{"id":98724,"date":"2026-10-27T18:57:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T23:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=98724"},"modified":"2026-10-27T18:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T23:58:17","slug":"how-the-chips-may-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-the-chips-may-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Chips May Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Chadwick Brewer<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching<\/em>&#8221; (II Timothy 4:1-2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These are Paul&#8217;s marching orders to Timothy as he fulfills his ministry. These inspired instructions come from the Holy Spirit, whose word, as Paul has just pointed out, equips the man of God for every good work. Yet we deceive ourselves and let others deceive us into believing that abandoning this call is wisdom.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s just not the right time, so I&#8217;ll be silent.<\/li>\n<li>They are just not in the right place right now; I&#8217;ll wait till I think they are ready to hear.<\/li>\n<li>People just don&#8217;t listen to rebuke; I&#8217;ll just encourage them to do the right thing.<\/li>\n<li>Hard corrections only achieve the opposite of the goal; I&#8217;ll keep my approach soft.<\/li>\n<li>I (as a preacher) just really need to keep my job, so I&#8217;ll just not talk about this truth.<\/li>\n<li>You have to give the people what they want, so they keep coming back.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Timothy was to fulfill these commands with gentleness, patience, courtesy, and love. But that did not stop him from doing the hard things, saying the unpopular truth, and fighting the good fight of faith. Patience does not eliminate rebuke. Love does not eliminate correction. Gentleness does not eliminate conviction.<\/p>\n<p>A preacher can convince himself that he is being patient when he is actually avoiding a difficult conversation. He can call something tact when he is really afraid of losing approval. He can call something wisdom when he is simply unwilling to bear the consequences of faithfulness. There is a difference between wisely choosing how to communicate the truth and deciding not to communicate it at all.<\/p>\n<p>Declare the whole counsel of God. Speak to please God rather than men. Do not shrink back, lest God have no pleasure in you.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Chadwick Brewer &#8220;I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching&#8221; (II Timothy 4:1-2). These&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[849,536,1598],"class_list":["post-98724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-conflict","tag-preaching","tag-rebukes"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55266,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/balance-in-sound-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":98724,"position":0},"title":"Balance in Sound Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dudley Spears One of the definitions of balance is, \"A harmonious satisfying arrangement or proportion of parts or elements, as in a design. An influence or force tending to produce equilibrium; counterpoise.\" Paul wrote the Philippians, \"Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/balance-300x194.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-cant-judge-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":98724,"position":1},"title":"You can&#8217;t judge others!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I think you are guilty of this. With all humility, I come to you out of love so that you may stop preaching and standing with an iron fist as one who judges every individual. You cannot condemn people to hell or preach from the pulpit that so-and-so is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55526,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/so-whats-a-good-sermon\/","url_meta":{"origin":98724,"position":2},"title":"So, What\u2019s a Good Sermon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant Out of all the thousands of sermons preachers have delivered and to which people have listened, how would we determine which sermons are good, which are bad, or which are so-so? I would suppose that even preachers evaluate themselves from time to time, and on occasion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Bible-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18879,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-friend-has-turned-to-judaism-and-im-upset\/","url_meta":{"origin":98724,"position":3},"title":"My friend has turned to Judaism and I&#8217;m upset","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a friend who I\u2019ve tried to convert for about many years who has recently taken up Judaism. I\u2019m very upset for obvious reasons and there\u2019s a part of me that finds it very offensive. I\u2019m trying to keep my \u201cjudging\u201d in check especially with all the goofy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching-is-a-different-kind-of-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":98724,"position":4},"title":"Preaching Is a Different Kind of Work","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores There are both good and bad, positive and negative aspects to it. But I can say that the positive far outweighs the negative. Because of the nature of the work, you get opportunities to serve the best people in the world - Christians - all the time.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":98724,"position":5},"title":"Preachers (Article)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 9, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Among the duties or roles within the church listed in Ephesians 4:11-12 is the work of the evangelist. The word is translated from a Greek word which referred to a person who brought joyous news of victory from the battlefront. When the same word is used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98724"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98727,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98724\/revisions\/98727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}