Doing
Laurel D. Buckingham · Tidal Church Moncton · October 8, 2023 · Is Your Faith Growing? series
Laurel D. Buckingham looks at the wise and foolish builders in the Sermon on the Mount and Philippians 4:4-9. He shows that doing what Jesus says, with a thankful heart and faithful church life, builds a solid foundation for life's storms.
More from Laurel D. Buckingham · The Is Your Faith Growing? series
Topics: Faith, Fear & Anxiety, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] Well, well, well, well, it is great to be here. Truth is, it's great to be anywhere because at this stage of the game, my parents were both dead at my age, there's no male on either side of the family that's ever lived as long as I've lived. And so I think that song they sang, "God Is So Good," was just for me, and I couldn't help but think how great it is to be able to be in the place that I probably would sooner be than most any place on the face of the earth. And I am just so glad that I'm able to speak at this point in my life. I was sitting in a church in Sussex very recently, and I got thinking how long ago was it that I preached my first sermon in this town?
[0:52] And it was in 1958. That is 65 years ago. So this morning I am going to celebrate my own 65th anniversary of preaching, and I've been preaching ever since. Oh, no, no, no, that's fine. But anyway, and the interesting thing was I was asked by the president of our college, which was in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, to come over to represent the school at a youth conference, a youth gathering of pastors of churches all here in the southern New Brunswick area. I'd never preached in a church before in my life. Now, that doesn't make any sense when you stop and think about that, he would ask me to do that. It had to be some kind of a God thing.
[1:37] But I was scared to death. And I remember walking into the church, and there was a guy that met me there at the door by the name of Walter Higgins, along with the other student that was gonna preach as well. And he looked at him and said, "Are you preaching?" Now here's what you have to understand. I was 18, but I looked about 15 and acted about 13. So, he looked at me, and the most disappointed look I ever saw come on a man's face in my life. And that's Walter Higgins. He's a hundred years old. And I just met with him this past, a couple of weeks ago, in the nursing home. And he remembers, of course, all of that. And I was so scared. We went up to the side of the platform to pray, and four or five people in that group, and everybody prayed except me.
[2:26] I couldn't get a word out, I was paralyzed. And here I had to preach. I couldn't even get up and give a testimony in church. I was so nervous and suffered such anxiety and all those, "What am I going to do? I gotta preach." And Walter Fernley, who used to be in this church, retired, he was one of the pastors from St. John, and he got up in front of the congregation, said, "How many would like to help the brother preach tonight or this?" And he said, "You people on the outside, move into the center." And something about that just loosened me up. And I tell you, I got up to preach. I preached like a house of fire. And before that thing was over with, I thought I was Billy Graham. Well, I think there's two things. I think the help that Mr. Friendly gave, but it was the power of the Holy Spirit that can make the difference and take our weakness and turn into a strength.
[3:19] And so I am so thankful now this morning. The title of the message is "Doing," and I want it, and I'm glad to see the big print there because this is the most important factor in what I'm going to be talking about here this morning. I have a grandson, when he first started to talk, he just used one word to say what he wanted to say. Man, wouldn't it be great if preachers could just use one word to say what they wanted to say? And he would come along and he'd see me doing something, and he'd say, "Doing?" with a question mark. "Doing?" And you knew what he meant. What are you doing? And so I'm going to ask us all, what are we doing?
[4:04] Are we doing what we should be doing? And that is what is going to make all the difference in the world in dealing with the storms of life. Now, Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount, and the scripture is taken from the Sermon on the Mount. That Sermon on the Mount took about eight minutes and is considered the greatest sermon, the whole wide world. Wouldn't it be great if preachers could take only eight minutes? I have a preacher friend. We were sitting in a service and the preacher went on and on and on and on. Thought he was never gonna finish. And my friend said the only way he could say less is talk more. And so I hoped that will not be the case here this morning as we share some of these, I believe, most important thoughts. Now it's, it's pretty important in all realms of life that we do what we ought to do.
[5:03] When I first went to Nova Scotia to go to college, I got my driver's license. I had to take a test over again. And the man that gave me the test was, he was very nice, very kind. And I passed the test that very day. I was going out of town through a small town that had a 50 kilometer an hour speed zone, and I was going about 80 kilometers an hour. By the way, you can't expect God to protect you if you drive like the devil. Did you know that? And so I was probably driving like the devil, and I passed this man that gave me the test that morning, and he passed me and stopped his car in front of me. And boy, was he upset, and he let me have it. Now, that's not the worst of it. The next Sunday, I had to preach in a church, and he was in the congregation.
[6:02] So it pays to do what we ought to do. And what this scripture that we're going to read here this morning is all about, it is doing. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine, the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount and other words, and puts them into practice, practice, the pattern of practicing the right thing, doing the right thing. Now that person is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. Now I wanna just say something to you. Some people would say the rock is Jesus. Some people might say the rock is the Word of God, but what I think this is all about, the rock is really doing what we need to be doing, practicing what we need to practice. The rain came, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house.
[7:00] Yet it did not fall, because it had a foundation that was on a rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice, now, this is serious business, is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. You know, one of the great concerns I have today is that so many people are crashing and burning. So many people are having burnout issues and mental health issues, like, seemingly like never before.
[7:45] And yet I think there's an antidote to that. If we understand the Word of God and we get into the Word of God, the Bible talks about over and over again what we are to do. Now I hear the argument. Oftentimes people say it's not so important. What you do is, it is as it is to be what you should be. That's what's really important. I don't think we should play one against the other. I don't think it's either or. I think it's both. And because you can't really be what you ought to be really unless you're doing what you ought to do. That make sense? And you really can't do what you ought to do the way you should do it unless you be what you should be.
[8:32] And one is a part of the other, and they cannot be separated. And so if we are going to face the storms the way we could and should be able to face the storms, we have to practice doing the right thing. Now we're all gonna have storms. That is inevitable. Some may have 'em a little worse than others. And sometimes when we have a storm that we think is so bad, we think nobody's having it like us. And they may be thinking the same thing about us, they're thinking, man, he doesn't have it nearly as bad as what I'm having. But the truth of the matter is we all face some horrific storms that can cripple and cause us to crash and burn.
[9:18] But the scripture points out the importance of doing. Here's Nehemiah. I love talking about Nehemiah. But when we see what Nehemiah had to do in facing the storms, he had people wanting to kill him on the outside and people wanting to kill him on his own team. And what did he say in Nehemiah 2:12? He said, "What God put in my heart to do." It's important that we do what we should do. And then Jesus Himself, when He was talking to the woman at the well and doing something that was very important, His disciples came to Him and said, "Wouldn't You like to have something to eat?" And what did Jesus say? He said, "My meat, my food is to what?
[10:08] To do the will of the Father." And I'm telling you, if there's anything that's going to build a solid rock sure foundation, it's going to be doing what the Bible says to do, what Jesus says to do. And, and I think that's why so many are tossed to and fro. They don't have that rock. They built on the sand, the sand of not doing what needs to be done and doing what they shouldn't be doing. Now we've all faced challenges and heartbreaks and problems and I know that sometimes people look at a preacher and they think he have it so easy. Anybody that is in public life has some challenges. When I first came here, I had opposition that was militant in my ministry here.
[11:00] Now some of it was because of my own doing or lack of doing what I should be doing. And so I'm not trying to blame anybody when I say that, but it, it just seemed to me to be a mountain that was going to cause me to crash and burn. And I was battle worn and battle weary. And I remember somebody get up a petition and, and wanted people to sign the petition to vote me out of this place. And I'm telling you what, I was so wanting to leave myself. I wanted to find the petition and sign it myself. Nobody wanted to go as much as I wanted to go. And so we, but you know what? I've stopped and thought through.
[11:46] I've had a lot worse storms since that, but they seemed a lot worse to me back then because of my own weakness, because of not doing everything that I could have and should have been doing. Not being on that rock solid foundation that we can all build, that we can all build our spiritual houses on by hearing His words, as the Scripture says. And so there is a big problem, but it is as simple as this: doing or not doing. And there are some stinking thinking. And the stinking thinking is all about an entitlement mentality. You know what I'd like for us to do?
[12:40] I'd like for us to turn to Philippians and look what Paul had to say because this fits in here so perfectly. Philippians 4:4-9. Now here's what, let's just hear this. Let's, this is real. Paul was a human being the same as anybody in this place this morning. And so we can make the application, not just 'cause it's way back to 2000 years ago. It's just as real as if he were here today. Paul was in prison. And those prisons, those days were no picnic. I don't think a prisoner, any prison's a picnic any day probably, but far worse back then. Now you just imagine him lingering in prison, didn't know whether he was gonna live or die, didn't know whether he'd ever be released. And here is what he had to say.
[13:33] You talk about a rock, building your spiritual home on a rock. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Now this is Thanksgiving Sunday. I believe every Sunday should be a Thanksgiving Sunday. Every day should be a Thanksgiving day. So that our, that we are seeking to see what we can rejoice about rather than what we can complain about. And then it says, let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything.
[14:20] Anxious. Anxiety is pervading our society, maybe like never before in history, and yet we have it easier today than ever before in history. What in the world is going on? I was born and brought up in poverty. Probably is in accordance today's standards. Never knew it, but it was poverty. But we had no electricity, no running water, and no, none of the modern conveniences that we have today. In fact, they were anything but modern. And then so everything that happened thereafter, that was a, it was a plus. And I think it caused a person to be a little more appreciative because of what they had to go through. And I think one of the things that may be lost today to some degree is a spirit of appreciation instead of a spirit of appreciation. There's a spirit of entitlement.
[15:15] And the spirit of entitlement is, no matter what you did, it really wasn't quite enough. You should have done more. But the spirit of appreciation is one, no matter what you do, how little it is, "I thank you, I appreciate it." And don't you love being around appreciative people? I think if you stop and think it through, and we do need to stop. And that's the reason I'm reading the Scripture. We do need to stop and think about what we're thinking about. What are you thinking about? Are you thinking about all the things you have to complain about? Or are we thinking about the things that God would have us to do and God would have us to be? And the attitude is not only the practice of action, but it is a practice of attitude, an attitude of gratitude.
[16:13] And when we can have that practice, an attitude of gratitude, rejoice. And then he goes on and he talks about by prayer, petition, with thanksgiving. Have that, try to focus on. Now I know there's some people in some awful situations, I realize there's people in abusive situations and all the rest, and I know that practical steps have to be taken to get out of those situations and do whatever practically can be done. But there are things that the more we can focus on what we have to be thankful for, the more likely we are to have a different circumstance and a different situation. Present your request to God. Now here's what happens. The peace. Don't you want peace rather than panic?
[17:03] The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Now what do I mean when I talk about Paul and his? Well, let me, I'm glad you moved that Scripture on. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true. Now listen, here he is in prison. What's he say? What he's telling us to focus on: whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever's admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, that's what you're to think about. That's the reason we have to stop and think about what we are thinking, to make sure that we are thinking the right kind of thoughts and doing the right kind of thing as a result of thoughts. That, and that is what builds a solid foundation.
[17:54] And whatever you have learned and received or heard from me or seen in me, put that in practice, do it. Do it. That's what we, he would have us to do. Now when I talk about a spirit of entitlement, so many people you can give and give and give to them and they're always looking for what you didn't do that they thought you should have done. I got a little granddaughter, I can't say little anymore, she's 17. But from the time that she could talk, "Thank you, Papa, thank you." If I'd have, if I coughed, she said, "Are you all right, Papa?"
[18:39] She just was so considerate. And she has put that into practice all her life. You ask her how she's doing in school, how things, "Oh, I love my teachers, I love my subjects." It, I never heard that child, even at 17, I'm sure she must have some complaints, but I've never heard a complaint. She's always focused and thankful for whatever's done. And no matter what people do for her, she always feels like it's too much. Her mother just bought her some needed clothing recently, and her mother sent me this text, a text saying that she said in response, Carly said in response, "Mom, you shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have spent all that money. You could have saved some of that for Christmas."
[19:25] Isn't it something that somebody, listen, I love teenagers, they're the greatest. Wasn't it great to see all these teenagers baptized this morning? I'm telling you, but you, you may have heard what is supposed to happen with a teenager. When they get to be 13, you put them in a box, you put a hole in the top of the box so you can feed them and they can breathe. Then when they get to be 17, you plug the hole. Well, Carly is 17, but she does not have an entitlement mentality. It is an appreciation mentality, and her life is filled with blessing and she is seeking to serve the Lord because of that spirit of gratitude, that attitude of gratitude. And there is such blessing, there's such blessing in doing what we ought to do.
[20:19] Look in the Scriptures to James 1:25, James chapter 1 and verse 25. And we read these words, no, excuse me, John 13:17. First of all, now that you know these things, you will be blessed if what? I'm glad you're paying attention. You do them. And then in James 1:25, but whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives, see, this is where the freedom comes. This is where the joy comes, is when we are doing what we need to do. And I know, I know those storms are scary. Listen, I've got a park trailer down in the beach at BAH camp on the St.
[21:07] John River, and every year I am worried whether the river's going to come up and that trailer's gonna float away. I have to pull it out every so often 'cause of the flooding that takes place. But it's always a concern. There is no real peace. It's always keeping me wondering about what's going on. Now here in Moncton where my home is, I don't have to worry about any of that. The winds can come and everything, because it's solid foundation and there's nothing to be concerned about. So whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom. Now here's the, here's what's really important and continues. That's that practicing, keep doing it in it, not forgetting what they have heard but doing it. They will be blessed in what they do.
[21:56] And so God help us to do what we had to do. Now here's the problem. When a person has an entitlement mentality, no matter what is done, it's not enough. That's what an entitlement mentality is. Here's the problem with that. They're always going to be in a funk. They're always gonna be disappointed. They're always going to be, there's always gonna be something they feel bad about because whoever did whatever they did, it wasn't enough. So what does that lead to? I'm telling you, you talk about mental health issues that can be so devastated that leads to a feel sorry for myself mentality that leads to a victim mentality that leads to a blame mentality.
[22:47] Think of all those negative things that cause people to be depressed and cause these mental health issues. And what does that do? Once you have a victim mentality and a feel sorry for self mentality and a blame mentality that leads to an unforgiving mentality. And by the time you are obsessed and oppressed with all of that, it's no wonder that there's such burnout. There's no wonder that there's so many people that are suffering mental health issues because they do not have an appreciation mentality like Paul had when he was in the worst of circumstances.
[23:32] And he kept saying, think on these things and that the doing is what is a solid foundation. It is just as simple as that. But then there's something else that is critical for all of us who love the Lord, and that is to be in the house of the Lord when we have opportunity. Now I'm thankful for online ministry. I'm more thankful today than ever before. I think it's a great way for people to be introduced to see what's going on in a church and makes it a little easier for them to come to that church to see what it's all about. I'm thankful for the sake of the shut-ins that can't get out to churches. Isn't it wonderful that they can get that kind of ministry in their home? But I'll tell you, it is not good enough for the person who is supposed to be living for the Lord and serving the Lord and can be in church.
[24:34] The Bible says in Ephesians 4: 16, Ephesians 4:16, from Him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. There is something critical for a whole lot of good reasons as to why it is important for us to come together on a regular basis in the house of the Lord, and my friends, if we're not doing that, we're not doing the right thing. Amen. And so I know I'm preaching to the choir 'cause you're here this morning. I don't know how the people feel who are watching me online. But anyway, it is critical that we be in the house of the Lord. Now there, I'm just, we're not gonna dwell on this, but let me just give you a few reasons why that is important as we look on the screen here, 'cause I want us to see, look, I believe I possibly could get by without coming to church.
[25:41] I might be able to 'cause I've been a Christian for a long, long, long, long time. And so possibly I could do that. But there are people who are watching my life as an example to them. And there are new Christians who are watching your life. And if you are not here in the house of the Lord, they won't see the importance of being here in the house of the Lord, and then they will not be able to survive spiritually. So as a lot on our hands and being the example God would have us to be, and not only the example, listen, you can listen online and it can be helpful. But there is a power in preaching when you're in the meeting and in the service that you cannot get online.
[26:36] And then not only that, there is a sense of God's presence. Don't you love to be in a place where you can sense the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit? And we could sense that here this morning as we saw all the great things that were happening. And so that's another reason that we need to be in the house of the Lord. How can you have a ministry involvement in sitting on your couch at home? Everybody, according to this scripture we just read, needs to be built up in order to be involved in the work of the ministry. That's what that scripture is saying. Forget not the assembling of yourselves together. So for the sake of it, now I don't know about you, but when I come into this church and I see all these different nationalities here and I see the smiles of happy people knowing that there's hundreds and hundreds of people that are serving the Lord, just like I'm seeking to serve the Lord.
[27:35] That is a great encouragement to me that, when I get out there in the wild, wild world. And so we need that for each other's encouragement as believers. And now we're living in a day when people are coming from all over the world and people are spreading everywhere. So a lot of broken homes, and the church can be their family and the church can be their community. And we all need that community to build ourselves up in the faith and to be doing what we need to be doing to have our lives firmly fixed on a solid rock. And that rock is doing what Jesus said for us to do. Now we are all gonna face storms. We all do. We all have.
[28:32] But when we're doing the right thing, here's what we're doing. We're setting the sail of our life in such a way that those storms can propel us forward rather than devastating us. That's what happens when we do what we should do. Now, a great example of doing was a man by the name of Harry Steeves. That's Harry. Many of the people in this church would remember Harry Steeves, Harry and Beth. The family is here today because of COVID. There wasn't a funeral. He'd asked me to preach the funeral, so I'm gonna preach his funeral in five minutes or less.
[29:20] Harry was a pillar. He was a pillar to this church. He was a pillar to his family. He was a pillar to me. He was a pillar in the community because he did the right thing and he was involved in just what every ministry that a church has, didn't make any difference how high or low, how many, how much people knew about it behind the scenes or what it might be involved in community ministries as well. He served on our church board and he always was nudging me and I needed nudging. And he said, Pastor, always give an invitation every service of there because there might be people there that want to receive Christ as Savior. And he said, and the best thing that could ever be happening is baptisms.
[30:12] And I couldn't help but think how wonderful it is this morning when we are here, when I want to honor Harry as all of you who knew him would want me to do that. We had so many baptisms in this place this morning because that was a sign of what was most important, of a changed life, a person had been transformed from death unto life. And that's what Harry continually saw the church was all about. There's a verse in Daniel that says, he was highly esteemed, and we could all say that we knew Harry, he was highly esteemed. He was a doer. Living right, right attitude. All that I've been preaching about this morning. He was a perfect example.
[30:58] He was in church, rain or shine, storm or whatever it might be. He realized the importance of coming together in the house of the Lord. And when we built this facility, before we built this facility, there's a lot of debate that went on in our board about the size of the facility. Harry, God bless him, he insisted that it, this auditorium ought to be able to hold 2000 people. We don't have 2000 seats, but we can get 2000 people in this auditorium. We wanted to have a smaller art attempt. We didn't have the finances, but he put his money where his mouth was. And he said to me, I know somebody just sold his business, doesn't go to this church, But I know him well. He said, "Pastor, I think you ought to talk to him about a big gift to help us to build this church."
[31:54] Somebody didn't attend here, wasn't even a wean. And he wants me to go talk to that man about a big gift to this church. When Harry said jump, I said, "How high?" And so I did. And in today's money, that man gave towards this building close to $400,000 because of Harry, 'cause Harry had a vision. Harry was seeking to do the right thing. Now, I have in my life, as I look back, have faced some unbelievable storms, as you all. I'm not certainly, I don't feel one little tiny bit sorry for myself.
[32:42] I just feel overwhelmed with gratitude, really. But I tell you what, I do know this: the more I did the right thing, the easier it was to face the storms and to stand true and strong to what God had called me to be and to do. So I'm asking you this morning, will it be panic and fear, panic and pressure, or will it be peace and productivity? 'Cause when you have peace, then you can be productive. When you're panicking and living in fear, you're not much good. And we don't have to live that way when we are on the solid rock of doing the right thing. Now, I wanna ask a question.
[33:33] I think it's a question that everybody in this place should ask of themselves. You ready for it? If everybody was doing what I am doing, would they be doing what they should be doing? If everybody's doing what I am doing, how would things be in the family, the church, the work, whatever it may be? And the most important thing that you and I can do here, it is, we're talking about doing, the most important thing is to have a right relationship with Jesus Christ.
[34:24] And everybody in this place can have that right relationship. It's not about a religion, it's about a relationship with a Person. That Person is Jesus. And you may not know Him in a personal way, but you can before you leave this place. And you can know Him by just asking Him to come into your life and be your Savior so you can be doing the right thing. You can build your house on the rock, and it will not come crumbling down in the times, in the times of storm, by receiving Him into your life. And if you would like to do that, make that decision.
[35:09] There're not a whole lot of hoops you have to go through. It's just a matter of praying a simple prayer. And I'm going to pray that prayer right now. And then if you wanna pray that prayer after me, and you mean it from the bottom of your heart, you can leave this place knowing for sure that you are a child of God. Just pray this prayer silently to the Lord. Dear Lord Jesus, I am sorry for all that I have done to disappoint You by attitude and action. Please, Lord, forgive me and come into my heart, and right now make me Your child by giving me eternal life, that I might honor You daily in my life and live for You the rest of my life. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, friends, if you prayed that prayer, you can be storm proof.
[36:24] The storms of life may come, and you'll be standing on the solid rock, Christ Jesus. God bless you.