Pastor John, before taking your leave of absence in 2010, you preached an important sermon

at Bethlehem Baptist Church titled, How Much Does God Love This Church?

That was on April 18th of 2010, and the sermon deals with the fact that God does make

much of us as Christians.

It would eventually become a new chapter titled, God Does Make Much of Us, and your recently

rerelease book, Brothers We Are Not Professionals.

Explain for us the background to this sermon and the chapter and its importance in your

thinking that God does make much of us.

Was this point a point of correction to your theology?

Was it a deepening or a broadening?

How do you think of it?

The sermon, and it was probably the third time I preached something like that.

I did something like that at Westmont College, and I did something like that at Passion.

There was a whole series of messages.

All of them, I would say, were given not by way of correction, but by way of clarification

and reprioritization.

I have really benefited over the years from feedback, and on this issue, Tom Stellar, my associate

for 33 years at Bethlehem was the most influential, because Tom would never let me get away with

saying anything of an exaggerated nature without his drawing my attention to the other side

of the coin.

On this one, there is another side of the coin.

Here's the background.

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