The Good Life: Money and Generosity

October 9, 2020

Proverbs 11:24-26

24 One person gives freely, yet gains even more;
another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

25 A generous person will prosper;
whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

26 People curse the one who hoards grain,
but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell.

Listening guide

We can gain more security.

There are really no _____________ that lead to _______________.

“Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.” (10:4)
He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” (10:5)
“The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.” (10:16)
“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth,” (10:22)
“Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death” (11:4)

We can’t see our own _____________

Only people who ________ ____________ have security. .

Discussion questions

Sermon

I’m a budgeter

Budgeter = a person who budgets (excessively?) I’ve got my little budgeting app “YNAB” and I look at it, sometimes multiple times per day!

That financial concerned only increased with COVID.

I panicked about the financial situation at the beginning of COVID, for my family and the church.
Like many of us, our family has lost some income during the pandemic and you start to wonder what effect that will have.

What I want.... what I want is what I see in the Bible. I want a sense of security apart from savings. Like these examples....

The Bible tells us this example of a poor widow. She has only 2 small copper coins. She didn’t worry. She was secure, even though she was financially unstable.

There was a man who had something of a similar story. Hudson Taylor. He was a missionary to China for some years. He had one coin left to his name at one point. He gave that coin to a poor woman, and he says that as he prayed, was released by God and felt great freedom and blessing.

Adventure

That’s the promise today. Finances right now can be pretty hairy.

That’s been wonderful for me, to gain a sense of security apart from our savings. A sense of security that has nothing to do with my financial stability. That is something I am slowly gaining. The next piece of the good life that Proverbs lays out for us.

We’re looking today especially at Proverbs 11:24-26.

The thing is, the Bible is full of instructions on money. It’s anything but easy. I’ve had some people say things like, just do whatever the Bible says and you’ll be okay. I listened to a couple of teachings on Proverbs and money and people had to list between ten and fifteen principles to cover most of it. If you are looking to the Bible to figure out financial security, that is not easy. Let me give us an example. Take today’s lesson from Jesus.

Development

The owner of a vineyard sends workers into the vineyard. He isn’t choosy about the workers who were ready at 8 am verses the workers who didn’t get out of bed and to work until 2. He sends them all into his vineyard to work.

At the end of the day, he pays all the workers the same amount of money. He gives them a day’s wage. It’s a fair wage. The surprise is, they all get the same. What is the message of this parable?

Part of it is, if you tell people you’re going to pay them a certain amount, pay that amount. Be honest with your money. Don’t cheat people. Don’t take advantage of them. Pay them for their work. But what about the people who only worked a little? Jesus pays them the full amount too.

We see even more. God wants us to prosper, to flourish, to do well. He wants us to do well. Even if we don’t deserve it. It’s not so much that he wants us to be rich, but he wants humans to flourish. This is what is so complicated about money in the Bible.

See, my YNAB system has 4 simple rules: Every dollar has a job. Embrace your true expenses. Roll with the punches. And 4, age your money. If you can follow those 4 rules, you’ll do okay with your money. What it can never do, it can never teach you what you should do with your money. Or take Dave Ramsay. He has 7 baby steps. I’m not going to list them all here. If you use those rules, you’ll do okay with your money. What they can never do, they’ll never teach you those should be the rules.

Why does the Bible make it so hard then? What is the Bible doing? Why can’t God give us 4 simple rules, or 7 baby steps?

This is the first thing we learn today. There are really no rules that lead to security. You will never have security if you just try to follow the rules to prosperity.

I feel like I’m living proof of that. Because I’m a budgeter. I use my system pretty well. And we are fine. I’m thankful we have no debt. Remember, we have the advantage right now of not buying a house. But I don’t know if that has given me any more security. I still check my app a couple of times per day. I still think about my finances – a lot. Am I worried? I don’t know, I don’t think. Am I secure? That would be a stretch.

Just because I say that, there are no rules that lead to security. What Proverbs does do, it describes the path to security more clearly than anyone else. Proverbs says some simple things like,

“Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.” (10:4)
He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” (10:5)

“The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.” (10:16)

There are many times the book of Proverbs connects hard work, ingenuity, insight, creativity, self-control, and discipline with prospering, prospering materially, prospering economically. There are lots and lots of statements in that regard. But there are plenty of times where Proverbs says something different about security.

“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth,” (10:22)
“Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death” (11:4)

You know what the Bible is doing when it says all this about money?

You read all this and you start to realize, you know, I thought the Bible was mostly about hard work, about being a good person.

The Bible says so much about the fact that I don’t control my security. I don’t control my flourishing, my prosperity, and my well being.

If we can’t control our sense of security, our sense of safety, our sense of well being; what does it mean that we keep obsessing about it? What does it mean that its such a constant repetition in our life?

Point: We can’t see our own greed.

One of the strongest examples of this, it’s

Andrew Carnegie started the company that one day became US Steel. At the age of thirty three, he took a ruthless evaluation of his own heart and produced a little “note to self”. He wrote,

“Man must have an idol. The amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry. No idol more debasing than the worship of money. Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately therefore should I be careful to choose the life which be the most elevating in character. To continue much longer overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery. I will resign business at thirty five, but during the ensuing two years I wish to spend the afternoons in securing instruction.” (Carnegie quoted in Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, pg 69)

Here is the problem for Carnegie. Even though he realized this about himself, nothing changed! He did not resign business two years later. He brought many of the very character degrading effects right into his life. Steel workers worked 12 hour shifts on floors so hot they put wood on their shoes. They had filthy housing. Most died in their 40 from accidents and disease. They got one day off every two weeks.

You hear what the Bible says about money and prosperity, it’s way too complicated for you to untangle on your own. You are never going to get this all unwrapped on your own.

We can’t see our own greed.

I’ve got to say, if you’re an American, you’re most likely in denial about this. I hate to say this. People honestly don’t confess a lot of sins to me. We don’t like to confess our sins. We keep them to ourselves. The one sin I don't think anyone has ever confessed? Greed.

Americans are always saying stuff like this: “I hardly have enough to live. I hardly can make ends meet. I can’t possibly live any more simply than I’m living. I really don’t have that much money to give away. I really need all this stuff.” The rest of the world knows better. They look at the level of how we live and they say, “Are you kidding?”

What’s the mark of being an addict? The mark of being addicted to money is that you confuse needs and wants. Everything you want, you think is a need. What you think you need to live is so far beyond what you really need to live that you feel like all your money is tied up and you ca...

We are addicts. Americans are always saying, “I can’t give away any more. I couldn’t possibly give any more away this year. I can hardly make ends meet. I couldn’t possibly live with anything else.

The only way you are going to achieve real security

24 One person gives freely, yet gains even more;

another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

25 A generous person will prosper;

whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

26 People curse the one who hoards grain,

but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell.

Did you hear this? “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.”

That is a paradox. It’s supposed to be a paradox. It’s saying the person who tries to increase, decreases, and the person who’s willing to decrease, increases. Giving gains more, spending secures; but hoarding loses, saving wastes.

How can that be?

The words we’ve got translated as “give freely”, if you wanted to translate real strictly they could be “scatter”. Some translations have the word scatter. They say, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.”

How can this be? We should ask the farmers.

Right? In fact, this word scatter is taken from agriculture. In farming, you scatter your seed, and the more you scatter, the more you gather. The more you sow, the more you reap. If you would hold on to your seed and say, “Oh no, I can’t spare any seed,” you’ll starve. But if you’re willing to scatter your seed and give it all away, you’ll gather.

By the way, when you gather, it comes back in a better form. You probably can’t sit there and eat the seed (it depends on the seed, I know), but in general, it comes back in a better form. Now here’s what the book of Proverbs is saying. You are an addict to money. Unless you are willing to throw your money on the ground so it all dies, you’ll never have security.

Do you know what makes this so powerful? So true?

There is a verse in John where Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

You notice what Jesus says there. He says the kernel has to fall to the ground and die. He doesn’t say, prosperity and plenty and flourishing come when you work really hard. He doesn’t try to change their behavior. He doesn’t even try to get the people to think differently.

He says, look, when a seed dies, that is when prosperity and flourishing and security come for all.

Do you know what he’s saying? He’s saying, “Let me show you the ultimate gathering and scattering. Jesus Christ on the cross was literally broken to pieces.” You know, when they flogged him, those 39 lashes had little pieces of metal and bone on the end of the whip, so he was literally being torn to pieces. On the cross he was broken to bits. On the cross he was distributed. On the cross he was scattered. Why? To gather us.

The cross as the ultimate scattering to gather, the ultimate act of generosity, the ultimate place of wealth distribution, the ultimate place of becoming poor in order to get real riches, the ultimate place of a seed dieing so that there is life and flourishing… When you die with him, the power of money, it will just shatter.

Here’s the reason why. The cross, the ultimate act of generosity, is your ultimate security. Right? Do you believe in the cross? If you believe in the cross, then you know God cares for you, and that’s a security money can’t give you.

Why would Jesus Christ have given up heaven? Why would Jesus Christ have given up his glory? Why would Jesus Christ have given up all the treasure he had? Because you and I were more valuable to him than that. If Jesus Christ valued us like that, there’s a significance money can never give you. When you are melted by that generosity, when that becomes your significance and security, you will be free from the power of money.

Or I’ll put it this way. Whatever you treasure in your life, it will drive you. It will control you. You will feel like, “I have to have it.” It will demand that you die for it. But Jesus Christ is the only treasure that died for you, died to get you, so that you can rise with me. He will rearrange what you want and love in life.

He will turn your money into real wealth. When you give it to the poor, you’ll see their lives being repaired. When you give it to ministry, you’ll see people literally changing forever, getting joy forever. Then you’ll finally have the wealth. But you don’t do it in order to get wealthy. You don’t do it to feel better about yourself.

Only people who give freely have security.

Action

Can you do this with me? Only people who give freely have security.

One of the starkest examples of this, I got this from someone else. During the 2008-2009 crash, many people lost millions. There is story after story of people who killed themselves because they were so overcome by despair. One man named Bill had a different experience.

About three years before he had become a Christian. His ultimate security shifted to Jesus. He said, “If this economic meltdown had happened more than three years ago, well, I don’t know how I could have faced it, how I would have even kept going. Today I can tell you honestly, I’ve never been happier in my life.”

That’s how it goes when the one who scattered himself for you is your ultimate security.

People who give freely have security.

The Good Life: Pride and Humility

September 27, 2020

Proverbs 3:34

He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.

Listening guide

“What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone … How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name? … I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.” (Martin Luther)

the unmerciful servant

First, be _____________

be humble and get so much more than we ________________.

Discussion questions

Sermon

There was a season in my life

Work things weren’t going well

Wasn’t building new relationships, I was losing relationships
Family struggles
Productivity

When things didn’t work out in my life, I asked a friend, mentor and advisor to help me think through some of the questions. I said, what am I doing that is making this so hard

Am I depressed?

What is it about my personality?
What about my family background,

These questions plagued for a few months. Eventually, He said, why are you thinking about yourself so much?

About the same time someone much closer to me said, “You could use a boatload of humility”

I’m still trying to figure out how right he was - . There are plenty of situations in which I am the problem. I am at least a significant part of the problem.

He is right that thinking of yourself less and others more, that is incredibly powerful, life transforming. As far as a humble person CS Lewis made it real easy when he said, a humble person is “a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him”. When I think of people who have modeled humility, they have done incredible things.

Martin Luther. Martin was told one time that people were calling themselves Lutherans. He said, people should call themselves Christians. Because he said,

That’s the thing, that humility does great things.

And I’m not sure if I’m great yet, but I’m discovering how much greater humility is

Al L
Around Peace partners in ministry and prayer, encouragers.
Michael E

The promise: We can be great with humility

Development

First, you have to have humility.

For the most part that isn’t a big deal. For example, in 1726 Benjamin Franklin realized his own moral imperfection. So he made a list of 12 virtues that he needed to pursue for good character. He made the mistake of giving it to a friend to review. His friend realized that Benjamin was quick to put other people down, quick to criticize, and short tempered. He told Benjamin to add a 13th virtue to the list – humility.

But Jesus, the Bible does a really good job of showing us that we need humility. Jesus tells this story of the unmerciful servant, in part, to show us that we need humility.

Here are the highlights again:

A man owes his king an unmeasurable amount of money
The man begs for mercy
The king forgives the debt
The man finds someone who owed him a small amount of money
He throws the man in jail until it is paid.

He is making a comparison for us here.

The irreligious. You can’t control the gods. They’re fickle and wild. You have no idea what they will do for you at any moment. They may do good. They may do evil.

So the principle becomes, it doesn’t matter what you do, you won’t get what you deserve.

The religious world is very different. Religiosity says, these are the things to do to make God happy. Tithe. Sacrifice. Pray. Attend synagogue or church or mosque. Follow the rules and the commandments.

The rule is, if you do good God will love you and accept you, you’ll get what you deserve.

Only the gospel says this. God loves me and accepts me, so he will give me what I don’t deserve.

This is what our main proverb for today says, “God mocks the mocker but gives grace to the humble.”

This is one of the great paradoxes

Do you want life entirely at chance? Then ignore all the rules. All the wisdom. All the commands. Maybe life will be good, maybe it won’t be.

Do you want to get what you deserve? Then keep the rules. Play by the rules. Say to God, I tithe. I got married and then I had sex. I go to church most of the time. I use my money responsibly. I don’t drink too much. Say to God, I follow the rules, give me what I deserve.

And maybe life will be good. Maybe it won’t.

But do you want to get way more than what you deserve? Do you want more than you could ever ask for or imagine?

Then be humble. Let me show how that happens.

Proverbs says, “He mocks proud mockers

but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.”

Let’s start here. Pride is not about what you have. Unhealthy evil pride is about what you have in relation to what someone else has.

And yet what is the Bible full of? God’s history is full of story after story where God says to the strong, the proud, and the ones on top, I’m putting you down and I'm going to lift up the humble and the lowly.

In all ancient cultures, the oldest son gets all the power, and yet, at every generation, God works with the younger son. It’s Abel over Cain. It’s Isaac over Ishmael. It’s Jacob over Esau. It’s Moses over Aaron. Over and over and over again, God does that. Deliberately, obviously, to completely turn upside down the world’s understanding of greatness and power.

In all ancient cultures and in modern cultures, the beautiful women get the powerful men, and yet, at every place, God works with Sarah over Hagar, works with Leah over Rachel, works with Tamar, works with Rahab, the prostitute, works with Hannah, the barren woman. In every single spot, God always works with the barren woman, the unwanted woman.

God only works through the girl nobody wanted and the boy everybody has forgotten, in every generation. Why does he do that? Is it just God just has a sense of poetic justice? Or is there more here

When this God, who had self-giving love at his very heart, came into the world, he came into the world as a poor man. He was born in a manger. He was born in a feed trough. He didn’t come to the Van Andel Center. He didn’t come to Times Square. He was born in a feed trough in an unimportant colony in the Roman Empire. A manger. See, that’s the God who’s the real God, who does things in a completely different way. If you want to find God, as the Christmas carol says …

Seek not in courts or palaces,

Nor royal curtains draw;

But search the stable, see your God

Extended on the straw.

So he comes, and he’s born in a feed trough; he’s born into a poor family. He grows up as just a homeless person, basically, and in the end, he’s betrayed or denied or deserted by everybody, and he dies an ignominious death. Is that the way to win the world?

You have goals, you have strategies. You have vision. Is that the way to conquer the world?

Let's imagine someone said, “I have a goal. My long-term goal is 2,000 years from now I’d like to be the most influential and famous person who ever lived. I would like a third of all the people in the world to worship me and build their whole life around me. I would like to have many, many major civilizations completely built on my teachings.” Okay. That’s a very worthy goal.

If that was your goal, what would your strategy be? How would you get there? How would you go about it? Would you do it the way Jesus did it? Not on your life. Would you be born in obscurity? Would you studiously avoid ever getting involved in any of the powerful political or economic or academic networks? Would you studiously avoid all that? Would you be killed tragically, when your life wasn’t even half over yet? Would you think that’s the way to become the most influential and powerful and life-changing person in the history of the world?

No. But that’s how Jesus did it, and he makes foolish the wisdom of the world. The glory of God is to choose the lowly and humble

Jesus Christ came and lived the life you were too weak to live and died the death you were unwilling to admit you needed to die. He came to live the life you should have lived and die the death you should have died. He came to take your punishment. He came to be your substitute. He came to do it all for you. It was a glory that could only be achieved through humility. He came in weakness so that …

This is why the message is so good. It’s actually for everybody. It’s not just for the strong and smart. The message is it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done … It doesn’t matter whether you’ve murdered people. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve so abused yourself that your mind hardly works anymore.

If you believe Jesus Christ has done all this for you and if you say, “Father, receive me and accept me, not because of what I have done, but because of what Jesus has done,” at that moment, in Christ, God looks at you (this is the gospel) and values you above all the gold and silver and jewels that lie beneath the earth.

How do you get that kind of unconditional glory and regard, that kind of impervious glory and regard, that’s not based on your performance at all?

be humble and get so much more than we deserved.

Action

So let's do this. Let’s be humble and get so much more than we deserved.

Humility doesn’t mean you become small, little, and insignificant. That we actually try to become nothing. It means we know who we are. It is the great people in life who practice humility. For me, Michael E. Large, thriving business.

This is not going to be easy to do. This is like if someone handed you a Christmas present, you unwrapped it and inside you found finger nail clippers. I would be ecstatic. I love finger nail clippers and they’re always disappearing around my house.

If you and I take this gift of God’s gospel, what are we saying about ourselves? (example of some gift) We’re saying, I’m only beginning to realize how bad I am. I’m only beginning to realize how much help I need.

If we’re humble we’ll get so much more than we deserved.

The Good Life: Accept Correction

September 20, 2020

Proverbs 3:1-3, 11-12

3 My son, do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart,
2 for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity.

3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
    bind them around your neck,
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Then you will win favor and a good name
    in the sight of God and man.

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.[a]

7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and shun evil.
8 This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth,
with the firstfruits of all your crops;
10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
and your vats will brim over with new wine.

11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,
and do not resent his rebuke,
12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
as a father the son he delights in.[b]

Listening guide

Proverbs 3:1-2 My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart,

2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.

One piece of character to master among the wrong turns and false starts _____________

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, (verse 11)

Solomon ….

John Newton “It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.”

We must accept _______________________

12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

Accept correction and experience delight.

Discussion questions

No questions available for this message. Please join our group studying politics.

Sermon

In our smaller Bible studies right now, we’re discussing the government and politics. I know, right?

I don’t have much great insight. This is one that struck me. What do you think?

“The Bible binds my conscience to care for the poor, but it does not tell me the best practical way to do it. Any particular strategy may be good and wise—and may even be somewhat inferred from other things the Bible teaches-- but they are not directly commanded and therefore we cannot insist that all Christians, as a matter of conscience, follow one or the other. The Bible binds my conscience to love the immigrant, but it doesn’t tell me how many legal immigrants to admit to the U.S. every year. It does not exactly prescribe immigration policy. The Bible tells me abortion is a great evil, but it doesn’t tell me the best way to decrease or end abortion in this country, nor which policies are most effective [to preserve life]. The current political parties offer a potpourri of different positions on these and many, many other topics, most of which, as just noted, the Bible does not speak to directly. This means when it comes to taking political positions, voting, determining alliances and political involvement, the Christian has liberty of conscience. Christians cannot say to other Christians “no Christian can vote for…” or “every Christian must vote for…” unless you can find a Biblical command to that effect.”

What do you think? To me, this is a pretty good example of putting into practice what we learned last week. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1:7) Only when we have a positive fear of God, will we have better thoughts on riots, protests, individuals killed at the hands of law enforcement, law enforcement killed at the hands of private citizens, job loss, the passing of many grandparents, and babies and infants we have lost.

You know what wisdom can do for us? Take a quick look at Proverbs 3:1-2

My son, do not forget my teaching,

but keep my commands in your heart,

2 for they will prolong your life many years

and bring you peace and prosperity.

Look what Solomon says you can have. You can have long life. Peace. Prosperity. This is the good life. Who doesn’t want peace? Who doesn’t want prosperity?

Wisdom is what you use in the 80% of decisions of life when there are no rules.

Solomon argues, peace and prosperity does not come from hard work, although that is mentioned in other places. It doesn’t come from marriage, although there is definitely a correlation there. It doesn’t come from education or skills, although they matter. It doesn’t even come from your personality. Your charisma. Your winsomeness. Where does it come from?

Your heart. “with all your heart”. In two verses he says, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you”. Where does this peace and prosperity flow out of? Wise choices don’t come from our heads, they come from our hearts. That doesn’t seem to make much sense. Remember in the Bible your heart is everything you are.

It’s your convictions, your emotions, and your thoughts. When they make wise choices together – not just a head thing, not just a gut thing, not just an emotional thing – together – that leads to peace and prosperity.

That’s the promise today. I don’t know if you think I have a good life or not. I think I do. It doesn’t come from the hard work, although that’s important. It doesn’t come from marriage, although that’s part of it. It doesn’t come from education and skill. It doesn’t come from my shining personality.

I’ve made many wrong turns and false starts along the way. I still do. There is one piece of character God would have us master. That’s here in Proverbs 3.

Development

What is it? Verse 11

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,

and do not resent his rebuke,

Woah, did you hear that. Talk about tough, huh. Can I share some other verses that say the same?

· Proverbs 10:17 "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray."

· Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.

· Proverbs 13:18 “Whoever disregards discipline comes to poverty and shame, but whoever heeds correction is honored.”

There are many other verses in Proverbs that tell us to accept correction.

Can you believe this? Solomon says, this is what you do to have peace and prosperity. Do this and you’ll win favor. Do this and you’ll get health. Oh, and by the way, what is the secret to it all?

Bad stuff happens. Bad things happen to everyone. Take it as discipline. Accept correction.

That’s tough. A lot of us would like to believe that if we’re good enough, we will have it good our entire lives. Good people get good lives. But this is basic wisdom.

You can be good, decent, charitable, honest, hard working, and bad stuff will still happen to you. People will tell you you are wrong. Take it all as discipline.

You know how hard you think this is? It was not easy for Solomon. Solomon had hundreds perhaps thousands of affairs in his life. I have no idea how many times he was corrected about them. All I know is the consequence. After he died, his kingdom was split into parts and never – not in the 2900 years of history since, has it been put back together.

See, Solomon faced a huge hurdle. In the ancient world, you listened to people because of their family of origin. Here is one example from the ancient world. One time Jesus taught in the synagogue. He was acting like a teacher. Some people who heard what he said were amazed. A lot of them said, “Isn’t this Mary’s son? Aren’t these his brothers and sisters?” (Mark 6) They were offended by him. It was his family that turned them off. It didn’t matter how good a teacher he was.

Solomon was the best family in the world. The wisest. The richest. Everyone knew it. Who was he going to listen to?

For us, it’s easy to say, I would never ignore discipline? I wouldn’t ignore correction.

Do we? When I was looking to buy a house, I looked for a realtor. I didn’t use a car salesman. When I need to get my car fixed, I talk to a mechanic, not a dentist. I don’t usually care what family they’re from. I don’t care who their brothers and sisters are. I listen to people because of their skills and abilities. I was just talking to a friend the other day (BS) who said, my boss doesn’t let handle the hiring or the strategic planning or the financials. He says I don’t have those skills and abilities

For us, we don’t ignore people because of their family. We ignore people because of their skills and abilities.

I don’t like correction. I don’t like being wrong. I don’t like apologizing for stuff that is only sort of kind of like wrong but not really wrong.

But you know, John Newton. You know him? He wrote this hymn, I think it might catch on. It’s called Amazing Grace. Have you heard that one? Good.

Newton is remarkable because he had been a slave trader, but eventually rejected the slave trade. In 1788, he published some comments saying, “It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.”

Here is the thing. His conversion began in 1748 when he was almost lost in a storm. He prayed for deliverance and was saved. A few years later, he almost died from a fever. It took almost 40 years for John Newton to change regarding slavery. Newton himself said, it took a long time of “correction”.

In 1807, nearly blind and dead, the act to abolish the slave trade became law. Newton “rejoiced to hear the wonderful news”.

Point: We must receive correction.

Action

Let’s do this. Let’s accept correction and experience peace and prosperity together. Let me give you the strength so we can do this. Solomon goes on to say,

12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

as a father the son he delights in.

Do you see what this is?

There are some ways of living that say, suffering is nothing. For example, some would say the death of an infant isn’t really suffering. They’ll say, well, there was something wrong with it and it would have lived a painful hard life. It’s better this way. I know most people who hold to survival of the fittest don’t think that, so I’m not saying you do. But that’s one thought.

Others say, suffering isn’t really there. It’s just in your mind. You have to detach from it. That’s basically the same thing. Suffering is nothing.

On the other end, some people say, everything is suffering. Life is so terrible. I’m just miserable and my life is falling apart.

That’s not it either.

Not God. God says, yup, you’re suffering. It’s awful. I delight in you.

Frankly, you don’t really learn to trust God till you’re drowning. You don’t really come to see Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. When you realize this, it’s not till you suffer that you really end up knowing God in prayer, that you really end up trusting God instead of the things you used to trust which have now blown up on you.

It’s only through suffering that you really get into the Word of God and you really get into community. We very often just go off on our own. We’re our own person, and we really don’t rely on other people till what happens? What happens is suffering comes in, and then in it comes. Suddenly, we need people. We always did.

The key is to believe God delights in you when it happens. the son he delights in.

When Jesus got baptized, God said about him, “You’re my son in whom I delight.”

It says in John 1:12, “For those who received him, who believed on his name, he gave authority to become children of God.” We’re adopted. We’re brought in. His losing his sonship so we could become children of God, his losing that so … It says in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God …”

What does that mean? It means because Jesus died on the cross and took our punishment we can know now he is pleased with us. Sometimes the Spirit comes in and says, “You are my beloved child in whom I am well-pleased.” That will renarrate your world. If you put anything in that story, it’ll turn to gold.

What do you know if you see the cross? You know without a doubt that God loves you and delights in you. He wants nothing more in the universe than to come into our ugly sinful mess and deal with it himself.

If he suffered like that, and he did. And if he was corrected like that, and he was. What do I know for sure when I’m corrected? That he is glad about me.

Accept correction and experience delight. Put that on your card for the week, put it on our wall here and at home. See if that won’t give you a little more good life.

The Good Life: Wisdom, folly, and the pit

September 13, 2020

Proverbs 1:1-7

1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

2 for gaining wisdom and instruction;
    for understanding words of insight;
3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
    doing what is right and just and fair;
4 for giving prudence to those who are simple,[a]
    knowledge and discretion to the young—
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,
    and let the discerning get guidance—
6 for understanding proverbs and parables,
    the sayings and riddles of the wise.[b]

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools[c] despise wisdom and instruction.

Listening guide

Discussion questions

Sermon

What is your favorite piece of wisdom or insight that you would want to give someone else?

I’ve gotten some pretty good ones over the years.

· Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting ____________________________.

· Imitation is the highest form of ______.

· A bird in the hand ______________________

· Men are from mars, ______________________

· Men are from earth, women are from earth. Get over it.

· Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.

The Bible includes much of this kind of wisdom. You can find it in the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and a little bit in the others.

“Pointed precepts for practical prudence”. “Counsels from above for conduct below.” Wisdom is not only knowledge, but action.

Simple example of wisdom. My 1 year old keeps trying to get at the oven when we bake things. He’s curious. I don’t blame him. If he touched the hot oven, I don’t call him a fool and think he needs wisdom.

Why not? He is out of touch with the realities of life. He doesn’t know about heat. But he is 1. He shouldn’t know. He doesn’t need to know.

But the other day, [Sharon Tyler – shows up early, takes step to help out her family]

Wisdom = competence with regard to the realities of life. Competence with regard to how life really works.

I don’t think we think much of biblical wisdom.

Some of them are questionable

· “Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.” (Proverbs 23:31) How many of you have a glass of wine? Unless you’re drinking a really powerful merlot does it bite you like a snake?

· “What you have seen with your eyes, do not bring hastily to court, for what will you do in the end if your neighbors puts you to shame?”

o Kids in school – speak up

o Airports – speak up

o Neighbors – speak up

· “Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.” (Proverbs 28:6)

· “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13)

Ultimately, it’s because people don’t come to me and say, pastor, I have this decision to make in my life. I’m trying to decide if I should date this girl. I’m trying to decide if I should take this job. I’m trying to decide if we should move. I’m trying to decide what I should say to someone.

People don’t come to me and say, well, what kind of wisdom does the Bible have for me pastor?

That may have almost everything to do with me. Maybe people don’t trust me. Maybe they don’t think I’ll keep my mouth shut.

I should tell you, almost all the personal stories I tell I ask before I tell. Even if it is the very general stuff, this other day I was having this conversation with this person and he said. If that was you, I probably asked you if I can tell others. And more likely than not, you forgot anyway 😊 No, I’m just kidding. If I told something you told me privately, I’m sorry. I apologize. I hope you’ll come tell me so I can apologize personally. There are too many reasons already to distrust pastors.

The other thing, is maybe people don’t think I have anything wise to add. It’s the kind of situation where we say, look I’ve got life figured out enough. I got plenty of people telling me what to do. I’ve never got enough from pastor or a church that adds enough and makes me want more.

Is it one of those things? Look, this is not about me. I’m just as bad at this as any of the rest of us is.

This week I finally called another pastor and asked for some advice about some questions. I have another question I’ve been wanting to talk through with someone for a long time. Have I? Nope.

See this is the thing. Does God care about what we know and believe? Does God care about what we do? You tell me. This is the introduction to Proverbs.

“Proverbs … for gaining wisdom and instruction...for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair;” (Proverbs 1:2-3)

Does God care about what we know and believe? Yes

Does God care about what we do? Yes

Adventure

So here is the promise today: If you will take some advice, you’ll get a little closer to the good life.

Proverbs makes this bold claim about “The Good Life.”

Wisdom has its foundation in 1 word. Get ready to be uncomfortable.

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Fear. Just saying that makes me feel uncomfortable.

If there’s a God who made the universe and you disobey him, to disobey the God who made the universe is not just wrong; it’s stupid. If there’s a God and he made the universe and you disobey him, it’s not just wrong; it’s dumb. It’s not going to work.

Wisdom assumes you’re good, assumes you’re following the moral rules, but it is quite possible to be very moral and still be stupid.

Wisdom is not less than being good; it’s more. Wisdom is knowing what the right thing is to do in the 80 percent of life situations to which the moral rules don’t directly apply.

Can I make a confession? I think the thing that drives me crazy more than anything about being a pastor is that most of the time I don’t know what to do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dumb. You haven’t hired a worthless pastor.

I have these things I have to do. Stay married to my wife. Raise my kids. Preach the Word. Teach the Word.

But what does that mean? On Monday morning should I study the sermon text? Write a devotion? Invite some people to church? Read a book? So many choices! None wrong!

The apostle Paul says, “So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” Jesus said, “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”

I think I have pretty good reasons to be afraid.

That’s not all bad. There is negative fear and positive fear.

Adrian addressing Hailee’s confirmation

Confession of faith to our seminary president.

Here is the point. When you find yourself in the presence of somebody you so revere, you are in such awe of, has that ever happened to you? You just sort of tremble. It’s a positive fear. It’s not a negative fear. The negative fear is you’re afraid somebody is going to hurt you. A positive fear is you’re afraid you’re going to disappoint them, you’re going to dishonor them, you’re going to grieve them or something because you love them so much, because you appreciate them so much.

The negative fear is actually selfish. “I’m afraid I’m going to get hit.” The positive fear is actually all about the person. “I don’t want in any way to dishonor this person or bore this person or offend this person or certainly grieve this person.” That is the fear of the Lord. That is a fear that is a joyful fear. It’s a positive fear. It’s awe and wonder before him.

It is taking justice and righteousness seriously and it is

I’ve told you before that I’ve been afraid of God. I’ve admitted it

And that wasn’t the best.

But you know what I did do then? I didn’t fear anyone else.

· Not afraid at the annual review

· Tough meetings with my boss

· I wasn’t afraid of critical people

“The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.” Oswald Chambers

Wisdom is a “who” more than a “what”. It has so much to do with who we think about, what we care about.

God tells us there is a person whose

1 Corinthians 1:30-31

30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

God has given you wisdom in the person of Jesus.

He has displayed righteousness and holiness in every step of his life. That has redeemed us from sin death and the devil.

God would see Jesus at work through you. He prepared the great works of Jesus to be worked out in our life.

Can you say this with me?

Jesus is

· (my name here) righteousness

· (my name here) holiness

· (my name here) redemption

Jesus is my wisdom.

Action

Two cards

· One, write down today’s proverb in your own words as best as you can. Take it home and put it on

· Two, I hope that at least some of you will write a proverb or a piece of wisdom down. Then stick it up on the wall.

Maybe we can get a little bit better at knowing this wisdom that comes from God.

You’re going to be amazed that God will reveal to you about Jesus. And you’re going to be amazed to see God reveal Jesus through you.

Confess and we can conquer

September 6, 2020

Matthew 16:13-20

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[c] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[d] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Listening guide

the promise to be an unstoppable force

“on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys”. (verse 18-19)

Jesus upholds both ________________ and ___________________ responsibility

We have the key to be a powerful, unstoppable force.

“this was not revealed to you by men, but by my Father”. He also says, “on this rock I will build my church”. (verses 17-18)

The key is both revelation and rock. It is both inspiration and foundation.

Confess and we can conquer.

Discussion questions

None this week

Sermon

I don’t think it’s a surprise for me to tell you all that I’ve had my share of questions about God. There was my time of, I don’t know if there is God. I don’t think there is a God. Really?

I’ve also felt afraid of God. There were all the questions of approval, acceptance, and status before God. And sometimes, depended on how I felt about those questions, I was angry. Other times sad or elated. I was all over the place.

I've felt the whole range of feelings about connection with God and others. Sometimes, I’ve felt so intimate and close to God and others. Other times, life is nothing but loneliness, isolation, and even abandonment or betrayal.

Extraordinary

One of the things that has even surprised me at times...

I’ve seen that confessing faith in Jesus makes a difference, not just in my own life, but in the lives of the people around me. Confessing does something.

Prayed for baptism, that week people got baptized

Telling Stephen I feel alone. A week later, we have conflict and go through reconciliation.

Or worship. Gathered for worship one time. Go through the service. A guy was there. He watches and afterward he comes up and he says, “What do you people believe?” I don’t go to church anymore. That was incredible. I’ve never seen people so engaged. What do you believe?”

Adventure/Discover/Promise

That’s what Jesus wants to give us today. The confidence to confess because it makes a huge difference in our community. This is a pivotal moment in the life of Jesus.

Jesus has arrived at Caesarea Philippi. It grows out of the rocks and the water that feeds the Jordan River. People marvel at the temple there. The city is a favorite with kings. Herod, his sons, and the Caesars all enlarged the city.

Jesus asks what many consider one of the key questions of history: who do you say Jesus is? Peter answers, “you are the Messiah” or if you have an older translation, “the Christ”.

His name is not Jesus Messiah or Jesus Christ. It’s a title.

Literally it means, “Anointed One”. Jesus is the one anointed to be king. He is not just a king. Peter says, you are the anointed king. Then comes the twist. “Blessed are you”.

To know Jesus is king, to believe Jesus is the chosen king, and to say as much is a blessing all by itself. We call it confessing. Confess means you speak with the Christians who have come before you. You speak with the apostles. Ultimately you speak with God. This will do so much.

The more clearly we confess Jesus, the more we’ll be a powerful force to conquer evil. [the promise to be an unstoppable force to conquer evil] 1) who has this force 2) the power or the force itself

Development

The first thing Jesus says is that you, not you individually but you collectively have the key to be an unstoppable force. He says, “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys”. Then at the end he ordered all his disciples not to tell, showing it belongs to them all. Can you believe that?

He doesn’t say, if you are good enough people you will have authority and responsibility. It’s not, if you live properly and act properly I will make sure that doors open before you in life.” There is nothing like that.

He says, “I give you the keys. They’ll work here on earth. And they work in heaven. I'm giving you the responsibility. I'm giving you the authority. “Fix it” Yes, under my power, under my grace. But I give you the keys.

There is this scene in the movie “Bruce Almighty” with Jim Carrey. He is walking down the street and he snaps his finger at a fire hydrant. All of the sudden it explodes with water. In the background the song, “you’ve got the power” is playing. That is what Jesus is saying. You’ve got the power. You’ve got to the authority. You’ve got the responsibility.

Don’t hide behind the idea, I hope God can get it done. Look, he has given you the authority to get it done. He has given you the responsibility to get it done. If you are looking at a friend who is hurting and you keep saying to yourself, gee I hope God helps this person. You realize what you are saying? God gave you to help that person. Stop waiting!

Culturally there is a strong pull to hide. We don’t think we have the authority or the responsibility. Let me give us this famous example from New York in the 1960s.

There was a woman named Katherine. She was attacked on her way home from work early in the morning. Her neighbors heard her shouts. 38 of them turned on their lights and looked out their windows. The assailant ran away and hid.

None of the neighbors came down. None of them came to help. None of them even called the police. The attacker waited about 5 minutes. When the police didn’t come and no one came, he realized that no one was coming. He went back. He found the woman crawling around. He killed her and took $49 dollars.

Sad story. Some of the people probably said, “It’s not my problem. It’s not my responsibility.” They’re all about personal responsibility. I’m sure other people said, “Someone else will call the police. Someone else will take care of it. Those people believe in collective responsibility. Did you notice Jesus believes in both?

Jesus said, “I will give you the keys” and the you is Peter. So that is personal responsibility. It’s Peter’s job. But at the end he warns all the disciples not to tell. That’s collective responsibility. You all be careful with this responsibility, this authority.

.Jesus upholds both personal and collective responsibility.

We have the key to be a powerful, unstoppable force.

That’s the first thing. The who. Next. What is it? Let me start and give us an example of actually taking responsibility. Using the authority.

I’ve been reading this book Leadership Pain by Sam Chand. Sam tells how he was born in India, came to the United States, and finally enrolled in Beulah Heights Bible College in the 1970s. He was a poor, barely educated, colored man. He was quickly smitten by a young lady working in the president’s office, but in the 1970s in Georgia, white girls and colored men did not mix.

The dean told her that if she kept seeing Sam, she would go to hell. One day, Sam gave the young lady flowers. He soon was asked to return to India, and got on a plane. A couple of years later, they returned to the church they had both served at during school. The girl had led the nursing home ministry. Sam had led worship and directed the choir. They asked the pastor to marry them. He said flatly, “No. I don’t think your marriage can work. She’s white and your Indian.”

10 years later Sam was a pastor in Michigan. His church began sending money to Beaulah Heights Bible College. He began to speak at events at the school. Then he agreed to be a member of the board. He invited board members over and they spoke at his church. A few years later, the board asked him to be president of the college.

Over the next 15 years, enrollment increased 10 times. They got accredited. The dean was filled inspiration. He kept cheering, saying, “the best is yet to be. We haven’t seen all that God is going to do here.” Sam had started it all.

When he came to the college, he said to the dean, “Years ago … you threatened to expel me. Now I’m your president. I’m okay with you.” He said that he always though these men just didn’t know how to reconcile their faith in a gracious, welcoming God with the racism in their country. (Sam Chand, Leadership Pain, 48-50)

I hope you aren’t distracted by the racism involved. I’m so struck by what happened. I want you to notice two things that made this possible. Jesus tells us them in this lesson.

First, Sam said reconcile their faith in a gracious, welcoming God

Jesus said it this way, “on this Rock I will build my church”.

There is always the question, why should I bring anyone else into my life? Why should I be gracious to people? Why should I be just? Why should I show mercy? Why should I be compassionate?

People who believe in personal responsibility tend to say, I show mercy because of me. Through my life experiences and education and failures and success, I’ve learned to practice mercy. But what about when you are so wronged?

People who believe in corporate responsibility tend to say, we show mercy because that is who we are. We were shown mercy by the seas or the heavens or this nation when we formed. We have shown mercy ever since. This is who we are. But what about when the group of people have wronged themselves? What about when the people are a boiling hotbed of wrath and hope?

People who believe in the keys Jesus give say, I show mercy because Jesus did not receive mercy so that he could show us mercy. People who believe in the keys Jesus give say, I practice justice because Jesus endured divine justice so I can be justified. People who believe in the keys Jesus give say, I practice forgiveness because Jesus was not forgiven, not excused, for all my sins so that we are.

The key is foundation.

Second, the dean said, the best is yet to be. We haven’t seen all that God is going to do here.”

Jesus said it this way. “this was not revealed to you by men, but by my Father”.

Another what is right? What is wrong? Is there eternity?

People who believe in personal responsibility have to say, I have to discover all the answers. People who believe in corporate responsibility tend to say, we can figure out the answers. Our collective knowledge.

People who believe in the keys Jesus give say, I haven’t discovered the way but Jesus is the way. I haven’t figured out the truth, but Jesus is the truth. I can’t give you life, but Jesus is life.

The key is also inspiration. It’s not what we discover. It’s revealed to us. The key is both foundation and inspiration; revelation and rock.

Jesus is this for all humanity.

No one, not death, not sin, or even hell itself can stop him.

The gates of Hades will not prevail. Gates are meant to keep people in and out. They are not offensive. The gates of hell itself have been unlocked from the inside by the resurrection of Jesus. You can charge them. They must break in front of you

Confess and we can conquer

Action

Friends, nothing does more to conquer than to confess.

I’d love for you to join me to confess Jesus Christ more clearly, more forcefully, more strongly and to watch that confession conquer all evil. I don’t know if any of you have seen the new TV series, “The Chosen”. It’s about Jesus and the disciples he chose to conquer evil. I brought a copy to give away to one of you today. Maybe you want to watch it yourself. Maybe you want to give it to a friend. If you want to put your name in for it, you can text me at 269-694-6104 or

Let me close with this little illustration. When the Union army pushed the Confederates back into Richmond, one of Lincoln’s generals burst into his office and said, “President Lincoln, I am pleased to tell you we have finally pushed the enemy out of our territory and back into his own.”

Lincoln said to the other generals in the room, “When will my generals learn that the whole country is our territory?”

Jesus is not content to be Lord of us. He died and rose to be Lord of heaven and earth. Confess and we can conquer.

Love your (unlovable) neighbor

August 30, 2020

Joshua 2:8-21

8 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea[a] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.[b] 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

12 “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”

14 “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”

15 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. 16 She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”

17 Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us 18 unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. 19 If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. 20 But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

21 “Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.”

So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

Sermon

Listening guide

Discussion questions

Intro

Husband and wife. Both Christian. Different confessions of faith, different church bodies, different denominations. The wife was disappointed, even upset that she couldn’t have communion at the husband’s church. She complained, or at least expressed her disappointment, to the husband’s pastor. Then they wanted their baby baptized. They went to the wife’s church. The husband wasn’t allowed to attend the baptism.

Most of us are pretty upset when this stuff happens in churches. Religion is often perceived as incredibly exclusive

That’s nothing. I would put to you that we are way more exclusive on a daily basis.

I think we like to imagine that we do much better including other people on a daily basis. I remember a previous neighbor. We had a little bit of conflict about our mailbox. We had one of these pass through driveways for his house and ours. For some reason, the mailperson wouldn’t walk up the driveway. So if we had people over and they parked in the driveway or we didn’t get the snow shoveled soon enough, the mailperson wouldn’t deliver the mail. I know another person who lived in a duplex. They accused their neighbor of listening in on conversations and not mowing the lawn well. They disagreed so much that when I stopped by to say hi to the neighbor one time, he refused to talk to me.

I think we imagine we include others because we act decently in public, but I would say we’re far more exclusive than inclusive.

Discover

God wants to help you deal with that today. The event is Jericho, two spies, and a woman named Rahab. This is a pivotal moment in the history of Israel.

The Israelites have wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses is passing on leadership to Joshua. God has promised the Israelites the land of Canaan. The Israelites have traveled to the border so they can enter the land. The first step: what to do about Jericho. God intended to destroy Jericho. The promise of this event is, there is something that can be done to include people in God’s exclusive kingdom.

There has to be a supernatural change. Let’s see what it is. Let’s discover God’s inclusive exclusivity

Development

Let’s start with this woman Rahab. She is up on the roof to talk to the spies. She is not what some would call an easy neighbor.

She is a Canaanite. The reason for this whole event is that the Canaanite people and more specifically the city of Jericho is set aside for destruction. This is a woman who God and his people fully intend to destroy.
Single woman
Prostitute

That only makes her all the more remarkable.

As best we know, she is perhaps the only one to survive the attack on Jericho
She is one of Jesus’ ancestors (Matthew 1)
She is listed in the hall of faith (Hebrews 11), the only woman other Sarah

You’ve got to look at Rahab and say, wow, look at how much God loves this person. This unlovable person. She is not the person we would pick for a neighbor, God picks her.

God loves the marginalized. Jesus put it this way, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.” Matthew 21:31-32

I would put to you that this is the beginning of real inclusive exclusivity.

Traditional ways of thinking say good people get to be part of our tribe. Traditional religion even says, good works are enough to get you to God. And initially, this seems incredibly inclusive.

When we say be good and you can be in, suddenly it doesn’t matter what family you’re from. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are. It doesn’t matter what your ethnicity is. You can be in. That is pretty inclusive.

You think, you can’t be a lawyer in many major law firms unless you graduated from one of the Ivy League schools. You can’t get into certain social clubs unless you’re a member of certain families. You can’t be part of certain political groups unless you belong to the right kind of people. These aren’t just social constraints. These are rules! There are plenty of groups that only let people in if they have the right education, the right family background, the right ethnicity, or the right social class.

To come along and say, do good, be good enough, good works are enough. They get you in. They get you to God. That seems really inclusive.

The problem is, this is really quite exclusive. It says, “good people are in and the bad people are out.” What about those of us with moral failures? What if I have made bad choices? What if I’ve messed things up even if I don’t know what I’m doing? Then we are excluded!

The Christian message is exclusive. It is. I’ll admit that. Only people who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are welcomed by God and embraced by him.

That message is exclusive. Good works are exclusive. Both approaches are exclusive, but the gospel is the more inclusive exclusivity. It says ‘It doesn’t matter who you are, or what your education is, or what your background is, or what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been at the gates of hell. You can be forgiven and embraced fully and instantly through Christ.'”

I am sure Rahab got that message. There are plenty of other Bible stories that tell us God loves the marginalized. Jesus and the adulteress person. Jesus and the tax collector. Elijah and the widow of Zarapheth.

The true marvel of the story is this. This incredible woman, Rahab receives spies. The prostitute receives the spies. It is the outsider who welcomes the very people who want to destroy her.

This is the true marvel of the story. Not only is this woman welcomed into God’s family. She welcomes the very people who will destroy her!

The Triune God loves unlovable people through people who are equally unlovable.

Something incredible has happened to this woman and this lesson tells us what. In verse 12, the woman asks, “Give me a sure sign that you will spare our lives” (verse 12) The spies tell her back, “Our lives for your lives!” (verse 14) Which, if you’re thinking about it,

They don’t give her a sign. They don’t give her a guarantee. I don’t know if they can. No one can buy back someone else’s life. No one can redeem someone else’s life. No one can save someone else’s life. No one, except for one.

The woman hangs a red cord in her window. She doesn’t say so much, give me a sign, as a sign has been given to me.

She says, I have been given a sign that I am forgiven and embraced, and because of that sign I will forgive you for wanting to destroy me and I will embrace you.

A red cord she says, has been hung for me. A red cord.

And how can we not think of Jesus. He was a hung on a cross bleeding. He is the red sign that declares she is forgiven.

You see, that is what this story is saying. He is the true red sign.

What happened to Rahab still happens to people.

“In 2015, I met an Iranian science professor from a world-class university. I asked him how he came to be a Christian. He replied, “Through the ministry of J.S. Bach!” My new friend had been raised in a Muslim family. But when the Islamic revolution swept through Iran in 1980, he abandoned his familial faith. Alongside his scientific studies my friend was a semiprofessional flutist. Classical music was banned by the new government, so must lovers crowded into private houses to savor illicit sonatas. Before one secret concert, my friend reheared a Bach flute sonata with his musical mentor but was stopped a few bars in: “I cannot hear the cross of Christ in what you are playing,”, his mentor complained. My friend was bewildered: with 1little knowledge of Christianity, he had no idea what his mentor meant. But the challenge struck with him. Gradually he began to apprehend the profoundly Christian fabric of Bach’s works; and when he frist walked into a church a few years later, he sensed the same reality.

Before one concert, this man reheared a Bach flute sonata with his instructor. His instructor stopped him a few measures in and said, “I cannot hear a

My friend was troubled. In Iran, he had witnessed the full force of religious coercion. He had converted from Islam to Christianity partly as a reaction against that force. Now a Christian, he longed for others to come to know Jesus.

See, everyone has a set of exclusive beliefs, and Christianity has exclusive beliefs. Which set of beliefs leads to the most inclusive behavior? I submit this. Take moralistic religion into the center of your life, and you’ll feel superior to people who aren’t religious. Take secularism into the center of your life, and you’ll feel superior to all those foolish religious people. Take the gospel into the center of your life, and you’ll be humbled before people who don’t believe what you believe.

The Triune God loves unlovable people through people who are equally unlovable.

Action

Hang your rope. Or to put it a way we might say it, carry around that sign that lets you know you’ve been loved and you need love. Sometimes loving your unlovable neighbor is not so much about saying, let me love you. It’s simply saying, I need love just as much as you. That’s what Rahab says, and look what God does for her!

You and I, believers in Jesus, we can’t weaken, downplay, or minimize our religion. It can’t just be a personal thing.

At the very core of our faith is the simple conviction, I’m a sinner and I need love even more than you.

What I am asking you to do with that is, I’m asking you to love me not for anything in me, but for something in you. I am asking you to make a commitment to me because of you, not because of me. I am asking you to make a sacrifice to me because of you . I am asking you to express love toward me because of you, not because of me.

And you know what it is when you and I do something that is not motivated by the other person, or the world around us and what they perceive, or even by our own personal gain, but is solely driven by some altruistic, higher purpose, some sacred action?

That’s religion. It can never just be a private thing.

Yes the Christian faith is exclusive. Absolutely. But it is the only one driven by not by what can I do for you, or what can you do for me, but what has been done for us.

And that is an amazing thing. It is absolutely amazing when God loves unlovable people through other unlovable people.

Love your neighbor ... courageously

August 23, 2020

Matthew 14:22-36

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Listening guide

2 things to handle fear that lead to courage

“Take courage”

First thing _________________________

“It is I”

Second thing _________________________

Love your neighbor ….. courageously

Discussion questions

Sermons

How did you do loving your neighbors this week? Bold challenges

· Spend to store up eternal treasures. Your heart will never have treasure until you spend.

· Share substance that satisfies. If body of Jesus is broken for you, we’ll break for other.

Couple chances to love neighbors and it was hard

· I messed something up

· The “how is our communication” conversation

· The “what about masks” conversation

· Met a few acquaintances for a drink. We’re trying to become friends. I was genuinely afraid I would say something foolish.

It is hard to know what to do towards other people. That’s part of it. That's why we’ve heard, “spend, share food”. It’s hard to actually do what we even know we should do.

· Are you afraid of getting sick? Just interacting with some people might be dangerous to your health.

· Are you afraid of losing your job? You don’t have to mess things up to lose a job. You can be the wrong age, the wrong ethnicity, the wrong education, or wrong in countless other ways.

· Are you afraid of your kids losing their education? The challenge is greater than ever to raise kids who will be good members of society when education systems are understandably changing fast.

· Are you afraid of losing friends? I don’t even know where people stand anymore. What if I bring up the wrong issue? We might never talk again.

Today

Jesus says here is what you do when we face all sorts of danger. This is Matthew 14. He walks on the water.

The event is pretty straightforward. Jesus fed the 15,000-20,000. They have finished eating. The disciples head home. The disciples work pretty hard to get the boat across the lake. Jesus has stayed to say goodbye to the crowd. It takes him a few hours. He walks out on the water to them. That’s what terrifies the disciples.

The disciples see Jesus. They say, “it’s a ghost”. They’re terrified. They “cry out in fear”. (verse 26) And Jesus wanted them to face it “Take courage” (verse 27)

“take courage”. Good leaders, thoughtful people, have said this forever. Joshua led the Israelite armies. He said, “Be strong and courageous”. Confucius said, “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.” I’m more of a Disney guy myself. Last year the great line of the new Dumbo, “Find your courage!”

Jesus says two things about courage. They’re both super things. Let’s get this from Matthew 14:22 and following. If you’ve got your Bible look at Matthew 14.

Development

Two things about courage.

The first thing I would say is you can only have courage when you face danger. There has to be fear for there to be courage.

I think you should notice that the disciples don’t fear the waves and water. Did you catch that? “26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.”

For the ancients especially, the sea was the ultimate symbol of uncontrolled power. It was wild. Life was full of many tests and trials. The wild of the ocean was the worst. The sea didn’t frighten the disciples. The spiritual force coming to the boat frightened the disciples.

They thought Jesus was a ghost. They did not fear the water. They feared this supernatural force. What was Jesus up to?

It’s easy to think, these were ancient people. They had a god for everything. It’s easy to think they had to deal with the spiritual forces involved. Someone might use the life of Jonah as an example. There is a story in the Bible of a man named Jonah. He is on a ship in the middle of the storm. The sailors told Jonah to call on his god. Someone reads that and they say, see, they say, everything was spiritual for ancients. Everything was supernatural for the ancients.

That’s just not true. The sailors did tell Jonah to call on his god. Before they did that, they threw everything possible off the ship to make it lighter. Life was not all spiritual. Then Jesus showed up.

Jesus is saying the only way to handle the tests and trials is to address the spiritual stuff. The disciples needed to consider the God of heaven and earth! They needed to pray to the Lord Yahweh who rules over all things. They needed to give attention to the king of the universe and his direction in all things. They had to bend their knees. They had to hang their heads. They had to raise their hands in prayer. They had to address the spiritual.

If the sea is the ultimate symbol that life is uncontrollable, there is no doubt everything else, everything else is our world is outside our control. We are constantly in danger. There are serious supernatural forces at work. We should be a little afraid.

Jonathan Haidt is an atheist psychologist. In 2006, he wrote the book The Happiness Hypothesis. He makes up two people, tells us a little story about them, and says, you pick who you would rather be. First person is Bob.

“Bob is 35 years old, single, white, attractive, and athletic. He earns $100,000 a year and lives in sunny Southern California. He is highly intellectual, and he spends his free time reading and going to museums.” Person number 2 is Mary.

“Mary and her husband live in snowy Buffalo, New York, where they earn a combined income of $40,000. Mary is sixty-five years old, black, overweight, and plain in appearance. She is highly sociable, and she spends her free time mostly in activities related to her church. She is on dialysis for kidney problems.”

Then he says, “If you had to bet on it, you should bet that Mary is happier than Bob.” (Haidt, Happiness Hypothesis, 87)

Do you see what that is? Do you see how big the difference is? You might love California, you might hate California. Don’t say that to my wife. Do you see that though? Life is uncontrollable and you must address the supernatural.

We cannot master success, achieve accomplishments, and solidify relationships to a place of safety. We don’t know our own hearts, the heart of our spouse, or the hearts of our friends. There is a slime, a crud in the deep darkness that will suddenly come up and bite any of us.

You can only have courage if you face the danger. You must deal with the supernatural. That’s the first super.

The second thing about courage. It’s really hard to define courage. Courage is best pictured as the middle between fear or frozen and recklessness. If you never tell anyone that you are a follower of Jesus, that’s fear. If you tell a pastor but not anyone else that you believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, that’s just fear. But if you walk around telling all your coworkers, and your bosses, and your neighbors, hi my name’s Pete and I believe in Jesus as my Savior and Lord, do you? That’s not courage, that’s just recklessness.

It’s amazing because, in just a moment here, Peter is going to get out of the boat and walk on the water to Jesus. What makes him do that?

Jesus says to everyone in the boat, “Take courage. It is I”. When Jesus says, “it is I” what he says literally is, “ego eimi”. “I am” The translators don’t write that because they know if you’re reading along and it says, “Take courage. I am” you would say, well of course he is. Did the disciples survive? That’s what you would say.

But what Jesus is doing here. When Jesus says, “I am” he is claiming the name of God as his name. When God called Abraham to follow him, he said, “I am.” When God called Jacob to go down to Egypt, he said, “I am.” When God came to Moses in the burning bush, he said, “I am who I am”. When God came to Moses and gave the 10 commandments, he said, “I am, I am, the compassionate and gracious God”. What is Jesus doing? He is announcing himself.

But it’s weird. It’s just odd.

If I walk in the house at the end of the day, I might say, “I’m home!” or “Hey gang, I’m here.” Sometimes I’ll say something like, “hey, it’s me.” Or when I walk in the bedroom late at night and someone says, “Whose there” I’ll say, “It’s me”. I never say, “It is I”.

There is something incredibly personal, incredibly beautiful with these words. Because Jesus is saying, I’m not satisfied with calming a storm. I’m not satisfied with stopping your tests and your trials. He is saying, I want you to know me in the middle of your trials.

Let’s talk about those fears for a moment. What are your greatest fears? What are your greatest nightmares? The loss of your health? The loss of your kids? The loss of job? The loss of our intelligence? The loss of friends? Not becoming something? Not getting married? What are the things that keep you up at night?

On the cross, Jesus Christ took the ultimate nightmare. The ultimate nightmare is to be alienated from God. If there is a God and you were made by God, unless Jesus Christ does something about the way you’ve lived your life, you will be lost, and that’s the ultimate nightmare.

The ultimate poverty, the ultimate loneliness, the ultimate death is to be lost, is to be alienated from God spiritually forever, and on the cross, Jesus Christ experienced that cosmic alienation. He took your greatest nightmares on.

He says to you, “It is I.”

Do you know how this becomes your courage? I know some of you probably get tired of me telling stories from Lord of the Rings, but in this case you have to let me because the hobbits are all about courage.

There are two great little heroes in the story, Sam and Frodo. There’s a place where Sam, who is Frodo’s faithful companion, has been defending him. At one point, he gets him out of a tower by saying, “Here I come!” (He sounds almost like Jesus - “It is I”) He fights and he gets Frodo out, but they’re on their way to the end of their quest and he’s scared. One night, we’re told he looks up into the sky.

“Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart … [Then,] like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even [Frodo’s] ceased to trouble him.… he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.”

And my friends, that is real courage. It’s not when fear fades.

When you grasp a real beauty, a real strength, and a real power in the midst of your trials, your fears, and your greatest nightmares, then you can begin to have a new heart.

That's our second super. A super power.

Action

So will you join me in this? Let’s love our neighbors … courageously

This kind of courage makes all the difference. Let me just give us one example.

There is a woman in the Bible named Abigail. Abigail was married to Nabal. Nabal means fool and he did a good job of living up to his name. We don't know how long he embarrassed her with his rudeness and drunkenness, but it probably seemed like forever.

The man who was anointed to be the next king, David, was hiding in the hills nearby. They protected Nabal’s 5,000 or so animals. Protected them from raiders, thieves, animals, and the like.

Then it was time to shear the sheep. Sheep shearing time is a time to be generous and hospitable.

David asked Nabal for some supplies. Nabal accused David of disobedience and insurrection. The chosen future king!

David was ticked. He prepared to battle Nabal. One of the servants ran to Abigail, told her. She packed up food for many men and ran to David. She begged his pardon and forgiveness.

David praised God for using her to rescue him from sin.

Friends, Jesus is on the other side of every conflict. Sometimes, it won’t work out and you won’t be able to stick with your neighbors.

But very often, I can tell you. The more you hear him say, “it is I” the more courage you’ll see. The more together you and your neighbor will be.

Love your neighbor ... share satisfying sustenance

August 16, 2020

Matthew 14:13-21

Discussion questions

Sermon

Intro

How did it go loving your neighbors this week?

I had some failures and successes. I somehow missed that our water heater was out for, o, 3 days. I got myself in a situation where I had to apologize. But I got to ask for forgiveness and enjoy the reconnection. I got to help a few people serve the community through Peace. And I met a neighbor for the first time.

I think the hardest thing ... someone asked for some help. They wanted gas, utilities, some medical payments, that kind of thing. I couldn’t do it. Even after last week’s message – love your neighbor…spend. For some reasons, I couldn’t justify it.

That is so hard. We’ve got so much stuff. So much money. We might be the wealthiest people ever. We might be pretty materialistic.

But we’re stuck in this moment where this decision to help people, to do something about their physical needs, is so hard. Some people tend to say, look, this is America. There are lots of opportunities. The only things that hold people back are a failure to work hard or a failure to make even semi-reasonable decisions.

Many other people say, systems have failed. The family system, justice, and education system – they’ve all failed so much that a lot of people never have a chance.

We’ve got to find ways through this to love real people. To love the person who says, I could use some help. Can you help me? There needs to be a way to uphold individual responsibility and corporate compassion when we have so much.

Call to adventure

There has to be a change. There has to be a change to handle out physical needs. It’s supernatural. There needs to be a supernatural change to handle our physical needs. That’s what Jesus gives us in the feeding of the 5,000.

This is a simple yet profound event. It is so profound that each writer of the story of Jesus records this story. Depending on how you count, there are about 200 events from the life of Jesus recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This is the only event outside of the suffering, death, and resurrection that shows up in all four Gospel writers. We know the Bible thinks it is important. Should it be important to us?

Development

Jesus gets the message John has died. That matters. John was his cousin. He goes off to process what happened. He goes to a deserted, lonely place. People follow him.

You might feel like this is a picnic, out in the wilderness. You might picture red, checkered tablecloths. Beautiful green grass. The lake is next to you. The waves gently lap on the shore.

Don’t! That’s not it at all. Jesus has gone to this remote hill country. History suggests this is a hotbed of revolutionary resistance. This is where the revolutionaries get together because the hills make it an easy place to hide. As many as 20,000 people came out. It says 5,000 men, besides women and children. That means you have to add women and children to the 5,000.

They weren’t well. Many people needed healing. They were hungry. We like to imagine that they were just hungry because they listened to Jesus preach for most of the day. That’s probably not the case.

In ancient Israel, like much of the ancient world, just having enough food was a constant problem. One common estimate is that “some 90% of the population were living in continuous problems of sustenance” (Sakari Häkkinen, http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222016000400046). 90% of the people were hungry regularly. There was an incredibly small upper class – about 1%. Then two or so groups of people that were high class – merchants and landowners. They were about 7 or 8 % of the population. Look at all the hunger just in Jesus’ times. First, there is the son who ran away from his father. When he took care of pigs, he longed to eat the pigs slop! Second, when the early church converted, people sold their houses and land. They brought the proceeds to feed the needy among them. None of us have needed to sell our house or land to feed the poor and needy. $50 here, $100 there. Maybe a few thousand in taxes. They must have had MANY poor and hungry to need to sell everything they had. Or third, the woman who begged Jesus to heal her daughter. She said she would have been satisfied with the dogs food! I feel it’s safe to say you don’t eat dog food.

Jesus fed them all. He fed 15,000 people with food for a few thousand left over.

The miracle is an absolute marvel. Each miracle is different. Some of them deal with biology – sight, sound, the ability to walk, and even life itself. Some of them deal with meteorology – calming the storm, earthquake. Many are spiritual – demons, evil spirits. And this miracle, this is not like any of them. The stories after Jesus love to make up magical events where he makes something from nothing. This is the only one in the Bible. This is not so much a suspension of the laws of nature. This is a restoration of the universe to the way it will be for all eternity.

Think about this. When Jesus pictures eternity, one of his favorite pictures is a wedding banquet (Mt 8, Lk 14, Rev 19) where everyone gets to feast. Isaiah says that people in eternity will get to eat from the vineyards they plant. Jesus says there won’t be any more hunger or thirsting (Rev 7) in eternity.

Matthew says, “They all ate and were satisfied”(Mt 14:20). Did you catch that? You think, with all of our wonderfully rich, amazing food. Alaskan salmon. Grass fed beef. Lobster from Maine. How many times have you eaten and been satisfied? He actually satisfies them. 15,000, maybe 20,000 people. He satisfies them. He makes it like eternity.

Can you imagine how awesome this experience was? How amazing it must have been?

This was a first hand experience where the God of the universe was saying, your body matters. Your physical well being matters. Your health matters. All this stuff, this mundane, down to earth, every day stuff matters more than you ever imagined to your God.

This is big deal. Jesus drags a little bit of eternity into the present. In eternity, you will be satisfied. You will eat to enjoy. You’ll drink to enjoy. You’ll feast. You’ll celebrate. And Jesus, in those hills, says, I can give you that eternity.

I know I’m kind of hitting on this point a little extra. I don’t think we really feel the promise here. We don’t sense how beautiful, how wonderful this is. Why?

Because we think, I can tell food is important. I can tell my body is important. I can tell my house is important. These are basic things I need for life. My parents have always provided them for me, or I work so that I have them. And if I’m a person who believes in a God, I think that he guides the universe in such a way that I’m taken care of.

Jesus is saying it first. He doesn’t want you to be materialists. He wants you to like stuff and believe he is greater.

We're materialists if our happiness comes only from a new job. We’re materialists if our contentment only comes from a better house, car, or boat. We’re materialists if is the next phone makes us satisfied.

In contrast, they were satisfied.

In the ancient world, there were plenty of people saying, the body is bad. The way to enlightenment is denying your physical body and all its desires. If you want to be a truly good person, don’t rely on your body so much.

And then Jesus comes along and he says, I can satisfy you. This is sustenance that satisfies.

This world is so broken and so corrupt. I’m not saying you’re awful or nature is awful. Literally, the universe is imploding. The second law of thermodynamics tells us the world is running out of usable energy. Everything is slowly breaking and falling apart. Just like the house that you spend so much money on maintaining keeps on falling apart, this whole universe is slowly falling apart.

So Jesus says, Verse 19, “taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.” Why does he break the bread? “broke”, that word. Do you realize what he is saying?

He goes on later to say, “I am the bread of life” and I will be broken for you.

He is telling us that as broken as the universe is, he will be more broken. I’m the bread that breaks on the cross and if you eat of this bread you will never be hungry again. If am the blood that pours out on the cross and if you drink of me you will never be thirsty again.

Let me give us an illustration.

Imagine if you will that we are all diamonds. Nice, right?

But we’re millions of tiny, almost worthless diamonds. Just barely bigger than powder. Then one massive, gorgeous, beautiful, almost priceless diamond is set down right in the middle of us. Something like the Hope diamond.

We would stare at that diamond. Adore it. Prize it. Value it more than everything.

Then that diamond gets smashed. It gets crushed into millions of little pieces. I don’t know, something fell on it. Smashed into a million pieces.

Now each piece of that big, beautiful diamond is barely bigger than the millions of us.

What does that mean for all the other diamonds? The instant that massive diamond showed up, their relative value plummeted. In a moment, they looked like nothing. In fact, there was so much diamond on the market that they really did lose all their value.

But when that massive diamond was smashed, the market was still just as filled with diamond. Each diamond was worth immeasurably more.

That’s what Jesus has done. He has said, look I will be broken like your universe so that you are worth more to my Father. I will die on the cross so that you can be presented to him with infinitely more valuable.

A lot of you think, I’m not worth very much. I’m not worth it. I’ve messed up a lot of things in my family. I struggle to keep a job. I can’t hardly do anything right. I’m a real sinner.

Jesus was broken for you. You. Your body and soul matter so much to God.

This is real food. Give this food. Share satisfying sustenance.

Call to action:

Will you join me in this? Jesus says, “you give them something to eat”. Let’s share satisfying sustenance.

If you say, I believe in Jesus as my Savior and Lord, here is what you do: We care deeply about physical health. We care about reducing world hunger as best we can. We care about feeding school age children who don’t get decent meals or any meals at home. We care about feeding the hungry people who call church – people who haven’t eaten in days.

And we have an unrelenting, unyielding, unending conviction that Jesus is our Lord. That’s it.

Do you realize how radical that is? Do you know how profound that is? Let me share an example that shows it.

There is an old story told about a Christian named Polycarp. He lived about 150. He was chased, reportedly, because of his faith in Jesus. The story has some hyperbole in it, so it’s kind of hard to tell. It seems pretty clear he was betrayed by his friends, likely because they were tortured. The officers came to the house where he was staying. They were going to arrest him and take him to his execution. They found Polycarp lying down on the top floor of the cottage. He was saying, “God’s will be done.”

Then he did something remarkable. He did not fight the arrest. Instead, he called for food and drink for the men and asked for an hour to pray. Afterwards, he was arrested and led away to die.

Bread that has been crushed for you means you have sustenance to satisfy anyone.

Christians aren’t materialists or spiritualists.

Materialists only care about the body. Christians care about souls.

But we aren’t spiritualists. Spiritualists say, the soul is the only thing that matters. Christians care about body and soul.

Believers in the man who fed 5,000 can say with good confidence, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.” The psalm writer is talking about hunger. He says God doesn’t forsake people. He remembers them with food. And what kind of people? The righteous. People who believe that even though they’ve messed up and they keep messing up, God not only forgives them but also chooses them because of Jesus.

That’s satisfying sustenance. And that is food, or sustenance, we can share. (Let’s share satisfying sustenance.)

Love your neighbor ... spend

August 9, 2020

1 Timothy 6:17-21

Sermons

Did you use your block map this week? Love your neighbors

Let’s be frank. It mostly comes down to two things: time and money.

We gave away free ice cream in our front yard Friday afternoon

But last weekend we went to a graduation party and there was an ice cream truck! It was awesome! Who do you think felt more loved? My neighbors, or us?

Adventure

What are you getting by spending?

Paul writes to Timothy, and Jesus tells us a parable so we can get so much more. And you know what, along the way so will our neighbors.

Development

Paul says this:

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

I don’t think I need to tell you that Americans are rich. If you have a net worth of $100K, you are in the top 10% globally. If you have a net worth of $1 million, you are in the top 1% globally. That’s not income, that is net worth. If you live in this area and you own most of your home, you’ve paid off the mortgage, you’re net worth is more than $100K.

Still, I know “rich” has to do with buying power and how I perceive life. I don’t feel rich as a pastor and the father of 5. I’m pretty sure I am.

Let’s get really plain. There are a few of us who are financially in a tough spot. But you know, if I ask so many how things are, people will say they’re blessed. Or they’re well. Busy. Poor in time. But we’ve got more than enough money to get by. I haven’t had to help anyone get significant financial assistance during the pandemic. Not housing, not utilities. Not even significant groceries. I don’t know if we’re rich. We’ve got more than enough!

The Bible almost says more about generosity than really anything else. Hope is mentioned 185 times, faith 246 times, love 733 times; generosity: 2285 times. (JD Greear, “A Generous Spirit”, 2011) You know what means?

Money matters. What you do with your money matters.

So what’s he saying? Spend your money. Be generous. You’ll actually be saving! It’s amazing. “In this way [the rich] they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

You see what Paul does there?

He doesn’t say, money doesn’t matter. He draws on something. He knows people want treasure. He says “they will lay up treasure.”

I bet a lot of you have seen the movie series “National Treasure”. It tells the story of a man named Benjamin Gates. His family knows some secrets about this treasure that has been hidden since the Revolutionary War. He commits a good part of his life to the search for treasure. As the movie plot goes, he eventually finds this incredible treasure.

Before we get there, there is this scene where Ben and his dad are fighting. His dad says, stop it, just stop searching. There is a clue, then another clue. Then he says, “There is no treasure. I wasted 20 years of my life. And now you’ve destroyed yours.” He lost his wife. His lost his job. He lost his son.

He was captivated by treasure. He was inspired. Awed by it. Enthralled by it.

You’ve got to have more than wealth. You’ve got to have treasure. Your search for wealth will never do it. You’ve got to discover treasure.

There is nothing wrong with wealth. Some of the richest people were and are Christians. Job. Abraham. David. Solomon. Joseph. Lydia. Philip Ng in Singapore. Karl Albrecht of Germany. Paul wouldn’t say these words if there weren’t enough rich Christian people.

There is only one way to get real treasure. Spend what you have. Then you’ll save. What do I mean? Jesus puts it this way today.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

Do you see what happens here? This is crazy, isn’t it? The guy discovers treasure in a field. So he buries it and buys the field. Wait a second, why did he buy the field?! No one knew it was there. Just take it! And even more, what does he do? He sold all he had. Why!? No one else wanted the field. See? This is the surprise. This is the twist.

First, these men have an epiphany. Both of these men are illumined. They see a value that other people don’t see. They understand something of value and beauty is there that other people miss. They have the insight. They have the revelation. They’re illumined. They understand it.

Then secondly, they realize there is no halfway way to get it. There’s no trying things out. There’s no incremental. There is all or nothing. They’re going to have to risk everything. They’re going to have to lose everything. They’re going to have to sell everything. They look at that race car they wanted since they were a kid and say, even this, I won’t keep.

An absolute transformation has taken place. Can you think how awesome that treasure must be? I think of the example of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf.

“Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, a German nobleman who was born into great power and privilege and lived from 1700 to 1760, was one of the founders of the Moravian Church. Over the years he spent his wealth down to practically zero doing good deeds, pouring himself out for others. Why? What happened that motivated him so radically? As a young man of nineteen, he was sent to visit the capital cities of Europe in order to complete his education. One day he found himself in the art gallery of Dusseldforf gazing at Domenico Feti’s Ecce homo, a portrait of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns. This image of the suffering Lord was very moving to Zinzendorf. Underneath the painting the artist had penned an inscription, words that Jesus might say to any one of us: “All this I did for thee; what doest thou for me?” (Timothy Keller, Jesus the King, pg 166)

Zinzendorf gets something. He gets the difference between real treasure and fake treasure.

Fake treasure tries to prove its own value and its own worth. Fake treasure looks shiny. It might look impressive. It might look good.

Real treasure proves your value. Your worth. Real treasure says, you my owner, my master, my Lord, you are worth something. You are worth more than you ever imagined.

What does Jesus say? “The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He serves you.

God may be his Father, but as a man he serves you, his owner, his lord. He proves

He proves your value and worth. How can you not spend all the treasure he is?

Spend what you’ve got and save. Save yourself. Save others.

Can you do that?

This lesson has nothing to do with earning forgiveness, acceptance, and eternity. Nothing to do with that.

There is something God says you must do to receive forgiveness, acceptance, and eternity.

There’s nothing you can do to earn it.

Imagine you’re a light switch. Turn on the light switch on the wall. It seems to bring on the light, but it doesn’t. What turns on the light is the power. The light switch simply is a channel of the power. It has no power of its own.

This is one of the most important distinctions both in Christian teaching and your own Christian experience. There are things to do to receive God’s gifts.

The total commitment is the way in which it’s received but not earned. That man found the treasure and he sold everything he had. What is that?

Repentance. Commitment. Letting go of everything.

It’s not a spend to get saved. It’s not even a spend for saving. It’s a spend and be saved.

Some of my most favorite people spend more than they even have. (KL, DK) I remember one of them was offended that I offered to pay for his coffee when we had breakfast. Offended! That I bought coffee!

Action

Let’s spend and save. The people around us might be more loved than we could imagine. Just as important, we’ll lay up treasure for real life. Spend and sav

Love your neighbor

August 2, 2020

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Listening guide

How am I going to treat you?

“Let both grow together”. (verse 30)

“ Let them grow to the harvest” = “forgive them to grow until the harvest.”

_______________, don’t ______________________ your neighbors.

Discussion questions

What’s a humorous story from your neighbors you can share?

Jesus described his own mission in different ways. Read the passages below and discuss Jesus’ mission. Do you have a passage you like that tells Jesus’ mission?

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,     because he has anointed me     to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners     and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)

In the Bible Jesus carried out his mission in many places: from Capernaum down to Jerusalem and many places in between (see the maps below). In that way, his life and work were very different from ours. He didn’t have only one “neighborhood” or “community” to work in his own life. Still, Jesus conducted very intimate, personal ministry (see below). What do we learn about Jesus’ ministry from these and similar events?

He was in the home of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31)

He healed a paralytic in his “home” (Mark 2:1-12)

He had dinner with Levi (Mark 2:15)

He was invited into the home of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42)

He met with Nicodemus at night (John 3)

He drank water with a woman at a well (John 4)

Just as Jesus had a mission, the Bible clearly states his followers will have a mission. From the passages below, how do you summarize the church’s mission? As a follow up to that question, the Bible says very little about how we carry out that mission. Should we tell our neighbor in our front yard or theirs? Should we go to foreign countries? Should we get a YouTube channel? What do you see as your role in the church’s mission?

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16)

 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:46-49)

 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

One way that the Bible suggests us thinking of the people we should serve is our neighbor. In fact, he says all of God’s law can be summarized this way: “30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.” When he says the word “neighbor”, what do you think that means?

Luke 10:25-37 (the story of the Good Samaritan), specifically verse 29, show us how hard it is to love our actual neighbors. “29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”” What do you think are some of the reasons it so hard to love our actual neighbors?

The Bible shows that wonderful things can happen when we love our actual neighbors. For example, Mark 2:1-12. What wonderful events happen to Jesus’ neighbor?

It’s much easier to love our neighbors when we actually know their names. Below is a tool called a “Block Map”. You can fill in the names of the people on your block. If you don’t have a “block”, you can write out a few networks of people in the next table.

Sermon

During the pandemic and the protests, one of the things I keep asking people – when I get to talk to them, that is – is what are you taking away from this time?

I’ve heard a bunch of different responses. I’ve been surprised by all the people who have said, “People are s-t-u-p-I-d". I don’t want to be crude. That’s just what they say.

First part of me says, yup, sure are. The Bible says we’re sinners. We’re hostile to God and to one another.

The other part of me says, I don’t know what you mean by that. I don’t know if you are for or against masks. I don’t know how you feel about protests. But what do you intend to do with that conclusion?

I asked one of them, so, what are you going to do about that? They didn’t know. And that, that concerns me.

I suppose you could ignore people. Criticize them. Condemn them. Reject them. If you are that person, I might stay away from you or put you down. If the only thing, or even the main thing, you think about people, is they’re s-t-u-p-I-d, I’m not sure you can treat them well.

I know we all find this an incredibly hard time. I’ve got all these thoughts swirling in my head, all these questions and concerns. Then you make a choice. I think, anything but that! How could you be so ….

What should I do with you? How am I going to treat you? Jesus answers part of that question today. For the next few weeks we’ll take a look at different aspects of this theme, “Love our Neighbors”.

Today we have one of the many parables of Jesus. These are really short stories. They try to tell us how God’s world works. They’re always surprising us. You know you’ve got the parable wrong if there is no surprise. And I think this is a pretty good one.

Jesus says, there is a field. We can imagine the field is the world. Wheat and weeds grow together in the field. To understand the story better, I think it helps to know that the weed is zizania, or darnel. It actually looks a lot like wheat. Here comes the first surprise.

Jesus says, “Let both grow together”. (verse 30) I know a lot of you like gardening. If you want to see what weeds and flowers growing together look like, you can come to my house when we’re done. I doubt any of you gardeners leave the weeds in your garden. Jesus leaves them both.

This is not what most religions and ways of thinking to do. Jesus says people are the weeds and the wheat. What most people want to do is, what do most people do? They pull out, they kick out, they separate out, and they remove the “people of the evil one”. Whoever they are.

To get a sense of this, there are lot of examples in history. If you’re a resident of Europe in 1095, the people to separate out are the Muslims living in Jerusalem. If you’re a Spaniard living in the 1470s, the people to kick out are the nonCatholics from the country of Spain. If you’re an Iraqi living in the 2010s, they might be the residents of certain Christian settlements. If you’re a Communist living in China in 1950, they might be wealthy landowners. If you’re a Nazi in Germany in the 1940s, they might be the Jews.

This is nothing new. They saw Jesus as the Messiah. They thought he was this great and awesome king. And maybe you think it is time for me to deal with the Romans, or the Jewish religious leaders, or the Samaritans. He says, I sense you want me to be kind of a Joshua and drive out these other leaders.

This is why there is such a push for tolerance. There is a little oppressor in all of us. Know anyone who has shunned someone from their family? Sure.

Jesus is saying so much more than tolerate.

The reason life has so much misery in it is so much worse than you think it is. You think it’s those people, whoever those people are. Every time, every age, every place, has its those people.

The truth of it is far worse than you realize. Reality itself is broken. At the very roots of reality, there is an evil. At the very roots of the psyche and at the roots of our society and at the roots of reality itself, the roots of the natural and even the supernatural fabric of the universe, there is an evil, a cancer, that’s eating out the guts of the way things are.

The only way to rip it out is to destroy everything. Literally everything. Jesus has to rip out the roots of the natural and supernatural universe to get rid of this evil.

He says, you are not the great revolution of life. I am the great revolution of life. I’m the one who is going to change everything.

It’s not enough for you and I to imagine a new government, new tax code, new non-profits, or new religions. It’s not enough to say, the world would be better if we just got rid of those people. Imagine everything restored. Imagine justice in the courts, mercy on the streets, hope in the homes, and love in the hearts.

That is the judgment Jesus is going to bring at the end of all time. If we hurry to judge now, we’ll just ruin things. We’ll destroy everyone. No one will flourish. There will be no wheat producing a great harvest or crop.

You know what the solution is? It’s not tolerance.

Jesus doesn’t say it specifically, but he hints at it. Let me show you. When he says, “Let them grow to the harvest”, do you know what he actually says? The word “let them” actually means “forgive them”. What Jesus says is, “forgive them to grow until the harvest.” Forgive them. You know what that is? That’s a spiritual revolution.

Jesus is not saying, “tolerate evil”. He isn’t saying “accept evil”. Jesus says as strongly as anyone, if something causes you to sin, cut it out. Get rid of it. If someone sins against you, don’t ignore it. Go and tell them. Call them out. If someone calls himself or herself a believer, yet they refuse to actually follow me, kick them out. Don’t call them a believer. Call them an unbeliever.

But Jesus is the absolute, total, and complete sacrifice for sins. He is dead and risen for each and every sin. The Jews and the Romans oppressed, kicked him out, and pulled him out. Even more, he lost his Father. On the cross, he cried, my God, my God. What does that mean?

Each and every sin is actually paid for, eliminated, and needs to be handled in a way that the person can actually receive forgiveness. I learned about a powerful example from the Holocaust.

“After the defeat of Hitler’s Nazi regime in World War II, Holocaust survivor and Christian Corrie ten Boom returned to Germany to declare the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. One evening, after giving her message, she was approached by a man who identified himself as a former Nazi guard from the concentration camp at Ravensbruck, where she had been held and where her sister, Betsie, had died.

When Corrie saw the man’s face, she recognized him as one of the most cruel and vindictive guards from the camp. He reached out his hand and said to her, “A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea! You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk. I was a guard there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, will you forgive me?” About this encounter, Corrie writes:

“I stood there—I whose sins had again and again been forgiven—and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place. Could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I ever had to do . . . I had to do it—I knew that. [The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. . . . ] But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently.

“As she reached out her hand to the former guard, Corrie says that something incredible took place. She continues:

“The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. “I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” . . . I had never known love so intensely, as I did then. But even then, I realized it was not my love . . . It was the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Scott Sauls, A Gentle Answer, Thomas Nelson, 2020, pp.19-20)

Forgive, don’t oppress your neighbors.

So what are you going to do what person you feel is so dumb?

Jesus has given us an incredible resource. Let me see if I can show us. Imagine a situation with a friend, a neighbor or a coworker.

One of the things a Christian can always say is, we don’t know, I don’t know, we could be wrong, and I could be wrong. No matter what the topic is – masks, politics, school openings, There is a man in the Bible called Job. He lost his family, his wealth, and his health. His friends all told him, “You must have done something terribly wrong. Curse God and die.” In the end of the book, God tells the friends they were wrong the whole time. He never tells Job if something was wrong. God is the only one with a true outsider’s perspectives.

At the same time, there are so many good and true and beautiful things that we do know, and we should talk about them. Justice should reign. Truth should ring out. Mercy should flourish.

This is what the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus gives us. It lets us avoid both zealotry and passivity. Zealotry is what happens when we say, this is the only way we can be accepted by God and the other people. That’s not true. Jesus says, “let them grow together”. I’ll figure it out. And yet Jesus says, “let them grow together”. Grow into what is good and true and beautiful. Passivity is not the answer. Just as Jesus is risen from the dead, we grow in a new life.

Avoid both zealotry and passivity as you love your neighbor.

Will you join me in loving our neighbors?

Some of you are really great neighbors. You’re living forgiveness with your neighbor whether or not they want it. Thank you. And I hope you get a chance to share your stories.

Most of us frankly aren’t.

Jesus doesn’t say it explicitly in this lesson. What he says explicitly is, “I’m the great farmer and harvester. And someday I’ll get to collect a great harvest.” He hints at the way to get there. It’s letting the weeds and the wheat grow together. It’s forgiving the nonbeliever. It’s growing together with your neighbor.

Will you join me in loving our neighbors? And I bet we’ll see a harvest more awesome than we’ve ever known.

Forgive, don’t oppress your neighbors.

God's Word does what God wants

July 26, 2020

Isaiah 55:1-11

Discussion questions

Getting started

Have you ever had the fortune of a fortune cookie come true?
How are you handling the changing scientific answers regarding the coronavirus?

Getting into the Word

The premise of this section of Isaiah is that God keeps his Word, even if it isn’t what we’d like. This was demonstrated twice in the life of Isaiah alone, even though Isaiah may be drawing on previous events to gain his conviction

Isaiah 38, Hezekiah becomes sick (about 714 BC). He is told that he will not die. God will deliver him from the hands of the Assyrians. The sign all this will happen is that the sun will go back down the stairway. This happens in Isaiah 38:8. Hezekiah recovers.

Isaiah 37:6-7 the Assyrians have surrounded Jerusalem (about 705 BC). God promises through Isaiah that he will make Sennacherib want to return home. He also promises that he will have Sennacherib killed. In 37:36-38 all this happens.

What do you think these things meant to Isaiah (the words of Isaiah 55 might help)?

Depending on what you want to emphasize, there may be as many as 2,500 (Hugh Ross) prophecies and as many as 1,800 are fulfilled. Do you find it encouraging that so many prophecies have taken place?

You would think if so many prophecies have actually taken place (happened) everyone would do what God says all the time. But the Judeans didn’t listen well. Most didn’t come back from Babylon. What do you think are the reasons people (ancient and modern) find it hard to trust God’s messages?

Even if we get past the differences of genre, culture, and history in the Bible, most people will still not find a list of fulfilled prophecies convincing enough. In 55:9-11, Isaiah is telling us about a reason why, even as he tells us to listen to the Word. What is he saying?

I love the promise of Isaiah 55. In verses 9-11, he says that we don’t get what we want. The world is going to go his way, not ours. He says, “it will accomplish what I desire” - not what we desire. He will still say in verse 12, “you will go out in joy, be led forth in peace, and have a juniper instead of a thornbush”. When we listen to God’s Word, we’ll get what we really want, not what we think we want. Martin Luther put it this way, “Thus all the godly regard all things as happy in inner peace and happiness and rejoicing in the Spirit.... It is not, however, the joy that characterizes the Enthusiasts, who are happy when things go well. But the highest joy is to rejoice and be glad in every persecution and upheaval. Let the Christian know that though all else has been taken away, Christ has not been removed from him, and let him spurn everything outside of Christ.” This is the mystery of the gospel. Joy doesn’t come from getting what we want, but getting something we didn’t even know we wanted.

Can you accept this?

Is there a time when experienced trouble or unrest, but still found joy because of God’s Word?

Taking it home

Pick a prophecy or event in the Bible and research how it was fulfilled, or study one listed below. Learn it well enough that you could tell it to someone else.

Where is one place in life right now where you are listening to God’s Word when you don’t want to?

Appendix A Examples of prophecies fulfilled

(1) Some time before 500 BC, the prophet Daniel proclaimed that Israel's long-awaited Messiah would begin his public ministry 483 years after the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25-26). He further predicted that the Messiah would be "cut off," killed, and that this event would take place prior to a second destruction of Jerusalem. Abundant documentation shows that these prophecies were perfectly fulfilled in the life (and crucifixion) of Jesus Christ. The decree regarding the restoration of Jerusalem was issued by Persia's King Artaxerxes to the Hebrew priest Ezra in 458 BC, 483 years later the ministry of Jesus Christ began in Galilee. (Remember that due to calendar changes, the date for the start of Christ's ministry is set by most historians at about AD 26. Also note that from 1 BC to AD 1 is just one year.) Jesus' crucifixion occurred only a few years later, and about four decades later, in AD 70 came the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 105.)*

(2) In approximately 700 BC, the prophet Micah named the tiny village of Bethlehem as the birthplace of Israel's Messiah (Micah 5:2). The fulfillment of this prophecy in the birth of Christ is one of the most widely known and widely celebrated facts in history.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 105.)

(3) In the fifth century BC, a prophet named Zechariah declared that the Messiah would be betrayed for the price of a slave—thirty pieces of silver, according to Jewish law-and also that this money would be used to buy a burial ground for Jerusalem's poor foreigners (Zechariah 11:12-13). Bible writers and secular historians both record thirty pieces of silver as the sum paid to Judas Iscariot for betraying Jesus, and they indicate that the money went to purchase a "potter's field," used—just as predicted—for the burial of poor aliens (Matthew 27:3-10).

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 1011.)

(4) Some 400 years before crucifixion was invented, both Israel's King David and the prophet Zechariah described the Messiah's death in words that perfectly depict that mode of execution. Further, they said that the body would be pierced and that none of the bones would be broken, contrary to customary procedure in cases of crucifixion (Psalm 22 and 34:20; Zechariah 12:10). Again, historians and New Testament writers confirm the fulfillment: Jesus of Nazareth died on a Roman cross, and his extraordinarily quick death eliminated the need for the usual breaking of bones. A spear was thrust into his side to verify that he was, indeed, dead.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 1013.)

(5) The prophet Isaiah foretold that a conqueror named Cyrus would destroy seemingly impregnable Babylon and subdue Egypt along with most of the rest of the known world. This same man, said Isaiah, would decide to let the Jewish exiles in his territory go free without any payment of ransom (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1; and 45:13). Isaiah made this prophecy 150 years before Cyrus was born, 180 years before Cyrus performed any of these feats (and he did, eventually, perform them all), and 80 years before the Jews were taken into exile.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 1015.)

(6) Mighty Babylon, 196 miles square, was enclosed not only by a moat, but also by a double wall 330 feet high, each part 90 feet thick. It was said by unanimous popular opinion to be indestructible, yet two Bible prophets declared its doom. These prophets further claimed that the ruins would be avoided by travelers, that the city would never again be inhabited, and that its stones would not even be moved for use as building material (Isaiah 13:17-22 and Jeremiah 51:26, 43). Their description is, in fact, the well-documented history of the famous citadel.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 109.)

(7) The exact location and construction sequence of Jerusalem's nine suburbs was predicted by Jeremiah about 2600 years ago. He referred to the time of this building project as "the last days," that is, the time period of Israel's second rebirth as a nation in the land of Palestine (Jeremiah 31:38-40). This rebirth became history in 1948, and the construction of the nine suburbs has gone forward precisely in the locations and in the sequence predicted.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 1018.)

(8) The prophet Moses foretold (with some additions by Jeremiah and Jesus) that the ancient Jewish nation would be conquered twice and that the people would be carried off as slaves each time, first by the Babylonians (for a period of 70 years), and then by a fourth world kingdom (which we know as Rome). The second conqueror, Moses said, would take the Jews captive to Egypt in ships, selling them or giving them away as slaves to all parts of the world. Both of these predictions were fulfilled to the letter, the first in 607 BC and the second in AD 70. God's spokesmen said, further, that the Jews would remain scattered throughout the entire world for many generations, but without becoming assimilated by the peoples or of other nations, and that the Jews would one day return to the land of Palestine to re-establish for a second time their nation (Deuteronomy 29; Isaiah 11:11-13; Jeremiah 25:11; Hosea 3:4-5 and Luke 21:23-24).

This prophetic statement sweeps across 3,500 years of history to its complete fulfillment—in our lifetime.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 1020.)

(9) Jeremiah predicted that despite its fertility and despite the accessibility of its water supply, the land of Edom (today a part of Jordan) would become a barren, uninhabited wasteland (Jeremiah 49:15-20; Ezekiel 25:12-14). His description accurately tells the history of that now bleak region.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 105.)

(10) Joshua prophesied that Jericho would be rebuilt by one man. He also said that the man's eldest son would die when the reconstruction began and that his youngest son would die when the work reached completion (Joshua 6:26). About five centuries later this prophecy found its fulfillment in the life and family of a man named Hiel (1 Kings 16:33-34).

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 107).

(11) The day of Elijah's supernatural departure from Earth was predicted unanimously—and accurately, according to the eye-witness account—by a group of fifty prophets (2 Kings 2:3-11).

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 109).

(12) Jahaziel prophesied that King Jehoshaphat and a tiny band of men would defeat an enormous, well-equipped, well-trained army without even having to fight. Just as predicted, the King and his troops stood looking on as their foes were supernaturally destroyed to the last man (2 Chronicles 20).

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 108).

(13) One prophet of God (unnamed, but probably Shemiah) said that a future king of Judah, named Josiah, would take the bones of all the occultic priests (priests of the "high places") of Israel's King Jeroboam and burn them on Jeroboam's altar (1 Kings 13:2 and 2 Kings 23:15-18). This event occurred approximately 300 years after it was foretold.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 1013).

Sermon

The Bible is really hard. It’s harder for some than others. And we can’t forget that.

The Bible’s language is archaic. Even if you are reading a modern translation like the NIV that we use at Peace, it still will say, “I am the good shepherd.” Do you know how many shepherds there are in the United States today? Less than 1,500. I’ve had to study and think a great deal to figure out what the Bible means when it says, I’m the good shepherd.
The Bible is fairly advanced literature. Let’s say you’re reading verse 12 of today’s lesson: the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands”. I know that Fraulein Maria in the Sound of Music believed the hills were alive with the sound of music, but have you ever heard the mountains sing? Any of you have clapping trees in your backyard?
The Bible is historically challenging. Where was Jesus buried? We’ve got two decent locations. In the end you have to make an educated guess. I guess two is better than none.

The Bible causes spiritual upheaval. Take verse 1 today. “Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

It’s so awesome to get past all that.

Many people “I have loved our spiritual conversations”

KP - Bible passages all over the wall of the hospice room. “Thank God for life!”

Discover

The Bible make a difference – conversion; doing, desiring

What does the text say

Isaiah 55 is one of the most beautiful invitations to be part of God’s kingdom. You can hear its beauty in verse 1 ““Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

One of the most wonderful invitations in the whole Bible. The word “come” the author uses here, it’s a very strong encouragement. One writer says, “this particular invitation is unsurpassed for warmth of welcome”. You can call it a cosmic evite.

It’s an invitation to have the forgiveness, pardon, life, joy, celebration, and feasting. In it, God is making two points to his people.

First, God said, “and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?” What is he saying there?

You can’t buy anything without money. That’s not possible. You have to work. Only then can you spend your own money to get what you earned. Still God wants you to buy what you haven’t earned.

To get God’s forgiveness, pardon, feasting, new life, food, and celebration; first, there is a different doing.

We don’t earn. We don’t buy it. We don’t take it. We receive it. This is what Christians call grace.

The second thing, he says, “my ways aren’t your ways, my thoughts aren’t your thoughts”. He even says, “my Word will accomplish what I desire”. (verse 8, verse 11)

We often highlight here that God’s Word works. It’s effective. He also want to emphasize, with God, you don’t get what you want. You get what God wants.

There is different desire.

The Israelites couldn’t earn the real good stuff. Quite the challenge for Hezekiah, Isaiah, and the Israelites in general.

Hezekiah and his people had tried to be a good people. He was a reforming king. He wasn’t an idol worshiper. He didn’t set up temples just so people didn’t travel to other countries. There was this whole long list that the northern people did, that Hezekiah didn’t do.

Still, God offered them a new city, a new country, forgiveness, pardon, feasting, new life, food, and celebration.

God did two things for him to prove that his Word was good. If you want to know what those two things are, you should come to one of our studies.

Hezekiah was convinced, God’s Word does what he desires. “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good.” (Isaiah 39:8)

God’s Word does what God desires.

Will you let God do what he desires? One thing I’ve had to work through, I don’t think there really is much point in having a God that always does things your way. That wouldn’t be a God. That would just be me. I need to God’s Word do what God desires, so that his Word has his way in your life.

So many of us fall into one of two camps. Some of us, we want what God wants, but we want to do it ourselves. We want the fine feast, new life, and pardon. We want that all without any connection to God.

If we’re those kind of people, God says, “Come, buy without money.” And that’s really hard for all of us. Just a few weeks ago, I was at a friend’s house. He wanted some help with his network for his small business. After I helped him with his network, we checked out his pile of bikes in his yard. He collects used bikes as spares for his kids. He raids parts off of bikes and puts repairs old ones.

He had two bikes that worked for us. One for my son and one for me. Before I wheeled them away, I asked, how much can I give you for them? He said, oh, don’t worry about it. I got them for free. I’m glad to give them away for free. Plus, they’ll probably go to the recycling center if you don’t take them. We chatted a little more, then he had to hurry off to meet someone at work. I was left standing to load the bikes into my car with my son. But do you know what I had to do before I left?

I put 20 bucks on the table.

Others of us don’t want what God wants, we want what we want. And to those people God says, “Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”

This I think is even harder for some of us to imagine. We think, I’ve got a house, family, kids, job, a halfway decent government. How much more could I want?

Until you realize that God’s kingdom is like the difference between Kraft mac and cheese and real homemade mac and cheese. How many of you make real homemade mac and cheese? See? And I would be willing to bet that while you will eat Kraft in a pinch, if you have your choice you’ll always eat the real stuff. For me, it’s tuna. I can’t stand tuna in a can. I had a tuna in a can sandwich when I was in 4th grade. It took me 3 days to eat that sandwich. Fresh tuna, I love that stuff.

Martin Luther actually had a test for faith here. Martin Luther wasn’t big into testing our faith. He realized we doubt all the time and if we take the test at the wrong time of day, we’ll fail. But here, he had an easy one. He said, do you have joy? And not the joy of the happiness people, but joy in trials and upheaval?

It’s not that hard to have the joy. God already made the message of Isaiah 55 come true. John tells us “the Word became flesh”.

And what did he do? Barrels of water became gallons for nothing. A few loaves of bread became bread for thousands, without cost or price. Nations that we know not - a woman from Syrophenecia and Samaria and Nain ran to him for help. The women on the way to the cross and the thief on the cross called to him for help.

And the last thing – on Easter morning, Peter and John and Mary came to the tomb.

“the word became flesh”

See, everyone else says listen to some far off ruler. God in Jesus says, listen to my Son.

Call to action

Friends this is wonderful. It’s simple.

What is one place in your life where you are doing what God’s Word says and it’s not what you normally desire, so you can find out what God wants?

I’ve got plenty of people telling me what to do. There are plenty of people saying, here is what God says and here is how you should live your life. Everyone is an evangelist for their position. What I don’t have is a lot of people saying, I’m doing what God wants no matter how convenient it is for me, and this is how I’m discovering that what God wants is so much better.

I'm doing it and I’m experiencing God’s forgiveness, pardon, life, joy, and celebration in ways I never imagined.

If you’ve been a follower of Jesus for a while, you don’t know how encouraging it is for us to hear how you are discovering what God wants for you.

This is really simply. It’s really wonderful. The more we want God to be God, the more we get what we want. What? When God acts as God, what do we get? Yes justice, condemning, and accusing, but we also get forgiveness, life, and salvation. So the more God gets to be God, the more we get what we really want.

God’s Word does what God desires.

Holiness formed hop

July 17, 2020

1 Peter 1:13-21

Leave behind, take away

July 5, 2020

Trusting God in trouble: he triumphs!

May 23, 2020

Rise up: Care and create hope

May 22, 2020

We’d like to support and encourage our congregation and everyone in the Otsego-Plainwell area. Take a moment to write a card to someone in the area. I wrote a real quick one:

“Dear ______, What a bummer to miss so much fun together over Easter. We’ll have to make up for it this summer with another celebration of Jesus’ victory. Until then, The Timmermanns”

Then send it to

____ (previous person)

℅ Peace Lutheran Church

805 S Wilmott St

Otsego, MI 49078

(or drop it off)

I’ll tell people the cards are arriving for them and they can come get them when the stay at home order lifts.

People will know we care about them, they’re important, and there is a place for them.

Please join me in raising up hope during this difficult time. We’re all excited to see your cards!

April 18, 2020

April 20, 2020

April 22, 2020

Rise up, we can believe in Jesus!

May 17, 2020

Rise up with courage and calm

April 25, 2020

Listening guide

The gospel equips him (Peter) for public political and religious conflict.

(Picture of Peter and John with the lame man)

“If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness show to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this,...it is by the name of Jesus Christ” (verses 9-10)

Is this ________ for others?

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (verse 12)

“Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (verse 19-20)

“you be the _____________”
“We can’t help _______________”

The gospel lets me __________ rulers and ___________myself.

Write a letter....

Dietrich Bonhoeffer ““Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God — the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.” “He was, without exception, the finest and most lovable man I have ever met.”

Discussion questions

Getting talking

What is something you’re grateful for?
Is there another religion that interests you?

Digging into Acts 4 and religious pluralism

Larry Hurtado, a scholar of early Christianity, writes, “Today, even in societies such as the USA with a history of religious pluralism, there are sometimes misguided concerns about religious differences. The anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish stance of the Ku Klux Klan is well known. In the 1960 presidential race there were some who claimed that John Kennedy’s Roman Catholic allegiance raised questions about his loyalty to the US Constitution. More recently, some demagogic voices have questioned whether Muslims can be true Americans. As well, of course, religious change or dissent can make for serious and painful personal tensions, and accusations of betrayal or disloyalty to family or people. For example, a member of a Jewish family who becomes Buddhist or Christian can experience accusations of disloyalty to the family and the Jewish people. Similarly, Greek families might well expect all members to be Greek Orthodox.

“Nevertheless, in principle, in modern societies we tend to think of ethnicity (for example, being Italian, Argentinian, Nigerian, or Filipino) and religious affiliation (for example, being Christian, Muslim, or Hindu) as two quite distinguishable things. As a reflection of this, in a national census form we’ll typically be asked to indicate our ethnicity or racial derivation in one question and any religious affiliation in another. But we likely have little knowledge of when and where this idea first appeared.

“Early Christianity, especially in the first three centuries, effectively created the distinction between ethnicity and religion.”

Today, we’re going to start to see how that happened.

Peter and John healed a man born lame. They had to stand trial with the Jewish leaders – Annas, Caiphas, John, Alexander. What do you think they might have thought as they faced the very men who sentenced Jesus?
Peter makes the strong statement in verse 12, “12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved”. What convictions does Peter show with this statement?
What is particularly troubling to the leaders about the apostles (v.7, 13-14), and what link is there between this distress and their rejection of the gospel message?
In verses 19 and 20, Peter gives this memorable response. “19 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” What is noteworthy about it? Could you imagine yourself saying something like it?
The secularization thesis basically said that as countries become more advanced, they will become more secular. The 20th century and the 21st century have demonstrated this to be a false thesis, especially in more Pentecostal/charismatic areas. In verses 23-31, we hear the disciples’ expressive prayer. What are the marks of the prayer which brings down such power into the disciples?
How do we see religious faith begin to transcend social and cultural norms?

Sermon

Acts 4:1-31

Nathaniel Timmermann

Peace Lutheran Church

Easter 2

April 26, 2020

Sermon number 421

Rise up!

“I can do better.” “I could have done better.” I’ve pretty much mastered these phrases. I say them often.

--H family. I was trying to plan an event that included this family. I was not getting a response from them. Finally the day of the event I saw them. I got a different answer than I hoped. I did not remain calm. I had to say, I’m sorry I could have done better.

--Sometimes I have to say it because I don’t say enough. I remember a meeting. I listened to people’s comments, both good and bad. There was a fair bit of criticism as often happens. I felt like I stayed pretty calm. I was still disappointed in how the meeting went. I talked to some mentors and friends afterwards and said, this is what happened. I think I should have spoke up. Do you think that would have been better? I didn’t have the courage at the time. I can do better.

Today we see a guy who has the courage and remains calm in the middle of conflict. It’s Peter. It’s amazing. The religious figures who are judging him, they see his courage (verse 13). I’m blown away by this.

It’s 60 days or so after Jesus is judged and sentenced to death. Peter stands in front of the same people. He doesn’t deny Jesus or run away. He doesn’t blow up at them and yell at them. The gospel equips him for public political and religious conflict.

What happens? Can it do the same for us. That’s today.

Getting started...until

It all started in the temple. Peter and John were there. They were there to live out the powerful new story of Jesus. You can see the hope, the joy that lives in them. Peter looks at this lame man. He says, I can give you your desires. I can give you what you want. Evil doesn’t win. Suffering doesn’t win. In the name of Jesus, stand up. There is this powerful new story at work.

The people are excited … until the Jewish leaders arrest Peter.

This is the first real political and religious conflict after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus had a lot of this in his life. His message was I’m lord over your political and religious systems. What is going to happen to the political and religious system with Jesus gone?

Peter is standing trial and he says, “If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness show to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this,...it is by the name of Jesus Christ” (verses 9-10) Peter doesn’t stand up and say, “your political system and your religious system were shown to be false by Jesus. You guys got to shut this thing down and head home.” He doesn’t say that. He doesn’t even say, almost everything you said about God and the world was proven wrong by Jesus so why should we listen to you?” He doesn’t say that either.

He might think that. He goes on to say, “Jesus is the stone you builders rejected”. First, he accepts, their standard for judgment. He says, “if we are called to account for an act of kindness.”

What he is saying is, the best basis for judgment in the public sphere is whether or not something does good to others. Let me see if I can explain this a little bit.

The Jewish nation was one of the first to go to great lengths to make sure people did good to others. Some people will make a comparison between say Hammurabi’s code and the 10 commandments and say, look they’re pretty much the same. They both teach an eye for an eye. But they really aren’t. The Jewish law code went out of its way to protect the foreigners, the widows, the orphans, and the poor. You just take something like the Year of Jubilee.

If you become a slave in the Jewish system and you lost your own land, it was built into the law code that you would become free and get your land back after so many years. Do you know any other legal system that doesn’t make you buy your way out of slavery? They just forgive the whole debt. I don’t.

That culture stretched all the way down to Jesus. Jesus is known for his morality, his excellent ethical teaching. The sermon on the Mt is this incredible example of ethical living.

So Christianity upholds this idea that in the public sphere, the best basis for judgment is is something good for others? Does it do good to other people? Peter upholds that. He says, “are we on trial for an act of kindness”.

When we say, “does it do public good?” someone will immediately say, “yeah, but whose idea of good? Is it what’s good for you? What’s good for me? Temporary good? Permanent good? How much do you have to work when I do good for you? That is, are free handouts good, or is an education for you good?

We have to pause that for a second. The simple fact that we even say that shows we live in a pluralistic society. People have different political convictions. People have different religious beliefs. Peter is saying, the basis of your public judgment of me.... What I can deal with, “is this an act of kindness.”

This is what a Christian has to work with in public. Maybe we get a chance to say why we’re doing something. We’re doing it in the name of Jesus. Good. The judgment is still, does this do good for others?

What he doesn’t do, he doesn’t argue truth claims.

Peter finishes saying, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (verse 12)

Certainly when Peter says that, he is way out there. People will say to me, you can’t mean that only people in your church or your denomination or your kind of Christianity are saved, do you? I say, no, people who believe in Jesus are saved from their sins. Really, only Jesus? What about the people who have never heard of him? Or even more, what about the people who have never even had a chance to hear about him?

They’ll say, “It’s okay to believe in Jesus, you just can’t believe he is any better than any of the other religious teachers or that he is the only way to God.”

And I’ve got to say, It’s okay to believe in Jesus, but I can’t believe in the Jesus who said, “I am the way the truth and the life.” I can’t believe in the one who said, “I’m going to prepare a place for you and I will come back to take you to be with me.” I can’t believe in the one who said, “the forgiveness of sins will be preached in my name to the world.”

That’s the only Jesus we have. That’s the only Jesus history knows. If your Jesus is not the one who died on the cross and rose again for the salvation of the world, then you don’t have Jesus.

See, Peter has realized he really isn’t that good. He denied Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead. You might have a lot of medals on the wall. You might have a lot of cards from people saying, “You’re a good person.” Did you rise from the dead? That’s the ultimate proof you are good. He said, “salvation is found in no one else”

At the same time, he has realized “salvation is find in Jesus.” He is loved, forgiven, accepted, and approved. God has forgiven his cowardice. Whether or not anyone else agrees with me, God has put me in his family through Jesus.

That’s why Peter isn’t arguing here. He is deeply convicted that he is both nothing and everything in Jesus.

Let me give you just a fast illustration. I bet some of you have watched Pete the Dragon. One of the opening scenes shows this little boy playing by a river. He has some cloth wrapped around himself, not dressed, just playing by the river. A bear comes out of the woods. And you’re like, “Oh no, the kid!” He doesn’t panic. He turns and growls at the bear. And you’re watching it saying, Oh my there is this crazy 10 year old growling at the bear. The bear turns and runs away. And you’re watching it and say, “What just happened?” The camera pans back and out of the woods steps this huge dragon. And you say, “Oh okay.”

It’s not that Peter is so strong or powerful. He knows he is nothing. He has the greatest dragon in the world on his side.

In the end he says, two things. “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (verse 19-20)

--We respect rulers. We will entrust ourselves to your judgment. “you the be the judges.”

--He can also say, We’re going to express ourselves. “We can’t help speaking.”

You see what the gospel has done to Peter? As long as you have to prove yourself, you can never say to your leaders, “It’s your choice. I’ll let you make the call.” As soon as you believe God loves you and forgives you and approves of you because of Jesus, you can let someone else decide your fate.

The gospel lets me respect rulers and express myself.

I wonder if that would look something like this.

--Write a letter to a public figure – mayor, state representative, federal representative,

--Thank you for your efforts and work to serve the people of Otsego/Plainwell, MI, or the United States during this time. I know it is hard.

--We’re going to do good. Visit the lonely and sick. Bring meds, groceries. Give kids activities and education. Give parents a break. And we’re going to say why we do it. Jesus is risen from the dead. He has adopted us as his sons and daughters.

--And we will accept your judgment. We’ll take the discipline, fines, jail time, whatever.

--Not asking for anything beyond what we normally do.

This is without a doubt the right thing to do. The disciples received amazing proof that they were going in the right direction.

--verse 4 5,000 people have come to faith

--verse 9, 22 they have given a lame man the ability to walk

--verse 13 Peter’s courage is obvious

--verse 24-31 the place where they are gathered is shaken

Here is the biggest one. Peter and John go home after they are released. They tell everyone what happened. They pray to speak God’s Word with great boldness. And God shook the place where they were gathered.

I don’t know if there are any really good modern examples of this, but Dietrich Bonhoeffer from about 80 years ago is pretty good.

During World War II, a Christian pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested and imprisoned. He was arrested because he staunchly rejected and refuted everything the German government was doing. He and many other refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the Nazis. He established a seminary for the churches that protested. He wrote a now famous book, the Cost of Discipleship in which he critiqued the religion of the day and the state church. He was involved in a couple of attempts on Hitler’s life. After his arrest, he was imprisoned for 2 years.

In 1943 right at the end of his life, he wrote an essay “After Ten Years: A Reckoning Made at New Year 1943,” in which he summarized his thinking about Christian duty and reiterated his views on the real source of good works: “Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God — the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”

A British prisoner of war who was with Bonhoeffer in the last days before his execution wrote, “He was, without exception, the finest and most lovable man I have ever met.” Bonhoeffer went to his death with great composure, impressing even the concentration camp’s doctor.

That’s the kind of courage and calm the gospel gives. When I deal with politics and religions, It’s a pleasure and a blessing to have a variety of political and religious views. It’s only the person who can say, “Salvation is found in no one else” who can also say, “I can let someone else decide.”

The gospel lets me respect rulers and express myself.

Rise up in Jesus' story

April 19, 2020

Acts 2:22-41

Listening guide

Discussion questions

Getting going: What is one of your favorite stories? (book or movie)
What are some events that happened after Jesus’ resurrection before Peter’s speech in Acts 2?
How is Peter both the same and different after Jesus’ resurrection?
Peter’s storytelling is rather unremarkable. Yet 3,000 people not only professed faith in Jesus that day; they were baptized. What are some things that did it?
Cultural scholars tell us that there are 5 main stories that drive people’s lives. They address the body, time, persons, choices, and emotions. Please choose one and share how it is has been part of your life.
How is your own testimony? When did you last share it? What steps are you taking to create a situation where you could share it?

Sermon

Hope in his victory is hope for our victory

April 16, 2020

1 Peter 1:3-5

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Listening guide

Discussion questions

Sermon

The sufferings of Jesus will overwhelm your sufferings

April 10, 2020

Matthew 27:45-50

Sermon

Good Friday

Matthew 27:45-50

Nathaniel Timmermann

Peace Lutheran Church, Otsego

April 10, 2020

Intro

I was listening to a respected pastor the other day talk about the on the ground situation in New York.

· There are some working class churches in which 80% of the people are out of work

· It’s brought death much closer. He said in Queens, right across the river, people are sitting in their apartments and watching body bags come out of houses.

There is a lot of suffering right now.

You can watch how upset and angry people are.

· People are upset with politicians – shut down or not, force production or not, ticket or don’t, give aid or don’t

· People are upset with their neighbors – you follow the rules, you don’t

· People are upset with churches – you shouldn’t follow the government’s rules, you should follow them,

I'm not really surprised how upset we are. I was talking with one of my Chinese friends. They are far less angry. They aren’t lashing out at each other, the government, their neighbors, or their informal Christian groups.

At least a part of that, there are cultural differences. The Chinese are collectivistic, so they are more willing to set outside their own personal rights for the good of everyone. The bigger thing, … they also have more resources for handling suffering.

I don’t think it is a stretch to say our anger is a reaction to the suffering we’re experiencing that we don’t really have the resources to handle.

Anger is always a secondary emotion – John Gottman

“Most cultures—unlike our own—expect suffering as inevitable and see it as a means of strengthening and enriching us. Our secular culture, on the other hand, is perhaps the worst in history at helping its members face suffering. Every other culture says the meaning of life is something beyond this world and life. He summarizes them with 5 options...

[It may be (a) going to heaven to live with God and your loved ones forever; (b) escaping the cycle of reincarnation in order to enter eternal bliss; (c) escaping the illusion of the world to go into the all-Soul of the universe; (d) living a moral, virtuous, honorable life even in the face of defeat and doom; or (e) living on in your family and descendants. In each case suffering, though painful, can actually help you reach your life goal and complete your life story.]

“But in secular culture the meaning of life is to be free to choose what makes you happy in this life. Suffering destroys that meaning. And so, in the secular view, suffering can have no meaning at all. It can’t be a chapter in your life story—it is just the interruption or even the end of your life story.” (Tim Keller, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/tim-keller-wants-you-to-suffer-well/, accessed 04/10/2020)

Adventure/discovery

What does the cross offer us for suffering?

Part 1

On Passover evening Jesus was arrested. He stood trial with the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body. Then he went to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, for the judgment that he should be crucified. Early on the day we remember as Good Friday he went to the cross. He was crucified about 9am.

During the day, he said 7 sentences or words as we call them from the cross. One of the last was this:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That word, “eli” is Aramaic word for “my God”. It’s the possessive form. Some of the people heard that. They think that he was calling Elijah. You can say the same thing to Elijah. The people, whether they think he is just delirious or they believe some kind of miracle is going to happen, say, let’s see what happens.

The physical pain he is experiencing is intense. It’s not as important as the spiritual pain. We’ll talk about that later. I don’t think you would write about this if you were making it up. Jesus doesn’t seem very impressive. He doesn’t seem important. The people have no idea what he is saying.

They think he is calling Elijah. That’s almost embarrassing to say to you. I want you to believe in this man. I want you to trust him with your life. But people who were there thought his last words were asking Elijah, a prophet who had been dead for over 500 years, to save him!

They do the same thing we do whenever we see someone suffer. I’ve heard from people who are angry or sad through the virus. They’re saying too, why doesn’t someone do something? How could this happen?

What we need to see, we’re only mad and sad and hurt and disappointed and overwhelmed if bad is really wrong.

When we say, why doesn’t someone do something, let’s see about Elijah. We’re assuming tdhere is an order in the universe. The universe isn’t supposed to be this way. Somehow, someway, someone should rescue me from this mess.

People will say, there isn’t any right or wrong. Or if there is, you certainly can’t tell me what to do. I’m the master of my own fate. I get to decide my life. Then some suffering strikes...

And we say, this isn’t right. I shouldn’t have to go through this. That person shouldn’t endure this. Someone rescue them.

That is telling us there is a god. Or at least some higher being. Someone each one of us looks to and asks for help and blames and yells at and all that.

If everyone does that, it’s universal. It’s someone over everyone.

Suffering also tell us there is a God.

You’re upset, your angry, and your hurt... you can't let it turn you away from God. Let me give you an example of this

(JB telling me of this woman, I don’t even remember her name. He pastored her frequently when she was sick and her mom was sick. Lots of visits. Then I think it was the woman’s mom died. He talked with her a few more times. And boom, she wasn’t around. She came maybe once a year to church after that.

He said she came to church one time, I think it was Good Friday. She was just angry.)

Part 2

How do we keep our hearts soft? You have to look even more carefully at what he says, because the infinity of his sufferings will cover over your sufferings.

What does he say?

· He says, “My God, my God”

· He doesn’t say, “my pinky finger, my pinky finger”

· He doesn’t say, “ouch my leg, my leg”

· And he doesn’t say, “my disciples”

· He doesn’t even say, “my people”. He already said that.

· He says, “My God, my God”

When you get hurt, what do you say? I’m guessing that what a lot of you say when you stub your toe would be pretty inappropriate right now. You always scream about what is hurting you.

Look at Jesus. What is shocking is, most of the time, he was quiet. He didn’t say a thing:

· He gets arrested. He says, “why have you come at me with clubs at night? Didn’t I teach publicly?”

· He stands trial before the Sanhedrin. He’s silent.

· He stands trial before Pontius Pilate. He’s silent. Go home, look this up. Can’t make this up.

· And you’ve heard him on the cross. He doesn’t scream about his feet, his hands, his hair, his legs. He says kind things like “Father forgive them.”

· Hardly a word!

Matthew says he “cried out in a loud voice”. A great voice literally. In other words, he shouted, he screamed. The whole time he has been silent. Now he screams his pain.

What’s his pain? His God. You and I do this all the time. If you have a bad day at work, you come home. Toys are all over the floor. The coats have fallen off the racks. What do you do? You scream and holler at someone, probably your spouse who says hello to you first. Is your spouse causing the pain? No, but your spouse is pushing into you and exposing your hurt.

What really hurt Jesus wasn’t you, me, or all of humanity. Something happened with God. He lost him.

How bad was it for you this man who never cried out, who never complained, who never turned against his father to scream at his Father?

Jesus Christ did not feel there was a God anymore, that there was a God who loved him. He didn’t feel that. He couldn’t sense it. He didn’t sense God loved him, that God would ever come back to him, that God was there at all, and he wasn’t. He was gone. Jesus’ heart froze. Jesus was plunged into outer darkness. Jesus Christ went to hell.

Do you remember how you felt the other day when the sun started to shine a little, it was almost 70 degrees, and we all stood longingly in our backyards hoping someone would come by and say hi?

God is like the sun, and God, to some degree, is keeping us soft and he’s keeping us warm. To some degree, he’s keeping our humanity from completely freezing. He’s keeping us from the outer darkness. This is true whether you’re a believer or whether you’re an unbeliever, whether you’re trying to get near God or whether you’re trying to run away from God.

Except for Jesus, there was no God. Where God should have been, there was only darkness and cold.

The Bible over and over again says, “What is the ultimate punishment? It’s to be banished from God and his loving presence. He was gone. He was sent to hell, and he went into eternal torment. Do you know what? The words go beyond that. The words do not just show at that moment Jesus Christ went to hell, that at that moment Jesus Christ took upon him what all of the sins of humanity deserved.

It goes beyond that. It doesn’t just say, “You have forsaken me,” which tells us a lot about the infinity of Christ’s sufferings, but, boy, the words tell us even more, because the person who is being forsaken is saying, “My God, my God.” That had never happened before, and that has never happened since.

One of the things that the Bible has told us that no one goes to hell who hasn’t already chosen it for themselves. For example, when the Judge says, depart from me into hell. The people don’t say back, dear God, we really wanted to be with you, we just made a big mistake. They say, “when did we see you hungry, or thirsty”. What’s the problem? They never even saw Jesus. They never wanted anything to do with him.

So everyone who goes to hell says, “Cruel master! Wicked sovereign! You’re just going to crush me. I would rather be away from you!” And you’ve heard this. People jokingly say things like, “I’d rather be in hell and do ____ than be in heaven.” I’d rather party with the devil in hell... That kind of thing.

Except for Jesus.

I don’t know if I’ve every called Rachel, “my Rachel”. I call her my wife. I call her my love. I don’t know if I ever call her “my Rachel.” I certainly never call her “my Rachel, my Rachel”. That would assume so much intimacy. It doesn’t matter how close we are, I don’t know if I would dare call her “my Rachel”.

And Jesus says, “my God, my God”.

That is a great hell.

Doesn’t that melt your heart?

It’s more than enough. Here is how you know.

Verse 50 “Jesus gave up his spirit”

After all that, he wasn’t out of control. He didn’t collapse. “… he gave up his spirit.” He stayed utterly in control. For him to be saying, “My God, my God,” continuing the intimacy, continuing to reach out, continuing to hold to the covenant, means, “From hell’s heart I obey you.” From hell’s heart I hate you? I curse you? No. “From hell’s heart I obey you. From hell’s heart in hell’s heart …”

How did he do it? He never gave up. He never gave in.

All so you would know, without a shadow of a doubt, that God loves you more than life itself. There is nothing he would rather have in all of creation than you. He will take your sins on himself and carry them into hell itself to have you for all eternity.

I don’t know what the reason is for your particular suffering.

I know what it’s not. It’s not that he doesn’t love you.

And if you see that, you will have a power in every suffering.

“But even as hope died in Sam, or seemed to die, it was turned to a new strength. Sam's plain hobbit-face grew stern, almost grim, as the will hardened in him, and he felt through all his limbs a thrill, as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue.” (6.3.5-6)

If your hope is from you or is something you have generated, it will never last. It can’t power you through great suffering.

As your hope seems to die, the sufferings of Jesus will overwhelm your sufferings and make you last.

Let’s pray

Father, we see the intensity of his sufferings. Help us now to think on this in such a way that helps us to see because he was forsaken we will never be forsaken. Because he went to hell, we do not have to go. Father, we pray you would help us to think about this in such a way that it leads us to the amazing hope and joy that it promises and it indicates. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.