Payday Someday

Probably the most famous sermon of the 20th century was, "Payday Someday." It was preached over 1,200 times by R. G. Lee, a Southern Baptist Pastor. I first learned of this sermon as a graduate student at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Fort Worth, Texas. One evening I decided to go to the audio-visual section of the campus library and check out the sermon on a VHS tape. I sat in a cubical and viewed the sermon in its entirety.

What I watched was a recording of R. G. Lee delivering the sermon "Payday Someday" at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He had been the pastor of this church from 1927 to 1960. He was speaking as the invited guest of then pastor Adrian Rogers, who served Bellevue Baptist Church from 1972 to 2005. His delivery style was animated like a 1930s radio broadcast, and it was a powerful, fiery sermon.

"Payday Someday" is a narrative sermon in which Lee tells the story of Naboth, Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah from 1 Kings 21 and 2 Kings 9. You can read about this sermon on baptist21.com and find a link to listen to the message on YouTube.

Lee preaches through the following eight scenes in theatrical style: "the real estate request, the pouting potentate, the wicked wife, the message meaning murder, the fatal fast, the visit to the vineyard, the alarming appearance, and payday itself."

This story causes me to think of eminent domain gone wrong. In this case, the government is represented by King Ahab who wants to seize the property of Naboth. Naboth owns a vineyard near the palace, and the king wants Naboth to trade land or sell the property to him so he can use it for a garden. Naboth is unwilling to give up the land since it is his family inheritance.

Ahab is so upset Naboth would not sell him the land he refuses to eat. His wife Jezebel takes control of the situation. She writes a letter in King Ahab's name in which she instructs the people to make false accusations against Naboth and then to execute him by stoning him to death. When the plans are carried out, Ahab goes to the vineyard to take possession of it as his own property.

We feel powerless when wicked people are in positions of authority. They break the rules and kill anyone who gets in the way. People cry out to God for justice, but seemingly nothing happens. Lee reminds his listeners there will be a "payday someday."

The word of the Lord comes to Elijah, so he meets Ahab in the vineyard and prophesies about how Ahab and Jezebel will be put to death because they cheated and murdered Naboth. The prophet declares dogs will lick up Ahab's blood as they had licked up Naboth's blood. Not only that, but Jezebel would be eaten by dogs. These words were fulfilled as we read on in Scripture.

Pastors have a difficult job. We must balance messages about judgment with grace, and messages about grace with judgment. There are major organizations who use guilt to manipulate people to take their money and enrich themselves. God knows their motives, and we can trust God will judge them. We must find a biblical solution to absolve us of our own guilt.

The good news of the gospel is it offers hope to the condemned. The law or legalism shows us we are not able to follow the rules perfectly because of our sinful nature. God's grace offers forgiveness to anyone who repents. Many of us would rather see our enemies receive justice instead of mercy. However, loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, means if we want mercy, we must show mercy to others. We pray sinners would repent and be saved before it is too late.

We need to heed the words of this sermon from a bygone era. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and there will be a "Payday Someday."