PUT THIS IN YOUR RESPONSE REPERTOIRE BAG

This Sunday morning, I’m going to give you something to put in your response repertoire bag. It will come in handy in the event that someone who is not involved in the work of your local church opposes the project(s) your congregation has prayerfully undertaken. I’m talking about people who try to discourage you, dissuade you, or divert your dedication to putting forth the effort to complete your project(s) and as a result, grow your church, and expand the kingdom of God on this earth. This response that I will give you in a minute will also work with non-believers and non-church going saints that have slipped into the river of worldliness that causes one to drift further and further away from the not only the house of God, but the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Let me be honest. This response did not come from my limited intellectual capability. My response did not come from months of research to reach a recommended response. In fact, I didn’t have to do a lot of work at all to come up with this response that I suggest you put in your response repertoire bag. I simply borrowed the exact words that Nehemiah spoke to the those who were opposed to God’s people rebuilding the broken-down wall of Jerusalem. Yeah, it’s from the word of God.  So, listen! This response will work when critics say, “You don’t have enough resources.” Or perhaps if they will say, “You don’t have enough people or money.” This response will still work. In such situations, your critics obviously do not know that if God is in the work, we have a Go-to-Source of who the Psalmist says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” They obviously do not know that we have a Go-to-Source of who Luke wrote about in the gospel that he penned, referring to the verse that says, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”  They obviously don’t realize the value of many instances in the Bible where people, like David, and Shamgar, and even the Master when He fed the 5,000 plus with two fish and five loaves of bread, took small means and brought about great results through faith.

Now when you pull this response out of your response repertoire, speak in love, speak revealing your faith, and speak factually. Remembering Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis theory, that described every person as having a Parent, Adult, and Child part of their personality. In other words, don’t talk down, as a parent to a child. Don’t talk upwardly as a child to a parent. Just speak adult to adult in a fact-to-fact manner. Even more important, and perhaps I should have put this first: Follow Jesus teaching, “Treat others like you want to be treated.” Hence there will be no need to show out or show off or even shout as you reply to your opposition. Just state the truth like Nehemiah did below in the closing verse.

My friend, if you can’t remember it all, remember the words I have highlighted in bold print. Put this in your response repertoire bag! Have a great worship experience today. Be blessed.

“So I answered them and said to them, “The God of heaven will make us successful; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no part, right, or memorial in Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:20 Modern English Version)  

Committed to the climb,

Mark L. King