ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE

After a week long conference in Sydney where I got no exercise as I sat all week listening to preaching, I knew I was way overdue for my walk I do every other day for fitness so I decided to spend the day walking through Darling Harbor and the parts of Sydney just around that area. I noticed a lot of young able-bodied men lying around on the sidewalk with signs that said things like, “Homeless, feed me please.” I was a bit offended especially when I had to step around a young guy that was sleeping on the sidewalk in front of a store. I knew it was either an addiction to alcohol or drugs that have placed him as well as the other young guys in those predicaments. I make it a policy never to hand out money to strangers when they approach me especially when they are young like that, because I know more than likely the money that God has given me will be used for dope or booze. Whenever I travel to Times Square in New York City, I can’t go two blocks without some young able-bodied girl or guy on dope asking for spare change or a few dollars. I felt like I was in New York City as I walked around Sydney with all the younger generation lying on the sidewalk with their signs.

However, this time something different happened. I was standing on the corner waiting for the crosswalk light when instead of some long-haired hippie-looking guy who looked like he never saw a bar of soap coming up to me; an old Chinese man approached me. He looked like he was at least 80 years old and he was trying to speak broken English as he said, “Excuse….me. Could you let me have…a dollar..so I can buy a sandwich?” I immediately shook my head no. I then heard him say “Thank you anyway sir,” as he sadly walked away. I watched him for a few seconds and then I immediately pulled some money out and walked up to him and said, “Here sir, take this.” The old man smiled with tears in his eyes and said “Oh thank you sir, thank you so much.” I immediately put up my hand and said “That’s Ok sir, that’s OK. God Bless.”

As I crossed the street and proceeded to walk down the sidewalk I was thinking, “That is not an able-bodied young man who is perfectly capable of working; that is somebody’s grandfather who probably doesn’t have much longer to live.” God only knows why he was poor and hungry, but it doesn’t matter; as I should have done more for him.

I walked for another hour or two and then I looked at my watch and saw it was getting to be later in the afternoon and I had been out walking for four hours. I hadn’t eaten all day so I stopped and got my lunch and went into Gloria Jeans and ordered an iced coffee and sat down to eat my meal. As I took the wrapper off my food, I thought of that old man again. Here I was setting down to feed my face with good healthy food I bought thinking I was doing the right thing, and that old man could barely buy maybe one small sandwich with what I gave him. I thought to myself, “Some preacher you are “Elder” “Rev.” Johnny Lee Clary! Here you are ordained as an Elder minister in one of the largest denominations in the USA with over six million members; you appear on FOX News, Charisma Magazine, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, The Christian Post, speak in churches all over the world, and you reached in your pocket and gave that man $4.00! It would not have hurt you to give that old man more and even asked him to share a meal with you while you shared the gospel with him! That old man would have probably been so grateful.” I started crying right then and there. I don’t know what the people sitting in the Darling Harbor Gloria Jeans coffee shop thought of a grown man sitting there crying, but I really don’t care what they thought. I was wrong.

I thought about how millions of dollars are passed around in churches all over the world and I know a lot of churches do great things and help a lot of people, and I also know some don’t. I don’t have a church of my own as Bishop George D. McKinney who is my boss in my denomination wants me to travel a few more years promoting racial reconciliation and evangelism before I take over an African-American church. Bishop McKinney has the largest church in San Diego, California where he works with inner-city urban youth, and provides jobs for the jobless and homes for the homeless. He is all about helping the poor. As a minister under him, I have a responsibility to reflect the same spirit of giving as he does. Today I failed the test.

I could say, “I am only human,” or some other lame excuse like that, but that would not excuse my behavior with Jesus. You see, I asked God awhile back for the same anointing of a very special man who all Christians should know, and that man is the late Keith Green, who died in a plane crash in 1982. Keith Green was a real on fire for God Christian singing preacher, and a role model for the way Christians should act, sing, and preach. He never sugar-coated anything and was a NO COMPROMISE preacher. He preached the word like it should be preached and never compromised God’s Word in order to be politically correct. He was a God-pleaser and not a man-pleaser. He and his wife Melanie used to sell bundles of witnessing tracts so Christians could have something to hand out to people so others could know Jesus. They always put a suggested price on those tracts, but also added the words, “or whatever you can afford.” You see, to Keith Green, it was more important to him to get the gospel out to people than to get rich and ride in a limo. Keith was a giving man of God, and so is Bishop McKinney. I asked God for Keith’s anointing but I guess I forget sometimes that God’s word says “To he who much is given much is required.” (Luke 12:48)

I sat in that coffee shop in tears thinking to myself, “How I wish I didn’t have to live from love offering to love offering, and could have a bank account that had so much money in it that it would not hurt to write a check for $5,000.00 or $10,000.00 to that old Chinese grandfather, take him to get a home, stock his ice box with plenty of food, and get him planted in a church that would care for him, so he could spend his remaining years being happy.”

I once heard an arrogant preacher say, “It’s a sin to be poor.” My little grandmother loved Jesus with all of her heart, but was poor and in poverty for the last several years of her life. She was not in sin because she was poor. She had no choice and was in her 80’s. None of us kids had money where we could take care of her, but we tried to do the best we could. She was married to my step-grandfather who was a gambler who gambled away all of their savings and retirement and never told her. He left her penniless and she had to survive on old age pension and a measly social security checks which totaled around $500.00 a month. I wish that preacher who said it was a sin to be poor could try living on that amount for a while like my grandmother did and maybe he wouldn’t make such asinine statements.

I hear a lot of people preaching about getting rich and that is OK if they have the motives to feed the Lord’s sheep and help the poor and downtrodden with the money God gives them. However, if they are wanting to get rich for gold toilet seats, air conditioned dog houses and to ride around in limos and helicopters or leer jets to show how “blessed and important” they are, then forget it! God is not into that. I on the other hand have been ministering since the early 90’s on a full-time basis. I had a good job, but I kept taking off to go minister and the boss told me to make a choice to either quit ministering or quit my job. That was the best choice I ever made to quit my job and minister full time. Although I have never gotten rich, nothing could be more fulfilling that what I do. I have never made enough money to own an airplane; my wife and I rent our home; we drive used cars; and she has a part time job so she can have a little extra spending money. We consider ourselves very blessed. God provides enough for us to pay our bills and to pay for my mission’s trips to go win souls. Most churches only pay hotel rooms for the nights you are with them and most of the time I have to pay throughout the week. Many of our plane tickets we pay on our own. Many churches give what they can but some don’t give a lot and some have downright ripped us off and not given what came in. I am not complaining though. For every church that does not do right by us, there are some that do. I am glad to do this and to be used of God, but I have never gotten rich off the gospel.

The truth of the matter is I do want God to bless our ministry with unlimited amounts of money so we can impact the world in a much larger way than what we are already doing with the gospel; feed the poor; provide assistance and job programs; help the elderly; fight racism and gang activities; encourage children with educational and motivational programs so they can avoid gangs and drugs; continue to visit the prisons, jails, and schools which we don’t get paid for; and be the best we can be for the Lord Jesus Christ. We are getting older now and although we are no longer young, we are middle aged and not senior citizens so we have some years left. We intend on doing the best we can with what God gives us and we know it is in His hands.

I didn’t do the best I could today or even a little better with that old Chinese grandfather and I am so sorry I didn’t. However I pray that from now on I will be more sensitive to the needs of others that really need help like the elderly. I pray God forgives me for my wrong, and I resolve from now on to be a much better minister. After all, if you are going to be a minister, especially one that is a public figure and high profile speaker known the world over, then you better represent Jesus right because He is coming back soon to give to each and everyone one of us according to what we have done. (Rev. 22:12)

Do you really want Him to give back to you according to what YOU have done?


Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.