ARTICLE #11: EXTRA CREDIT?

 Article XI - Of Works of Supererogation

Voluntary works—besides, over and above God's commandments—which they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. For by them men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake than of bounden duty is required; whereas Christ saith plainly: When you have done all that is commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants.

You know, when your teacher put bonus questions on the test or let you write essays and book reports for “extra credit”?  Well, jokes on you.  There’s no such thing as extra credit.

No matter how much “extra” work you did, you could never earn more for your final grade than the same 100 points possible for the students who didn’t do “extra” credit.  In fact, if a teacher sets up his/her grade book properly, the only way to get a 100 average is to do all of the regular assignments perfectly.  That so-called extra credit was really make-up work.  In the final grade, your extra points can’t earn you anything extra.    THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS EXTRA POINTS in a classroom.

No such thing as extra points in Heaven either.   

Way back in the day, the Roman Catholic Church began teaching the doctrine of supererogation. Supererogation is based on the (false) assumption that you can do enough good works to merit a place Heaven.  The idea of supererogation is that after you’d  earn enough spiritual brownie points to merit salvation, all the other good you did was credited as extra points of sanctification.

These extra points were like extra dollars in the bank. Priests and nuns, who went the extra mile with their vows of celibacy, and the officially recognized saints of the church, who were extra good and extra holy, all deposited extra good works into this account.  Add their deposits to the infinite merit of Jesus (which they believed was held in Heavenly escrow), and the Church had enough bonus points to issues extra credit to favored parishioners like a bank giving bonus checks to favored employees or a teacher gives extra credit to favored students.

Those extra bonus points are called indulgences.  You could buy an indulgence by making an extra-generous donation to the Catholic Church.   Get a big enough collection of indulgences, according to the Catholic doctrine, and you could redeem the points and buy your way out of Hell without even bothering with repentance.  You could even have indulgences allocated to a loved one who hadn’t been quite good enough to get into Heaven.  You heard it right, folks.  For the right price, you could pay somebody else’s way into Heaven.

It’s a very convenient system, especially if you’ve got money, like the wealthy European nobles who financed the building of cathedrals, or if you’re a powerful church that needs to finance the building of cathedrals all over Europe. 

Then came along the founders of the Protestant movement who saw a “small” problem with the Catholic doctrine of supererogation.  The problem is that supererogation IS TOTALLY MADE-UP AND THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS.    Supererogation is a myth.  There is not extra credit.

The Bible gives a least 4 reasons why we don’t do supererogation:

1.  We can’t be good enough.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6: 23)

Salvation and grace are called gifts but scripture calls death our wages.  The only thing you, I, celibate clergy, and canonized saints have earned is the judgment of eternal death in Hell.  When we receive grace and salvation it’s because God gave us what we did not deserve.  

Job was such a good man that God called him “blameless” (Job 1); but even Job affirmed that it was impossible for him or anyone else to be demand grace on the basis of personal merit.

Then Job answered and said: “Truly I know it is so, But how can a man be righteous before God? If one wished to contend with Him, He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.”  (Job 9: 1-3)

In the New Testament, Paul, one of the officially recognized saints of the Roman Catholic Church, reiterated that  nobody is good enough, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

2. We can’t buy God’s grace. 

We can give financial offerings to the Lord through church and charity, but you can’t give one of God’s representatives a check and then demand a spiritual gift from Heaven when they cash it.  Just trying to do that ticks God off.   Just ask Simon the magician (Acts 8).

But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great,... And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!  You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” (Acts 8: 9-24)

Peter (whom Catholics call a saint and the first pope) didn’t grant Simon and indulgence, he hit Simon with a curse for having the blasphemous audacity to think he could purchase a spiritual gift like it was a pizza.  (Or whatever people ordered in the 1^st century.)

3. Works are not transferable.

Your works and your sin are between you and God.  Mine are between me and God.  When it’s time for judgment, we each individually mind our own business.

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. (Ezekiel 18: 20)

This Old Testament principle was always meant to apply to the New Testament Covenant of the church.  That’s why in Jeremiah 29, God restated the Mosaic principle of individual responsibility AND connected it to the prophesied new covenant.

But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… (Jeremiah 31: 30-31)

4.  We already owe God EVERYTHING.

Jesus said:  “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12: 30-31)

ALL.  You can’t store up extra when you’re required to give ALL.

It is our duty to give God every good deed we’ve done, every good deed it’s possible for us to do, and all the good deeds we will never have a chance to do. 

Jesus broke it down for His disciples in Luke 17.  He sarcastically told them that expecting extra reward for serving God was like a household servant in the first century expecting his master to let him eat before he fixed the master’s supper.

“So likewise you when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’ ” (Luke 17: 10)

We don’t get extra points for tithes, or love offerings, or sowing seeds, or whatever we’re calling money this week.  Technically, we already owe God 100%.

We don’t get bonus points for helping the less fortunate.  It is our duty to do unto the least of these as though we were doing it unto Jesus.  (Mark 25)

We don’t get extra credit for attending church regularly.  That’s our duty. (Hebrews 10:25)

There are no extra points for shouting, responding to the sermon, and praising God. Randomly pick 3 Psalms and you’ll see praise commanded in at least two of them.

In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17: 28).  There’s nothing extra left over from that.

One day I was trying to convince a young man to be more active in church life.  He said, “Rev.  I’m saved.  Ain’t that enough.  Do I get extra points for doing more stuff.”

I won’t tell you what I said back, but I wish I had said, “Sorry, but there are no supererogatory works.”

It’s not enough to get saved and just be saved. 

You’re not doing God a favor by showing up to church and Bible study and work in the community.

There’s no such thing as extra credit.   You’re just doing what you are supposed to do, anyway.

And honestly, we owe Him even more than that.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

Blogging through the Articles of Religion: OF GOOD WORKS, featuring guest blogger: Tony Ares

Article X - Of Good Works

Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit.

I have no better words to explain good works than those of my long-distance brother from another mother, Tony Ares.  

The following is an article in it's entirety from Tony's afreshword.org 

Rich Son, Poor Son

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭8-9‬ KJV)

One of the hardest spiritual obstacles that Christians have to overcome is the “works based” mindset. Today many so called Christians are going to church, volunteering and giving money in order to get to heaven. They work to get to heaven, instead of working gratefully because of what Jesus did to get them to heaven.

An analogy or metaphor that I have embraced is that of the rich son and the poor son.

A poor son is taught to “grind” because he has to if he wants to be successful. The poor son is defined by his works. If the poor son doesn’t work, he is assigned a room in his private version of hell on Earth. The poor son is dependent on himself and his labor to make it on this planet.

The rich son is born successful. He is taught to work hard not to be successful but to be thankful! He is thankful for the family that he was born into. The rich son is not defined by his works but his family name. (Think Rockefeller, DuPont or Kennedy.) If the rich son doesn’t work, he will disappoint his Father and besmirch the family name, but he will still be in the family and he will still be loved. The rich son works hard because excellence is his identity. The rich son works because of who his daddy is.

We should go to what we call ‘church.’ We should help in the community. We should witness the Gospel. We should give. We should do all of that! We should do that because it’s what a true Child of God does. It is our identity. We should never do those things in order to “make it”.

I was raised in a poor neighborhood. I identify every day with the working class or the poor man. Physically Jesus wants us to be empathetic to the needy. From a soteriological and spiritual perspective though, I am retraining my brain to think of myself as a rich son. Why?

-Cause my daddy in heaven is RICH!

-I am going to heaven, not because of my works but for the family name….Jesus!

I work hard for the family business not to be saved but for the love and appreciation that I have for my daddy!

(paraphrase of Galatians 4:1-7)

Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they own everything their father had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

- See more at: http://afreshword.org/search/rich#sthash.iD5bPjaC.dpuf

WHO IS THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SOUL? (Blogging the Articles of Religion, Article #8)

My father told me, “Son, nothing is free, not really.”

That basically summarizes the  church’s doctrine on free will.   Your will is not free.  Not really.

Article VIII - Of Free Will

The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.

Let’s break that down.

The condition of man after the fall of Adam

There’s a scene in the movie “The Hunt for Red October” where a submarine commander fires on another sub, but his torpedo turns and hits his own boat.   As the torpedo is about to make impact, one of the sailors turns to the captain and screams, “You arrogant ____, you’ve killed US!”

That sailor wanted to win that underwater battle, but his desires, his will  didn’t do  any good.   His end was decided by his captain’s decisions.    

That’s what Adam (and Eve) did to us.  Adam, that arrogant _____, killed us and nullified our ability to do ourselves any good, to do any good ourselves.

In Genesis 2:16, 17, God told Adam that the day----the DAY!---- he ate from the forbidden tree, he would die.  But, Adam didn’t drop dead the day that he ate from the forbidden tree.

So, either (1) God lied;  (2) the entire story is made up and the author had enough creativity to make up the story but didn’t have enough sense to reconcile his own inconsistencies; or (3) THERE’S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO DIE.

Paul called Christians, you [whom] He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2: 11)

In Matthew 8:22, Jesus told a potential disciple: Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.  Paul and Jesus knew that there’s more than one kind of dead.

When Adam sinned he died spiritually, and passed that death to all his descendants.

He spiritually killed US.

For as in Adam all die… (1 Corinthians 15: 22)

The condition of every human being ever born is naturally a state of spiritual deadness.

[man] cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God

The common human death in Adam isn’t just the biological entropy that leads inevitably to organ failure and the cessation of brain activity.  The Adam death in all of us means that no matter how much we want to be “good people” we cannot turn our own souls out of the path of sin.

We know the torpedo is headed right at us, but we can’t change course enough to avoid it, for two reasons: 

(1) We are spiritually dead in the water.  We don’t have the spiritual power to force our flesh out of our way;  

(2) Even if we had the energy, we’re not steering the boat.  Our sin addiction (original sin) is running the show.

It’s like what God told Cain when Cain was wrestling with his anger: sin lies at the door, and its desire is to have you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 4: 7)

Sin was captain of Cain’s ship.   Article 8 teaches that sin is captain of all our ships.  As long as we live, act, and think in the ways that come naturally, sin will always turn our lives into the path of oncoming sin.

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2: 14)

We can’t turn out lives away from sin.  We can’t even turn our lives toward God.

In our natural state of spiritual deadness, sin rules our lives so thoroughly that left on our own without any Divine intervention, none of us would ever come to saving faith in Jesus.

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.  It  does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  (Romans 8:7)

The doctrine teaches that when you give your life to Christ it is isn’t because you unilaterally decided, “O.K.  I’m done with sin.  I wanna be right now.”   The desire to seek God only happens because has God reached into your life and called you to that decision.

Jesus told His disciples You did not choose Me, but I chose you (John 15:16).

we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God

One day, a man walked up to Jesus and called Him “Good Master.”  Jesus replied:  Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.  (Mark 10:17, 18)

When Jesus said that God alone is good, He was using good as a noun, not an adjective.  Like when an old West sheriff would say, “I am the law.” 

Jesus wanted His questioner to understand that God is goodness itself.  Therefore, “good” is what God says it is.   

In this life you and I can do things that are “good” in the eyes of other people.  We can act, speak, and think in ways that society, the media, the government, and the international court of human rights  would describe as “good.”

But that doesn’t make it good----- to God.   

Which is why without faith it is impossible to please Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Our actions can only be spiritually and eternally “good” when we do our good works in the context of a spiritually life-giving relationship with God.

By the way, that’s also why faith without works is dead. (James 2: 17-26)

without the grace of God by Christ preventing us

Saving faith results from an act of God, the intrusion of God’s grace breaking the death-grip sin has on our lives.  The formal language in the Articles of Religion is “ the grace of God preventing us.”

Because salvation begins with God not us, the conditions of genuine saving faith are set by God not by individual Christians.  And God always chooses people so that they can be fruitful in works that He considers good.

You did not choose Me, but I chose you

And why did Jesus choose them?  Keep reading.

….I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 

Jesus hates unfruitfulness.  Hypocrisy and unfruitfulness.  Those two things pissed Jesus off more than anything else.  Go back and read His parables.  Unfruitfulness irritated Jesus so much that He once cursed a fig tree for not producing figs, and it wasn’t even fig season. (Mark 11: 11-20)

When God gives faith it always produces the fruit of good works.  If your faith isn’t producing good works, then you might wanna check the tag on your faith and see where it came from.

The saving  grace of God prevents/ delivers us from the unfruitfulness of spiritual death in Adam and quicken us (gives us new life) in Christ so that we are transformed into good-works-doing, fruitful believers.

(the grace of God by Christ preventing us) that we may have a good will

When we are living naturally we feel like we’re in control, like we are free to choose.  But nothing’s really free about it, not really.

Without God’s intervening grace you and I are stuck in our little boats of flesh underneath the waves of life and going wherever Captain Sin tells ua.  Not only do we do what sin orders us to do, but we want what sin orders us to want.

Our bodies and mind are enslaved to sin.   

The grace of God by Jesus Christ intervenes so that our bodies and minds are no longer conscripted into the service of sin.

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  (Romans 6: 6)

God frees our will to do His will.

It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)

(the grace of God by Christ ) working with us, when we have that good will  

Surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ gives us the spiritual life we didn’t know we never had and begins a process of spiritual transformation by which we shake off the sin-slave mentality and begin to live like who we were made to be, like who Adam was originally made to be.

Free.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.  ((John 8:36)

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

HOW MUCH FAITH DOES A DEMON HAVE?

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!  (James 1: 19)

I have three questions for you.

Question #1:  How much faith does an angel have?

The correct answer is NONE.

You see, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (Hebrew 11: 1)

Angels live every moment in the direct experience of God’s presence.  They don’t hope to enter Heaven.  They live there.  They don’t BELIEVE that the unseen God is real; they SEE Him every day.  Therefore, angels don’t have faith.  They don’t need faith. They KNOW.  And because they KNOW, angels OBEY.

Question #2:  How much faith does a demon have?

That’s a little more complicated.  Demons are, after all, former angels.  They have seen God directly.  They’ve spent time in Heaven.  And, according to Job chapter 1, demons (or at least the head demon) have been called before God on multiple occasions since their fall from Heaven.  

But according to James 1: 20, demons BELIEVE in God.  So maybe,  for the angels who’ve fallen, Heaven is something they can’t see anymore.  God’s direct presence is lost to them, and all they have to convince them that what they once knew was really real is ------ faith.

So the answer to question #2 is:  Demons have as much faith as you and I do.

Which brings us to -----

Question #3:  What makes us humans better than angels or demons?

Demons believe in God,  but they disobey Him.   They have faith but not good works.   Angels obey God, but they don’t  have faith. (Faith isn’t necessary when there’s certainty.)  They have works but no faith.

Human beings, among all known sentient life forms, are capable of both faith AND works.

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?   (James 1: 18-20)

In the resurrection we will, as Jesus said in Matthew 22: 30, be like angels of God in heaven.   We will KNOW God, and faith will be fulfilled and finished.

But in this life, we get to be more than angels---- the fallen ones and the glorified ones.  In this life we get to trust God even when we can’t see Him.  We get to listen hard and hear God’s voice through all the static of earthly life.  We get to obey God’s Word in an environment that has evolved to get us to do anything except obey God’s Word.  We get to show the angels and the demons how it’s done.

When you look at it like that, we’ve got a pretty cool opportunity here.

Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? (1 Corinthians 6: 3)

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

The Holy Ghost Makes You Do What?

Acts 2 tells the story of Pentecost, the birthday of the New Testament church.  Verses 41-47 lists what happened in the church when the disciples became empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

The list goes something like this:

Verse 41

1.       Baptism

2.       Numerical growth by conversion

Verse 42

3.       Bible study

4.       Fellowship

5.       Eating together

6.       Praying together

Verse 43

7.       Collective fear of/ reverence for God

8.       Miraculous wonders

9.       Miraculous/ prophetic signs

Verses 44, 45

10.   Pooling financial resources

11.   Meeting financial needs through shared resources

Verse 46, 47

12.   Public worship and

13.   Powerful effect on the surrounding community

14.  Repeating all of the above

It's a long list, and you’ll notice that it includes the words "wonders" and "signs."   But signs and wonders are only PART of the litany of activities that come out of a Holy Ghost empowered church.

If we ignore the reality of miracles, we're quenching the Spirit.  We’re selling the Holy Spirit short.

If we ignore everything except miracles, we also are selling the Spirit short.

A church filled with and empowered by the Holy Ghost may, for example, speak in tongues and prophesy (and they might not).  But if the members of the church ONLY speaks in tongues and prophesy; but they don’t help anybody, or teach anybody, or touch their neighborhood, or love each other, or do anything with their tithes other than make the building and the pastor look fancier and fancier----- then that church is missing out on the Holy Ghost just as much as those poor Christians who no longer believe in miracles.

The church with no wonders and signs and the church with wonders and signs only are equally incomplete in ministry.

And if we stay satisfied with either extreme we become the kind of Christians that Paul warned Timothy about.   We become people having a form of godliness but denying its power.(2 Timothy 3: 5)

Jesus promised His disciples that after He sent them the Holy Spirit they would take His ministry farther.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. (John 14: 12)

Remember that Jesus did many great works, and not all of them were miracles.  Jesus healed, but He taught more than He healed.

Jesus multiplied physical and financial resources, and He also advocated for the poor and the marginalized.

Jesus prophesied and discerned the thoughts of other, and He systematically explained the scriptures and applied Biblical teaching to contemporary life.
Jesus came out and preached to mass gatherings of people, and He spent years training and discipling a small group of future leaders.

Jesus did everything on the Acts chapter 2 list.  And He expects that we who truly believe in Him will do even greater, even more of the same things He did.

And that is what Holy Spirit filled ministry looks like.  

Jesus said, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14: 26)

ALL things that Jesus said.  ALL of the same things.  Not just the miraculous things, but also the equally important and not so spectacular works of a Holy Spirit-filled ministry.

This Pentecost season, I pray that we all seek and find, ask for and receive the fullness of Christ’s ministry.  May this Pentecost make today’s church like the New Testament church on Pentecost.  May we all grow into the full ministry of the Holy Spirit.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

“Do it for the Vine!”

For those who don’t know, “The Vine” is an app that allows users with no other media software or skills  to make short videos on their phones.  The videos upload to social media and automatically play in a loop whenever anyone scrolls past. 

This app has become so popular that it’s birthed a new social slogan:  “Do it for the vine!”

When someone yells, “Do it for the vine!” you’re supposed to go crazy for the next few seconds.  They want you to do something video worthy. 

You were going to walk away from the argument because it wasn’t going anywhere good. 

No.  Fight instead.  Come on.

Do it for the vine.

You were going to bob your head to the music and keep on walking.

No.  Pull up your skirt and twerk instead.  Come on. 

Do it for the vine.

To “do it for the vine” you have to make a deliberate choice to ACT.  You can’t just sit there “for the vine.”  You can’t just stand around passively observing “for the vine.”  You have to get up and with all your energy DO SOMETHING “for the vine.”

Social media has made this call to choice and action a call to foolishness and self-degradation.

But like many cultural sins, the current trend is a corruption of something good.

You see, before we had an app for that, Jesus was telling people to “do it for the Vine.”

In John chapter 15, Jesus said,   “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser…I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.(John 15: 5)

Jesus is the true Vine and He wants us to be a part of Him-----and not a passive part.  The Lord commands the branches of His Vine  to DO something.

But not just any something.

If you are in Christ, if the Lord Jesus is in your heart, if He is Lord of your life, etc., etc. , then you should produce a certain type of fruit.

John the Baptist called it fruits worthy of repentance (Matthew 3: 8)

If you have truly repented of your sins and been engrafted into Jesus the True Vine, then you’ll talk to people as though you have left your sins behind not like you’re looking forward to sinning more.  (Colossians 4: 6)

If you’ve really received Jesus as your Lord and Savior then you’ll do your job (whatever that is) as though the integrity of your work was an expression of worship. (Ephesians 6: 6, 7)

If you are part of the Jesus Vine for real, then you will live in such a way that even when surrounded by the darkness of a sinful world, your good works shine as such a light before people that those who see you give glory to God.(Matthew 5: 16)

Speak, and act, and work, and live as though every choice were going to be played back in a loop for Jesus to watch.

Cause it kinda is.

But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.  (Matthew 12: 34)

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  (Matthew 7: 19)  

What we SAY about ourselves is just the caption we place under the scene.  The truth of where we stem from is recorded in our actions every day, every moment.

“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” Jesus said. (Matthew 7: 16)

At any given moment, someone may entice you to do something.  To show out.  To let go and show off the real you.

Do it for the vine!

But before you decide what to do, ask yourself:   Which vine?

Which vine are you part of?    Your fruit will tell.

Which vine defines you?  Your choice will answer.

Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. …Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (Matthew 7: 17-20)  

Jesus told His disciples, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. (John 15: 3, 4)

He promised that If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. (John 15: 7, 8)

Jesus said that the good that is Him is already in you.  Just hold to His Word. Just rest in His presence.

Jesus said that if you abide in/ find your center in Him & His Word that you can bear good fruit.  Any good thing you want to accomplish you can do.

If you abide in Christ and in His Word, if you lose yourself and find yourself in Jesus, then you’ll be able to hear it---- the sound of Jesus chanting, “Come on, my child.  Show them what you got!  Get up.  Do your thing.  Bear My fruit.”

Do it for The Vine!

(Acknowledgement:  This blog post was my wife's idea.  God gave her the title and the concept.  She told me that I had to write it.  The Holy Spirit in us both did the rest.)

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

SOME THINGS IN THE CHURCH NEED TO STOP--NOW!

The New Testament church of Corinth was a fellowship full of great potential and great problems.  Sorta like the church I pastor.

Through the opening of 1 Corinthians, God spoke to me of the principles that underlie or undermine the success of a church.  This is a very direct and personal message, a sermon for my congregation that may help yours.

The message is simple.  THERE ARE SOME THINGS IN THE CHURCH THAT NEED TO STOP---NOW!
Listen well.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to:
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116