Monday, August 20, 2012

Targeting People from the Pulpit


Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%


@#$%

    Harold is one of my best friends in the whole world; and that's even after we were undershepherds together for many years near Pittsburgh.

    He left the mob and then another franchise because God told him to be on staff avec moi.

    Seriously.

    I think, talk, and write a lot about him; because, uh, God has used him so much to make and mold what I'm still becoming.

    I'm just scratching the surface of my relationship with F/S/HS.

    Anyway, I expect him to join my covenant brothers and sons to preach at my memorial service; unless, of course, I preach at his first.

@#$%

    I'll never forget when Harold was confronted right in front of me by an angry woman: "When Dr. Kopp was away last Sunday, you targeted me in the sermon.  You preached that sermon just about me.  You embarrassed me in front of my family and friends and made me feel so guilty that I didn't want to come back.  I can't believe you did that to me in front of everybody."

    I've heard that.

    Most preachers have.

    Harold's response is the truth: "I'm sorry you feel that way; and I'm sorry you're so arrogant to think that I think about you when preparing sermons to help people get closer to Jesus."

    People who feel targeted from the pulpit are so ego-centered; thinking it's all about them.

    Then Harold added, "But if the shoe fits..."

    People who feel targeted from the pulpit usually are; but not by the messengers.

    Selah.

@#$%

    That comes to mind as I think of people who already know everything and don't need Sunday School, continuing education, or...

    Truth - Harold always told/tells it - is some people act like they already know everything about Him and what it means to follow Him by their absence from Sunday School, continuing education, and...

    Some people are sooooooo arrogant.

    Thesis 11 from Fifteen Secrets: "When you think you've arrived, it's time to start over."

    If we're not moving closer to Jesus, we're moving away from Him.

    If the shoe fits...

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

2 comments:

Robert said...

I've been thinking of instituting the sin of the week, like a game show, where we feature a particular sin and have a spotlight to surprise the guilty person in the pew-- of course, I get to choose

and now, for the sin of gluttony, come on down....

some have told me attendance would drop like a rock in a pond -- I think we will have great attendance to see who gets slammed next....of course, we might try it at Presbytery first....

RS said...

Too busy today? Really short KD!
I must confess, I think I did target a woman at the Forks once in a sermon. She had this crazy idea that her dead father was speaking to her or somehow directing her through some sky/cloud/heavens formation or occurence. I guess I didn't do well disguising the fact that I tried to say that getting our information any other way [signs in the sky, horoscopes, etc.] than from Scripture was not Biblically good.
And she & husband left the church [of course], she never forgiving me when I tried to go to her home [as matter of fact, never affirmed the fact of what I did because I said I wasn't totally sure how I offended her and would she please share it with me and she responded: "You mean you don't know what you did?"]
She's been my great illustration over the years of someone being forgiven $1 million of debt [by Jesus, for all her sin against F/S/HS] and then wringing the neck of someone who owed her about $20 [my still undeclared completely understood sin against her].