September 7, 2024
INDIANAPOLIS — A couple of weeks ago, a huge storm hit the building of Jack Graham’s church, Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, Texas.
“The 90-mile-an-hour winds just blew out the side of our beautiful worship center,” said Graham, Prestonwood’s senior pastor.
The engineers told him that when the hurricane-force wind hit the wall, because of the vacuum on the inside of the empty worship center, the pressure created a massive explosion.
“What a picture of our lives, that when the pressure comes, if there’s nothing on the inside, if there’s not the superstructure of character within, the pressures from the outside will blow us up,” Graham told those present at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference on June 10 in Indianapolis.
“We see so often men who are burning out, others who are wiping out, but either way, they’re out,” he said. “So often it is an issue of character.”
Preaching from 1 Timothy 4, Graham challenged pastors to keep watch on their character.
“Character is what we are at the core,” he said. “There are nonbelievers who have character of a kind, but we have something different at the core of our lives. At the core, there is Christ in us.”
In essence, character is Christlikeness, he said.
“It’s godliness … character at the core of our being so when the winds of time and change and chaos blow against us, there will be strength to withstand those storms,” Graham said. “It is not perfection, but it is progression and consistency.”
Pastors are to live lives that are true and tenaciously trustworthy, he said. “Unfortunately in ministry, even among pastors, we often have a masquerade — posers and pretenders, posturers, fraudulent, people who are more interested in their image than in their integrity.”
God is not interested in a person’s image; He’s interested in them growing in godliness and being an example, Graham said.
“Be very careful about getting involved in other things that can take you out, take you off the calling of God,” he said.
Instead, he challenged them to focus on tackling what God gives them today, then wake up tomorrow and do it again.
“When we are in dark times, that’s when character is formed. It’s in adversity that we grow our character,” Graham said. “Some of you pastors, you are close to giving up. One of my reasons for giving this message here this evening is to say don’t do it.”
He challenged them not to lose their joy.
“If you need a break, take a break,” he said. “Sometimes you just need to reboot … but don’t you quit.”
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This story first appeared in The Baptist Paper.
