Wise Living

Posted by Chris on July 8, 2007 under Sermons

So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. – Ephesians 5:15-21

The letter to the Ephesians inspires us to live out our Christianity in a way that stands out from the world. We are called to live a life worthy of our Christian calling. Three ways of describing it show us just how exceptional this calling is:

1. We are light, not darkness. Sometimes we let our past sins consume us and drag us down. But even though we once were darkness, our calling confirms that we are now light in the Lord. We have a bright future (pun intended) because we are the children of light and that light shines forth to reveal the truth of God. It exposes what is wrong about sin and darkness and how that hurts people and ruins lives; but this isn’t a crusade, it’s just who we are and our speech and behavior reflect God’s light.
2. We live in self-sacrificing love, not self-indulgent lust. We are imitators of God. The example of Christ himself is what shapes our definition of love. We are not consumed with greed or selfish desires (sexual or otherwise). Our speech and behavior reflect Christ’s love.
3. We are wise, not foolish. This is the final contrast. God’s people are not foolish. So, what does it mean to be wise?

To live as a wise person means more than having knowledge. Education and intelligence are not necessarily the same thing as wisdom. Wisdom means having skill about how to live. And often that wisdom is transmitted to us by those who have lived a little longer than us but have the wisdom not to be arrogant about it.

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain

Proverbs 4 is a testimony to this. The wise man is asking us, his children, to pay attention to his wisdom – wisdom that he himself learned from his father. But he wants us to learn wisdom so that …
My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. I will teach you wisdom’s ways and lead you in straight paths. When you walk, you won’t be held back; when you run, you won’t stumble. – Proverbs 4:10-12

Since wisdom has to do with the way we live, then living wise (according to the text of Eph. 5) means …

1. Making the most of opportunity. We are naturally inclined in our culture to link wisdom with opportunity. We live with sayings such as “When opportunity knocks, open the door.” We understand this and we equate opportunity and wisdom with success. This is why we remember Thomas Edison, but not Heinrich G?bel. G?bel invented the light bulb 25 years before Edison secured the patent. But Edison innovated on the light bulb and made the most of the opportunity for its practical application. We can understand making the most of opportunity, but the difference for Christians is that we are make the most of opportunities to do good, not simply to be successful. The important opportunity is for good because the days are evil. The times are evil because of the darkness, greed, and foolishness in the world. So what better opportunity is there for God’s people than to live in light, love, and wisdom. This is essentially what evangelism is all about. [Note: Evangelism is not mass recruiting or fund-raising] What opportunities are in front of us? Will we be wise in acting on that?

2. Living wise means that we will seek wisdom. We will find it as we strive to understanding the Lord’s will. Discerning the Lord’s will is not a matter of fortune-telling – that’s foolishness, not wisdom.
   One day an engaged couple went to see a man of wisdom. These devout believers were very anxious because they loved each other so much and they were devoted to God, but they wanted to be absolutely certain that it was God’s will that they should be married to one another. Alas, they had sought some sort of sign or insight from the Almighty, but nothing was forthcoming. So they turned to this man’s counsel. His reply was, “Have you considered that God may not have an opinion on whether you two get married or not?” The couple was astounded and wondered if this man really was wise. “How can you say that?” they asked. “Doesn’t God care about marriage? Doesn’t he want a man and woman to stay married forever? Isn’t it important to God?” To that the wise man replied, “Indeed, God cares about marriage and his will for marriage is clear. Now God may not care one way or another if the two of you choose to get married to each other, but if you do then he certainly has a strong feeling about how you ought to live together in that marriage. If you will honor that, then you will be living in God’s will.”
   Like the young couple, it is easy to assume that God’s will represents some hidden script to the future. But that’s not God’s will, that’s fate. God’s will is “what God wants.” And since the days of the Ten Commandments (and even in the Garden of Eden) God has been pretty clear about his will – i.e. what he wants. Understanding that is what it means to live as wise people.

3. Living wise means being filled with the Spirit. Look at the text and notice all the choices: We can make the most of the opportunities, or we can participate in the foolishness and evil of the age. We can understand what the Lord wants, or we can act thoughtlessly. Finally, you can be filled with the Spirit, or you can get filled “with spirits.” God’s people ought to be the ones who understand how to live joyfully and how to celebrate the goodness of creation with thanksgiving. Unfortunately the world has cornered the market on celebration. Celebrating and living it up are equated with excess.
   Being filled with God’s spirit of holiness doesn’t mean that we must be drab and miserable. In fact, the text spells out clearly that we ought be singing and practicing thankfulness. Notice that the aim of the singing is to encourage one another and lift each other up. This is much better and more beneficial to all of us that the world’s foolish counterfeits to joy and celebration.
   So, when we sing let’s truly sing from the heart. There’s more to this than simply be non-instrumental. We can focus on the musicality, the order, the arrangement, the notation of the songs, but to do all of that and miss the spirit of our hymns and songs is just foolish. But we aren’t foolish, we have God’s wisdom. It is a gift for the asking. God’s spirit is a spirit of wisdom, so let’s live in wisdom and take the opportunity as often as we can to encourage one another to do what Christ wants us to do.

Live in Love

Posted by Chris on July 1, 2007 under Sermons

Read Ephesians 5:1-14.

Character contrast – I want to remind you what this text is about. As those who’ve been baptized into Christ we are called to live worthy of our divine calling. We are children of light. We are imitators of God. You were darkness, but now you are light. Along side that contrast is another important contrast: We can live in Christ-like love or we can live in self-indulgent lust. (See 5:1-2.)

Idolatry of Lust – The empty deeds of darkness that we have been called away from include self-serving lust. Lust in all its varieties, but sexual lust in particular, regards other people as objects that exist for our own gratification. Perhaps because this force is so powerful and prominent it has been personified in a hundred different gods and goddesses. Ashtoreth, Eros, Aphrodite, Xochiquetzal, Ishtar, Varuna, Medb, Chuang-Mu, Bacchus, Gerda are just a few examples of how humans have turned sex and sensuality into a force to be worshipped. Those old names may not be around anymore except in encyclopedias, but lust is still a power that is worshipped even in this day and age.

Just like Ephesus and the ancient world our day and age seems to have the same problem with obscene and foolish talk about sexuality. Our culture has an unhealthy fascination with scandal and innuendo. We are told that sex sells – it sells books, movies, TV shows, music, clothing, cheeseburgers and buffalo wings.

Sarah Freeman is an Assistant Manager at a Westco Jeans shop in Melbourne, Austrailia. Two weeks ago, she and all other staff were presented with a new item of uniform, a tight white T-shirt, with a plunging neckline, bearing the slogan, “stop pretending you don’t want me”. The slogan refers to the company’s product, but for Sarah, its double meaning was clear, and she didn’t like it. Sarah raised her concerns with managers. But the memo to staff was clear – there were no exemptions from the rule, and no T-shirt equals no work. Not long after that, she says her concerns were realised when she was harassed by a customer. Eventually, the company issued a release saying that the T-shirt was a quirky statement reflecting the attributes of their product, and that feedback from staff had been overwhelmingly positive. However, [the company] reversed its directive that wearing the shirt is compulsory.
[Article by Ben Knight – http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1076590.htm]

But its just all in good fun, right? Not quite. There’s a price for regarding sex as nothing more than recreational, casual, or just something for buddies. There’s a cost involved with crude joking about sex or using it to sell merchandise. A culture that seems shocked when children are molested but at the same time markets suggestive material to pre-teens is simply hypocritical. We cannot cry out against the sexual degradation and demeaning of children and adults if we take human sexuality lightly or ignore its holy significance.

There’s nothing sinful or wrong about sex as God intended it. There’s nothing sinful about human sexuality. It was after all God’s idea to create us as male and female. But there’s quite a lot wrong with worshipping sexual desire (or any desire for that matter). When we are ruled by our lusts we are no longer living under God’s rule. It is essentially idol-worship and the tragedy is that when we are ruled by our need for gratification we have exchanged the creator and sustainer who made us male and female for a counterfeit god that will consume us. Who do we worship? What power do we serve? The answer will determine the kind of people we are …

What is Fitting? – As children and light and as those who called to imitate God, what is fitting for us? Should we live for gratification of our own desires? Or should we live in love? What is fitting? What is proper? We know the answer.
To “live in love” is more than a legalism that denies human sexuality, rather it is a higher standard in which people make covenants on the basis of love. The standard of those covenant is the self-sacrificing love of Christ. Regarding sex and sexuality, this will of course apply to married couples, but it also has implications for all of us concerning the way we behave and the way we talk about sexual matters and the reverance we show to God’s design.

The text indicates what is fitting:

1. First of all, to “live in love” means to imitate the love of Christ. (5:1-2) That’s a self-sacrificing love. At minimum, it is a love that considers the welfare of others. This applies to marriage in which a man and woman consider each other and their relationship is patterned after Christ’s relationship with the church. But this principle can be applied even more generally than that. Living in love toward one another means that our sexuality is defined by God and not by selfish gratification. So that means that a man is not going to treat any woman [even if he doesn’t know her] as an object of satisfaction. It means that a woman will not use a man for her own means. Instead of being foolish and casual about sexuality it means that we are going to regard all men and women as souls created in God’s image. It means that we will respect this wonderful mystery of sexuality that God conceived.

2. Secondly, to live in love means that we are going to be a people who give thanks (5:4). The language of thanksgiving, not the language of foolishness and obscenity is what we speak. Thanksgiving is not only reserved for God, but it is also directed at others. Being thankful is the antidote to selfish indulgence.

Handwriting on the Wall

Posted by Chris on June 24, 2007 under Sermons

Daniel 5: Five Moves

1. Belshazzar’s Party (1-4)
2. God’s Graffiti (5-9)
3. Calling Daniel (10-17)
4. Read It and Weep (18-28)
5. Aftermath (29-30)

Raiders of the Lost Artifacts

• Background: 2 Kings 25:13-17
• Destruction and Desecration of Jerusalem Temple
• Looting the Temple artifacts

Rembrandt, The Feast of Belshazzar (1632)

The Feast of Belshazzar

• Belshazzar throws a party for his nobles
• They use the goblets dedicated to Temple service
• They “toast” the images of their gods

God’s Graffiti

• Belshazzar is upset by God’s action
• The failure of his counselors magnifies his distress

Calling Daniel

• The queen has good advice
• Belshazzar isn’t aware of Daniel, suggesting he isn’t getting wise counsel
• Belshazzar has not learned Nebuchadnezzar’s lesson (his testimony in chapter 4)

Read It and Weep

• Handwriting on the Wall is a judgment of doom
• Belshazzar did not humble himself or honor God

Aramaic – Hebrew Words
To understand the cryptogram you have to understand a little about how Hebrew words work. Most words come from a three letter root. Hebrew has no true vowels. So different vowel sounds change the meaning of the words. One root word can be read numerous ways.

mlk – root word
mĕlĕk – king (m. noun)
mălkah – queen (f. noun)
m?lăk – reign (verb)
malkuth – royalty (noun)

MENE MENE TEKEL UPARSIN
The text only gives us the letters that make up the message. But these words are not evident until Daniel decodes it. Why can’t the other diviners read the message?

This is where the theory about the cryptogram comes up. What if the letters were arranged in an unusual and atypical way?

There is a legend that the inscription was written in columns. That is the way Rembrandt pictured it in his 1632 painting. He learned this interpretation from his friend Manasseh ben-Israel in Amsterdam.

The color changes above show how the four words (including the   for “and”) could be arranged.

More importantly is the how the words have double meaning depending on whether it is a noun or verb. This chart describes how Daniel understands the riddle.

The Pun Intended
So, Daniel is assuming that the riddle refers to an assortment of coins, but also functions as a prophecy of doom on Belshazzar.

The riddle Mina, Mina, Tekel and Parsin (using our common coinage) might read something like “Half a dollar, half a dollar, a penny, and two bits”

What is means (as Daniel explains very well in the text) is: “Your days are numbered, your rule has been weighed, and your empire will be divided among the Medes and Persians”

It isn’t accidental that the word for half-mina can also be read as Persia.

The aftermath is reported as Belshazzar’s immediate fall and the conquest of Persia. A new ruler is in charge of Babylon. The mighty have fallen.

So What?

• God is not limited to one nation or region
• It could have gone differently for Belshazzar
• God mocks the proud (See Proverbs 3:34 and Matthew 23:12.)

Children of Light

Posted by Chris on under Sermons

Read Ephesians 5:3-14.

Imagine with me the scene of an ancient baptism. The church has gathered at a river and those prepared for baptism are waiting to be immersed. They have been prayerful and maybe they have even fasted for a day or two. Their focus has certainly been on the Lord Jesus – his baptism, his teaching, his death, burial, and resurrection. Believing in Christ, they have renounced sinfulness and selfishness and are now submitting themselves to the Lord.

One of the shepherds of this ancient congregation has just finished reminding these repentant souls of the gospel and the kingdom way of life they are entering into. Then he baptizes them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as they come up from the water, the gathered congregation welcomes the newborn Christians by singing a little hymn that says, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14)

This speculation about the practice of ancient baptism is based on ancient sources (such as the Didache, Chapter 7) that describe what baptism was like in the late first or early second century. It would certainly embody the belief of Ephesians 2:1-10 and Romans 6 and other NT Scriptures that describe how baptism is a defining moment in which one dies to the worldliness of sin and lives a new life in Christ. Thus, it makes sense that Eph 5:14 is a hymn or statement that was pronounced at baptisms.

If you’ve been baptized into Christ, what was it like at your baptism? What was said? What was done? What does that baptism mean? The message of Ephesians teaches us that our baptism is a transition. Once we were darkness, but now we are light. I hadn’t really noticed this before, but the transition is described as a change of nature (v. 8). Once we were darkness, not in darkness, but we were darkness. And now, being in Christ, we are light. Sometimes we tell children who are afraid of the dark that there’s nothing to be afraid of because everything in the dark is the same as it is in the light. That will work as long as we are talking about being in the darkness or in the light. But there’s one thing in the room that isn’t the same when the lights come on. The darkness is no longer there. Darkness is not the same in the light. Light is not the same in the darkness, in fact light changes darkness. Our transition is just as striking, now that we are in Christ we are no longer darkness. We are light. We are the children of light.

Our baptism then is a change of nature and a change of rule in our lives. And the implications of this are so important that it won’t wait until the day we get to heaven. It makes a difference right now.

Children of light live a certain way. Our lives make a difference. There’s a mix of metaphors in v. 9 – light bears fruit. Goodness, righteousness, and truth are the outgrowth of living as children of light. This is a grand vision for our lives. It means we can live in such a way that we are not just doing good or being good. We can live in such a way that our lives generate good. Likewise with righteousness and truth. Have you ever known someone who inspires you to goodness, righteousness, and truthfulness? Have you ever seen the legacy of goodness, righteousness, and truth that someone has left behind in their journey through life? That’s what it is like when Christ is in us and his light shines on us making us children of light. That really can be you.

The transition of our baptism also means that we have waken up in a new land. When we were darkness, a different power had dominion over us. It may have been our own greed and selfishness, it may have been fear, it may have been an addiction, it may have been anger or lust. But being in Christ means that we are under the dominion of Christ. When one is under dominion it means that one has a lord. That lord could very well be ours own self. That’s always sounds good. It’s very independent and ruggedly individualistic. Most of us, if we are honest, are lousy lords. We wouldn’t treat anyone as harshly and crudely as we treat ourselves. Perhaps we criticize ourselves endlessly, perhaps we do whatever we please with our own bodies and attempt to satisfy our never-ending lusts for sensual pleasure in ways that hurt us and in ways that never satisfy, perhaps we say anything we want and vent our anger and discontent but instead of earning us respect it drives people away. And when we do all of this and more we make a point of reminding ourselves and others that we free people and in charge of our own lives.

One always tries to please one’s Lord. When we are in Christ, we find out what pleases our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is as if the light comes on. We see clearly how the deeds of darkness never satisfy. They are fruitless.

I won’t pretend it is simple to talk about having a Lord and being in his dominion. We are a people who very rightly have a negative association with oppression and slavery. We should. Our history is stained with the legacies of dark dominions. But when we are in the Lord’s Dominion, we are light. Our lives are sources of goodness, righteousness, and truth. We find out what please the Lord, and though it may not always be easy we may just find that it is satisfying.

Difficulty Requires the Prayer of Persistent Patience

Posted by David on June 20, 2007 under Sermons

I want to focus our thinking today by using a familiar scripture in Luke 18:1-8. I encourage you to read with me.

Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ?Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ?Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge *said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

A fairly common conversation these days focuses on how much things have changed. Depending on our age or our background or both, many of the changes really irritate us. There is not longer a sense of community and neighborliness as there use to be. Prices continue to go up. It is not uncommon to go to public places and hear several languages that sound strange. The world is getting smaller and smaller all the time–someone important can "hiccup" in a nation thousands of miles from us and cause an earthquake in our nation. Living in national isolation is no longer possible–the world has just become too dependent on what is occurring in all nations.

As much as we might dislike change in our world, we typically dislike change in the church even more. We have a family member who dropped out of the church for years, and then came back. She asked, "What happened while I was gone? When I left we sang about the old rugged cross, and when I came back we were singing about thirsty deer."

Whether in life or in the church, some find change filled with the invigoration of challenge, and some find change going from bad to worse.

1. The parable we just read involves two characters: the weakest of the weak, and a powerful difference maker.
   
   1. The powerful difference maker was a local Jewish judge.
      
      1. His rulings mattered.
         
      2. As the saying goes, "He could make you or break you."
         
      3. He was an unprincipled man.
         
         1. His primary concern was his own best interest.
            
         2. Though he was a judge in a religious society, his concern for God was at best superficial–the only time he was concerned about God’s interest was when God’s values served his purposes.
            
         3. He was not a compassion man–he did not care about the plight of a person unless his concern served his selfish purposes.
   2. The powerless person was the widow.
      
      1. A first century Jewish widow lived in a man’s world.
         
         1. Ideally, she would have her father, her brother, or some interested male speak for her to a judge.
            
         2. The worst person to plead her case was herself–a woman was typically ignored in that situation.
      2. If ever there was apparently a hopeless situation, that was it.
         
         1. The woman had a real need for protection from someone who was making her life miserable.
            
         2. The judge simply did not care about her need, and she had no power to improve the situation.
            
         3. From every human perspective, the situation looked hopeless.
      3. However, the widow persisted, and the judge decided she would make him miserable because she did not have enough sense to know when to give up.
         
         1. So the judge acted out of self-interest just to get rid of the woman.
            
         2. The result: the powerless woman received her protection.
2. Let’s immediately make one thing quite clear: the message of the parable is NOT "hang in there until you wear God down and get what you want."
   
   1. The parable used a Jewish literary device that used a comparison: "If an disinterested, ungodly, uncompassionate judge would act in the behalf of the powerless, how much more would an interested, compassionate God act in our behalf?"
      
   2. The point is NOT we can wear God down.
      
   3. The point is NOT we can get what we want materially.
      
   4. The point IS a caring God is constantly concerned about our best interest.
      
   5. We can always count on God to act in our best interest.
3. The situation seems to be set by verse one: we ought to pray and not lose heart (give up).
   1. As we stated at the beginning, sometimes we moan about how bad things are getting.
      
      1. That is not a new phenomena –verse one indicates that is the way some felt in the first century.
         
      2. For some, things seemed to be going from bad to worse–they just wanted Jesus to come back and end an awful situation.
         
         1. The government, the idolatrous institutions, and society in general misunderstood Christians and made their lives miserable.
            
         2. The Jewish opposition increased their misery and questioned their faith.
            
         3. Some died, some lost jobs, and some lived as outcasts just because they believed Jesus was the Christ and was raised from the dead.
            
         4. The more time passed, the better organized the opposition against them was.
            
         5. In short, for many Christians the situation was miserable and getting more miserable.
            
         6. It was easy to conclude that God did not care about them and just give up.
      3. The solution: trust in God, pray, and do not give up. (We prefer an immediate fix approach.)
         
         1. God cared, and existing problems did not prove He did not.
            
         2. God had options they did not even consider, and they included working through those who did not care!
   2. We likely have more in common with the Christians in the first century than we care to admit.
      
      1. Many of us do not like the way things are heading–we would change many things if we could!
         
      2. Our lifestyle and favoritism is threatened in ways we would not have believed 25 years ago.
         
      3. To us, the unthinkable happens too frequently.
         
      4. We are beginning to wonder where the silver lining is to our clouds.
4. May I point out some things to you.
   
   1. The issue is not, "Does God care?"
      
   2. The issue is not, "Is God out of options?"
      
   3. The issue is not, "Is the situation too bad for God to do anything about it?"
      
   4. The issue is this, "Do we have confidence in God?"
      
      1. Do we really believe God has our best interest at heart?
         
      2. What if our best interest is not found in our desires? What if having what we want would spiritually destroy us?
         
      3. When things do not go as we want or wish, is that evidence that God does not care?
         
      4. Is the only way things can improve to leave them to our plans and imagination?
   5. Sometimes we are so focused on ourselves, our lifestyle, our desires, and what we want to happen that we do not see the "big picture."
      
      1. God has been fighting the evil that humans invited into His creation since Genesis three.
         
         1. He has been at war with Satan in the physical world since humanity yielded to temptation.
            
         2. He delays the end until people have the maximum opportunity to escape evil (2 Peter 3:9).
      2. We matter as individuals, but the eternal conquest of Satan also matters.
         
         1. There is much more involved than our immediate desires.
            
         2. There must be the awareness, as in any war, that our struggles can be a part of helping achieve God’s objectives.
            
         3. Struggles are not proof that God abandons us, but prove the reality of the conflict.
5. An essential part of trusting God is our conviction that God always acts in our best interest.
   1. Most of us are either in the process of rearing children or have reared children.
      
      1. There are numerous times when a parent must act in the child’s best interest in spite of the child’s ignorant protest.
         
         1. Children want what they want, and they want it now–immediate gratification.
            
         2. Being a parent involves saying no, or giving a child a medical treatment, or refusing a child something he or she really wants.
            
         3. Most of the time the child has no idea the parent is acting in his or her best interest–the child thinks the parent just does not care.
      2. It is often the same in our relationship with God.
         
         1. We want what we want right now, and we do not understand why we cannot have things just as we want them.
            
         2. When God refuses to do things as we want them done in our time frame, we hastily conclude God does not care.
            
         3. Too often, we have little or no confidence that God is functioning in our best interest.
            
         4. Too often, we blame God for acts of Satan.
6. To me, one of the most fascinating statements made in our text is the question, “When Christ returns, will he find faith on the earth?”
   
   1. The question is asked by Jesus before he dies and is resurrected, and is not focused on the church.
      
      1. The church has not been established, and the question is much deeper than a willingness to be part of the called out.
         
      2. May I paraphrase my understanding of Jesus’ question?
         
         1. When things get rough in your life, do you place your confidence in God?
            
         2. Does your confidence in God depend on things going the way you want them to go?
            
         3. Do you limit God to:
            
            1. Your imagination of what can happen?
               
            2. To your time frame (do you realize how many thousand years were required for God to send the Christ in a moment that could achieve His objectives in human salvation?)
   2. Too often we substitute our concerns for trusting God, and trust the wrong things.
      
      1. We trust the church instead of trusting God.
         
      2. We trust our acts of obedience in our confidence "that God owes us."
         
      3. We trust human imagination and solutions rather than divine actions which we do not understand.
         
      4. We think solutions are found in human discoveries.
   3. The truth is that we are just uncomfortable in this society in trusting anything that is not basically human in origin.
      
      1. We are so impressed with what humans can do that we are very skeptical of any good thing happening that is not human.
         
      2. We much prefer "faith in us" to "faith in God."
         
      3. Thus the issue: Will there be any place for faith in God when Jesus returns?

You are not a Christian because you believe in faith in us, or the existence of good, or the church is right, or the Bible is superior to all other writings. You are a Christian because you believe in God. Your faith is vested in Him, not in us.

You and I are quite likely as Christians to take Jesus Christ for granted as one who makes perfect sense in the pursuit of salvation. Jesus Christ did not make sense to the Jewish society in the first century. He did not make sense to the first century world. He would not make sense in our world of today. We would not have provided the world salvation though Jesus Christ if that had been "our call."

Place your confidence in God’s acts in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Do not place your confidence in human achievements. Live your life in trust of God–even when your life is difficult. Pray for strength and be persistent, but never quit!

The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar

Posted by Chris on June 17, 2007 under Sermons

Daniel 4: Four Moves

1. Praise and Prologue (1-9)
2. Dream: “I See a Tree” (10-18)
3. Daniel’s Interpretation (19-27)
4. Grazing in the Grass (28-37)

A Dream of a Tree

1. The tree is a symbol of life and protection
2. The tree reaches the sky and is highly visible
3. A heavenly messenger orders the tree to be cut down and the stump bound
   1. Note that Nebuchadnezzar trusts Daniel’s interpretation. He even gives him reassurance to speak the truth of the dream
   2. The tree is a symbol of life and protection. It provides fruit and other food. It provides shelter and shade. The birds nest in it. The beast of the field shelter beneath it.
   3. The tree is tall and highly visible. It touches the sky. This is an image of the majestic and mighty.
   4. A heavenly messenger descends from much higher than the tree and orders the tree trimmed and cut down. The stump is bound and kept from re-growing until the cycle of sevens had passed.
   5. The presence of the heavenly messenger is important. Something is being said in a contrast about earthly power and heavenly power (compare to the statue dream).

Who’s In Charge?

1. God elevated Nebuchadnezzar
2. God humbles Nebuchadnezzar
3. God will restore Nebuchadnezzar

Ruins of Hanging Gardens

One Year Later

• David warns Nebuchadnezzar to change his ways (v. 27)
• Nebuchadnezzar is proud of his self-serving kingdom
  ? My residence
  ? My majesty
• He gets a message from heaven

Daniel proves himself the wise man by offering advice: “King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice. Stop sinning and do what is right. Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Perhaps then you will continue to prosper.”
A year later, Nebuchadnezzar takes in his grand kingdom. He regards the city of Babylon as his personal residence and it is all for his glory.
That’s when he gets the message from heaven – “This message is for you!” You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.’

The King’s Madness

• Seven seasons = a definite period
• He is reduced to animal existence (diet and appearance)
• He is driven away from human society
• Reversal of status

There is often too much attention to the seven times or seven seasons. Seven is the Hebrew number of completion. What is being said is that Nebuchadnezzar’s sentence of madness is definite. It will end at a time God has already chosen.

The effect of his madness is that he starts to behave like an animal. His hair and nails are unkempt. Worst of all, the shining star of human civilization is driven away to the fields of the earth. Whereas he was once high and mighty, now he is drenched in the dew of heaven.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Testimony

“When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.
“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All His acts are just and true, and He is able to humble the proud.”

So What?

1. What does God expect of those he has placed in power?
2. What kingdom or nation will endure forever?

2007 VBS Blessing

Posted by Chris on under Sermons

[Blessing for the VBS Workers — have them stand and be recognized]

If you were to ask these hard working servants why they do this they may give you any number of reasons. I imagine that one common theme to all their reasons is that someone made a difference and set an example for them when they were very young.

I am teaching the Junior High Class with Gary Brown this summer. We have dwelled on the theme of people who make a difference. In preparing for the class, Gary and I both reflected on the people who shaped our lives when we were young. We recall them by name and we remember that their attitude of service and their respect for us made a difference. It’s not that we were necessarily deserving of the service. Not at all, but that’s what made the attention and instruction that these Christ-like servants gave us so noteworthy – they served us even though they didn’t have to.

Has it really been six months since we were listening to God’s word and praying about new shepherds for our church family? During that time we dwelled in a Scripture that has been very important for our congregation when it comes to understanding what a shepherd is. It has also helped understand what a disciple of Jesus does … Read John 13

Jesus asks, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” This week I have witnessed people who understand it …

There have been so many good people taking their own time to help out with VBS and even help others. Ed Grist showed up just in time to help me set up the cardboard synagogue. I lamented that I didn’t have time to put up the curtains, but Carlene Payne was so eager to help out with that. That was kind. That was being a servant. I see that they understand what Jesus was doing when he washed the feet of those disciples.

Bard and the youth group have been working on setting up booths, getting supplies, practicing skits. They set up these tents in the auditorium. It’s a great synergy – they have the experience and skill of the senior high and a large labor force in the junior high. Brad told me last week that they worked so hard and so well that they were ahead of schedule all week. I see that these young people understand what Jesus was doing when he washed the feet of those disciples.

This year has been especially significant for our family. For my oldest son, Wyatt, it’s his first year to NOT be one of the kids in VBS and I was wondering how he would handle that because I know he really enjoys VBS. I was delighted last Monday night when I heard him say, “I like working at VBS more than I like just going to it!” I see that my own son understands what Jesus was doing when he washed the feet of those disciples.

I know he’s not the only 7th grader facing that transition from being served to being the servant. It can be difficult, but I see our 7th graders really getting with it. Olivia Kleman approached me when I was setting up the synagogue on Thursday. She wanted to come to the synagogue during VBS and get me to write her name in Greek. “But you’re not in VBS this year,” I said. I could see that the thought kind of stunned both of us. “What are you going to be doing at VBS now that you are a worker?” I asked. She said she was a family leader. “Then you bring your tribe into the synagogue as a leader and I can write your name along with the others.” She seemed to like that idea even better. That’s when I can see that she understands what Jesus was doing when he washed the feet of those disciples.

I don’t know anyone who works as hard as Dena Jenkins putting VBS together. Well, wait a second maybe I do — because everywhere Dena goes she has a wonderful assistant named Abbey. This last week I was asking Dena questions but on many of the questions it was her daughter, Abbey, who knew the answer! I was looking for duct tape. Abbey found the duct tape for me. Not only is she a servant, but she is competent and knows the essentials of VBS. [Duct tape is vital to VBS. One cannot have VBS without duct tape.] Abbey of course follows the example and tradition of her family when it comes to being a servant. She is doing what her mother and aunt did when they shadowed her grandmother who had worked at VBS for 40 years. But I also see that Abbey understands what Jesus did when he washed the feet of those disciples.

I am pleased that our church family is learning to understand what the Master did when he served. It’s not limited to VBS. There is a spirit of Christ-like service that is always growing in this family.

Certainly there are times that we will be served and that we need to be served. That’s as it should be. Jesus has served each of us, there’s not a one of us in the kingdom who’s a “do-it-yourself-er.” But being a servant and finding a way to serve can be intimidating. The good news for all of us is that this way of discipleship isn’t limited at all. Jesus can teach any of us how to follow him and be a servant. So maybe we want to serve, but we’re not sure how; or maybe we’ve convinced ourselves that service just isn’t our thing. Either way, the living Jesus teaches us when he washes the feet of those disciples. Just try and understand it and do what he did.

The Fourth Man

Posted by Chris on June 10, 2007 under Sermons

Daniel 3: Four Moves

1. Babylonian Idol (1-7)
2. Who’ll Save You Now? (8-18)
3. Fourth Man (19-27)
4. Don’t “Dis” Their God! (28-30)

Idol Time
The idol that Nebuchanezzar sets up on the plain of Dura would have been a typical practice of kings in the ancient world. Kings built statues of their gods to represent their rule. Examples:

• Ashurnasirpal (9th cent)
• Temple of Bel in Babylon (6th cent) – Herodotus speaks of a statue to the “Babylonian Zeus” (Marduk?) in Babylon (I, 183)
• Antiochus IV (2nd cent) – “[Antiochus IV] directed them … to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals… Whoever refused to act according to the command of the king was put to death.” – 1 Maccabees 1:44-50

When Antiochus invaded Jerusalem, he looted the Temple. Later a Greek idol was placed in the Temple. Any Jew who refused to bow and sacrifice to the idol was killed. In 168 BC, the temple was dedicated to the worship of the pagan god Zeus Olympius by order of Antiochus, who forbade the practice of Judaism. An altar to Zeus was set up on the high altar. Those who resisted Antiochus’ orders were killed.

Who Will Save You?
Dedication to God despite threat of harm. This theme continues through the New Testament …

From Thief to Philanthropist

Posted by Chris on under Sermons

Overview the text of Ephesians 4:25-5:2 – Show how the negative habits/manners break down community, but the positive ones build it up.

1. Lying erodes trust, it demeans others and judges others unworthy of the truth. Honesty, by contrast respects one another and believes in one another

2. Anger that is unprocessed becomes bitterness, rage and malice. Relationships are shattered and wounded. But when we make amends and forgive, when we reconcile we grow stronger.

3. Harsh and hateful words poisons the hearts and minds of others, but when we use our words to encourage and heal we build one another up.

This section of Scripture is a description of what our life together could be like when we live out our Christian calling. It is a vision for what the church, the people of God, can really be.
          This is a high vision for human life. It is inspiring and encouraging. It is a high standard. The final example shows just how much God envisions for his people: The thief can become a philanthropist.

Stealing is parasitical. It consumes and takes what others have, perhaps for selfish gain or perhaps out of desperation. What sort of community and life together can be formed when we steal from one another?

In his book, Mere Morality: What God Expects from Ordinary People, Lewis Smedes describes what stealing and theft have done to our society: “When people sense that their private lives are vulnerable, they fear every stranger in their midst. And so they shut out strangers. They build walls, bolt doors, and install electronic vigilantes. … Thus, community shrinks to confined quarters where only proven friends are allowed. … Stealing closes us in on ourselves and paralyzes us; love is frozen when people live in fear of thieves.” [p. 190]

We may be even more paranoid and closed in than Smedes described 25 years ago. Stealing is more sophisticated and less tangible than ever before. Once we could trust in physical things like keys, locks, steel vaults, and even “the club.” But now we rely on passwords and PIN codes. The simplest of activities such as shopping, watching movie, playing music are subject to encryption and encoding. Why? Because of stealing. Because of the thief. What’s next in a world where your identity can be stolen?

With the help of God’s word, let’s imagine another way. What if our hope is in sharing rather than security? What if God’s spirit could effect a change in all of us so that we could live with each other in a very different way?
          The “rather” in verse 28, is all important. Instead of life as a thief, instead of taking and consuming without any sort of return, instead of that one might use his or her resources and talents to share. And it isn’t enough to just make a living or even get wealthy, one should earn a profit so that one can help others.
          “Love requires us – and enables us – to move out toward our neighbors in ways that bring them at least what they have coming to them by virtue of their presence among us as human beings.” [p. 207]

Here’s a high vision for what it means to be a follower of Christ. As God’s people we are going to be faced with a lot of challenges and struggles. Being a Christian isn’t a guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen, but our vision of who we are as individuals and as a church family will make all the difference in how we face difficulties and challenges. Our manners and ethics are more than being polite; they are the habits of a people who are devoted to imitating the spirit and mind of God.

If God’s inspired writer believed that a thief could become a philanthropist then I believe you and I can become more than anything we can imagine.
I choose to believe that we can be a noble people who live up to the standard God envisions. I choose to believe that we can live not only for ourselves, but for the good of one another. I choose to believe this, because I believe in Christ. What do you believe?

Statue and Stone

Posted by Chris on June 3, 2007 under Sermons

The narrative of Daniel 2 may be understood as Five Moves:

1. The King’s Dream (1-12)
2. Daniel’s Intervention (13-23)
3. Mystery of the Dream Revealed (24-30)
4. Statue and Stone (31-45)
5. The King Honors Daniel’s God (46-49)

The King’s Court
      The king’s bad dreams are more than psychological torment. In Babylon they do easily divide the world into secular and spiritual as we too often want to do.

Ancient Astrology was commonplace in the Babylonian court. Magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and Chaldeans would have been the king’s advisors and counsel. They paid close attention to the spiritual world. The stone pictured is an image of a Babylonian astrologer taking note of heavenly objects such as the moon and sun.This isn’t just “hocus-pocus” or trickery. The astrologers are the scientists and advisors of the day and their craft utilizes mathematics and astronomy.

Ancient Wisdom: Daniel is being distinguished as a unique man of wisdom. He is the wisest of the wise men. The source of Daniel’s wisdom is God. Notice what he says in v. 2:27.
Like Joseph in Egypt, Daniel attains to a high position in the royal court through his God-given gift for reading the signs and showing wisdom.

I will show three very popular scenarios and then explain why deciding on one doesn’t actually matter too much …

In the first scenario, the head of gold equals Babylon (this is really never under dispute).The silver torso is the empire of the Medeans. The bronze waist is the empire of the Persians and the legs of iron is the Macedonian empire of Alexander the Great, including the feet mixed with clay which represent the divided Greek empire. (See next graphic.)

The major problem with this scenario is that there is no historical evidence that the Medeans were ever a separate empire from the Persians, at least not on this timeline.

The second scenario that is widely connected to the statue is as follows: Babylon is the head of gold, the Persians are the silver torso, the Greeks are the bronze waist, and the Roman Empire would be the iron legs. The iron-clay mix of the feet represent the division of the Holy Roman Empire into West and East. The ten toes are even regarded as ten nations that will form an empire in the latter times.

The major problem with this scheme is that the age of the Roman Empire is outside the historical scope of Daniel. Daniel is a Tale of Two Ages – the 6th century and 2nd century B.C. Furthermore, equating the legs, feet, and toes with Rome and the ecclesiastical divisions that follow is an attempt to make Daniel fit with Revelation. This reads Revelation back into Daniel. Daniel does not make any distinction about the toes.

The third scenario does the best job of interpreting the iron legs and the mixed iron-clay feet. The head is Babylon, the torso is Persian, the bronze waist is Alexander the Great’s Macedonian Empire. (This fits well with 2:39 which describes this empire as a large world empire). The iron legs and feet then are the warring empires of the Ptolemies and Seleucids. History notes that these empire did try to establish peace through intermarriage.

Whichever scenario one deems best, the final message is the same: God’s eternal kingdom will break down and outlast any and every human kingdom. This is the meaning of the rock that crushes the statue.

So What?

1. The Sovereignty of God – The sovereignty of God is not dependent on any political power. God establishes the rule of all nations as he chooses. Those who do rule, rule by his grace – they are subject to his judgment.
2. God’s people bless the nations – Daniel demonstrates the promise of Abraham. God’s people are to be a blessing to all nations. Because Daniel uses his gift for the king of Babylon, others are spared.
3. God cares about and redeems Nebuchadnezzar. – He has conquered God’s people, but God cares about him and wants him to rule as he is supposed to do.