MZ/IB Archive - 08/15/2021: The Sin Series (Part 5) - Worship in the Face of Sin

Every time a new episode of this series is published I end up saying, "This is the best one yet," but the problem is that it keeps being true.

The first time I developed the 2 Chronicles, chapter 20 allegory of how to fight sin, was 1995. I had studied it up and gotten it down, and by April of that year I was ready to present it.

I wish I could remember the full name of the organizer. His first name was Bob and he lived in Centerville, Ohio. He set up a conference the week before Easter at a conference room at a Holiday Inn in that city. That month would be the second time I would ever speak publicly. It was the first time I was officially invited, having been drafted off-the-cuff by Ted McDivitt the previous October to present a talk in Windham, Ohio.

As fate (i.e. God) would have it, there was also a Mary Kay gathering at that hotel, one conference room over. I don't know if anyone knows anything about Mary Kay conferences, but they are boisterous in the vein of football rallies. By the time I got up to speak on this subject of 2 Chronicles chapter 20, the Mary Kay brigade were doing their thing to the tune of "Funky Town." Literally, they were playing "Funky Town." Loudly. They were playing it so loudly, in fact, that the walls of our room (being of the constitution of cardboard) could not withhold the pounding strains of the 1979 disco hit.

Bob was mortified. I made a joke about it from the podium. In retrospect, what I should have done was toss aside my notes and start dancing. I should have said, "Ladies and gentlemen, there is no way that King Jehoshaphat of Israel can compete with Funky Town, so let's all just hit the dance floor and call it a night." Instead, I soldiered on. Fortunately, there is no recording of that talk. If you want to know what that talk sounded like, just put on "Funky Town."

After that, I knew that I had to redo the presentation at another conference. I looked for an opportunity, as this was a presentation near and dear to my heart. The opportunity arrived in the fall of 1996, when Pastor Robert Allen Jr. of Newport News, Virginia, invited me to address his assembly over the weekend of November 8. Fortunately, Mary Kay was not in attendance.

As I listen to this recording again after twenty-five years, it still brings tears to my eyes. The truths here are so poignant and applicable. The analogy between King Jehoshaphat's "war" against Edom, Moab, and Ammon and our war against Sin is unmistakeable. Here in Newport News, the comparison was fully developed. If, up until this place in the series, there are any in my audience yet unsure that the best way to fight Sin is to ignore it and tend to Christ, this presentation will push you over the edge.

As always, Rodney Paris does a sterling job putting video and text frames to the audio recording. As I have been telling you, these messages from the Sin Series were recorded on a cassette recorder—albeit a good one. It was a Marantz deck that I "scored" from the treasures of Louis Abbot of Stover, Missouri, who had invited Dean Hough, Gary Amiralut, Phil Scranton, and myself to choose what we wanted from his vaunted library shortly before he died of stomach cancer. This happened, I believe, in the winter of 1994. But who listens to cassette tapes anymore? So thanks to Rodney Paris, to whom I have shipped and will ship around one hundred of these analog recordings made between 1994 and 2001.

I am thrilled to commend this message to you. The truth is as fresh today as it was back then, as it was when the details of the Israelite "war" against Edom, Moab and Ammon were first recorded by an inspired man of God, who was probably Ezra. Additionally, Rodney knows just what old video of mine to tack onto the end, and here he presents the entire "Grace Has Power" episode from the Crack O' Dawn series, published on November 16, 2010.

Does it get any better than this? Unless you're having a hot cup of coffee and a buttered biscuit as you watch, I don't see how.

Remaining yours from the edge of the bottom of the Floridan peninsula,

—Martin
Martin's website: http://www.martinzender.com/