Godly Misfits

In 1960, Hollywood took two of its biggest names and put them together in a movie. It would turn out to be the last completed film for each of them. He would die 12 days after the film was finished, and she would die the following year after the film's release. At that time, they were two of Hollywood's biggest icons, and almost everyone recognizes their names, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. The film was titled The Misfits. It was finished November 4, 1960. Two days later, Clark Gable had a heart attack. Ten days after that heart attack, he was dead. The film was released on what would have been his 60th birthday, February 1, 1961, and the year following that, Marilyn Monroe was dead. Now, the name of the film, The Misfits, was very appropriate, both to, number one, the plot of the movie, and number two, the reality of them working together. In fact, many said that the stress of working together, along with Clark Gable doing most of his own stunts at his age, triggered his heart attack and death. The plot was about two people that were misfits, and the ironic reality was that in their working relationship together, they truly were misfits. Fits. Misfits. Things that fit, things that don't.

We've all heard sayings like, well, you know, he's just not the right fit for the job. Or, he's a square peg in a round hole. We need to look further. Or, somebody would say, well, that's a very fitting situation. Now, take John Wayne. And who hasn't heard of John Wayne? His last movie was The Shootist. And it was a very fitting finish to his movie career. Most of his movies had been Westerns. And he wound up dead of cancer June the 10th, 1979. And The Shootist was a very fitting finish to his career because The Shootist was about an aging gunfighter who was dying of cancer. And it was made three years before his death. I like Webster's. I like the short form of it. It's easier to carry around one of those little short forms. But if you look under the word misfit in Webster's, it says, number one, something that does not fit as a garment of the wrong size. I can't buy this dress. It doesn't fit. Or, I can't buy this pair of slacks. It doesn't fit. Or, oh, this one fits just fine. But something that does not fit, Webster says, as a garment of the wrong size or state of being unsuitable. And number two, it says, a person poorly adapted to his job, society, etc.

Now, we take the term misfit. It's an interesting term. Everybody knows what it means, don't we? You don't fit in. You fill out a place. I would dare say, I'm not a betting man, but if I were betting, I would bet there's not a person in here who at one time or another with something hasn't felt out of place. Felt they didn't really fit in. Now, it might have been with a social group, a certain circle, it might have been with a certain gathering, it might have been with a school, a new school, a neighborhood, a community, or whatever. But that feeling of not fitting in can range from the minor to the majors.

You know, for those who are striving to hold their ground with truth, the world around them is moving further and further away. The gap is getting wider and wider, and the contrast is becoming more and more pronounced. I'm not turning to Romans 1, and I'm not turning to 2 Timothy 3 today. I did turn to 2 Timothy 3 three weeks ago when I was here. But as our world fits the description of Romans 1, and as our world fits the meaning of 2 Timothy 3, especially verses 1 through 5, more and more. You and I, we, misfit more and more. And as our nation declares its sins as Sodom, let me give you a verse. Just jot this down. Isaiah 3 verse 9. It's a prophecy in one sense. Isaiah 3 and verse 9. It says, It says, they declare their sins as Sodom. June the 26th, this summer, 2015, the highest law of the land, as far as an institution, the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal throughout the entire United States of America. They declare their sins as Sodom. That was a type of fulfillment right there. Not that it's not going to get filled fuller. But as our nation declares its sins as Sodom, we fit in less and less, don't we? So let me go back to Webster's. Number one, something that does not fit. State of being unsuitable. Number two, a person poorly adapted to society. Being one of God's misfits is good. A misfit of God is a non-fit with the world. Turn with me, if you would, to James 4.4. James 4 and verse 4. James, the half-brother and younger brother, the first child that Joseph and Mary had after Christ, of whom God the Father was His Father. James 4.4. James wrote, you adulterers and adulterers, don't you know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is the enemy of God? The world. The world. Not talking about the people. It's not an issue of loving the people. But the world, its ways, society, the cultural things that are wrong. He says, don't you know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? And whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is the enemy of God? It's a pretty powerful statement there, isn't it? See, a non-fit with the world is a fit with God. 1 John 2. 1 John 2. Verses 15-17.

Love not the world. And again, it's not talking about love for people. Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the...you know, it identifies what the problem is, the lust of the flesh. And the lust of the eyes. And the pride of life. It's not of the Father, but it is of the world. And the world passes away. Those things are going to pass. Someday they're going to be historic. They're not going to be current anymore. And the lust thereof. But he or she that does the will of God abides forever. As we look around at society, as we look around at the world around us, do we feel like we don't quite fit in? If so, good. If you do feel like you really fit in, bad. Good that you have feelings along that line. What I call in a sense a societal misfit in that sense.

Approximately, not quite a year ago, a very dear sweet lady who was in her 80s and a long time member of the Church of God died. She was part of the Cape Girardeau congregation, had moved there from another area a few years ago. Sweet, dear lady, I visited with her a number of times, obviously, and as her death was approaching, I tried to see her a little bit more often.

The last two or three times that I visited her, she looked me in the eye and she said, I just don't fit in this world anymore. She was referring to, and I knew this by the conversations we had had, all of the junk that's going on anymore. And the junk that is so acceptable and culturally okay and all. You know, I'm a lot younger than 80-something. Just so you know, I'm not in my 80s yet.

Nothing wrong with being in the 80s. I hope to be in my 80s someday if this age goes on long enough. But I'm hoping that this age doesn't go on long enough that Christ returns in time that I don't see my 80s. But anyhow, I'm a lot younger than she was. I was born in 1950, right smack in the middle of the last century. But I increasingly feel out of place with the world that has developed and is developing around me. And as the state of this world grows uglier and uglier, and it does, the beauty of God's plan and coming age looms more and more desirable.

Think about it. When God calls us to His truth, and we respond, we begin to be a square peg in a round hole. We just don't fit quite the same way anymore. Now, I was born in a time and place. My home area is northeast Mississippi, about 30-something miles north of Tupelo, 9 miles from the Alabama border, 40-something just under Tennessee, Hill Country. And when I was born in the time and the place, that time and place can culturally best be expressed this way.

And this is the way I expressed it years ago. Life there at that time was county born, county bred, and county dead. Because the world of that time was the county. The limits of that world was the county line. There were many people who were born in a county, grew up in a county, spent their life in the county, and died in that county.

Of course, the world has really changed since then. We know that. But in the summer of 1961, July of 1961, we really, my family, my parents, my brothers, me, and some more family on my mother's side in particular, we really started moving beyond that world. We started attending services in Memphis, Tennessee. We were there at the inaugural service, very first service, when that congregation was established.

And it was 150, that's 150, 150 miles away, one way, on two-lane highway shared with log trucks and tractors. Might have been a wagon and a mule here or there, too, for that matter. It was an all-day affair to go, to be there for a service that would range anywhere from two to three hours. And all the way back, it was an entire day's affair.

And that fall, for the first time, we attended, along with members of my mother's side of the family, we attended our first feast of tabernacles, 500 miles away, to keep the feast in East Texas, there at Big Sandy area. Now, in a world of county-born, county-bred, and county-dead, where the county lines were basically the limits of your world, our approach in actions was a total misfit in that world. It couldn't be squared away with relatives. On my father's side, only my dad was called of God. He was the only one so far in this age that's been called to the truth. So he was the only one from a large family.

And like I said, our church-going didn't fit the community model. I remember my grandma, Bean, saying to my dad, she said, Bill, can't y'all find a church around here somewhere that you can go to? I mean, 150 miles away, the other side of the earth, as far as she was concerned, Baptist Church down here, Methodist over there, well, Bill, they got a, you say, church of God, they got a church of God right over yonder.

She didn't get it. She couldn't understand it. We understood that. We were rocking her world in that sense. And then later on, after a number of years had gone by, and she saw us going there and going there and going there to Memphis and Big Sandy and Jekyll Island and St. Petersburg and all of that, then one day she said, Bill, she said, y'all are a church on wheels.

The truth truly does set us apart. John 1717, not going to turn there, but John 1717, the truth truly does set us apart. Sanctify them through your word or set them apart through your word. Your word is truth. It not only sets us apart, but it takes us out of place. It takes us out of place with them we no longer truly or fully fit in. We become, and you can title this split sermon this way if you wish, two words, Godly Misfits. And that's what we're supposed to be, is Godly.

Not ungodly, but Godly Misfits, because the more we are a Godly Misfit, the more Godly we are with it in the right and proper and balanced sense of the word, the more we're a Misfit. Think about it. Godly Misfits. Number one, no more Christmas. You talk about setting you apart, misfitting you. No more Easter. No more church on Sundays. No more that good old catfish and pork chops. No more Saturday hunting, even if deer season does open the first day of the season on Sabbath morning. No more Saturday hunting and fishing. No more Friday night football games.

No more Saturday NASCAR races. No more business dealings on Saturday. No more honoring ourself and the others in our lives, more so and above God. You know, God in His ways truly began to come first and to dominate our way of life and living. Two very familiar scriptures, and we're going to turn to some more scriptures in a moment, but just two that I reference is Matthew 22, 37, Matthew 22, and verse 37. To love the Lord your God with all to your heart, soul, might, being, means He is absolutely number one in your life above and beyond everything else.

And that everything else that you do has to serve that, be in alignment with that. And the second scripture, again, very familiar with it, Matthew 6, 33. Matthew 6 and verse 33 about, seek His kingdom and His righteousness first. Top of your list, first. That begins to dominate our way of life and living, and that doesn't set well with them. And your change of beliefs, your beliefs that change about the immortality of the soul and about going to heaven when you die.

And a never-burning hell fire, where you're in the most unimaginable misery you possibly could be, burning forever, but never burning up, never being free of that pain, forever unending. And the Trinity, and the truth about what the kingdom of God really is, and the plan of salvation. And the response and the reaction is, you don't fit. You don't fit. Acts 17. Acts speaks of, of course, the actions, events of the Church. We've always felt that it's probably an unfinished book, be finished when Christ returns, but it's the events of the Church.

And if you look in Acts 17, verse 6, now, Paul and Silas have been involved. They're named in verse 4. But we come down to verse 6, And when they found them not, that is Paul and Silas, they didn't find them, they drew Jason, and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, and notice how they viewed them. These that have turned the world upside down, who have everything reversed, who have everything flipped, have come here also. These folks who don't fit, they're misfits. They've come here also. Back up to chapter 16, verses 20 and 21.

And again, Paul and Silas are here. They have been caught and drawn to the marketplace of the rulers. Says verse 20, And they were teaching, preaching, and living didn't fit. Acts 28, 22, Acts chapter 28, and verse 22.

Breaking into the thought, but not losing anything by so doing. But we desire to hear of you what you think, for as concerning notice, this sect, this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. It doesn't fit the society. It doesn't fit the culture.

It is a godly misfit. I have lived my life. I have lived my life that God has given me as part of a minority. I basically, in a sense, was born into a minority, and I have lived as a minority. And some people might say, well, how can that be? You're white. You're a white person. You're a white man. You're a white male. How can that be? I have lived my life as part of a minority of the first fruits. I went through school as a minority. I've lived as a minority. I've lived my entire life not truly fitting in. With the world at large, with society as a whole, I find I fit in less and less as time goes on. I'm more and more out of place with it and in it. I'm bothered more and more by it. I don't fit the world of abortion. 55 million, they estimate, maybe higher. I don't fit that world. I don't fit the world of same-sex marriage. I live at a time when two men or two women might come to me and say, you're a minister. Yes. We want you to do our wedding. I say, no, I cannot. I don't fit that world anymore. I don't fit the world of paganism. I don't fit the world of misleading little children with falsehoods. I don't fit the world that promotes the way of get. I don't fit the world of false doctrine. Well, God is so loving, He's going to punish somebody. He's going to punish you if you don't accept Christ. He's going to... and you die unsaved, He's going to punish you in an ever-burning hellfire that'll never go out. You'll burn forever.

Let's see, that must supersede Him above Hitler and Saddam Hussein and Edo Amin and a whole bunch more people. See, I don't fit the world of false doctrine. I don't fit a world that is moving further and further from God in every arena, and I don't fit a world that is declaring their sins more and more as Sodom and Gomorrah. Because, brethren, even in the most basic fundamental things of God, even His basic morals and values, the world of 2015 has moved so far away from the world of 1950 that I was born into, and 2016 is going to move further away.

And it's going to keep moving further and further away until such a time of trouble comes that eventually it will necessitate the return of Jesus Christ back to this earth. And how we look forward to that, to serve with Him, and how we look forward to that for what it means to our friends and loved ones. Now, this society is moving further and further away from where I stand, and yes, I am more and more out of place in the world around me.

Misfitting, the firstfruits have fought this battle since the beginning of human time, starting with Abel. Notice 1 John 3. 1 John chapter 3. They have fought this battle since the beginning of human time. In 1 John 3, verses 12 and 13, we're going all the way back to Abel, the first one that we know of that was righteous of the human race. 1 John 3, verse 12. John says, Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and why did he slay him?

It's interesting. You know, John goes right to the heart of it. Why did he slay him? Because his own works were evil. Abel did not fit Cain's makeup, his operation, his thinking. His own works were evil, and his brother's ables were righteous. Now, it is interesting if you notice there, he mentions that, and he uses Cain and Abel. But why? Why does he use that example and bring out the truth of the matter that Cain's ways and ables were so different?

Because he's making the point, verse 13, don't marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. He's making a point with them. The faithful, first fruits, don't fit in. We, many times, will use Hebrews 11, and we'll talk about the faith chapter and those of faith in Abraham, and we're all very familiar with this statement in Hebrews 11, verse 9. How that by faith he, Abraham, sojourned. And of course, when you say that word, sojourned, it's kind of like passing through. Not belonging, not having ownership per se. Someone who doesn't in the fullest or truest sense belong. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob.

Of course, Tabernacles itself signifies a temporary state with him of the same promise. And then in verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were. And I don't know how many times over the years we have used this in sermonettes and Bible studies and sermons, that there were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

This is not the time of the kingdom of God. But it is the time of the God of this world, and it is the time of a society and culture that's moving further and further away from God. And I always remind myself of the words in Matthew 10.16. You'll recognize the words for sure. They're the kind of words that stick in our brains. There in Matthew 10 verse 16, the first part of that verse says this, Behold, He said to His disciples, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.

That's the first part. Now, think about it. If you looked out, saw a pack of wolves, and you saw a sheep standing in the midst of a pack of wolves, would you ask yourself, what are the wolves having for dinner? It's pretty obvious. That's the only way you would see a sheep in the midst of wolves out here in nature, because they've encircled it to eat it.

In other words, it is a misfit situation. Christ said, hey, you, my disciples, my folks, I am sending you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Now, when I gave this earlier in The Congregations Where I Am, I did follow up with another message about that I had titled functional misfits, because how to function and deal within the society as wisely as possible, because he also says, be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. That's the rest of that verse. Think about Noah. He didn't fit in his world, did he? How do we know he didn't fit in his world?

Because if he had, he would have drowned with them. Very simple. It was a godly misfit. Enoch didn't fit in his world. Actually, if you know the full account of the story and you put the Scriptures together, he didn't fit so much that they went out to kill him. He had a price on his head. There was a bounty on his head.

He was being looked for to be killed. And God simply moved him. Didn't take him up yonder, moved him to a safe location. If you know where to look, that's in Scripture. Titus 2, verse 12, says this, Enoch and Noah lived by this admonition. Titus 2, verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And that's quite a challenge. And this season we're in right now is probably year in and year out the greatest time of challenge of all of them.

And you know what I mean. I don't have to lay it out and explain it, do I? Live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world. They also applied the admonition of Philippians 2.15. Philippians 2, verse 15. It says this, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of, in the midst of, where you don't really fit, but in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. If you want to know the heart and core of Enoch's message, you'll find it in Jude 14 and 15.

There's only one chapter in Jude. But Jude, those two verses of Jude 14 and 15 tell you exactly what the heart and core of his message was. He was probably good just to read it right quick.

Jude 14 and 15. And Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, prophesied, preached of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints. He's coming with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed. For he really worked on that ungodly angle, didn't he? And of all their heart speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. That was the heart and core. It wasn't all of it, but that was heart and core germane to his message, and it got a bounty put on his head. And there came a time where God, in order to spare him from being killed, simply moved him to a safe location.

Noah called their hand. How did Noah call their hand? He built an ark. Ark served as a testimony. It was a testimony and a witness to them. And he taught and he preached what was coming. Take Noah, like grandfather, like grandson. That's what they were, grandfather and grandson. They had a lifestyle and a message that didn't fit. They were godly misfits. They had a message that wasn't, when you think about it, it wasn't audience friendly, was it?

It was a message of repentance. Think about the essence of Noah's message. Just think about it. If you don't repent, you're going to drown. How many of you can tread water? That was not audience friendly. It didn't fit the society. It was out of step, wasn't it? You know, brethren, I've often wondered how many siblings Noah had. Doesn't say. I've wondered how many cousins. Doesn't say. How many aunts? How many uncles? Doesn't say, really. Obviously, they all saw him as a misfit. He did not fit their world, the course of their world. None of them were on the Ark. Just interesting and sad. But again, we know God's plan and future, so one of the things that I'm most thankful for is to know the future hope of the untold billions of this world who lived and died without knowing truly what that hope really was. But that hope is sure. God's called us to a way of life that does not fit this world. God's given us the message of warning and hope. It's a call to repentance and pointing towards the kingdom. And it burns the eyes. It burns the ears. It gets in the way of what people want to do. And it indicts how they are running their life, and it doesn't fit their agenda. It is abrasive to the hearts and minds of the carnally-minded, the natural mind. It's not abrasive to the humbled heart. It's not abrasive to the mindset of Matthew 22, 37, and Matthew 6, 33. But those that bring such, those that stand for such, they don't fit in. And I've lived to see things accepted in the culture and society that didn't have any chance at all of acceptance when I was growing up. And I know that what I'm currently seeing is not as much as I'm going to see that's accepted in our society. And the more a society that generates away from the truths of God, the more of a misfit I'm going to be. The more of a misfit we who stay with the truth are going to be. The more we're going to stand out. But a misfit in this world, again, it translates into a fit in God's world. The truth, and this is something that's unavoidable, the truth is not audience friendly. God's way of life is not audience friendly. A call to repentance, to changing the way you think and the way you live and the way you operate is not audience friendly. And I will say this without exploring it, there are differing levels of misfitting. Depending on where you are and who you're with is going to determine the degree of not fitting in. And obviously the more corrupt the crowd around you, the less you're going to fit in, the more you're going to stand out. But the more you hold the line and you don't yield to corruption, the more you don't fit into the world, the society, the culture around you. Misfits. God's misfits. God's godly misfits. Godly misfits. I don't have to be reminded too strongly that a fit in Satan's society in his ways is a misfit with God's. And I don't have to be reminded too strongly that a fit in God's ways is a misfit in Satan's. I pretty well have it in my face all the time. In this world, in this age, in this society, in this culture, godly, and I do emphasize godly misfits. That's what you and I want to be.