Posted by David on March 28, 2008 under Sermons
There are people in life we choose to be with or not to be with.
When we are young, parents commonly choose for us and force their decisions on us. Often children wonder why they can or cannot be around the people their parents approve of or reject. Often children are told (upon their inquiry), "They are not good for you," or, "They are the ‘right kind of people’ for you." Yet, the fact our parents chose or reject them does not determine if children "like" those people or not. Even if our parents choices are forced on us as children, that commonly still does not determine who we "like."
As teenagers, the choice is no longer the parents in most cases. In fact, for a parent to seek to tell an older teen whom he or she can be friends with usually results in a declaration of war or in alienation. Teens usually find a way to associate with the people they want to befriend. If it is a choice between friends or parents, most of the time parents lose, even when parents don’t know it.
When a person leaves home for an independent life, or for college, or for a new work opportunity, he or she usually likes whom he or she wants to and associates with whom he or she wants to. Commonly, parents have little to do with that decision.
Whether parents like it or not, that also includes God. It is amazing to note how the spiritual habits and orientation of many children change when they leave home. And most of us parents know that to be the truth. And that truth scares most of us parents to death.
So what is the key to a healthy, continuing relationship with parents and a healthy, continuing relationship with God? The answer is basically the same. Parents early need to form and then continue a relationship of blessing with children so the children always value their relationship with their parents. Form a relationship between your children and God that blesses your children to the extent that they cherish their relationship with God.
Consider our text in Ephesians 1:3-10: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth."
- I want you to look at our text, follow me, and note several things.
- Note these things:
- We have reason to bless God for what God has done for us in Christ.
- Every good thing God wants to do for us He has done for us in Jesus Christ.
- Good thing # 1: God chose us in Christ before the world began, long before we were born.
- Does that mean we are locked into being a saved person or a lost person, and there is nothing we can do about that situation? No, that is not what it means.
- It means everyone who accepted Jesus Christ can not be lost.
- It is impossible to be ‘in Christ’ and lost at the same time.
- Long before anyone was born, God decided those who accepted His son would be His people.
- However, if we choose God by accepting Jesus Christ, we assume the responsibility to be God’s holy people who refuse to rebel against Him.
- We chose God by accepting God’s adoption of us through Jesus Christ.
- That adoption is God’s kind intention–His desire!
- It is about God, not us!
- This adoption exists, so there is obvious reason for us to praise God!
- Good thing # 2: In Christ we have redemption in Christ’s blood.
- Redemption is the concept of ‘buy back’–God buys us back from the consequence of every mistake we have made.
- The result of that ‘buy back’ is the forgiveness of our mistakes.
- That redemption, that forgiveness is a result of God’s goodness (grace), not the result of any claimed human goodness.
- God lavishes that goodness on us; God’s grace is given to us in abundance!
- Good thing #3: God always intended good things for all people who would enter Christ.
- That always has been God’s purpose.
- God always intended for Jesus Christ to be the summation of every good thing God intended and wanted for us.
- Consider God’s promise to Abraham (in the Bible’s first book).
Genesis 12:3, "And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
- Paul understood Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Listen:
Galatians 3:8, The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
Galatians 3:16, Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.
- The God Who does not lie promised Abraham good things would happen because of Jesus Christ, and God kept His promise.
- All we who are Christians are blessed because of what God did and does in Jesus Christ.
- I want you to listen carefully to a statement Jesus made to Nicodemus in John 3:16-21 and see if it does not sound a lot like Paul’s statement in Ephesians 1:3-10.
John 3:16-21, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
- God’s love for people sent Jesus to this world.
- God sent Jesus because He wants people to have eternal life (the problem is not with God’s desire, but with people’s desire).
- God did not send Jesus to judge people (people were already judged by their own wickedness–God did not have to send a judge).
- God did not send Jesus to be a judge, but to be a solution.
- God sent Jesus so faith in Jesus could become the avenue to Him instead of human perfection–Jesus came so people could escape rightful condemnation as a rightful consequence to their mistakes.
- The people problem:
- Jesus came to bring people light.
- However, some people did not want light because they enjoyed evil and did not want to see themselves–they did not want the light to expose them.
- Yet, people who value truth come to the light (Jesus).
- They do not mind seeing themselves for who they are.
- They want to act in ways that belong to God.
- As Christians, we need some basic understandings.
- Understanding #1: God is not our enemy and never has been.
- Sin is our enemy.
- Sin wants to hide the consequences of our actions from us.
- God wants to release us from the consequences of our actions.
- Sin wants to deceive us into believing everything is okay when it is far from okay–as if deception could make everything okay.
- God says we have nothing to fear in seeing ourselves for who we are with all our needs because He can care for any problem we have–loving truth is not a problem, is not dangerous, regardless of what truth reveals.
- Understanding #2: Salvation is not the product of human goodness, but the product of God’s goodness expressed in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
- People of themselves are not good, and never have been.
- People abuse people.
- People love selfish indulgence regardless of who it hurts or how it hurts.
- People exploit people for their own purposes.
- People love power, arrogance, control, and importance.
- People start wars and continue the destruction of wars.
- People justify evil behavior.
- God is good, and loves to share His goodness with us.
- He lavishes His grace on us–your needs can never be bigger than God’s grace!
- God’s forgiveness is always greater than a person’s sins if the person has the courage to place his or her faith in Jesus Christ and let that faith determine his or her attitudes and behavior.
- God is good in His compassion, mercy, grace, love, and forgiveness.
- All we can do is respond to His goodness.
- We cannot forgive ourselves or make ourselves perfect–we can only accept God’s forgiveness and sanctification (see 1 Corinthians 1:30).
- That understanding does not limit the importance of obedience; it just addresses the motive of obedience.
- A person obeys God to accept God’s kind gifts, and to show appreciation for God’s gifts inherited in Jesus Christ.
- In true appreciation of what God did in Jesus’ death and our individual salvation, a person will be more obedient–not less obedient.
- An appreciative Christian wants God’s will to be more dominate in his or her life, not less dominate.
- Understanding # 3: It is Jesus Christ who gives us access to God’s immediate presence.
- Consider Hebrews 4:14-16: Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
- Take note of some things in this scripture:
- Jesus is the Christians high priest (a high priest was the main representative of people to God and God to people–the high priest was "the middle man.")
- Christians have reason to place their confidence in Jesus Christ because he "has been there, been exposed to that!"
- His experience equips Jesus Christ to represent us to God!
- He has had experience–he understands how we feel when we are tempted!
- He knows what it is like to be weak!
- That is the reason we can draw near to God with confidence!
- That is why we know we are coming to grace when we come to God’s throne!
- That is why we will find mercy and grace at God’s throne!
- That is why our needs do not turn us away from God but lead us to God!
- Without God’s gift to us of Jesus His son, none of us could ever stand before God uncondemned.
- The only reason we can approach God is because of what God did for us in giving us Jesus.
- The only help to us that is eternal is our right to come to God in Jesus Christ.
Do not put your confidence in yourself. Do not put your confidence in your deeds. Do not put your confidence in another human. Do not put your confidence in the congregation. Put your confidence in Jesus Christ. Only he is our source of every spiritual blessing and gives us access to God.
Posted by David on March 27, 2008 under Bulletin Articles
God always has had a purpose. God made it clear He had a purpose in the Bible’s first book in Genesis 12:3. Paul confirmed that the divine promise to bless all families of the earth through Abraham’s descendants was a reference to God’s intention to send Jesus to be the Christ (Galatians 3:8, 16). In Romans 3:21-26, this same Paul declared how much God accomplished in Jesus’ sacrifice-righteousness, the power to save gentiles by faith, justification, grace, redemption, propitiation, a demonstration of God’s righteousness in pre-Jesus forbearance, and a declaration of God’s justice in mercy.
God has never bumbled along achieving good by accident. God is and always has been intentional. He intended to achieve in Jesus what He achieved. Long before Jesus’ birth, God intended for Jesus’ life and death to be the core (the centerpiece) of every good thing He did and would do for sinful humans.
Healthy congregations are filled with intentional people who surrender to an intentional God. These Christians are not accidental in the way they live their lives for Jesus Christ. They serve their Lord Jesus Christ with thought, planning, reason, and purpose. They understand one of God’s purposes is for Jesus to be their example!
A person has to be intentional to believe that good is stronger than evil (Romans 12:21), to pray for his/her enemies (Matthew 5:44), to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), to understand God’s grace covers all our flaws (Ephesians 2:4-9), and to grasp that God rewards the righteous after physical death (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). Healthy congregations are the result of the members’ faith in God. These God-focused members understand physical life is an investment in the life that exists after physical death. Physical life is not about one’s earthly lifestyle, but about life with God-now and in Heaven! Poverty is no hindrance to God’s blessings! Poverty is not proof of God’s lack of concern!
To be a healthy congregation, it is not enough to believe God exists! It is only enough to believe God exists and has objectives! The healthy congregation allows God to declare His objectives as believers in God adopt His objectives rather than making our objectives God’s purposes. Our objective: to grasp all God’s purposes in Jesus Christ.
Posted by David on March 20, 2008 under Bulletin Articles
In a book (The Purse-Driven Life by comedienne Anita Renfroe) given to Joyce, Renfroe discussed growth as changing boxes. “If people’s expectations of us put us ?in a box,’ it seems to me that we spend a good deal of our time on earth just swapping boxes. We get some knowledge in one area of our life and realize we have been enslaved to an idea or expectation. We leave that mindset, only to find that we miss the structure the box afforded us, so we find another one to climb into. We say we don’t like them, but we keep climbing in” (pp. 44, 45).
Spiritual growth accurately can be compared to outgrowing boxes. While my graduate degree is in Bible, my college undergraduate degree is in chemistry (long story). I remember spending a lot of time learning a view of an atom, only later to be told the view must expand. That happened over and over as we moved to bigger boxes!
A time in life was when parents had the answers, then when a gifted Sunday school teacher had the answers, when a beloved preacher had the answers, when an insightful professor had the answers, or when a movement had the answers. Parents had some of the answers-as did Sunday school teachers, preachers, professors, movements, etc.
Why only some answers? As we grow, have new experiences, and age, we discover dimensions of questions that were unknown to us. You provide yourself insight. Was any spiritual question “the same” at age 15 as it was at age 8? Or at age 25 compared to age 15? Or at age 40 compared to age 25? Or at age 65 compared to age 40?
Do you realize how much you have grown? There was the “all black and white with no gray” age; the “black, white, and a little gray” age; the “black, white, and expanding gray” age; and the age when wisdom confessed “I don’t know”-which was completely unacceptable in the “all black and white” age. Pick your subject-child rearing, godly marriage, unity, love, forgiveness, holiness, Christian service-and watch scripture cause godly people to grow into the Lordship of Jesus Christ and God’s character and purposes. A 15-year-old will conclude things that cause a 40-year-old to shake his or her head because the 15-year-old has not even seen all the question.
A “think about” question: was God with you in your small box? When your growth demanded a bigger box, did God go with you? Was He in the bigger box ahead of you? Can you put God in a box, or is God bigger than all boxes? Do you understand that healthy congregations are made of people who do not fear spiritual growth? Never stagnate where you are! Never stop growing closer to God!
Posted by David on March 13, 2008 under Bulletin Articles
Years ago we as a society were introduced to the many facets of “blame.” We correctly understood that every person is a composite of his or her experiences. Before that understanding, our response as a society to a person who endured unjust situations was this: “Suck it up!”
There are lots of ways to illustrate this attitude from the past. “So, you married an abusive man and have a horrible marriage. Suck it up and quit crying!” “So, years ago as a child, you had a mother who vented her rage on you. Suck it up and pretend it never happened!” “So, your parents do despicable things to you that make you feel more like a slave or property. Suck it up and stop whining!” “So, you have a boss who exploits his power over you. Suck it up-you have a job!” The prevailing attitude was, “So, you have (had) it tough! Big deal! So do (did) many other people!”
Gradually, we understood there are horrible experiences we endure that are neither ignored, forgotten, nor easily escaped. Gradually, we grasped the powerful impact of unjust relationships in people’s lives. Gradually, we understood that horribly unjust experiences often have a radical impact on a person’s behavior.
As usual, the pendulum tends to swing too far with new insights. Our society went from ignorance (and unjust conclusions) to blamelessness where nothing is “my” fault (and unjust conclusions). In our circuit, we returned to the same situation-from no responsibility due to an absence of insight to no responsibility because of insight. The result: we went from irresponsible conduct produced by ignorance to irresponsible conduct produced by a refusal to accept any fault. Both produce irresponsible conduct.
Facts to be accepted: (1) No one’s past is perfect. (2) No matter how hard we try, we cannot make things perfect for the next generation. (3) We live in an unjust physical world, and the next generation will live in a similar physical world.
Two things I can do: (1) I can be honest with myself concerning the impact of my past on me. (2) I can let Christ make me the best me I can be. If I am honest with myself about the impact of my past on me, I can encourage you in your transition. If I let God’s grace in Jesus’ death free me from my guilt, I can be an example to you as I challenge you to find hope in God.
If I ignore my past, I condemn myself to exist in a feeling of guilt. If I let God teach me freedom in Christ, I exist in forgiveness. In the first, I make others miserable-often including those I love the most. In the second, I bless others’ lives just by being the “me” God makes “me” in Christ. In spite of my past, I choose who I am. I can’t be perfect, but I can be better! Thank You, Lord, for freedom in Jesus Christ!
Posted by David on March 11, 2008 under Sermons
Sacrificing animals, animal blood, the first fruits of a crop, and crop products to God was a way of showing dependence on and appreciation for God. For generations, people who sought God and depended on God sacrificed. Abel sacrificed. Abraham sacrificed. Sacrificial acts were a part of worship for Isaac, Jacob, the nation of Israel, and devout Jews early in New Testament history. The core of Passover involved sacrifice. Deuteronomy 16:16 instructed all the men of Israel to gather in the place God chose three times a year with gifts (sacrifices). Leviticus 1-7 states sacrifice was involved in burnt offerings, in peace offerings, and in sin and guilt offerings.
When God solved our problems produced by alienation through sin, He sacrificed. We have forgiveness available to us because God offered an enduring sacrifice. We can escape the eternal consequences of our sins because God sacrificed. We can become God’s people because He sacrificed. We can enter an eternal agreement or covenant with God because He sacrificed.
Today you can refer to yourself as a Christian because Jesus was the sacrifice. His body assumed our sins.
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed (1 Peter 2:21-24).
His blood atoned for our failures (Hebrews 9:11, 12). It is Jesus’ blood that makes possible our righteousness, justification, redemption, and propitiation.
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-26).
Literally, we can come into God’s presence because God sacrificed Jesus for our benefit, and every Sunday we acknowledge that sacrifice in communion. We also acknowledge His sacrifice for us every day in the way we live our lives.
Without God’s willingness to sacrifice Jesus for us and Jesus’ willingness to be God’s sacrifice for us, there would be no Christianity, no church, and each of us would be helplessly ruled by our mistakes.
- At some point, sacrifice and the proper motive for sacrifice were separated in the human thought process.
- I challenge you to give some serious consideration to the way we think about spiritual realities.
- First, many of us think relationship with God is a matter of procedure, not a matter of motives and procedure.
- Second, many of us think if we do the correct things, those correct acts of themselves will produce a wonderful relationship with God.
- Let’s put those two observations in words we use every day.
- We often think relationship with God is just a matter of doing the right acts at the right time.
- What we really feel about God does not actually matter as long as we do the right things.
- Let me give you an example.
- Sunday morning it is essential that I be in a church building at the proper time for worship.
- When the congregation sings songs to praise God, I either need to listen to the singing or sing.
- When the congregation prays, I need to bow my head.
- When the congregation takes communion, I need to take communion.
- When the preacher preaches, I need to at least pretend to be listening.
- I simply cannot be anywhere else doing anything else until I have worshipped.
- However, why I come and what I feel is unimportant.
- I do not have to mean anything that I sing, I just have to sing or to listen.
- I do not have to pray; I just have to bow my head.
- I do not need to gratefully remember Jesus’ sacrifice; I just have to take communion.
- I do not have to think as the preacher preaches; I just have to pretend to listen.
- I do not have to engage my heart in praising God; as long as I do the right things, worship occurs.
- Long ago in 1 Samuel 15 God told King Saul explicitly how to avenge God’s wrath on the Amalekite people for their attack on Israel when Israel left Egypt.
- Contrary to God’s directions, King Saul spared the best of the animals.
- King Saul declared "the people" (his army) spared the best of the livestock for "sacrifice" to the Lord (1 Samuel 15:15).
- Samuel made this statement to King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22,23:
“Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”
- I want you to note one point: sacrifice to God is meaningless if it comes from a rebellious heart.
- Generations did not understand this truth.
- Once, the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of violating the Sabbath because they picked and ate some raw grain.
- Jesus refuted their conclusion in three ways–two were examples they regarded as coming from an authoritative source, and one was a scripture they attributed to the will of God.
- The scripture Jesus’ quoted to them was from Hosea 6:6:
But if you had known what this means, ?I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent (Matthew 12:7).
- On God’s priority list, concern for people was as significant as sacrifice.
- To give God a sacrifice while having no concern for people is of no significance to God.
- Their problem was not created by not knowing what God said, but from not knowing what God meant by what He said–they saw the words, but they did not see the meaning.
- The problem.
- The problem existed because sacrifice to God was separated from love for God.
- The ancient concept that continues in human thinking today is this: what matters is a person’s acts.
- His or her motives behind the act do not matter.
- So, in worshipping God or living for God, acts matter, but motives do not matter.
- That has never been true!
- That is not true in human to human acts!
- Why should we decide that is true in acts dedicated to God?
- Let’s make an application of this incorrect view to marriage and the home.
- In your relationship with your spouse, are you happy and fulfilled if your spouse does the right things, but has no concern for you as a person?
- Are you happy and fulfilled as a person if your spouse tells you the right words but has no feeling for you behind the words?
- Are you happy and fulfilled as a person if your spouse tells you the right things in order to get you to do what he or she wants done?
- Before we go further, let’s make a clear distinction.
- We are NOT talking about toleration of a bad situation because you decide it is better to get something instead of getting nothing–so if your spouse does something right for the wrong reason, at least your spouse did something.
- We are NOT talking about giving up, saying to yourself nothing is ever going to change, nothing is ever going to get better–so, I best get what I can get.
- We are NOT talking about learning to "play the game"–whatever the form "the game" takes.
- Not the game of "it is my time to win."
- Not the game of "if I approach you right, you have to do what I want."
- Not the game of "you owe me because of what I did for you."
- Not any other game that basically says that you are not important as a person, and I will use you in any way I must to get what I want to get.
- If in your marriage, one or both of you function on the basis of words or actions without regard to motives, honestly tell yourself how you feel.
- Do you feel appreciated as a person?
- Do you feel respected as though you matter?
- Do you feel used?
- Do you feel manipulated?
- Do you feel worthless?
- Do you feel you do not belong to yourself?
- Does your spouse have any idea of how you feel? Do the two of you talk and share or do the two of you fight and argue?
- And both of you are Christians?
- As Christians, do you fight or argue Sunday morning until you get to the church building, then behave like the ideal Christian family while you are at the church building, then fight and argue the rest of the day?
- Does that fit your definition and concept of being a Christian?
- Is that the way you treat everyone else?
- If someone came into your home unexpectedly, could the visitor slice the tension between you and your family as if were a block of cheese?
- Does that fit your definition and concept of being a Christian?
- Is that the way you act in other circumstances?
- Does what happen in your home depend on who gets and can maintain control?
- Does that fit your definition and concept of being a Christian?
- Is that the way you act in other contexts?
- May I make the point I have repeatedly made.
- If knowing God through Christ has increased your understanding of the link between godliness and respect, the first person who should benefit from your understanding of the importance of expressing respect because you are a godly person should be your spouse, and the second people should be your children.
- If knowing God through Christ has increased your understanding of the link between godliness and kindness, the first person who should benefit from your understanding of the importance of expressing kindness because you are a godly person should be your spouse, and the second people should be your children.
- If knowing God through Christ has increased your understanding of the link between godliness and love, the first person who should benefit because of your understanding of the importance of showing love because you are a godly person should be your spouse, and the second people should be your children.
- Think with me for just a moment.
- Is being respectful, being kind, being loving a part of godliness?
- Should a Christian be respectful, kind, and loving to all people–even strangers–because the Christian understands people are made in God’s image?
- Then why should you treat strangers whom you do not know in ways you won’t treat your family?
- Why should a stranger respect your beliefs if your beliefs do not bless your family?
- Is it easy to be respectful, kind, and loving?
- No! Being a godly person is not easy!
- Will being a godly person require that I make sacrifices? Yes!
- Will being a godly person in my family require sacrifices? Yes!
- Then why will I make such sacrifices?
- I do it for God in appreciation of what He has done and continues to do for me!
- I do it because it is an important part of who I am as a person who belongs to God.
If you do not know how to be respectful, kind, and loving to your family, allow someone who knows how to teach you (not judge and condemn you) how to show and express positive qualities in your family relationships.
Learn how to be a respectful, kind, and loving person so your behavior encourages others to show you kindness, respect, and love. Learn how to talk and share. Let people learn from you that they matter.
Please, remember that sacrifice and love are inseparably linked as we devote ourselves to godly living. Please, understand that respect, kindness, and love are a part of being godly. Please, learn that showing these things to your family is truly an important part of being godly. Sacrifice for these things because these things are a part of God’s ways. Never forget that God made great sacrifices to extend you His respect, kindness, and love!
Posted by David on March 6, 2008 under Sermons
How long has it been since you focused on or gave serious attention to the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) when God spoke those commandments to Israel?
Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die” (Exodus 20:1-19).
There are several things that are obvious to me. (1) They should listen to God because of what He did for them in delivering them from slavery. (2) Israel did not wish to listen to God because they saw God as a terrifying power rather than a helping power. (3) If they correctly understand God, they understand the way they treat people is the way they treat God.
Today, I would like for us to think about the third obvious thing: if we understand the character and nature of God, we understand that correct knowledge of God will affect the way we treat each other.
- Why?
- The reason: people are made in the image and likeness of God.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:26-28).
- Because a human being is in the image and likeness of God, that fact/understanding will change the way a person who knows God looks at other people.
- Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus:
". . . put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth" (Ephesians 4:24).
- And again to the Christians in Colossae:
". . . put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him-a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all" (Colossians 3:10,11).
- James wrote to Christians:
"But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh" (James 3:8-12).
- The point is repeatedly made.
- A person cannot know God and treat people with indifference or rudeness.
- If I belong to God, when I look at you I see much more than the things you have and how you can benefit me.
- No one can see God and not treat people differently.
- This is not something "new" or "different" about God that in some mysterious way came into existence when Jesus died and was resurrected to reign as the Christ.
- This always has been true about the character and nature of God.
- God did not change as a Being in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
- What God could do in His relationship with us changed because of His gift in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
- Consider a illustration:
- When there was rebellion against God in Eden, the rebellion quickly went from eating a fruit to the murder of a brother.
- When people rebel against God, they lose their respect for others.
- If I refuse to appreciate God by surrendering to Him, I lose my respect for you.
- Knowing and appreciating God will change my attitude and behavior toward you.
- To speak practically:
- I cannot love God and hate you.
- I cannot accept God’s forgiveness and refuse to extend you my forgiveness.
- I cannot expect God to hear my every prayer and need while refusing to listen to you.
- I cannot depend on God’s compassion, mercy, and grace while refusing to extend to you compassion, mercy, and grace.
- To me, the ultimate expression of this attitude is found in a statement Jesus made in his Sermon on the Mount: "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12).
- Why will another person be better off if I treat him like I want to be treated?
- He or she won’t be better off . . . unless I know God and let that knowledge shape (1) my behavior and (2) the way I look at people.
- If I treat you like I want to be treated, and all I know is wicked behavior, your situation will not likely improve.
- Only if I know God and let my knowledge of God shape the way I look at you will my treating you like I want to be treated (as one who knows God) lead to your benefit.
- The first human relationships to benefit from my knowing God should be my family relationships.
- Knowing God should result in a husband treating his wife with understanding and kindness.
- Knowing God should result in a wife treating her husband with understanding and kindness.
- Knowing God should result in parents treating their children with understanding and kindness.
- "Can you be more specific?"
- Knowing God results in a husband learning how to let his wife act and think like a woman.
- Knowing God results in a wife learning how to let her husband act and think like a man.
- Men and women do not act alike and do not think alike!
- I am not talking about justifying or ignoring evil behavior or wicked thoughts.
- I am talking about learning good behavior in a male and in a female.
- I am talking about not expecting a man to deny his masculine nature or expecting a woman to deny her feminine nature.
- I am talking about informing yourself instead of demanding or ordering.
- I also suggest that knowing God results in parents allowing their children to be children.
- Do not expect a 4-year-old to act like a 15-year-old.
- Do not expect a 15-year-old to act like a 25-year-old.
- Just as children must develop mentally and physically, they also must develop in their ability to exercise good judgment.
- While parents always expect their children to develop to the full extent of their ability, they never demand of their children what they cannot do.
- Children are not little adults, and we do them no favor by forcing them to act as if they were little adults.
- Again, we are not condoning bad behavior, but neither are we encouraging impossible behavior.
- I suggest the church needs to take the lead in encouraging godly behavior in families.
- We need spiritually to develop an entirely different concept of success in family relationships.
- Because we do not divorce does not mean we are successful in godly relationships.
- Because a child continues an excellent attendance record in a congregation and marries someone who has an excellent attendance record in a congregation does not prove they love each other.
- Husbands and wives who come to worship constantly may fight like cats and dogs at home–the only thing they may share is the same address.
- Our children may marry Christians yet form a home of hatred.
- It takes much more than a refusal to divorce or church attendance to be successful in marriage and home.
- What are some of the criteria in a successful marriage/home?
- Do they know how to love unselfishly?
- How do they show love?
- Do they know how to share?
- Are their actions and behavior ruled by kindness?
- Are they sacrificial in their treatment of each other?
- Are they friends who share their friendship with each other?
- Are they thoughtful of each other?
- Do they share things or self with each other?
- Do they depend on each other?
- Do they trust each other?
- Do they do "their own thing" or do they share time with each other?
- Is their feeling for each other dependent on prosperity or lifestyle?
I think it is appropriate to end where we began. (1) We listen to God because of what He does for us. (2) We are not terrified of God, but see God as a source of hope. (3) We understand that the way we treat people is the way we treat God.
Understanding those things, our marriages and homes are blessed because we belong to God. God, in love for us, teaches us how to commit in marriage because we have learned to love from God.
Posted by David on under Bulletin Articles
In the past few weeks, the bulletin articles emphasized two points. (1) Christians are responsible to care for each others’ well being. Thus, we exercise great care in what we say. (2) Christians accept the responsibility involved in personal transformation. Thus, as a Christian, I am responsible to focus on my behavior and attitudes as well as on your example.
Wow! Tough! It is fairly simple for me to focus on your example. If I am honest with myself, it is fairly simple to focus on my example established by my attitudes and behavior. However, all of us encounter a huge problem. God who gave Christ for my sins and forgives my errors is also the God who gave Christ for your sins and forgives your errors. So, when do I treat my mistakes with God’s grace, and when do I treat your mistakes with God’s grace? When do I let God’s grace help you escape your guilt just as I allow God’s grace to help me escape my guilt?
Where is the balance? Who decides where it should be? How do I condemn you without condemning me? If I let my guilt destroy me how am I improved because I destroy you also? Does anything go with repentance? Where is the accountability line drawn? Who draws it? Are you “in” because I say you are “in” or “out” because I say you are “out?” How can we show each other disrespect and not discredit our Savior?
I understand when Elijah ran from Queen Jezebel or Peter denied Jesus when he was “under the gun.” Why? I know and grasp such weakness. I know that kind of weakness happens! However, it is difficult to understand God’s quick forgiveness of David’s adultery, or Bathsheba continuing as David’s queen, or her son by David being Israel’s next king. That puts Isaiah 55:8, 9 in a practical light-truly God’s ways are not our ways! Thankfully, God’s forgiveness does not depend on human understanding.
Congregations-from the beginning-were a delicate balance between mercy and accountability. Jewish Christians did not understand how gentile Christians could be saved without circumcision. Gentile Christians did not understand why Jewish Christians were so hung up on rules. Living congregations ALWAYS are composed of spiritual infants, children, adolescents, and adults of varying degrees of spiritual maturity. If the balance between mercy and accountability is not found and practiced in Jesus Christ, no congregation can thrive as a part of Christ’s earthly body.
In college, an admired teacher stated this in a minor prophets’ study: “You cannot get to Heaven on the mistakes of other people.”
Ouch!!!
Posted by David on February 28, 2008 under Bulletin Articles
Paul knew what it was like to live in the “fish bowl.” When you live in the “fish bowl,” you exist for others to observe. If they want to make it their life’s objective, they can spend a lot of hours discovering your flaws and calling your flaws to others’ attention. There were those who seemingly defined their life’s mission to be discovering Paul’s flaws and announcing those flaws to anyone who would listen.
Paul had a huge problem. Prior to conversion, he was the “poster child” of first century Jews who hated what we call Christianity. (They often called it “the Way.”) He said in Acts 26:9, “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth,” and in verse 11, “And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.” He so violently opposed Christianity prior to his conversion that Jerusalem Christians feared him even after his conversion (see Acts 9:26).
Paul, the Jews’ Jew, understood the Christ (the Messiah) came to save gentiles as well as Jews (see Genesis 12:3; note “all families of the earth;” and Galatians 3:16). Paul’s understanding was NOT popular among most first century Jews-Christian and non-Christian! The result: the violent man became the target. One of the first century’s great ironies: the Jews’ Jew became the Christian apostle to gentiles! Even the Christian Peter, after his Acts 10 experience, lacked the courage to admit God’s interest expressed in Paul’s mission to the gentiles (see Galatians 2:11-14).
Paul had a dream! He wanted to eliminate the gap between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians. To him, the best way to bring healing was for gentile Christians to send a gift to Jewish Christians to aid with physical necessities. Though Paul promoted the gift, collected the gift, and delivered the gift, he could not heal the breach!
Paul’s passion to heal an unnecessary problem significantly contributed to the events that resulted in his death. He wanted to end a problem that God ended in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection (read Galatians 2:11-21). He wanted to “fix” a condition that God “fixed” in Jesus Christ, and he could not! His great efforts to do things honorably in everyone’s sight failed. People continued to be people! Jewish Christians held so tightly to their views that they could not see through God’s eyes! They were so “sure” they saw correctly that they did not comprehend their blindness!
To me, there are several lessons to note. (1) Conflict always will exist among Christians. (2) Some conflicts cannot be “fixed.” (3) The challenge is not always the “fixing,” but being Christians when things need “fixing.” We can act like God’s people even when other Christians do not.
Posted by David on February 26, 2008 under Sermons
Selfishness can be one of those horrible flaws that is obvious to others but is not known to the person who is selfish. Selfishness is defined as excessive concern for self or exclusive concern for self without regard for others. It is a total contrast to selfless. Selfless is defined as having no concern for self. Selfishness is a total preoccupation with "me." It could be called "me-itus."
Selfishness is a destructive self-focus. It says, "Other people exist for my well-being. I associate with no one who does not serve my advantage." The issue to the selfish person is not, "Is what’s happening fair to them?" To the selfish person, the issue is "How do they as people or how do their actions serve to my advantage?" At the minimum, in every situation, selfishness says, "I matter the most. In nothing do I matter less than you matter." At the maximum, selfishness says, "You exist for my benefit! I cannot see you for seeing me! There is nothing unjust about me always having my way, about everyone else always yielding to me, or about everything working to my benefit. I cannot believe you do not see that is as it should be!"
People who are selfish use people. They look at others as existing to benefit them. "Your money is my money! Your happiness exists to make me happy! Your opportunities exist to increase my opportunities. Any time things do not work out so that your welfare does not increase my welfare, something is horribly wrong!"
Nowhere is the destructiveness of selfishness more evident than in family relationships. At its worse, selfishness abuses the people the selfish person should love. He or she is so in love with self he or she cannot care about anyone else. Children are not seen as helpless extensions of "us," but as rivals to "me." Everything given to a spouse or to a child is something that deprives "me." Thus, spouse and children in my family exist to be "my servants," to make "me" happy, to serve "my" purposes. As long as my family makes me happy, every thing is as it should be.
- Scripture focuses on this destructive view of self in a number of ways.
- Proverbs urges avoidance of the selfish man with these words in Proverbs 23:6, 7: Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.
- His hospitality seemed genuine.
- However, do not think he has your best interests at heart because he is gracious to you.
- You cannot tell what is going on in his mind by the way he treats you!
- Outwardly he urges you to enjoy his hospitality, but inwardly he does not have your best interest on his heart.
- Paul made a number of statements about people who focus their center on themselves. Among those admonitions are these two.
- To Timothy, Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:1-5: But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
- Preacher, hard times are coming.
- Paul began the list of the characteristics of the people who would cause the hard times with "lovers of self."
- In this list of ungodly characteristics, he included arrogance, unloving, irreconcilable, conceited, lovers of pleasure, who have an outer religiosity rather than a devotion to God.
- In much of that list of ungodly traits that will produce the hard times are people who obviously are sold on themselves.
- As Paul sought to end contention and division among Christians, he wrote to the Christians in Philippi in Philippians 2:3, 4 : Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
- One step to ending contention and division in the congregation was taken by accepting individual responsibility to stop being selfish.
- The issue was not, "What do I want?" but, "What is in everyone’s best interest?"
- Look at your congregational members as being more important than you are.
- Do not be devoted to "my" interests but to "our" interests.
- James wrote in James 3:14 and then 16: But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. … For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
- Selfish attitudes do not accomplish God’s purposes in Jesus Christ.
- The companion of selfish ambition is bitter jealousy.
- The two combine to produce arrogance, deceit, disorder, and every evil thing.
- Selfishness is the root of self-justification.
- It is a source of disorder and every evil thing.
- Peter wrote in 2 Peter 2:10, 12: … especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.
Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, … But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;
- When the self-willed become entrenched in "us," they are not even fearful to defy God’s divine messengers.
- Self-devotion makes us act like animals instead of people.
- We become threats to others, exploiting them, as we seek to indulge ourselves.
- I suggested to you in our first consideration of Christianity and Relationships that the first people who should be blessed by our faith in God is our families.
- Faith in the God who sent us Jesus Christ:
- Should make men the best men they are capable of being.
- Should make women the best women they are capable of being.
- The first people who should be blessed by those men and women are their spouses.
- The second people who should be blessed by those men and women are the children they bring into this world.
- If faith in God makes us the best people we can be, the first to be benefited from our faith in God should be our physical families.
- If people should be able to look anywhere and see the blessings and benefits of marriage and homes, it should be among Christians.
- It saddens me to know that marital failure is as high in the church as it is in society.
- It saddens me to know you have to go no further than the church to find abused wives who hide their abuse, abused husbands who are ashamed that a woman abuses them, and neglected children who are starved for love and acceptance.
- It saddens me to encounter Christians who think teaching proper treatment of spouses or children has no place in the church.
- It saddens me to know that there are people who have little interest in God because they know of abuse situations in Christian homes.
- "Well, what do you make of the undesirable conditions in too many Christian marriages?"
- We know too little about how to be good husbands.
- We know too little about how to be good wives.
- We know too little about how to be good parents.
- We know too little about selecting a spouse.
- Our concepts about being good spouses and good parents are seriously flawed.
- Too many in the church assume people just intuitively known how to be good spouses, or how to be good parents, or how to how truly stable homes.
- The situation is quickly becoming more complex, more demanding.
- Christians are too given to assigning blame instead of providing sound guidance.
- If I asked you, "What is wrong?" would you have answers you readily gave?
- Probably!
- It would be rare to find someone who does not have an opinion on how to fix generically the problem in society in general.
- But how much insight and guidance do you have if a child of yours, or a grandchild of yours comes to you and asks for your help about a specific marriage problem?
- How quickly do you have no insights?
- How fearful are you to refer them?
- How often will you, when you dare, approach an elder or a preacher, and begin with, "First, there is something you need to know … "
- How quickly do you discover your advice does not fit the situation?
- Let me provide you with just one illustration: how often does friendship enter the selection of a spouse?
- In our society we have specific concepts of good looks.
- It often involves hair, shape, weight, mannerisms, clothes, and suggestiveness.
- The whole package is designed to suggest who is physically desirable and who is not.
- So we will dye, implant, diet, go in debt, acquire the latest fades, and learn how to act to acquire the look and to say what we want to say with nonverbal language.
- Examine a picture of your parents when they married early in life, and look at them right now.
- Looks pass with age!
- So we marry for a variety of reasons: looks, legalized sex, passion, stirred up hormones, security, status, escape, dreams, vivid imaginations, expectations.
- In almost 60 years of marriage counseling and ceremonies, I have never talked to a couple who were not sure their marriage would be successful because they loved each other.
- Yet, several ended in divorce with them hating each other more than they said they loved each other.
- Most of a marriage is not:
- Spent in looking good.
- Or sexual activity.
- Or passionate feelings.
- Or some form of escape from reality.
- By far most of marriage is spent in ordinary friendship.
- If people who marry are not friends before they marry, they face an extremely difficult time together.
- Almost immediately there are money issues, spending issues, decisions to be made, choices to be made, and hardships to be faced.
- All this can be successfully coped with if two adults face them together as friends.
- However, if they are not friends, everything becomes a crises.
- "How can I know how deep our friendship is?"
- Do each of you unselfishly consider the other?
- Would you never consider selfishly taking advantage of the other?
Nothing communicates love to a man like unselfish respect. Nothing communicates love to a woman like unselfish thoughtfulness. Two unselfish people will face whatever life brings them and make the marriage successful. Selfishness in a marriage will destroy it.
Ephesians 5:22-33–Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
Posted by David on February 21, 2008 under Bulletin Articles
The man or woman who has the confidence in God to be a Christian accepts an unusual challenge! While forgiveness is available to all, transformation is demanding. First, through God’s act in Jesus’ cross comes ongoing forgiveness (see 1 John 1:8-10). One rises from immersion into Christ (Galatians 3:27) to begin the continuing process of transformation (Romans 12:1, 2)-a lifetime process. Most of the New Testament is devoted to the continuing process of transformation individually (Romans 12-15), as well as congregationally (Revelation 2-3).
In the verses above, notice a particular statement: “Respect what is right in the sight of all men.” The immediate context is in the matter of vengeance. The larger context is in the matter of transformation.
This statement illustrates the unusual nature of Christian existence. The Christian is not only concerned with how things “look” to Christians. He or she is also concerned with how things “look” to people not controlled by faith in the God who sent Jesus. It is not only of concern that other Christians see what he or she does as respectable, but that those without faith in God see his or her actions as respectable.
The broader context of Paul’s statement illustrates how remarkable it is. Christians in the first century lived in an idolatrous world. The empire rulers, the national government, the city establishment, the business owners and craftsmen, and the military worshipped other gods. To be against drunkenness, or lying, or merchandizing people, or fornication, or homosexuality, or unstable marriages, or other common forms of self-indulgence was extremely unpopular. For anyone to advocate such was just plain weird if not crazy! Yet, Christians-to properly represent Jesus Christ and God-accepted the responsibility to act honorably among people who often defined honor quite differently.
Does that mean everyone viewed Christian attitudes and acts as good and profitable? No! Even as Paul made the statement, he said, “If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” If peace did not exist, it would not be the Christian’s fault! This same man detailed reactions against him in 2 Corinthians 11:23-33. His efforts to be at peace with others did not always produce peace! Perhaps Paul’s devotion to peaceableness is best illustrated in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12-the pre-Christian arrestor of Christians became a kind, tender, caring, encouraging person.
How is such a transformation possible? Christians refuse to engage in “payback.” That attitude exceeds the remarkable in dedication to transformation!
