Pride and Plagiarism

[This devotion is lightly edited from the original, written September 10, 2004.]

It all sounds so familiar.

The senior pastor of a large Charlotte church resigned this week, admitting that over the last two years he has preached sermons from others without attribution.

Eight months ago I was approached by a member of a church in another state, asking me to listen to tapes from his pastor to discern if he was re-preaching my sermons without attribution. Such was the case – that pastor preached all 27 sermons in my series on the Gospel of Mark. Listening to this unknown man speaking my words as if they were his own was eerie – particularly when he told one of my personal stories, saying he was quoting “a missionary,” – but then, after saying “end quote”, he continued to speak my very words! I felt violated – just as if someone had broken into my house and rifled through my possessions.

Why would a pastor do such a thing? The Charlotte pastor says he felt “tired and discouraged,” “devoid of any creative ability.” The other pastor said he was burned out. Both had tried to resign prior to the plagiarism, and both had been convinced to stay by others in the church.

But tiredness and a lack of creative energy are not fundamental to this problem. As I told the other pastor, if, upon reading my sermons online, he had contacted me, had told me of the problem, and had asked for permission to re-preach my sermons with attribution, I would have discouraged him from doing so, but nevertheless would have said yes. He could have preached exactly the same set of sermons, trying to restore his energies in the same way, and yet he could have been completely aboveboard with his congregation, while giving proper credit to the author. The Charlotte pastor could have done the same. But both men chose not to do so. Why?

There is only one answer, and it is an ugly one: Pride. For a pastor to admit to his congregation that he cannot compose a sermon is a statement of weakness, of inadequacy. And most church members do not want inadequate pastors.

How would you respond if your pastor were to confess, “I am burned out. I need your prayers. My time in the Word is dry. So I’m going to preach for you a fine sermon another man wrote. May God bless you through it.” Would you respond, “How unprofessional! If I acted that way in my job, I would be fired!”

Guess what? Every pastor is inadequate for the task. Every pastor is incompetent for the ministry. As Paul says, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves” (2 Corinthians 3:5). So how much of a pastor’s impact on his congregation comes from him? Nothing – nothing that is of any ultimate importance. We are not adequate to consider anything as coming from ourselves! But Paul continues, “But our adequacy is from God.” Pastors must be called and empowered by God to accomplish God’s work in God’s church. Then – and only then – will they be adequate, competent, sufficient for God’s task.

The 19th century British preacher Charles Spurgeon admitted, “I scarcely ever come into this pulpit without bemoaning myself that ever I should be called to a task for which I seem more unfit than any other man that ever was born. Woe is me that I should have to preach a gospel which so overmasters me, and which I feel that I am so unfit to preach!” If we preachers speak before our congregations with any other attitude, we too will be subject to the bane of pride.

So what can you do? What attitude should you have toward your pastor?

First, expect weakness from him. Expect brokenness from him. Know that he struggles with pride and many other sins, and that he needs friendship, support, and accountability before others.

Second, speak to him about this recent resignation. Tell him that if he ever feels burned out and dry, you will support him in whatever way necessary. Tell him you would much rather he openly preach another man’s sermon than to pretend he is speaking his own words. Remind him that he is personally inadequate for his task – but that God will make him adequate by His power, in part through the prayers of His people. And commit yourself to praying for him.

Finally, examine your own heart. Is your own pride wrapped up in the status of your pastor? Do you brag to others about his skills and leadership? That’s part of the problem. So many of us put our pastors on a pedestal, and then we pastors feel we must live there, pretending we are perfect, pretending that all is going well, plastering a smile on our faces, effectively lying to our congregations, thinking that if we admit our problems we will damage our peoples’ faith in God.

Fellow pastors, God has entrusted us with a magnificent ministry – but He wraps this ministry in the inadequate, weak, easily-broken jars of clay that we are. Our admitting our weakness does not diminish God’s glory – rather, “we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Let the glory of God shine through your weakness, so that all might know that whatever our churches may accomplish, all results from God’s power, and not from our professionalism.

What Might God Do in 2016?

What might God do in 2016?

What might God do through you in 2016?

We must be careful when asking such questions. God does not need our skills, our intelligence, our education, our experience, or our wisdom. Indeed, God chooses to work mightily through the foolish, through the weak, through the low, through the despised, “so that no human being might boast” before Him (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). If we even begin to think, “Look how much I have to offer – I’m such an asset to God!” – then we are headed to a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

But God always is at work through small, weak, insignificant people to fulfill His great plans.  On the last night before His crucifixion, our Lord said,

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  (John 14:12-13)

He promises us the opportunity, the power, and the ability, through dependence on Him, to do greater works than He accomplished in His earthly life. He continues to act today – through you. Indeed, the Apostle John tells us, “As [God] is, so also are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17b)

C.S. Lewis captures this idea marvelously. In That Hideous Strength, all humanity is threatened by the forces of evil. All the powerful elements in society have been co-opted by this force. A small band of believers is able to seek assistance from a man from another century; he asks the band’s leader, “Are we not big enough to meet them in plain battle?” The reply: “We are four men, some women, and a bear” (chapter 13). Yet in the end God uses these few not only to overcome but also to embarrass and mock the evil forces.

In Lewis’ Perelandra, the evil man Weston and the follower of God Ransom are both on the planet we call Venus. The first rational beings on the planet, a man and a woman, are in their innocence, and Weston, playing the role of the serpent in the Garden, tries to turn the woman away from God (“Maleldil”). The temptation goes on and on; Ransom sees her slipping away, despite all his efforts. He asks himself:

Why did no miracle come? Or rather, why no miracle on the right side? For the presence of the Enemy was in itself a kind of Miracle. Had Hell a prerogative to work wonders? Why did Heaven work none? Not for the first time he found himself questioning Divine Justice. He could not understand why Maleldil should remain absent when the Enemy was there in person. . . .

“The Enemy is really here, really saying and doing things. Where is Maleldil’s representative?”

The answer which came back to him . . . almost took his breath away. It seemed blasphemous. “Anyway, what can I do?” babbled the voluble self. “I’ve done all I can.” . . . And then – he wondered how it had escaped him till now – he was forced to perceive that his own coming to Perelandra was at least as much of a marvel as the Enemy’s. That miracle on the right side, which he had demanded, had in fact occurred. He himself was the miracle. (Chapter 11)

He was the miracle! God had put him there for His purposes. God was working through him to defeat Evil and to magnify His Name. And just so with you and me. We are God’s miracle, placed in our time, in our place, as His agents to fulfill His plan, His story.

Later, when Ransom wonders at this, he is told:

Be comforted. . . . It is no doing of yours. You are not great, though you could have prevented a thing so great that Deep Heaven sees it with amazement. Be comforted, small one, in your smallness. He lays no merit on you. Receive and be glad. Have no fear, lest your shoulders be bearing this world. (Chapter 17)

Just so with us. We are not great. We gain no merit. We are small. We are a few men and women – without even the bear!

And yet we are as God in this world. God will do great works through us. Sometimes through our small, spontaneous acts of love. Sometimes through planning and strategizing on how to glorify His Name. But in all ways, at all times, God is powerfully at work through His people.

So what might God do through you in 2016?

Be confident. Be dependent. Be humble. Be in prayer. And look forward expectantly to how our Lord will use the weak and insignificant to advance His great Plan in 2016.

Go Therefore and Disciple All Nations

Jesus is Risen!

He Lives!

He was crucified, dead, buried – but death could not hold Him down!

He was raised because of our justification!

These are the great truths of Jesus’ resurrection.

But after telling us of the resurrection, Matthew does something curious. He skips ahead from that first Resurrection Sunday to Jesus’ encounter with His disciples in Galilee.

  • We don’t hear about road His encounter with two followers on the road to Emmaus
  • We don’t hear about Thomas’ doubts
  • We don’t hear of Jesus asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?”

Instead, Jesus and the disciples meet, Jesus gives Great Commission – then the end of the book.

Is this, perhaps, anticlimactic?

No. This fits perfectly with Matthew’s emphases throughout this Gospel.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are not comprehensive biographies of Jesus. None attempts to tell us everything Jesus said or did. They don’t even attempt to tell us all the important things Jesus said or did.

Rather, each is presenting to us certain themes, certain truths about Jesus: His life, His ministry, His work. And by the Holy Spirit each selects material to support those truths.

So Matthew, carried along by the Holy Spirit, completes this book powerfully, highlighting many of his major themes, and leaving us with a commissioning to follow.

So let’s look to see how this brief text – 5 verses, 94 words in the ESV – is a culmination of Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus.

Here Matthew highlights 8 themes from throughout the book: Two vital truths, four commands (which we will consider under five headings), and one promise:

  • Vital Truth 1: Human Weakness
  • Vital Truth 2: Jesus’ Authority
  • Command 1: Go
  • Command 2a: Disciple
  • Command 2b: Disciple the Nations
  • Command 3: Baptize
  • Command 4: Teach them to Obey All I Have Commanded
  • The Promise: His Presence

(more…)

The Promise of Power

This sermon on Acts 1:6-26 was preached 9/14/2008. For a version that is easier to print, click here. The audio is available here.)

Do you ever dream that you’re in school, sitting down to take a test, and realize, “I never studied! I never even went to class!”

Or perhaps you dream that you are about to begin an athletic event – and realize you never practiced.

How do those dreams make you feel? Do you feel that way when you are called upon to be a witness to Jesus? Do you think, “I don’t know enough! I need years of study to properly witness! I can’t possibly make these people listen!”

Last week we began our series in the book of Acts. We saw that this book is not really the Acts of the Apostles. Only two apostles are prominent, but it is not a synopsis of their lives either. Instead, Luke opens by saying that his first volume, his gospel “dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.” Acts then deals with what Jesus continued to do. Acts tells of the continuing work of Jesus. (more…)