By Steve Higginbotham
Last Sunday, our shepherds revealed our theme for the year, “Faithful Living: Holding Fast the Pattern” (2 Timothy 1:13). This theme or emphasis for the upcoming year is very timely. We live in a time when we’re hearing about and seeing things in our nation and in our churches that we would have never thought we would be seeing and hearing.
Surely, no one would argue that our national morals have not slipped. We don’t bat an eye at divorce. There is no shame in living together outside the bonds of marriage. We’ve become foolish in our attempt to mainstream gender-related issues such as homosexuality, transgenderism, and gender fluidity.
But it’s not just our society. The problem is found in our churches today. Many churches have adopted beliefs and practices that the generations before them stood firmly against.
The problem? The pattern set forth in God’s word has not been held fast. People have taken their eyes off of the “old paths,” thinking they are antiquated, irrelevant, and ineffective in meeting the needs of people today.
Quite the contrary! I am convinced that the answers people are seeking today are not shrouded behind curtains of change but are clearly manifested in the pattern set forth in the past.
The time has come when preachers need to dust off some of those old sermon outlines that have been tucked away for years in the back of filing cabinets or in computer files that haven’t been accessed in years and preach them again.
The hope for our future rests in the past. To move forward, we must go back to the pattern set forth in Scripture. Forget about political correctness, cultural relevance, and pragmatism, and “Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16).