Below are notes to a sermon preached Sunday evening, July 07, 2002, at Gospel Light Baptist Church, Albany, Georgia. For more outlines, including a zipped file of all of my 1999, 2000, and 2001 sermon outlines, click on the link at the bottom of this note, and go to our website:

IF THE PILOTS ARE DRUNK THE PASSENGERS ARE IN TROUBLE!

By Michael D. O'Neal                      Pastor, Gospel Light Baptist Church                      Albany, Georgia

Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 22:29-40

Text: 1 Kings 22:31

1 Kings 22:31 But the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel.

Introduction: If you want to win a battle, take out the leadership of your enemy troops.

Everything rises or falls on leadership. God gives people leaders because they need them. If a leader wants his people to take one step, he has to take two steps to get them to do it.

Two America West pilots have been fired and have had their aviation licenses revoked. They tried to go to work while intoxicated. Their work? Piloting people thousands of feet above the ground from one part of the country to another.

I. IF THE PILOTS ARE DRUNK, THEN THE COUNTRY IS IN TROUBLE

Proverbs 29:12 If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.

Our rulers are the people who are piloting, or steering, our country. If they are "drunk," the citizens are in trouble!

A. Our law-enforcers - the Executive branch

B. Our law-makers - the Legislative branch

C. Our law-interpreters - the Judicial branch

II. IF THE PILOTS ARE DRUNK, THEN THE CHILDREN ARE IN TROUBLE

2 Chronicles 22:3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

I'm talking about people who are responsible for helping parents to guide their children from infancy to adulthood.

A. Public school teachers and administrators

B. Parents and adult relatives

C. Popular heroes for children

III. IF THE PILOTS ARE DRUNK, THEN THE CHURCH IS IN TROUBLE

Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

1 Peter 5:2-3 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3 Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.

Pastors are piloting people from earth to heaven.

Recent scandals in the Catholic church - sodomy, perversion

One independent Baptist pastor I know just left the ministry because of being untrue to his wife.

Another independent Baptist pastor I know, after a period of inactivity, just left fundamentalism and became a Southern Baptist pastor.

I'm talking about all kinds of leaders (assistant pastors, deacons, teachers, youth leaders, ministers of music, etc.) in churches, but especially pastors.

A. Pastors should be examples of doctrine

B. Pastors should be examples of devotion and holiness

C. Pastors should be examples of determination and faithfulness

Are you praying for your pastor?
Are you praying for men of God across our country?
Are you a leader of some sort in a church? If so, people are looking up to you.


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