person who’s making you do things is or how they’re difficult, etc.  The compliant person talks out of both sides of his/her mouth and is twofaced in every respect.  You’ll be able to tell whether you are submissive or compliant with regard to authority by how much you complain and how readily you find the negative in the authorities in your life. 

 Several years ago I was coming home from being out of town and was not paying attention and was pulled by a highway patrolman for speeding.  He asked me how fast I thought I was going, and I told him.  He said, “That’s pretty close.”  I was one mile an hour off what his radar said.  He said, “I’ll be back in a minute.”  He went back to his patrol car and came back and gave me a warning.  I said, “Thank you so much.  Would you mind telling me why you gave me a warning?”  He said, “Would you mind telling me why you told me the truth?”  I said, “I have tremendous respect for guns and badges.”  He said, “In this case it saved you some money.”  Submission is the willingness to be comfortable with the authority of others and to not feel that it somehow diminishes you.          

 Compliance feels that everybody else’s money, authority, or power diminishes you.  Therefore you have the urge to bring them down.  Yet you know you don’t actually have the ability to pull it off, so you act like you’re doing what they want while at the same time complaining and being in the negative mode.  Move up from compliance to submission.  It is the will of God for every Christian (Eph. 5:21; Rom. 13:1-3; Heb. 13:17). Compliance is certainly better than rebellion, but it is a lot less honoring to God’s purpose than submission.