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Centre Avenue Church of God - 1917 East Centre Ave - Portage, Michigan Ph:269.327.9648
Loving God and each other forJesus' sake. |
A Ministry Of Hospitality Scriptures (all NIV): Proverbs: 25:6-7 6 Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among great men; 7 it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman. Hebrews 13:1-3 Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. [2] Luke 14:1-15 (NIV) Jesus at a Pharisee’s House 14 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away. 5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a sona or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they had nothing to say. 7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Introduction Maybe you've heard the humorous story about the pastor who was having difficulty with his assigned parking space on the church parking lot. People parked in his spot whenever they pleased, even though there was a sign that clearly said, "This space reserved." He thought the sign needed to be more clear, so he had a different sign made, which read, "Reserved for Pastor Only." Still people ignored it and parked in his space whenever they felt like it. "Maybe the sign should be more forceful," he thought. So he devised a more intimidating one, which announced, "Thou shalt not park here." That sign didn't make any difference either. Finally, he hit upon the words that worked; in fact, nobody ever took his parking place again. The sign read, "The one who parks here preaches the sermon on Sunday morning!" You would probably feel uncomfortable about doing that because of a lack of experience and training. But what, then, is your ministry? For you see, there are a variety of ministries in which all the people of a church can be involved. These ministries are based on various gifts we have as people. Saint Paul once made a list of these gifts when he talked about church people being involved in such things as preaching, teaching, administering, caretaking, praying, or even arbitrating. I would call it something like "a ministry of hospitality." Let's begin by looking at this concept of hospitality. All three Bible readings remind us not to set ourselves above other people. When we are together as the people of God, we ought to give place to one another. We ought to be hospitable. The reading from Proverbs says, "Do not exalt yourself ... do not claim a place...." In the Second Reading, the writer to the Hebrews encourages us, "Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." Finally, today's Gospel reading brings us the parable about the wedding guests. Jesus warns us that if you immediately claim a place of honor at such a gathering, you had better be prepared to experience some embarrassment when a more honored guest is ushered to your seat, and you are forced to take one of the undesirable spaces at the back of the hall. Then Jesus concludes by saying that if you want to be truly hospitable when you give a luncheon or dinner, you ought not invite your same old friends all the time but rather people who could never repay you, like the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Everybody is worthy of your attention and greeting. There is no one who doesn't deserve your hospitality and mine. In fact, Jesus suggests that you are taking a real chance when you slight certain people; you see, they might just turn out to be angels you did not know about! But its deeper purpose is to remind you and me in the family of God about our calling to be genuinely hospitable to one another. In the background looms the even brighter message about God's hospitality to each and every one of us (sinners that we are!), a hospitality which God showed us in the ministry of God's own blessed son, our Lord Jesus Christ. So, what is this ministry of hospitality? A psychologist put it this way: Entertaining says, "Come to my house; admire my possessions; see the beautiful way the table is laid. Enjoy the scrumptious food that has taken me all week to prepare. See how perfectly neat and tidy and clean my house is. Come and listen to my views and thoughts." We put up a facade saying that we manage our lives perfectly and that our children are perfectly disciplined and obedient. We do not seek to portray a "perfect" image; people can love us in our weakness, relax with us, and enjoy our company. An even deeper meaning of the word "hospitality" emerges when we realize that this word comes from the same source as two similar sounding words, "hospice" and "hospital." The word "hospice" means "shelter" and the word "hospital" means "a place of healing." In this light, we can examine some of our own words and actions toward other people. Do my words and actions as well as ours as a congregation provide a shelter for other persons when they are around me? Or, do our words and deeds promote a sense of healing for other people when they are around me? How hospitable are we, really? We are aware that today the word "hospice" usually refers to a special kind of care or place meant for people who are dying. People with terminal illnesses receive hospice care. They are dying on the inside; for whatever reason: life is currently treating them harshly and they feel broken. Some are dying just to know someone; they have few, if any, friends. Some are dying to feel connected; they don't feel like they belong to the human race anymore. Some are dying to be affirmed; they are weary from feeling that they amount to nothing. Some are dying to be touched, even if only by eye contact, or by some word of acknowledgment from another human being. All these people need hospice care; they need the hospitality of the church, because inwardly they are dying. They need a place of shelter, no matter how fleeting, where they can catch another breath of air to sustain them, lest they die. He said, "The church is not like a country club; it's more like a hospital." That's what Jesus was saying here when he gave us the direction, "... do not invite your friends ... or your rich neighbors ... invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind...." You and I are not in the church to impress one another or to win power struggles; we are here to minister to one another in our weaknesses. We are here to be hospitable. Now nobody can specifically tell you what your ministry of hospitality should consist of; we should never over-define such a highly personal ministry. But we must -- each of us -- define that ministry for ourselves. More importantly we need to let God show us our individual ministry of hospitality. One that we will be comfortable with because God will tailor our ministry to fit the personality that he gave us. Some of us are enthusiastic and boisterous. Some of us are quiet and graceful. All of us can be friendly. In a way, we could call Christ's ministry to you and me a ministry of hospitality. Yes, that is what he showed us. The apostle Paul stated it in that singular sentence, "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Think of it, "yet sinners...." God did not withhold hospitality from us until we straightened ourselves out. While we were sinners, Christ was hospitable toward us by going to the cross and dying for us, in our place. Noticing our sin, Christ did not refuse to acknowledge us. He did not stop talking to us. He did not withhold information from us about God's love. No, in Christ, God made eye contact with us. The Word became flesh. The face of God now faced us. Looking into that face we felt sheltered and healed. Looking at his cross we know we are healed -- cleansed and forgiven in the blood of Jesus Christ. The cross enables us to follow the divine model of hospitality. Again the apostle Paul encourages us toward such Christly hospitality when he writes to the Philippian Christians in chapter two of his letter, "Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus ... who humbled himself and took on the form of a servant and ... became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." In this great passage, Paul reminds us how Jesus fulfilled the lesson of the parable we are considering in this Gospel reading. Christ, who is the first, became the last, so that we, the last, might be first, having all our sins washed away by his obedience at the cross. So now, empowered by the cross of Christ, we each have our own ministry of hospitality. This ministry is more than showing good manners in public. It is a redemptive ministry, like Christ's, whereby we bring a sense of healing and genuine acceptance to all other people. Perhaps, for instance, you have the gift of gab -- the ability to talk at ease with just about anyone. You could be an effective greeter to the strangers who visit your church. You could be that little spark of light to many longtime members of the parish to whom no one else seems to speak or give notice. Someone else takes the initiative and shows enough of a caring spirit to say "Good morning" to you, but sometimes all that can be observed in response is a faint grunt of acknowledgment or a slight tip of the head. But out of this initial hospitality shown one another in the church hallways needs to blossom a deeper hospitality whereby people come to know that God loves them and cares for them, too. In this regard Christian hospitality always finally needs to involve some word of witness to God's love in Christ. This is another way of saying that Christian hospitality ultimately involves evangelism: speaking God's good word of love to another human soul. What could be more hospitable? How could we provide more of a sheltering spirit or speak a more healing word than to remind someone of the love of God in the cross of Jesus Christ? With this singular message on the lips of its members, the church does indeed rise above mere country club status and reveals itself as the glorious household of faith. Closing: As the old hymn puts it, "If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, you can say he died for all." God bless your ministry -- your ministry of hospitality! " All Stirred Up, Richard W. Patt, CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, 1977, 0-7880-1040-9
Fire Falling from Heaven by R. Robert Cueni
Not Peace but Division 49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Jesus spends much of this twelfth chapter of Luke reassuring and encouraging his followers in the face of possible catastrophic circumstance: · "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more" (v. 4). · "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life" (v. 22). · "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (v. 32).
This same chapter ends on a far less positive note. Rather than encouraging reassurance, Jesus says that his ministry will be very divisive. After spending 45 verses trying to quiet the anxiety of his followers, Jesus tells them that he came to bring fire to the earth. He insists that he will not bring peace. Instead, his ministry will divide families and pit individual members of households against one another. The ministry of our Lord is to rain fire from heaven! We have only a passing acquaintance with the power of fire. We see flames in the fireplace. We worry about children holding candles on Christmas Eve. We read of an occasional forest fire and hear the siren of a racing fire truck. Our fire departments are so competent that an accidental fire death makes the national news. Their only nighttime illumination came from the flames of oil lamps. The smoke of the cooking fire on the kitchen floor constantly irritated and reddened their eyes. Everyone's fingers were callused from working household fires. Their arms and hands bore the scars from burns. Early in childhood they learned that food tasted better cooked, that flames tempered metal tools, and that the kiln's heat hardened pottery. People also knew firsthand the danger of uncontrolled fire. Homes regularly burned to the ground by an overturned lamp or a carelessly maintained kitchen fire. Well into the nineteenth century, devastating fires shaped communities. In fact, fire spurred on the next urban renewal. So, how was Jesus using the image of fire in this Gospel? This Gospel recalls an ancient belief of fire as the manifestation of God. Jesus is reminding us of the radical nature of His ministry and is demanding we step up to the plate. I. Fire As the Manifestation of God When Moses was tending the flocks of his father-in-law on Mount Horeb, the Lord God spoke to him out of a burning bush. When the Hebrew people were wandering in the wilderness of the Sinai, the Lord God led them at night with a pillar of fire. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, appeared to the apostles in the upper room as tongues of fire. It did not puzzle his listeners when Jesus said that he was to bring fire on the earth. They believed Jesus to be God's representative, and it was an ancient idea for God's presence to be manifested by fire. The ancients knew both fire and God as being purifying and punishing. They knew how to put metals to the flame to temper and to drive out impurities. The Old and New Testaments use fire as a metaphor to talk about how God punishes, purifies, and strengthens the world. Those folks believed that God worked through fire as well as various fire-like disasters. With a little poetic imagination, even modern folks like us can understand that God works with "fire." By the time he was seventeen he had become one of the regulars in the county juvenile justice system. At eighteen, the judge gave him a choice: enter the army or do hard time in a state penitentiary. He volunteered for the army and was sent to Vietnam. It was at the height of that bloody conflict. He was assigned to a "graves unit" where he worked to identify, tag, and then ship the bodies of young men killed in battle. The judge hoped military service would discipline him. It didn't. When he returned to his hometown, he was even more troubled. In Southeast Asia, he compounded his alcohol problem by taking illegal drugs. With this new addiction, his life of crime took a leap into an abyss. This one-time juvenile delinquent started doing armed robbery. The clerk managed to notify police and the car chase was on. Loren admits that he considered using the gun he had with him to shoot it out with police. A guardian angel must have whispered the right words in his ear that night. He and the friend decided to surrender. The judge sentenced Loren to the state prison at Joliet. He had plenty of experience in county jail and the local juvenile detention center. He was tough. He thought he knew how to do hard time. It would not bother him, he thought. Unfortunately, he didn't know Joliet. His years there were experienced as being burned alive at the stake. Loren paid his debt to society and his first job as a free man was as the church custodian. The congregation frequently used that position as a ministry. Loren quickly proved that he had learned his lesson. His first day on the job he walked up two flights of steps to give a quarter to the church treasurer that he found in the coin return of the soda pop machine. He was indeed an honest man. When he came home from Vietnam, he was angry and bitter. He didn't believe in anyone or anything. He knew he was traveling the road to self-destruction and that was fine with him. Loren had chosen the hard way to commit suicide. Then his life was turned around. It was no revival preacher who issued an altar call. There was no gentle voice of God urging him to come to Jesus. It was, however, no less the presence of God -- a theophany in fire. As Loren described it, "I was in Joliet only for three weeks when enough terrible things happened to me at the hands of other inmates that I said to myself, 'I will never, ever do anything that will get me into a place like this again.' " His life straightened out. He married and had a family. He established himself as a responsible citizen and then was able to go on and get a much better job than the one at the church. Criminal justice critics will tell you it doesn't happen nearly often enough. But with Loren, the fire that rained down on his life punished him for his foolish choices and then that fire began to purify him and make him a better man. They believed God used the "fires" of life to punish and purify. That backgrounds this passage of scripture. That is not, however, the point Jesus is making. This is not a simple observation about how God can work through devastation to strengthen. In Luke 12:49-56, Jesus claims that the gospel is so radical that the world will experience it as fire raining from heaven. Those who follow his teachings, Jesus warns, will be considered revolutionaries. Jesus tells those of us who strive to follow him even today that when his message sinks into our hearts and minds, it can cause trouble in our families. If we choose to follow the Christ, we can get in trouble at work. This Gospel can have a negative impact on our friendships. If we take our faith seriously, we can plan on losing enemies because God commands we commit ourselves to turning enemies into friends. Adhering to this faith just might get us thrown in jail. II. The Radical Gospel of Jesus Christ Most who now claim Christianity as their religion understand Christ as the Prince of Peace. That means believers can seek personal healing and forgiveness. It means our faith promises contentment and personal security in the here and now and entry to heaven at the moment of death. We refer to nice, kind, gentle people as "Christians." If you remember, Jesus was crucified. The Romans did not give him an award for keeping Jewish citizens quiet and content. Most of his apostles met violent deaths at the hands of those who were outraged at the revolutionary changes they wanted to make both in society and in the lives of individuals. When Pliny was governor of a province in Asia Minor, he wrote a letter to the Roman emperor telling him that he didn't know what these Christians believed exactly but they were the most willful, obstinate, rebellious, disobedient people he had ever encountered. Therefore he had put some of them to death just on general principles.1 The parent complains that the family was paying for the very best education for their son. Then the young man got involved with a weird religious sect. The parent pleads with the government to do something about this group that was ruining his son's life. The professor had assembled snippets from different letters written to the Roman government in the third century about a weird religious group called the Church of Jesus Christ.2 III. Catching Fire for Christ Instead of high demands and radical changes, we think Christianity is to make us feel good about ourselves. Rather than an institution inciting revolutionary change, the community today wants the church to be a well-maintained, quiet presence that never threatens property values. Jesus said that he came to rain fire from heaven. But in the last couple thousand years we have managed to get the fire under control by reducing it to candles on the communion table. Some realize that their Christian faith calls them to do something for others, rather than just feeling good about themselves. Sometimes people decide to go to seminary rather than law school. Some decide to pursue a Master of Divinity rather than a Master of Business Administration. Some people feel the heat of God's presence and are moved to extravagant generosity. Some people catch on fire with the presence of God and do things that disrupt their family life -- just as Jesus predicted. Jim was a prominent businessman in town. He belonged to the church, but had never taken it very seriously. Some of his friends were active in a spiritual renewal movement and encouraged him to attend one of the weekend retreats. "You will really enjoy it," they promised. He didn't really believe the church had anything to offer him. He went and listened carefully. He did not enjoy the weekend at all. In fact, it was a terrible experience for him and for his family. You see, Jim had been embezzling money from the company where he worked. The Monday morning after the retreat he walked into the office of the owner of the company and confessed. He spent the next few years in prison. When he returned, he became one of the leaders of that spiritual renewal movement. Jim experienced the teachings of Jesus as disruptive. It was nothing less than a firestorm from heaven. That can happen. This faith can change your life as well. Be open to that fire God rains down from heaven. Open your heart that God in Christ Jesus will strengthen and purify you. As hymn writer Adelaide Pollard puts it, "Have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way. Thou art the potter. I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still."3 How about it? Are we filled with the fire of Jesus? Have we allowed ourselves to be purged of our sinfulness and self will? Can people feel the warmth of the love of Jesus in our lives? Can God use the Holy Spirit originated fire within us to light our world…illuminating the way to salvation and a blessed life on this earth until we reach Heaven? What we need more than anything as a congregation is fire from Heaven to purify us, to temper us and to make us useful in God’s kingdom. May we be set on fire for God. May burn with the warmth of God’s love. May shed the light of God’s saving grace as we burn for Him. 1. Pliny, Letters X, p. 96. 2. Pulpit Resources, Volume 23, No. 3, July-September, 1995, p. 34. 3. "Have Thine Own Way, Lord," Adelaide A. Pollard, 1902. Sermons on the Gospel Readings, Series I, Cycle C, R. Robert Cueni, CSS Publishing Company, 2004, 0-7880-1968-6e ******************************************************************************
Message: Ready or Not, Here I Come by Ron Lavin Scripture: Luke 12:32-48 (NIV) 32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Watchfulness 35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” 41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” 42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Introduction: When you were a child, did you play the game, "Hide and Go Seek"? The person who is "It" closes his or her eyes, counts to ten, and then searches for the other children who are hiding. "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Ready or not, here I come!" Something like that is going on in our text. The master is off to a wedding banquet. His servants are at the family farm. Some are alert, ready for his return; some are not ready. The countdown has begun. No one knows exactly when the master will return. At the end of our story, Jesus says, "You ... must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" (Luke 12:40). 1. Clearly, Jesus is talking about his Second Coming. Clearly, Jesus is speaking of his return at the end of the world. Clearly, we must be ready to meet him when he returns in power and majesty. We don't know when that will be, but we are called to wait with patience and act with faithfulness, like good servants. The countdown has begun. We live between the lightning and the thunder. The First Coming of Christ is like the lightning. We wait; then comes the thunder. When we see the one, we know the other will follow. The countdown has started: 1-2-3-4.... The Second Coming of Christ is like that. We know it's coming, but we don't know when it will arrive. Between the lightning and the thunder we are called to wait with patience and faith and act with faithfulness and obedience to the master's teaching. The countdown has begun for the Second Coming. In addition, the countdown has begun for our death. At death, as well as at the Second Coming of Christ, we must be ready to meet the Lord face-to-face. We don't know when we will die, but we are called to wait patiently and act faithfully in this in-between time. In this in-between time, before the Second Coming of Christ and before we die, the servants of God are called to wait with faith. That means that we believe what the master said. We trust him. We trust his Word. We are called to treasure his Word. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Luke 12:34). The world may live in fear because the people of the world don't know what is happening, but we, the disciples of Christ, have been told what is coming at the end of time and at the end of our time. Therefore, we can be ready to meet Christ with faith and hope in our hearts. Jesus said, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). 2. "Ready or not, here I come" Jesus said. Death sometimes comes unexpectedly. a. The widow wasn't ready for that message. A couple from Minneapolis decided to go to Florida to thaw out during one particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the very same hotel where they spent their honeymoon twenty years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their schedules, so the husband left Minneapolis and flew to Florida on Thursday with his wife scheduled to fly down the next day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. Accidentally, he left out one letter in her email address and without realizing it, sent the email message to the wrong person. Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister of many years who was called home to glory following a sudden heart attack. The widow decided to check her email since she was expecting messages of condolence from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she fainted. The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor and was amazed by what he saw on the computer screen.
To: My loving wife Subject: I've arrived
I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. P.S. It sure is hot down here! The widow wasn't ready for that message. It was a mistake. The time will come when we get the message saying that the time has come for us to die. It won't be a mistake. We are called to be ready for this time by having faith and hope in Christ. b. Harry Andersen was ready. Harry Andersen was ready. He had terminal cancer, but kept his sense of faith and hope alive. His pastor could tell he was ready because they talked about Christ's death and resurrection and what this event means for us when we die. Harry showed no fear since he believed the promises of God. In addition, a sign of Harry's faith and hope was expressed in the humor he shared with his pastor. After scripture reading and prayer, Harry told the pastor the story of a man who was dying of cancer. He was bedridden on the second floor of his house. He could smell the aroma of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven downstairs. He loved chocolate chip cookies. As a matter of fact, they were his favorite. He forced himself to get out of bed and crawled to the flight of steps leading downstairs. Each step brought new pain to his body, but he had to have some of those chocolate chip cookies. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he crawled to the kitchen table and reached up for a cookie. Suddenly, his wife appeared out of nowhere and slapped his hand with a spatula. "Why did you do that?" he cried out. "Those cookies are for your funeral reception," she said. 3. The best is yet to come Harry Andersen laughed out loud as he told the story. The pastor rolled on the floor with laughter at the unexpected ending. Then Harry said, "That's just the kind of thing my wife would do." Just then Harry's wife walked into the room. "I wouldn't do that," she said smiling at the pastor, "but there's something else I'd like to do at Harry's funeral." "What's that?" asked the pastor. "I'd like to pass out plastic forks to everyone as they arrive for the funeral." "Plastic forks?" "Yes," she said. "I love the story about the woman who went to many church potlucks and always rejoiced when she was given a new plastic fork at the end of the meal. That meant that homemade pie was being served for dessert. When she got the fork, she always said, �The best is yet to come.' " A few weeks later, Harry died. As the parishioners arrived at the church door, they were each given a plastic fork. When they asked the reason for this unusual gift, they were told that they would hear more about it later. The title of the pastor's funeral sermon was, "The Best Is Yet To Come." He explained that Jesus died for us that we might be forgiven and go to heaven. "It is the Father's pleasure to give you the kingdom" he said, quoting Luke 12:32. Then he told the story of the woman who loved homemade pie at the end of church potlucks and he pointed out that Harry was being buried with a plastic fork in his casket because when we have faith and hope in the Lord in this life, the best is yet to come. Harry was ready to meet Jesus. Some people aren't. Their hearts are set on the treasures of this world instead of heaven. They don't wait patiently for the Lord with faith and hope. They don't act faithfully with their eyes focused on the Lord, their lamps lit and dressed for action (Luke 12:35). It's always good to check the context of a sermon text. Both the front side context and the back side context of this parable add meaning to our story. The front side context (Luke 12:13-31) is about a rich, but foolish, farmer who believed in and sought possessions in this life as if they were the ultimate goal of life. The back side context (Luke 12:41-48) is about a servant who mistreated his fellow servants because he didn't think he'd ever have to face the absent master again. This evil servant lived as if he were the master, eating and drinking excessively. He was saying, "The master is away, I can do whatever I wish." Jesus said, "... The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know ... and will put him with the unfaithful" (Luke 12:46). There is punishment for evil deeds. In other words, we are not just called to believe in the master. We are not only called to realize that we will face him again at the end of time or at the end of our lives, whichever comes first. In addition, we are also called to act on these beliefs. We are called to be "dressed for action and have our lamps lit" (Luke 12:35). We are called to make faith active in the way we live for God and people. Sometimes there are demonic factors that seem to make it nearly impossible to put our faith into action. These factors can be overcome, but not if we keep them secret. Secrets make us sick. Secrets have to be revealed before anything can be done about them. The beginning of forgiveness is to bring secret sins out of hiding. 4. "One day, you will see Jesus face-to-face." A woman named Mary came to her pastor for counseling one day. After the preliminaries, Mary confessed that she had done many things in her past that made her feel ashamed. "My behavior has not been that of a Christian," she said. Then she went on to explain that she had had sex many times before she was married and had committed adultery after she was married. "I've tried to confess my sins to God," she said, "and I know the Bible says that he forgives me, but I just don't feel forgiven. My marriage is falling apart. I feel guilty about the past, fearful of the future, and inhibited in the present." The pastor prayed privately, "Lord, help me to find some way to help Mary." When Mary finished her story, the pastor asked her to stand in front of a crucifix he had on his wall. "That's where you're headed when you die," he said. "One day, you will see Jesus face-to-face." "Yes," she said, "I know, and I'm not ready." "Right now, you are burdened by your past," the pastor told her. "It's like you are carrying a bag of rocks on your back." He walked over to the corner of the room where he recently had placed a bag of rocks he had taken from church property during a church clean-up day. He hoisted the heavy bag onto Mary's back and asked her to grab it. "You are carrying a bag of rocks from your past," he said. "That's the guilt you feel for what you've done. The reason you feel stuck in the present is because of that guilt. Your fear of the future also makes you feel stuck in the present. Do you want to continue carrying this bag of rocks?" "No," Mary said. "It's heavy." "Then let Jesus have it. He died on the cross to take your bag of rocks from you. You can't carry those rocks. He can. Your only job is to let him have your bag of rocks and not pick it up again." The pastor took the bag of heavy rocks from Mary's back. "That's what the forgiveness of sins is like," he said. A week later, Mary told the pastor, "For the first time in my adult life, I feel free to live my faith with faithfulness. It's like a new world." "It is a new world," the pastor responded. "It's called the kingdom of God. When you gave your bag of rocks to the Lord, you got a foretaste of what it will be like when you go to heaven." Together they turned to Luke 12:32. "Maybe you'd like to read it out loud," the pastor suggested. Mary read, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." "You are ready to meet the Lord," the pastor told her. Closing: Jesus told his followers that he would return. He told them to be ready for his return at the end of time. He also urged us to be ready for our end time, when we die and come before his throne of grace. He doesn't ask us to be perfect. He asks us to wait with faith and hope and act faithfully with obedience to what he has taught us. He wants us to be ready. In the child's game of Hide and Go Seek there's a countdown. There's also a countdown in life. "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Ready or not, here I come!" Sermons for Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third): Only the Lonely, Ron Lavin, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. ****************************************************************
How Wealthy Are We? From the standpoint of material wealth, we Americans have difficulty realizing how rich we are. Robert Heilbroner, who has written dozens of books on the subject of the economy, suggest that we go through a little mental exercise that will help us count our blessings. Imagine doing the following, and you will see how daily life is for more than a billion people in the world. 1. Take out all the furniture in your home except for one table and a couple of chairs. Use blanket and pads for beds. 2. Take away all of your clothing except for your oldest dress or suit, shirt or blouse. Leave only one pair of shoes. 3. Empty the pantry and the refrigerator except for a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few potatoes, some onions, and a dish of dried beans. 4. Dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, and remove all the electrical wiring in your house. 5. Take away the house itself and move the family into the tool shed. 6. Place your "house" in a shantytown. 7. Cancel all subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, and book clubs. This is no great loss because now none of you can read anyway. 8. Leave only one radio for the whole shantytown. 9. Move the nearest hospital or clinic ten miles away and put a midwife in charge instead of a doctor. 10. Throw away your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, and insurance policies. Leave the family a cash hoard of ten dollars. 11. Give the head of the family a few acres to cultivate on which he can raise a few hundred dollars of cash crops, of which one third will go to the landlord and one tenth to the money lenders. 12. Lop off twenty-five or more years in life expectancy. By comparison how rich we are! And with our wealth comes responsibility. We should use it wisely, not be wasteful, and help others. The list comes from economist Robert Heilbroner Scripture: Luke 12:13-21 (NIV): The Parable of the Rich Fool 13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied , “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” [1] Sermon Opener - Building Barns, Postponing Life Comedian Jack Benny, from TV’s Golden age, had a skit which illustrated how we place money ahead of everything. He is walking down the street when suddenly he is approached by an armed robber, "Your money or your life!" There is a long pause. Jack does nothing. The robber impatiently queried, "Well?" Jack replied, "Don't rush me, I'm thinking it over." A young man called out from the crowd and said: Rabbi, tell my brother to divide the inheritance of our father.” Now, Jewish law clearly prescribed that at the death of a father, the elder son received 2/3 of the inheritance, and the young son received 1/3. This is obviously a younger son who is complaining about the inherent unfairness of it all. Nothing will divide brothers and sisters more than dividing up an estate. So it was then, and so it is now. Jesus refused to get involved in a petty family squabble. Jesus was concerned, however, with the larger implications of preoccupation with the things of this world. He said: Beware of greed, for life does not consist of things possessed. The sum total of a person’s life is more than their financial portfolio. There was once a man who had an unbroken run of prosperity. In today’s language, he had successfully played the commodities market. So prosperous did he become that his barns could not hold all of his crops. His solution was to tear down these barns and build bigger and better barns. Then, with his financial security in hand, he could sit back and truly enjoy life. His philosophy was: eat, drink, and be merry. A financially successful man—we see him as savvy and wise. Yet, Jesus concluded the story by saying that this man was a fool. To answer that question we must understand that this is not a parable about money. It is a parable about values and what is important in life. With that in mind, let me suggest four things that this man did that made him a fool. 1. He Had Full Barns, but an Empty Heart. The Sin of the Barn Builder Notice that the man in the story is already rich before the abundant crop comes in. Notice also that he already had barn enough to store the crop. But here's the problem. The harvest was so good he couldn't store it all. What to do? he asks himself. Should I give it way or sell it at the market? Neither. I will build bigger barns and keep it for myself. He is not thankful for the riches that he already has. He wants more to insure his security. He doesn't want to live for the day; he wants to live today trying to ensure the pleasures of tomorrow. We call this greed. To clutch our wealth as if it is an end in itself is the sin of the Barn Builder. Jesus is asking the younger brother at what level will you have enough? You want too much. Be happy with what you are getting. Beware of greed. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com God expects us and invites us to enjoy the blessings He brings our way. He expects us to fairly reap the fruit of our labor and to sensibly enjoy them. It is common sense to store some of them up for times of famine or recession. He allows us to invest for our retirement. But He also equally expects us to share what He brings into our lives. In Matthew 5:42, Jesus said: 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. How tragic for us if God would allow us to gain barns full of goods and toys or bank accounts full of money and gold and yet maintain empty hearts: · no empathy for our fellow man, · no love for others, · no generosity driving us to share God’s possessions with those who can use them. Our church family does a pretty good job of attempting to help those who need it. It is because we have folks who have hearts full of love for God and for others and so share God’s blessings with others. May we always have hearts full to bursting with love. 2. THe Rich Man Overestimated Himself. 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ Notice this man uses the word “I” and “my” ten times and even “You” is all about himself. This man was a fool because he overestimated his own value in the scheme of things. Listen to how he talked: I will store my grain, I will build bigger barns, I will say to myself. In four short verses the rich man used the word "I" and "my" ten times. He did not see others as the source of his bounty, or even God, only himself. His error is not that he was a wealthy man. His foolishness lay in his superficiality and egotism. I like the term, because it reminds us that all wealth is really social in nature. No one of us can maintain ourselves in a social vacuum, short of moving to Montana and trying to live on the land out in the wilderness. I suppose that even then you're not truly living in complete independence. Yet, in Jesus story this narcissistic farmer is using the words I and mine as though he is the only one involved. He begins every meal with the same prayer: "Lord, I planted the seeds, I plowed the ground, I gathered in the harvest. If I hadn't of put the food on the table it wouldn't be here. But we thank you anyway." We had all better understand the role of grace and mystery in life or we too might fall prey to the sin of thinking too highly of ourselves. 3. He Forgot about the Real Business of Life. Third, this rich man was a fool because he forgot what his real business in life was really all about. This man thought that his business was about commodities and markets. Jesus thought in deeper terms. One scene particularly sticks out in my mind. Jacob Morley, Scrooge's deceased business partner, visits him in a ghostly appearance one evening. Morley is chained with large books and ledgers. These are the links that I forged in life, he says. This puzzles Scrooge and he protests: But these were the things of your business. Morley groans back: Business! Mankind was my business! The common good was my business. Our real business is that of our humanity. It gets down to that old philosophical tension between becoming and being. We spend too much of our time concentrating on what we are becoming, and we lose sight of what we are being. This particular doctor was a very businesslike, rather glib surgeon, who had absolutely no rapport with his patients. One day he has in his office a Hispanic farmer and his family. He has run some tests on the man and he is seriously ill. The doctor matter-of-factly suggests to him: sir, if I were you, I would get my affairs in order. At that the Hispanic farmer places one arm around his wife, and the other arm around his children, and he says very simply, but very profoundly: Sir, my affairs are in order. It is not to be successful; it is to be faithful. It is not to amass things, but to grow closer to the mind of God. It is not to become rich in things, but to love people. That is our business, but a fool will never grasp it. Our business in this world is to love. Love God…love our family…love strangers…to love the unlovable. We will always find the most happiness and contentment on this Earth as we love and help others with no expectations of repayment here, but reward and blessing when we get to Heaven and hear the words, “Welcome home good and faithful servant.” 4. He Forgot about Time . Fourth, the rich man was a fool because he forgot about time. His whole attitude in life was that time was unlimited. I have a quirk about digital watches and clocks. We are raising an entire generation of young people who do not know how to tell time. If you say that it is 7 till 10, they don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about. To them it is 9:53. Because that is what their digital watch tells them. So what is the problem with that? Simply this. Time should have a sweep to it. If we learn to see time as 9:53, then we see time only in the context of the immediate moment, and not in the larger context of time. And friends, it is absolutely lethal for Christians to see time only as "right now.' That is how the world looks at time. The Christian should learn to view time as moving toward something… Can we say towards E-T-E-R-N-I-Y? It may be good to save our money for a rainy day, but it is perilous to save our life for a rainy day. Why? Because time might just run out on us. It beats us down. It is always ticking. Regardless of what we do or fail to do, the clock keeps ticking. It is a fool that says: "Heaven can always wait.” It is a fool who builds barns, but postpones life. Collected Sermons, Brett Blair and Staff, ChristianGlobe Network, 2004, 0-0000-0000-1 Closing: The Dollars Are in the Way Henry Ford once asked an associate about his life goals. The man replied that his goal was to make a million dollars. A few days later Ford gave the man a pair of glasses made out of two silver dollars. He told the man to put them on and asked what he could see. "Nothing," the man said. "The dollars are in the way." Ford told him that he wanted to teach him a lesson: If his only goal was dollars, he would miss a host of greater opportunities. He should invest himself in serving others, not simply in making money. That's a great secret of life that far too few people discover. Money is important. No question about that. But money is only a means by which we reach higher goals. Service to others. Obedience to God. God comes to the rich man and says, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" The answer was clear. The rich man had put his trust in things. Now he was leaving these things behind. King Duncan, www.Sermons.com , Collected Sermons The most important store house we will ever have is the one God gave us at birth. This storehouse is called our heart. God expects us to fill and keep this storehouse filled at all times with only one product…love. Love God with all of our heart. Love others as we love ourselves. A heart full of love leaves no room for selfishness, or greed, or envy, or hatreds. If we seek the Kingdom of God first and His righteousness all of the other things we need will be added to us in abundance…full to overflowing. May we have full hearts and flowing barns. May we not think too highly of ourselves but praise God for the privilege of loving and helping others for Him. May we remember the real business we are called by God to conduct…the business of loving and helping others…and introducing them to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who wants to also be their Lord and Savior. May we remember the clock is ticking. May we be careful to productively redeem the time that God gives us to live on this earth. Earthen Vessels “We hold a treasure not made of gold; In earthen vessels wealth untold. One treasure only, the Lord the Christ In earthen vessels.” Early morning chant especially loved by Jesuits Is it a sin to be rich? Is it a sin to be blessed? It is a sin to hoard God’s riches and blessings. When He blesses us He expects us to pass those blessings along. [1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
You Do Have A Prayer Scripture: Luke 11 : 1-13 (New King James Version) Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.” Some years ago, when Leonard Griffith was pastor of the famous City Temple in London, he wrote a fascinating book entitled Barriers to Christian Belief. In that book he dealt with some problems that have over the years been real obstacles and stumbling blocks for people in their faith pilgrimage specific problems that hinder people, that burden people, that disturb people and keep them away from the Christian faith. One of the barriers he listed was "unanswered prayer." It does seem to be a fact of our experience that many people do get discouraged and they do give up and drop out on the faith because they feel a sense of failure in their prayer life. "How do you pray?" "Why pray at all?" "When do you pray?" "Is there a special formula or a sacred language that should be used?" One thing is clear. There are many questions and there is much misunderstanding about how you pray and why. In a Peanuts cartoon Charley Brown is kneeling beside his bed for prayer. Suddenly he stops and says to Lucy, "I think I've made a new theological discovery, a real breakthrough. If you hold your hands upside down, you get the opposite of what you pray for." The owners of the station began to receive complaints and consequently they established a new policy and told the minister that he could no longer ask for money over the air. Surprisingly, the preacher took the news rather well and simply asked if there were any limitations on his prayers. "Oh, no," said the manager, "You can pray as you please." That afternoon, during the broadcast, the radio preacher announced prayer time. He prayed for the usual things and then concluded his prayer with this sentence: "Lord, you know I am not here to ask for money, but my address is Box 296, Piney Bluff, North Carolina!" The truth is that many people give up on prayer because they never understand what prayer is. Much that passes for prayer is irrational, superstitious, and self-centered, and is therefore unworthy of the pattern of the prayer that Jesus offered to us his disciples. We are not the first to ask. The disciples of Jesus came to Him one day and said, "Lord, teach us. Teach us to pray!" Notice something here. When did the disciples ask for this? When did they make this request? Was it after Jesus gave a lecture on prayer? No! Was it after Jesus led a seminar on prayer? No! Was it after Jesus preached a powerful sermon on prayer? No! None of these. Remember how it is recorded in Luke 11:1 "Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished, they said to him, Lord, teach us to pray.'" They saw the power of prayer in Him. They saw how important prayer was to Him. See the point? Harry Emerson Fosdick stresses it in his book, The Secret of Victorious Living. "Note that this awakened interest in prayer came not at all from new arguments about it, but from a new exhibition of its power. Here, before their very eyes, they saw a personality in whom prayer was vital and influential! The more they lived with him, the more they saw that they could never explain him or understand him unless they understood his praying and so not at all because of new arguments, but because of amazing spiritual power released in him by prayer. They wanted him to tell them how to pray." The disciples sometimes were slow on the uptake, but at this point they were quickly and precisely on target. They saw in Jesus the answer to this question: how do we pray and why do we pray? And they learned from Him (as we can) what the elements are that lead to a meaningful prayer life. I. FIRST OF ALL, JESUS PRAYED REGULARLY… AND SO CAN WE. He made it a vital part of His daily schedule. He disciplined himself to pray regularly. I know about busy schedules. I know about deadlines. I know about time pressures and stresses and demands in our frantic lifestyle. I live in that world, too. But I also know that when we feel we are so busy and our schedules are so hectic and the competition is so fierce and the times are so tough and we can't afford to take the time to pray then that's the moment when we need to pray most of all. That's the moment when we can't afford not to take the time to pray! Allshorn said, "There is really only one test of our prayer life. Do we want God? Do we want Him so much that we will go on if it takes 5, 6, 10 years to find Him? There is only one test really… do we want God?" Ask any artist. Ask any musician. Ask any athlete. Ask any doctor or lawyer or minister or engineer. It takes time, effort, and determination. You have to plug away at it. It doesn't come over night…and it doesn't stay with you unless you stay with it. Maybe the same is true with prayer. Maybe it just takes a lot of practice and you know, I think it's worth it. If Jesus felt the need to pray regularly, how much more must we need to pray regularly. II. SECOND, JESUS PRAYED SENSIBLY AND SO CAN WE. He did not use prayer as some magical device to get some selfish wishes. Hoover Rupert spoke to this when he said, "How easy it is to blunt out a desperate prayer. “O Lord, make the brakes hold,' when we are going 80 miles an hour and suddenly face a need for a quick stop to avoid hitting another car. Not much intelligence in such a prayer, not much common sense." (H. Rupert. What's Good About God, p. 155.) With tongue firmly in cheek, the sportswriter said, "How confusing this must be to God when they face each other!" "What discord we should bring into the universe if all our prayers were answered! Then we should govern the world and not God. And do you think we should govern it better? It gives me pain to hear the long wearisome petitions of folks asking for senseless things they do not really need!" How senseless to picture God as some kind of divine waiter who at our slightest whim rushes off to a heavenly kitchen and then runs back with steaming portions of whatever we have asked for! How senseless to expect God to do for us what we can do for ourselves! III. THIRD, JESUS PRAYED CONFIDENTLY…AND SO CAN WE. that was the prayer of Jesus and it is a prayer we can pray with confidence because God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what we need and what is good for us better than we know. This is precisely what Garth Brooks is saying in his humorous country song, "Thank God for Unanswered Prayer." More than anything I wanted a motor scooter, but my dad said, "No!" "Too dangerous, and you are too young!" But I had a friend named Roy Wilcox who had a new motor scooter. One Saturday morning, I convinced Roy to let me ride it. He showed me how to get it started and how to keep it going, but not now to get it stopped! Each time, Roy would shout instructions, but I was out of earshot before he could communicate completely. Finally, I had to turn it over and slide it to a stop in a pile of gravel. I aged enough on that trip to last me a long time. As I got up, dusted myself off and limped home, I remember thinking, "Daddy's right! I don't really need one of those things after all!" Our best prayer is a confident "Thy will be done!" One of the reasons Jesus prayed confidently was because He saw prayer as friendship with God. Someone once described prayer simply like that… as "friendship with God." That's a pretty good definition, isn't it? Closing: Some years ago, Leslie Weatherhead told a beautiful story about an elderly Scottish man who was quite ill. The minister came to see the dying man and noticed an empty chair in the opposite side of the bed. The chair was pulled up especially close to the bed. The older man said, "Let me tell you about this chair. Many years ago I found it quite difficult to pray, so one day I shared this problem with my pastor. He told me not to worry about kneeling or about placing myself in some pious position or about speaking in high-sounding words. Instead, he said, “Just sit down, put a chair in front of you, and imagine God sitting there in that chair, and then just talk to Him as you would talk to a friend.'" The older man said, "I've been doing that ever since." And then she said this: "For some reason, his hand was on that empty chair on the other side of the bed. Isn't that strange?" Pastor answered, "O no, it's not strange at all. I understand perfectly. He was reaching out to his Best Friend.'" It's reaching out to God. It's reaching out to our best friend. Jesus prayed regularly, sensibly, confidently, and so should we.
Have crowd recite the Lord’s prayer: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”
Message 1-24-2010: ARE YOU LISTENING?Source: Dan Campbell, Pastor South Coast Christian Assembly San Juan Capistrano, California 92675Scripture: Matthew 13:18-23 Parable of the Farmer Scattering Seed13 Later that same day Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. 2 A large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat there and taught as the people stood on the shore. 3 He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. 4 As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. 5 Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! 9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” 10 His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” 11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. 18 “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: 19 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. 20 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 21 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 22 The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. 23 The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Mt 13:1-23 An excited little boy was telling his dad about what had happened to him that day. His dad said, Slow down, you’re talking too fast! His boy shot back at him, Oh, no, Dad, I’m not talking too fast. You’re just listening too slow! Are you listening? It pays to listen to the right person, at the right time, and for the right length of time. After Jesus was transfigured on the mountain top, God said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him! Matthew 17:5 It always pays to listen to Jesus! It pays to listen, especially, when it comes to listening to God. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you this morning, are you hearing him? It pays big dividends to listen to him. If you don’t, you’ll never grow! What did you say? the man asked. The judge repeated himself and motioned to the exit. As the man reached the door, the judge told the clerk, Juror No. 9 is excused, but he will still be paid for his time. Thank you, Your Honor! came the voice from the far end of the courtroom. Why bother? Why speak when so little is welcomed? Jesus said, Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Matthew 13:18-23 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. vs19 NLT Are you listening? What do I mean? Again the little boy nodded. Good, the coach said. Now go over there and explain that to your mother. How do I know that? He went on the say that If I don’t forgive, my heavenly Father won’t forgive me! You don’t need a graduate degree to understand that. 2. A shallow heart No roots. In order to grow we must have roots. To help develop those roots, we need to come along side and help those new to following Jesus. We must love each other, even in our failures! We must support each other, encourage each other, and pray for each other. We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. Romans 15:1-2 When someone fails, what do we do? Do we shoot them or do we try to save them? Do we criticize and condemn them or do we try to help solve their problem? Are you listening? Are you hearing the Holy Spirit speak to you? Don’t be shallow hearted. Listen to this prayer: Dear Lord, please just let me sit here in my pew today. Please don’t let anyone else try to sit there. Lord please help me get home quickly after the service, before all those church people try and recruit me to actually do something I don’t want to do. Did you know that last year Americans gave: $2.9 billion dollars to overseas missions? Sounds pretty good until you hear the rest of the story. Americans also spent $8.4 billion to see movies, $13 billion to buy chocolate, $23 billion to buy toys, $23 billion to buy stuff for their pets, $24 billion for jewelry, $58 billion for soft drinks, $85 billion for lawn and garden care, and $354 billion to eat out at restaurants! I know you’re different, but as Americans, the vast majority of us are not interested in God. We may say we are, but we are interested in anything and everything else. Are you listening? What about you? Is there clutter in your heart? If it wasn’t for the Lord in my life, I’d have season tickets to the Tigers or another sports team. What has happened is that I’ve begun to learn to listen to God. My priorities have changed. His priority is people, especially the ones that don’t know anything about him. Clutter in my heart prevents me from seeing them. Clutter causes me to see myself above everything else. Clutter causes me to look right over those who need my help the most. Do you know what the difference between perseverance and obstinate is? One is a strong will and the other is a strong won’t. We need to have a strong will in doing God’s Word instead of a strong won’t. Jesus said, Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20 Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart. He is knocking in many ways and by means of many people. Do you hear him? Are you listening? He is not saying, let’s do lunch. He is saying, Let’s do life together. Are you listening?
7-05-2009 Message: A Call To Action Source: The American Patriot’s Bible, NKJV, Dr. Richard G. Lee General Editor, Thomas Nelson, In. Copyright 2009 by Thomas Nelson, Inc Used by permission. All rights reserved. DURING SOME OF THE DARKEST DAYS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, President Abraham Lincoln reminded his fellow Americans that “we have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.” To be born in a land of freedom, to live in a nation founded as “One Nation Under God” by those who served the one, true God of the Bible, is both a tremendous privilege and a great responsibility. While we have much to admire and love and be thankful for in being able to call America our home, our nation is rapidly drifting from its biblical foundations. Our freedom to serve God and to promote the gospel in our land is disintegrating. We are engaged in a great spiritual battle that threatens our country, our families, and our lives. Only God’s intervention will return America to solid footing and restore a moral nation that righteousness will exalt. As believers in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of all, we have his call to be “salt’ and ‘light’ to the world. Let’s hear from Matthew 5:13-16: 13“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 14“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.15Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. We must take seriously our responsibility to put God first, not only in our homes but also in our national affairs. Here is a clear and honorable pathway that any generation of Americans can use to protect that which is right and change that which is wrong within our great nation: PRAY: Our Founding Fathers know the power and purpose of prayer. From our nation’s beginning through times of war and tragedy, we have been called to pray that the hand of Almighty God might show forth His mercy and intervene with His grace toward America. Today is no different. 2 Chronicles 7:14-15 instructs us: “14if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.15Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.” PROCESS: Within the God-given wisdom of our founding documents, we have been granted clear and certain processes for bringing about change concerning thins that we perceive as wrong for our land. From the local municipality to the halls of Congress and the White House, imbedded in the laws and governmental processes of America are pathways for nonviolent moral, social, and political change. But first they must be learned and understood before they can be properly applied. PARTICIPATE: Participating within the process for change is the ultimate key to its success. It is futile to gripe and complain about what one considers “wrong” or “unjust” in our land and not participate in the process of changing it for the better. The Scriptures are clear on the matter: James 4:17: 17Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
PERSEVERE: When fighting for the right, we must never cease until we prevail. The battle is not always won by the strongest, the smartest, or the most elite, but ultimately it comes to those who persist and persevere. When soon-to-be President George Washington led his troops into battle during the Revolutionary War, he lost most of those battles, but through perseverance he ultimately won the war. As a result, we won our independence from the British and became a free people. Our Lord taught us that when we put our hands to the plow of a righteous cause, we are never to look back, but to persevere and prevail. Luke 9:61-62: 61And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62But Jesus said to him,“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” All the resources of the Almighty God and His Word are available to us. He rules in the affairs of men, and nothing s too hard for Him. He is the sovereign King of the universe, with all power and authority, and He is compassionate, gracious, and ready to extend His love and mercy to us. Let us bend our knees and humble our hearts and pray. Let us be willing to be used of God to help turn this great nation and this community back to Him. Let us stand in the gap and make our lives to be salt and light in our families and neighborhoods and workplaces. God wants to come and bless us, to forgive our sins, and to heal our nation. Amen!? Amen!! *************************************
Message – June 28, 2009 THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF THE JUDEO—CHRISTIAN ETHIC Source: The American Patriot’s Bible, NKJV, Dr. Richard G. Lee General Editor, Thomas Nelson, In. Copyright 2009 by Thomas Nelson, Inc Used by permission. All rights reserved. WHEN OUR NATION’S FOUNDING FATHERS gave us documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and others, they had to lean upon a common understanding of law, government, social order and morality. That understanding sprang from the common acceptance of what has come to be known as the Judeo—Christian Ethic, which is the system of the moral and social values that originates in the Old and New Testaments of the Word of God. Whether each of the Founding Fathers was a Christian is not the issue. Their writings, their statements, and their votes evidence the fact that the majority of them embraced these great principles as the basis for a civilized nation. Principle #1 – The Dignity of Human Life “You shall not murder,.” Exodus 20:13 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39 The Scriptures emphatically teach the great importance of the respect and preservation of human life. In the Declaration o f Independence our nation’s Founding Fathers wrote that everyone has “unalienable rights,” and that among these are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We Americans not only believe this for our land, but also we send our brave military men and women around the world to defend the rights of those who are threatened. If people and nations do not grant ultimate respect and protection to both the born and the unborn, all other professed morals and values are meaningless. The dignity of human life is not just a principle of the Bible—is is the first principle of any civilized society. Principle #2 – The Traditional Monogamous Family And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” –Genesis 2:23-24 Our society has been based upon the belief that the biblical view of traditional marriage and family is the backbone of a healthy social order. Since the joining together of Adam and Eve, marriage has been recognized as a holy union between one man and one woman, and out of that union comes children—born into a home with a father and a mother to love them, nurture them, and teach them how to become healthy, productive, and responsible citizens. The plan of God, nature, and commonsense is a man and a woman producing children within the institution of marriage. When that plan is lost, “marriage” and “family” become meaningless, and a nation and its people will follow the road to ruin. World history has proven it over and again. Preserving the traditional family is vital to the future of any great nation. Principle #3 – A National Work Ethic For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. –2 Thessalonians 3:10 Ingrained deep within the American spirit is the willingness and the desire to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. This independent spirit has no desire to simply exist on handouts from government or to depend on the generosity of others. It is this same independent spirit that has allowed America to create the greatest and strongest economy in the history of the world. Americans have had their challenges. The Great Depression of the 1930’s knocked us to our knees, but it did not beat us. Together, Americans helped one another and lifted our nation back to its economic might. The powers of the world look at our nation and ask where that that spirit of hones labor came from and where this work ethic originated. It came from the men and women who lived before us. Those generations were raised to believe in this third principle of honest work, which is found throughout the Word of God. Principle #4 – The Right to a God-Centered Education And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up on the training and admonition of the Lord. –Ephesians 6:4 We see in Proverbs 1:7 that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” How can one understand the creation without first knowing its Creator? The answer is one cannot! Our Forefathers certainly understood this. For example, did you know that most of America’s oldest universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth were founded by Christian preachers or churches? Harvard University, founded in 1636, adopted “Rules and Precepts: which stated: “Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life.” Harvard’s original seal has upon it these words: “Truth for Christ and the Church.” The early children’s textbook The New England Primer taught the ABC’s by having children memorize: “A—Adam’s fall, we sinned all. B—heaven to find the Bible mind. Today’s youth are tomorrow’s America. There is truth in the statement attributed to George Washington: “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle…It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” Principle #5 – The Abrahamic Covenant Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you will all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” –Genesis 12:1-3 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. –Galatians 3:7 A covenant is a decision involving two individuals or groups stating that they will keep a promise of fulfill an agreement between them. The Book of Genesis records the story of God making a covenant with Abraham. The basis of that covenant was that if Abraham would follow God, obeying His laws and commandments, God would bless Abraham and generations of children that would outnumber the stars in the heavens (Gen 15:5). Abraham believed God, obeyed his Word, and God rewarded him with many descendants, a nation of people now known as Israel. This principle of the Abrahamic covenant states that if a person or nation obeys God, observing the moral truths found in the Bible, that person or nation will be blessed. If they disobey, they will bring punishment upon themselves. For most of our nation’s history, Americans have accepted the belief that good deeds produce good results and that people who were “God-fearing” in language and in lifestyle would be blessed by Him. That belief has been proven to be true time and again. The writer of Proverbs tells it plainly, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (14:34). Principle #6 – Common Decency “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” --Matthew 22:39 Simply put, this is the belief that a decent nation is made up of decent people. That nation, when faced with any trying of difficult situation, will do the decent, right, and honest thing. And for the most part, that has been the record of our national history. For example, Americans have given their lives in wars on foreign soil so that others might experience freedom. Americans have worked to feed the world’s poor, to clothe the naked, and to aid the hurting. Americans have opened their arms to many of the worlds oppressed and given them safe haven. Engraved on a bronze plaque on the base of the Statue of Liberty are these words from the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” A world –renowned symbol of freedom, this statue stands to remind us all that American has indeed been, and continues to be today, a nation of common decency. Principle #7 – Our Personal Accountability to God Hebrews 9:27: And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. Perhaps the greatest restraint against acts of evil toward others is the knowledge that every person and nation will one day give an account for their actions to Almighty God. Certainly the Bible tells us that we are responsible for our actions and we must be accountable for what we do or don’t do. It also teaches that there is a penalty for doing wring and a blessing when we do that which is right, noble and just. The great American statesman Daniel Webster was once asked, “What is the most sobering thought that ever entered your mind?” He quickly responded, “Personal accountability to God.” Mr. Webster knew that he would one day stand before God in eternity and give an account for his actions. The same applies to every man, woman, and nation. Closing: Do we live our lives in obedience to the ethics taught by the God of Israel…the God who gave us Christ and Christianity? Do we do our best to honor and protect the dignity of every human life? Do we promote and nurture the traditional monogamous family? Do we practice and encourage a work ethic of an honest day’s labor for an honest day’s wage? Where is our God-Centered education for our children? If the traditional educational system refuses to acknowledge it, may we God’s church take up the challenge of providing comprehensive Christian instruction. Do we practice common decency by loving our neighbors as ourselves? Do we remember that we will give a personal account to our God for everything we have done in our lives? Aren’t we glad that we can receive God’s mercy and forgiveness if we will humble ourselves, turn from our sinful ways, and accept Jesus Christ as Savior? ************************************************************
5-24-2009: So Much To Remember! -Memorial DaySource: Jerry Shirley, Pastor - Grace Baptist Church -Decatur, Illinois Scripture: Exodus 13:3 3 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.INTRODUCTION:Memorial Day is primarily given to remembering those who have died, whether it be loved ones, friends, or those who have died for their country. We are instructed dozens of times in the Word of God to remember certain things. The Israelites were admonished to keep to their remembrance various days and events of their national history. But someday I may forget, and thank God my salvation is not dependent upon my memory, but God’s !II. WE SHOULD REMEMBER THE PIT THAT WAS OUR LIFE PRIOR TO OUR SALVATION. IV. WE SHOULD REMEMBER OUR VOWS AND COMMITMENTS. 1. To love. V. WE ARE TO REMEMBER OUR BRETHREN. VI. WE ARE TO REMEMBER THE TRUTHS OF GOD. VIII. WE ARE TO REMEMBER OUR SOLDIERS AND HEROES. We celebrate Independence Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Flag Day. We have parades, It is not old fashioned; it is still current today. B. The Old Time Religion. I like some of the new songs and worship choruses, but I feel sorry for the churches that have forsaken the old hymns. X. WE ARE TO REMEMBER THE LORD Let's don't be the generation that forgets. Let's be the generation that remembers and teaches the memory. ******************************************
Back To Basics: The Three R's of Baptism Source: eSermons.com Sermons, Brett Blair, Christian Globe Network, 2003, 0-0000-0000-01 Scripture: Mark 1:1-13 (New International Version) John the Baptist Prepares the Way 1The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— 3 “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus 9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” 12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13 and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. Introduction: Baptism is a powerful force in the life of a Christian for two reasons. It is something we share in common. Christians all over the world can say that they were baptized in Christ. You met a Catholic in Ireland. He was baptized. You met a Pentecostal in Nigeria. She was baptized. The second reason Baptism is a powerful force is that baptism takes us back to the basics. Now let me set these two ideas up for you with a couple of stories. eSermons.com Sermons, Brett Blair, ChristianGlobe Network, 2003, 0-0000-0000-01 *************************************
11-09-2008 God IS The Lord of Our Blessed Nation Message Source: God continue to bless America, Mark Hensley, Pastor/Minister, Southern Hills Baptist Church, Sioux City, Iowa, Scripture: Key Verse: Psalm 33:12a: 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord Scripture Background: Psalm 33 Psalm 33 1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. 2 Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. 4 For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. 5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. 6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. 10 The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. 13 From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; 14 from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— 15 he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. 16 No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. 17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. 18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. 20 We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you. (NIV) " Blessed is the nation who’s God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance" Psalms 33:12 I. "Blessed is the Nation who’s God is the Lord" *********************************************
9-14-2008 Seven Reasons Why Truth Matters Source: an article by Charles Colson & Harold Fickett as it appeared in sermoncentral.com August 18, 2008 – Exodus 20: 16 - 16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” John 8:31- 36: 31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ‘ Article Highlights Weakening our commitment to the truth allows us to undermine the Gospel without arousing even a protest. Commitment: the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose; "a man of energy and commitment" The Church simply can’t be the Church without being on the side of truth. Truth: 1. the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth. 2. conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement. 3. a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths. 5. actuality or actual existence. 7. honesty; integrity; truthfulness. Without a basis for morality, no moral consensus can be reached, which is why we are in an ongoing and increasingly strident culture war. 1. Truth Matters Because the Heart of What We Believe is at Stake The path of postmodern Christianity bears some chilling resemblances not only to early Church heresies (such as Montanism), but to the theological liberalism of the last century, which led some Protestants to abandon the basic propositions of Christian doctrine. A late defender of theological liberalism, Deane William Ferm, writes, What are the motifs of liberal Protestantism? Perhaps the most important one is the priority of firsthand personal experience as the authority for one’s religious beliefs. All doctrines must be extracted from “the inward experience of Christian people.” In the last line, Ferm is quoting famed German philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher, nineteenth-century progenitor of twentieth-century Protestant liberalism.1 Doesn’t that sound hauntingly like the arguments we hear today? The great conservative leader, Princeton professor J. Gresham Machen, resisted this trend heroically early in the last century, arguing that when doctrine and truth are abandoned, you don’t get liberal Christianity, you get another religion altogether, which he called liberalism. We saw how this led to the decline of mainline churches in the last century, and conservative churches are at risk of the same thing today. Truth comes from God’s Holy word. It is our surest resource for basic/simple, rock-solid truth. Successful living depends on our adhering to this truth as it is found in the Bible. The less we study God’s word the more likely we are to stray from God’s simple truth or be deceived by our enemy. The more complicated we make God’s truth and simple gospel the farther we are vearing away from God’s absolute truth. God’s precepts are simple, to the point and easy to understand. The fancier we get with our theologies and philosophies, the further we drift from God’s simple Gospel…truth. God loves us, forgives us, restores us, heals us, and meets us in Heaven. The KISS system is still the best truth system for us. Keep It Simple Sheep. 2. Without Truth, the Gospel is Perverted Weakening our commitment to the truth allows us to undermine the Gospel without arousing even a protest. When Katherine Jefferts Schori became presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church of the U.S., Time asked her for her prayer for the Church. She answered, “That we remember the centrality of our mission is to love each other. That means caring for our neighbor. That does not mean bickering about fine points of doctrine.”2 But as we have seen, right doctrine leads to the love of neighbor Bishop Schori would like to see practiced. And without first loving God, the first commandment she ignored, we can’t love our neighbor with the consistency and stamina this world demands. (Bishop Schori’s answer reveals that the current fracturing of the Episcopal Church is not primarily over gays being ordained, but over the authority of Scripture.)…God’s authority…which is always absolute and always the truth. The mission of the Church is perverted as well. When truth is abandoned, therapy takes its place. Therapy as in learning to live with a handicap. We learn how to cope with our problems instead of curing them. That is instead of allowing God to save us from our sins, deliver us from our favorite temptations, and heal us from our diseases and leading us safely to Heaven. We learn to accept our sins and live with them instead allowing God to remove us from them. The Bible (God’s Truth) says that old things (sins) are supposed to pass away. All things are to become new. God wants us to be born again…died out to sin and alive to God, living our lives per Jesus’ example as recorded in the Holy Scriptures…the truth. 3. Rejection of Truth Results in Biblical Illiteracy Abandonment of the truth shows up in widespread biblical illiteracy. Pollster George Barna has discovered that most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible, the existence of Satan, and the sinlessness of Jesus. Many see no need to evangelize and believe that good works are one of the keys to persuading God to forgive their sins. It would be humorous if it were not so tragic that the most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves,” which is not in the Bible—it’s actually a quote from Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac (1757). When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only one percent of adult believers agreed with or accepted all thirteen. Chuck Colson encountered the same thing in his personal survey. This is why Barna describes this as “an age of spiritual anarchy . . . [while the] Church is rotting from the inside out, crippled by abiblical theology.”3 The only correct theology is the theology as clearly expressed and explained in God’s Word. 4. Rejection of Truth Leads to Ethical Confusion Denial of the truth of God’s revelation undermines any attempt to deal with contemporary ethical questions, particularly in regard to sexuality, which plays a major role in all of our lives. It’s often the place where we want to make up our own rules. At a prayer breakfast in the Midwest some years ago, I met a doctor active in a good Bible study and a strong evangelical church. The subject of homosexuality came up, and he told me that as a doctor he believed homosexuals have a natural instinct and desire that needs to be satisfied, so how can we as Christians deny them the same pleasures heterosexuals have? It’s an argument I’ve heard many times—one that evokes some sympathy; no one wants to denounce anyone’s desire for sexual pleasure. Christians who do are viewed as being bigoted. But I pointed out to my new friend that homosexuality is contrary to God’s design, the natural order, and the truth about God’s creation, as he could read in Romans 1. It is important to understand the context in which Paul wrote in order to grasp how we understand moral truth. In the first part of Romans 1 he tells us that God’s eternal power and divine nature are plainly seen from His creation. So “men are without an excuse”; though they knew God “their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:20-21). Paul then uses homosexuality as a prime example of the consequences of denying the obvious: “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity . . . their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones . . . [and] the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another” (Romans 1:24-27). Now why did Paul single out homosexual behavior? Because he thought it was the most obvious example of defying the self-evident created order. On Larry King one night, Rick Warren answered the question plainly: Stand a naked man and a naked woman together, he told Larry, and you can see how God has designed us. (King was, for once, speechless.) There is a self-evident connection between God’s created physical order and the corresponding moral order that enables our behavior to “fit” the physical. I have found whenever I’ve explained this it takes much of the sting out of what appears to be God’s “puritanical” desire that people have no fun and explains why Paul used this one particular sin (which is no more grievous than heterosexual sin) as the most obvious example of defying the creation. It also answers the charge, which many younger people raise, that Christians are homophobic to the extent we all must repent. But the charge is wrong, I believe. Chuck Colson has worked lovingly with hundreds of prisoners stricken with AIDS and have witnessed many Christians doing the same. Catholic Charities, after all, runs most of the AIDS facilities in America. 5. The Rejection of Truth Undermines Cultural Development From the time of the Church’s emergence during the Roman Empire, the Christian faith, and the reason that relied on it, built the greatest society in human history. During the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, however, nonbelieving philosophers and scientists argued that since God wasn’t necessary for explaining creation, He wasn’t necessary to explain the moral order either. Reason alone would govern. The problem was that reason without revelation lacked authority, which leads to chaos and tyranny. The history of the twentieth century, particularly World War I, World War II, and the Holocaust, were horrifying testaments to this. German philosophy had culminated in the fascism that nearly destroyed civilization.4 Another godless philosophical newcomer, communism, was already ravaging the world and would continue to do so. But in the aftermath of World War II, Western intellectuals did not renounce the formative influences of fascism and communism and return to the authority of faith. Instead, they despaired of any true understanding of the world—of both faith and reason, ushering in the postmodern era. We see the effect of this everywhere in the West. Without a basis for morality, no moral consensus can be reached, which is why we are in an ongoing and increasingly strident culture war. Human rights and the law, once seen as God-given, now lack their former authority. Instead of being based on “Nature and Nature’s God,” as our founders wrote—“rights” are determined subjectively. If Dawkins is right that there is no good or evil, we shouldn’t have tried the Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg. And the culturally powerful can do what they like with us, from euthanasia and cloning to engineering babies. Ethics become utilitarian—that is, we do what produces the maximum happiness rather than what is objectively right. This is why liberal churchmen were in the vanguard of the eugenics movement before World War II, which led to Hitler’s gruesome medical experiments.5 These circumstances jeopardize the very existence of Western democracies. If people are not guided by conscience and self-restraint, government inevitably becomes increasingly coercive to stave off chaos. That’s why our laws are proliferating as never before. This is even more obvious in Western Europe, where laws have been elaborated to an almost unimaginable extent to protect people’s rights. Yet overwrought legalism cannot be sustained. It leads to repression and then tyranny. It all comes back to the lack of a basis of authority in the truth. 6. Rejecting Truth Leads to False Gods When the God of the Bible is rejected, people choose a new god. The postmodern age has anointed secular tolerance as its god. Tolerance once meant listening respectfully to all points of view, freely discussed in our common search for the truth. But the creed for the new god of tolerance is that knowing truth is impossible. So everyone is free to think and act as he likes, with one exception: those who have the audacity to believe that they know the truth, particularly if they think God has revealed it to them, are not tolerated. The result is that those who crowned the new god of tolerance have become the absolute arbiters of culture. The new god of tolerance becomes, in the guise of liberalism, an absolute tyrant. Public endorsements of secular tolerance have now become a new public ritual. I watched a debate in the 2006 elections in which a supposedly conservative candidate for governor said he was pro-life. But he quickly assured the questioner that he would not seek any changes in the law. He would not want to “impose his personal views on others,” he explained. That’s the logical equivalent of saying, “I believe it is wrong to molest a child, but I’m not going to try to prevent anyone from doing so.” Why would you want to be governor if you could not seek, through the proper legal means, to prevent moral injustice? In a commentary not only on the politician but on the people, he was handily elected, having succeeded in offending no one at the expense of abandoning his professed convictions. The only thing the god of tolerance hates more than Christians making truth-claims is Christians proving them. Beginning with a facility in Houston, Prison Fellowship now runs residential programs, “spiritual boot camps,” within prisons in locations scattered across the country. This is called the InnerChange Freedom Initiative—or IFI. We have, since the beginning, contended that these demonstrate the truth of the Gospel in transforming lives. In 2003, the first peer-reviewed academic studies validated our claims. University of Pennsylvania researchers reported that IFI graduates had an 8 percent re-incarceration rate versus 20 percent in a comparable control group (and 67 percent nationally). Prison officials were astounded. It was the first empirical evidence that this faith-based approach to corrections works—in other words, that the Gospel is true. And that’s when Barry Lynn of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State decided to sue.6 To prove our truth-claims proved an outrage that tolerance could not abide. 7. If Christianity is Not the Truth, it is Why does truth matter so much? Because the Church simply can’t be the Church without being on the side of truth. Jesus came as the champion of the truth and of those on the side of the truth. Without understanding this, the Church cannot even present the Gospel. Without truth, it resorts to therapy and has patients, not disciples. Much of Christianity’s retreat from the truth or tempering of our witness in the West has been motivated by good intentions—not to offend or be judgmental, the desire to feel more personally connected to God and to make Christianity more relevant and culturally acceptable. The history of Christianity, including the faith’s surge in the Third World today, shows the reverse to be the case. While we always want to be sensitive to other cultures, we cannot be co-opted by them. The early Christians who treated plague victims certainly weren’t embracing the pagan culture. Nor were they trying to make Christianity more relevant and win over the hearts of an empire; they were simply carrying out the truth of their faith—that every person is made in the image of God and therefore possesses dignity. The task of this generation—as it will be in every generation—is to understand Christianity as a complete view of the world and humankind’s place in it, that is, as the truth. If Christianity is not the truth, it is nothing, and our faith mere sentimentality. Closing: So I say believing that God is, is the beginning and anchor of truth. Christianity…the practice of believing in Jesus of Nazareth as Christ…Savior of all who believe in Him …in fact it is the end of truth. Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” It is no accident that the one nation on Earth with the most freedom for its civilians is the nation that was founded as “One Nation Under God.”…meaning the God of the Bible…the God of Israel. The God who sent His son Jesus Christ to earth to save us and show us by example how to live a life of truth. It is no coincidence that as God and His truth are systematically removed from American culture that individual liberties and freedoms are fast disappearing. Do you want truth? Do you want freedom? Do you want true success and satisfaction in life? Then accept that all truth is rooted in God, revealed in His Holy Scriptures and fulfilled through Jesus Christ God’s son and our savior. Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Because you know the truth and have applied it to your life. **************************************
“The Application of Unity”—Do What Leads to Peace & Mutual Edification Sermon Series “The Gospel of God – A Study of Romans” Week 6 Source: Medford Foskey, Pastor, Forest Christian Church, Jacksonville, FlaSermon Text: Romans Ch. 14 |
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