Sermons - Page 10 of 24 - The River Alliance Church

May 2, 2017May 1, 2018

Ask, Seek, Knock

What would you wish for if you had three wishes that would be granted, a billion dollars, fame, health or long life? Or maybe something simpler like a new car or all your debts paid off? Or maybe you would wish for something broader like world peace or an end to world hunger?

Those things might be fun to think about, but I also think the idea of a genie in the bottle is sometimes the expectation we have with God. We ask for things as if he is a genie and we are the masters telling him what we want. On the flip side, sometimes we approach God more with skepticism, as if we are not expecting him to answer us, or like he is just whimsical, randomly granting some requests and rejecting others. And so we pray with no idea whether or not we will be given what we ask for. Prayer can be confusing and it can be a struggle figuring out what to expect from God as we seek him in prayer. Well, today we are going to dig into that a little bit.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, beginning with verses 7 and 8: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

Jesus is not literally talking about seeking, knocking, and asking each other for stuff. He is talking about prayer. He is talking about asking and seeking God. So this is pretty awesome, Jesus is saying that we will receive what we ask for. But, have you ever asked God for something and not received it? I have. I have asked God to heal my injuries and take away my anxiety and other stuff I struggle with and those have continued to be issues in my life. Now I also have received many things from God and even with the things I mentioned I have seen God work in my life in awesome ways in the midst of those things, so that while he may not have taken those issues from me, he has used them in my life or given me grace or strength in dealing with them.

But the fact remains that this verse says ask and it will be given and yet there are things we have asked for and not received. Jesus is not saying that prayer is like a blank check where we can just figure out what we want, write in the amount and expect God to sign it. God is not like a genie in the lamp, who must grant us our wishes. So does that just mean that we throw our prayers up to God like we are standing at a wishing well, hoping that God might whimsically choose to grant us a wish? No, that’s not right either.

I think the next half of the passage sheds some light on this for us. Take a look at verses 9-11: “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

These verses add context for our asking seeking and knocking. Yes God responds to our requests, but he does so from the position of a good father giving to his children, not from the position of a genie in a lamp. He doesn’t just give us what we ask for as if we are the masters and he is beholden to give us what we request. But he is also not just some whimsical wish fulfiller, who just randomly chooses which of our prayers to answer and which ones to ignore. I believe this illustration of a good father really informs our perspective for prayer. Consider what Jesus is saying. First of all, bread and fish would have been basic key foods in Jesus’ culture. Here Jesus gives us the illustration of a father pulling some awful practical joke on his child where the child asks for bread, and the father gives him something like maybe a bread shaped stone that the kid will break his tooth on it if he bites it. Or even worse, instead of a fish to bite, he winds up getting bitten by a snake. Even though man is sinful and imperfect, even we know how to care for our children better than that. We know that would not be a good father. Even if we did not experience a good father we recognize what a good father is and is not. And if that is true of us, then how much more is it true of God.

Prayer is like the asking of a child to a loving father. If an earthly father always gave a child everything they asked for, would we consider that father a good father? No, because kids ask for all kinds of things that are not in their best interests. Or maybe just the timing is not right. Or maybe the father has a better plan for the child and that request will just get in the way. As a parent I see this in my parenting. My kids make requests that I choose not to fulfill because it is not going to be best for them. They don’t see the full picture that I see and so all they know is that I chose not to give them what they asked for, but if they could see things from my perspective they might understand better.

We would characterize a good father as that father who hears his children’s requests and understands them, but also sees more clearly the bigger picture and chooses wisely what to give and not give that child. Ultimately the child can ask for whatever they want, but a good and loving father is not just going to give them what they ask for, but rather what is best for them. How much more is that true of God, who is able to see even more clearly what is in the best interests of his children. He sees clearly the things we would never understand as well as all the ramifications of what each choice means. And so rather than give us what we ask for, he gives us what is in line with his better plan. Our Father truly is a good father.

This passage gives us a good perspective for prayer and seeking God. We are not talking to a genie in a lamp, or someone who just randomly fulfills or ignores requests. We are coming to our good Father. This puts a totally different look on prayer. Like we are children coming to our loving father grabbing hold of his hand, climbing into his lap, and expressing our desires, our needs, but with a trust in him and an understanding that he will do what is best for us.

Now, I believe this includes growth on our part. Much like growing up as kids in our relationship with our parents. Early on as children we have a tendency to ask selfishly for things from our parents. Like asking for a candy bar in a grocery store or to stop at Dairy queen on the way home from church. When we don’t get our way, maybe we throw a fit or pout. As we grow in maturity, those requests begin to change, and our relationship with our parents is different. We sometimes still might throw a fit or pout when we don’t get our way, but we at least begin to understand that there are reasons why our parents don’t just give in to our every request.

Hopefully as we experience our Father and his care for us, we develop a relationship of faith and prayer that becomes more about us walking with him and knowing him and seeking him and drawing closer to him and his ways for our lives rather than just getting stuff and pouting when we don’t get our way. Prayer is about coming to our loving Father.

Us coming to God in prayer, not to ask for stuff that we want, but asking for the stuff that he wants for us. Seeking more of him, more of his will, more of his kingdom, in us. In this sermon Jesus has been proclaiming the kingdom of God, which ultimately is a better life than we could ever imagine and so rather than seeking what we want or think we need, we should be seeking him and his kingdom. You know, the verbs, for ask, seek and knock are actually in the present tense. So it would be like keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. It is the idea of persistent prayer developing an intimacy with God, being connected with him and letting him have his way in us.

We are to live a life of seeking God. And in Jeremiah 29:13 we are promised, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Sometimes it is hard to know how to approach God in prayer. But we don’t need to approach him like a genie in a lamp who must grant our wishes, or like a whimsical wish giver who just randomly grants requests and we never know whether or not our prayer will be granted. We can approach him as our Good Heavenly Father. There is a certainty in Jesus’ words in this passage, that as we ask, seek, and knock, we can be assured that God will answer, and open doors, and help us find him and know him and his kingdom. He may not always give us what we want, but we can trust him to give us what is best.

April 25, 2017May 1, 2018

Where is Our Treasure?

Have you ever heard of Forrest Fenn? He apparently is or was a multi-millionaire art dealer, author, and Vietnam War veteran who in 2010 decided to encourage people to get up off their couches, leave their video games and televisions behind and get into the great outdoors. He did that by taking a bronze treasure chest, filled with gold and jewels, up into the Rocky Mountains somewhere and leaving it for some adventurous treasure seeker to find. The treasure is estimated to be worth around $2 million. He wrote a book that includes a poem with 9 clues to help you start your hunt and has followed that up with a few more clues over the years, as the treasure has remained hidden. As far as I could find, the treasure has not yet been found, so it could still be out there, waiting for you. Does anyone want to go treasure seeking? I will say I am interested in some ways, not so much because of the money, but because of the adventure of it. It sounds like fun, but in the passage we are going to look at today, we are going to talk about treasure seeking, but from a heavenly perspective.

Today we continue in our sermon series on the sermon on the mount, with a look at treasure seeking from Matthew 6, beginning with verses 19-20: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Now, in Jesus’ time some of the things that were valuable may not seem as valuable to us today. But while the items that were considered valuable might have changed, we can still understand the concept of earthly treasure.

Jesus gives a very practical reason for not laying up earthly treasures for ourselves. They rust, get moth eaten or stolen. These would have been very real threats to the material possessions of the people in Jesus’ time. Those are just natural things that can happen to our things. There are other natural things like bread becoming moldy, or a house getting broken down by a storm, or a fire destroying crops. Not only are there natural threats to our material possessions there are other threats as well. Jesus mentions thieves who would break in and steal, and today we might also think of other factors like market crashes, bank failures, or other outside influences. There are tons of things that can go wrong with our stuff. Even if we live our whole lives and don’t lose our wealth or possessions, we can’t take them with us when we die. They are temporal.

Jesus then contrasts earthly treasures with heavenly treasure in verse 20. As Christians we have been declared righteous, have been redeemed from slavery to sin and death, have our names written in the lamb’s book of life, have been given the Holy Spirit, have had our sins forgiven, have been shown grace and mercy, and can look forward to the day when we will spend eternity with God in Heaven, just to name a few. Moths and rust cannot touch these blessings. While earthly treasure is temporal, Heavenly Treasure is eternal. So purely from a dividends perspective, heavenly treasures are better to invest in, because they last forever, while earthly treasure does not.

But not only does it not last, it isn’t as valuable. Even if we could take it with us, imagine waking up in heaven and having a suitcase full of gold bars and diamonds. What good is that, in Heaven, they use gold just to pave the streets. It would be like carrying around a suitcase full of asphalt. And who would not trade all the money they have to have a life filled with no more crying, no more pain, no more grief, no more sin, no more death. It’s no contest. Even just looking at this from an investment perspective, kingdom treasure is way better than earthly treasure.

I think there is a very important concept here that we need to grasp. Earthly treasures are temporal, because life here on earth is temporal. This is a foundational point that underlies the overall perspective of this passage. If we don’t look at life here on earth as if it is temporal and fleeting and that our eternal home is in Heaven, then this principle of laying up for ourselves heavenly treasures rather than earthly ones doesn’t make sense to us. Compared to what is in store for us, life on this earth is but a drop in the bucket and we can’t miss that bigger picture.

So then is Jesus saying that a wealthy Christian is doing something wrong? Are Christians not supposed to be wealthy? No. I don’t think there is like some kind of magic number where all of a sudden we are too wealthy to be Christians. Is he saying that it is wrong to save money and store up for the future? No, I don’t think that is what he is talking about here either. I believe he wants us to be good stewards of what he has given us. But, I believe he is moving past wealthy or poor and saving versus not saving. Just like in much of this Sermon on the Mount, I believe Jesus is digging at our hearts. Look at verse 21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So Jesus is not really addressing whether or not you can be wealthy and still be a Christian, he is talking about our heart focus. Let me ask you, what is a treasure? Something valuable? What makes it valuable? It may have an actual value like gold or jewels, or it could be valuable simply because it is meaningful to us. Like we might treasure old photographs or some thing that meant a lot to us when we were a child even though it may not have much monetary value. So the idea of treasure has to do with the value we place on it. Our heart is invested in what we treasure. To some extent, treasure to us is whatever we treasure. Which makes sense according to this verse. Whatever we think of as precious to us, becomes our focus.

In the Lord of the Rings movies and books there is this ring that is kind of the focus of the movie and there is one character named Gollum or Smiegel, who refers to the ring with a particular phrase. He calls the ring: “my precious.” The ring for him is more important than anything else in the world. It is precious to him. It is what his heart treasures most.

So I want to ask you a rhetorical question for you to ponder during the rest of this sermon. The question is: what does your heart treasure most? Just keep that in mind and let it percolate in the back of your head as we look at the rest of the chapter.

Jesus then goes on to talk about our eyes. Take a look at verses 22-23 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

The eye is the lamp. It illuminates the darkness. It lights the way for us to see in a dark place. It is through the eyes that we see the path before us, the obstacles in the way, the signs that point the way, things like that. Have you ever been walking down a path and your attention is not on where you are walking and you trip and fall? If our eyes are not focused on where they should be, then we are going to be more likely to trip up, or maybe go the wrong way.

Let’s consider this then spiritually. The word translated here as healthy also can be translated as single our sound. Like meaning a singleness of purpose. With regard to the eye it suggests clear vision. With clear vision and singleness of purpose, we can move in the right direction, but if we do not have that singleness of purpose, if we have a divided heart or unclear vision, maybe even double vision, we are going to be stumbling around, making bad decisions. If we become too focused on earthly treasure rather than heavenly treasure, our vision gets blurred and we start running after the wrong things.

Look at what Jesus says in verse 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

The word “master” suggestions something like a slave owner. The word in this verse for serve comes from the word that means slave or bondservant. And a slave does what the master wants him to do. So if you are a slave to two different masters it makes sense that sometimes their interests are going to conflict and you will be put in an untenable position.

It is not possible for us to serve God and money. Think about it. The Bible says that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” so God’s purposes are going to clash with a love of money. And when that happens, our loyalty is divided. We can’t serve both masters. We have to choose. So once again the question is, what do our hearts treasure most?

That is kind of a tough question to answer, so what are some good ways to figure out what we treasure most? Maybe looking at where we invest our time? Maybe considering what we tend to think about? How about considering our priorities in the midst of decision making? Those would be some very telling questions for us as we consider what our heart treasures most.

Now let me warn you, I am going to say something maybe a little bit hard to hear or controversial right now, but I think it is important for us to really dig into our lives. This is just a little example for us. Think for a moment about how likely we are to go into work early or stay late or take work home in order to maybe move toward getting a raise, or maybe we take on a second job to earn more money because we are not making enough in our regular job, or maybe we go back to school so that we can earn an advanced degree so that it will look better on our resume. All of those things are fine. No problem with working hard and earning money. Please don’t misunderstand me. But I am just trying to get into our mindset a little bit. Okay? So that is fine right? But now let me ask how hard is it sometimes for us to find the time to set aside for devotions or prayer or going to church or helping someone in need or ministering to our neighbor? Good question right? Those are the kind of tough questions we need to ask ourselves as we consider what our hearts treasure most. We have a lot less problem finding time or making time for things that are going to help us get more earthly treasure, but seem to struggle with finding time to spend with God. I think that is a good question for us to ponder. And it is not easy, because if we are really honest with ourselves we might not like the answers we come up with. I think that if we are truly being honest with ourselves then this becomes a very challenging passage. But think about what Jesus is saying overall.

In verse 19 where it says do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, could be translated as “stop laying up for yourselves treasures on earth.” I would not necessarily change the translation, but the word stop kind of suggests the recognition that our default pattern is to lay up for ourselves treasures here on earth. It’s kind of just what we naturally do. We worry about meeting our own needs. We are concerned with caring for ourselves and making sure that we have enough. Not only for today, but for tomorrow. We are constantly being reminded to look ahead to our retirement years and making sure now that we will have enough for then. But remember, just two short passages ago, Jesus was teaching us to pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” That kind of prayer just doesn’t fit with laying up for ourselves treasures on earth. He wants us focused on trusting and following Him.

There is this common theme running through the Sermon on the Mount of no longer trusting in ourselves, no longer relying on ourselves, but surrendering each day and every tomorrow to God and letting him be the one in control. And that is not easy. But that is what kingdom living looks like.

For now I want to point out that if we truly treasure God above everything else, then our earthly treasure, goes onto the altar of sacrifice for God to control as he sees fit. That means that rather than being focused on our wealth and trying to keep it or make more, we are focused on God and letting him control and direct everything we have. Our wealth, our possessions, even our very lives are to be fully devoted to God. Our hearts need to treasure him above all else.

March 10, 2017May 1, 2018

Keeping Our Oaths

According to a post on the McKinley-Irvin family law website, based on U.S. Census Bureau statistics

In America there is one divorce approximately every 36 seconds.

41% of all first marriages end in divorce, that number rises to 60% of second marriages, and 73% of third marriages.

People who wait to get married until they are 25 are 24% less likely to get divorced.

Living together before getting married makes you 40% more likely to get divorced

If your parents are happily married then you are 14% less likely to get a divorce

Now these stats are hard to decipher and we don’t know how accurate they really are, but it seems that even within the church the divorce statistics are similar to what they are like outside the church. Today we are going to talk about divorce, but we are going to dig a little deeper.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5. Today we continue on in our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount. Last week we looked at a particularly hot topic, lust, today we move on to another somewhat difficult topic, divorce, but we are going to move beyond divorce to an underlying problem with divorce and in general with us. But let’s begin with what Jesus has to say about divorce. Take a look at Matthew 5, verses 31-32, “31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Notice that this passage begins with Jesus saying, “It is also said,” in the Greek the word “and” is used, so this statement is tied to the preceding passage. Now remember, this passage comes right on the heels of the passage on lust, where Jesus talked about the command to not commit adultery and then raised the bar to not looking at someone lustfully. And we talked about how Jesus was moving beyond the act of the adultery and dealing with our hearts. Here he takes on adultery from another perspective and that is in relation to marriage. Remember, he is raising the bar, like he did in earlier passages.

Let’s first consider where the bar was. Jesus says, it was said that whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. This comes from Deuteronomy 24:1-4 and speaks specifically of a man divorcing his wife. The law allowed for a man to divorce his wife, but not for a wife to divorce her husband. And the grounds for divorce were if he found something indecent about her, which could be open to interpretation. And people did interpret it differently. Some thought that it referred specifically to sexual immorality, others thought that it referred to basically anything the man found displeasing about his wife. So if we use that loose interpretation, then it would not take much to come up with a reason for divorce. And to obtain the divorce the man would write a certificate of divorce for his wife and have some witnesses sign it and then it was legal and he would give her the certificate and she could go on her way and could be remarried. Apparently it sounds like it had become a pretty simple process depending upon the Rabbi you chose to follow and his interpretation of indecent.

Now, like we have talked about the past couple of weeks, in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is raising the bar. He is taking us past legalistically following rules, and getting to our hearts. He is showing us what the kingdom of God is supposed to look like and calling us to live like that, which is something that he can accomplish in our lives. So here he is taking us past the issue of divorce to the importance of how we view marriage. He is saying here, that in the kingdom of God, divorce is not supposed to be some easy option. It is meant to be an extreme measure or a last resort. Ultimately I think this is less about divorce than it is about how we view marriage.

What do we know from Scripture about how God views marriage? Way back in Genesis 2, God said, “24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Marriage is meant to be for a lifetime. When two people become one they make a covenant with each other in the sight of God that is meant to be for life. It is till death do us part. The problem is that somewhere along the way, we made divorce easy. We made it so that it is simple to get a divorce.

Jesus is calling us to more. He mentions sexual immorality as legitimate grounds for divorce, but I don’t think he is even saying that if there is sexual immorality that we should get a divorce, he is just allowing for that. You know, I have had people come to me to talk about divorce and I could tell that they are using this reason of sexual immorality, as a loophole, because they want to get out of their marriage. And it may be true that they have a case for marital unfaithfulness, but I don’t think that is Jesus’ focus here. I think he is saying that we ought to be doing everything we can to make marriage work to the point where divorce is not an option except for extreme circumstances and when all options have been exhausted as a last resort. He is not condemning those who have gotten divorced, but calling us to stronger marriages. I think ultimately this is not so much about divorce, but about marriage, and I think the reason why divorce has become so easy is because we have devalued our marriage vow.

With that in mind look at what Jesus chooses to talk about next. Take a look at verses 33-37 “33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

So verse 33 begins with the word again, which ties it in with the previous passage. Which I think is so cool. I think this passage fits well with what Jesus has just been talking about. That it is part of the same theme. He is talking about us being covenant keepers. He is saying that in His kingdom we are to be people of Truth and faithfulness who keep their word.

Back in Jesus’ time vows or oaths were probably a bit more common than they are today. There are not a whole lot of oaths that we take anymore. But one oath that we do take is marriage. Our marriage vows are oaths. We promise to love honor, and cherish our spouse, in good and bad times, till death do us part.

Now let me give us a little background on these verses before we get back to this point. At different spots in the Mosaic law we find regulations against swearing falsely in God’s name, against breaking your word or swearing an oath and not keeping it. It was expected that if they made an oath or swore in God’s name that they would keep that pledge. I think some people in Jesus’ time were trying to use loopholes, like they swore, but not on Jesus’ Name and stuff like that. But Jesus is saying that it doesn’t really matter if we swear on his name or anything else, no matter what we swear on, Heaven, earth, Jerusalem, our own head, or whatever, we don’t have any power. Only God does. So all of it would be like swearing on His name anyway. But Jesus is raising the bar when he says that we are simply to let our yes mean yes and our no mean no. In the kingdom of God there is no swearing on things, there is no need for vows, no oaths, not even promises. If we say yes, then we mean yes and if we say no we mean no and you ought to be able to take that to the bank, because we are going to stand by our word. Once again He is cutting to our heart, not just what we say or some legally binding oath or some potential loophole, but actually getting to our heart. Are we men and women of truth and honesty and a willingness to mean what we say and follow through?But in our society today, most people’s word means little to nothing. We have dropped that idea of standing by your word. We break promises all the time and it doesn’t seem to matter. And divorce is one of the biggest culprits. Everyday, people all across the country are promising to love, honor and cherish one another till death do us part, and yet more than half of all marriages end in divorce.

Maybe our marriage vows should be more along the lines of, “do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love, honor and cherish her at least when times are good and as long as you feel like it, and still have that same emotional investment as you have today? Yeah, I guess so? Marriage vows have become a joke, because we have become a society that doesn’t care about keeping our word anymore. And Jesus is saying, no matter what the world says, that is not the way things are supposed to be in the kingdom of God. I love this point. And I think it fits so well with what Jesus was saying about marriage. It is not really about divorce. It is about being men and women of truth and faithfulness and being covenant keepers. Remember, we are supposed to becoming more and more like Christ. And one thing we know about him is that He keeps his covenants. That should be true of us as we live in His kingdom.

That means when we say yes, or I do, we mean it. And it means that when times get hard and we don’t feel like keeping our covenant we fight for it and don’t give up. Part of that means trusting in God to be able to do miraculous things in the midst of circumstances that seem hopeless. It means trusting that God has a plan for us and believing that he can bring beautiful things out of the ashes of our lives.

God can do amazing things when we submit to doing things his way and not taking the way out that the world so easily offers. When we choose to let our word and our vows mean something. When we are willing to fight for them and stay faithful, and submit to God, he can take even terrible circumstances and horrible mistakes and do beautiful things. And it begins with a decision that our yes is going to mean yes and our no is going to mean no. Whether it is a covenant like marriage, or even a choice to volunteer for something that later on we wish we didn’t commit to. Let’s be men and women of truth and honesty and faithfulness. Let’s be covenant keepers recognizing that in God’s kingdom, our yes should mean yes and our no should mean no, and that marriage is meant to be for a lifetime. And that the covenants we make are meant to be kept and are worth fighting for.

February 17, 2017May 1, 2018

Surgical Holiness

The movie “127 hours” is based on the story of Aaron Ralston a 27-year-old experienced outdoorsman from Aspen Colorado. He was hiking in a canyon in Utah on a 13-mile hike, when an 800-pound boulder shifted and pinned his arm. Knowing that nobody knew where he was, after being stuck there for 5 days, he eventually used a multi-tool to cut off his own arm, and then got himself out of there. It is a tremendous story, but I can’t even imagine what he went through. But what if I told you that Jesus made the suggestion that maybe cutting off our own arm might be just what we need?

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5. Now in the passage we looked at last week and the passage we are looking at today, Jesus specifically points to the Old Testament law and then raises the bar to what He wants for us. Last week Nathan talked about what that looks like with regard to anger, today we move on to another hot topic. Lust.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at what Jesus says in Matthew 5 beginning with verses 27-28: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart”

We find the command against adultery in the 10 commandments. This was a basic commandment. Basically it is saying don’t have sexual relations with anyone who is not your spouse. So at the time that Jesus was saying this, that was seen as the standard. You could think whatever you wanted, but don’t act on it. Look, but don’t touch. Here the original standard was not committing adultery, but Jesus raises the bar to not looking lustfully at someone. Lust basically means sexual desire. There is a big difference between lust and adultery and a lot that can happen in between the two. So we can see how Jesus is raising the bar.

The previous standard was calling us to avoid an act, but here Jesus is addressing our hearts not just our actions. He wants purity. He wants us to reign in sinful desires. That doesn’t mean that we are supposed to not be attracted to the opposite sex anymore, but that natural attraction if left unchecked moves on to lustful desire. The temptation is not sin, but if we choose to abide in the temptation and allow our minds or eyes to lust, then that is a problem.

Now I will be the first to confess, that I have struggled in this area of my life. I remember being interested in the opposite sex as early as kindergarten. And as I grew up I had a very active thought life. And I basically ignored instruction like this. I didn’t act on my thoughts, but I thought about a lot. And those thoughts consumed me and corrupted me. I was not living in purity. I felt guilty and unclean. I knew it was wrong and I struggled to stop it. I was stuck in pornography and in my own sinful thoughts and images.

I think that this is a story that is true with most men at least at some point in their lives and from all that I have heard it is an ongoing struggle. God worked in my life in this area in a miraculous way when I called out to Him and asked Him to be the Lord of my life and gradually He began to weed out the pornography and the thoughts and images and over time this became less and less of a struggle. That does not mean that it is no longer a struggle, or that I am not tempted anymore in this area, but God has done amazing things in my life in this area to bring purity and I want to testify to that today, because I know there might be some here who are stuck in this area and feeling hopeless. For me it was not an overnight change, but a long process, and I can firmly state that it was Christ in me, making me more like Him, and not some great effort by myself.

And I also want to testify that I am so thankful that God dealt with this in me. Lust is a trap and if you are struggling with this, I want to let you now that you are not alone; you are not a failure, or a bad person. God loves you very much and wants purity for you. We need to understand that God is calling us to a better way of life. His plan for us is better than adultery and better than lust. He has wholeness and goodness for us if we will submit to doing things His way.

With that said, I want to point out that Jesus is saying that lust is a big deal and it is not acceptable. So let’s not kid ourselves and pretend that it is okay to fantasize about someone who is not our spouse as long as we don’t act on it. Jesus is saying that is not ok.

Jesus then moves on to give this some gravity in the next verses, but I think He is also giving us some really practical direction. Take a look at verses 29-30: “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

The phrase causes you to sin includes a word that means something along the lines of building a trap or a snare or a stumbling block. That’s what this is. Our lustful desires cause us to trip up and fall. And we need to recognize that. But those are some strong words. And it sounds kind of extreme for Jesus to suggest that we cut off our arm or gouge out our eye. This is a strong statement, but it shows that Jesus treats this as important.

The penalty for adultery in Old testament was death. Remember the story of the Pharisees bringing the woman caught in adultery before Jesus and they wanted to stone her. So if the punishment of adultery is death, Jesus is taking it back to the desire behind the sin and dealing with the desire and even going so far as to suggest cutting off that part of you that was leading to the sin. Which makes sense if cutting off a limb would save our life like with our opening illustration. But is He literally calling us to do this? Not literally, but figuratively. Jesus is calling us to deal with sin and temptation in a radical way. Not just being sorry for messing up, but radically dealing with sin.

Jesus emphasizes this by talking about the alternative of being thrown into hell. He actually uses the word Gehenna here. That is a word that referred to the valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem that was a place of trash and fire and burning and is used to refer to the place of final judgment or eternal punishment. He wants us to take this seriously.

Too often we treat sin, and particularly lust, casually. But Jesus uses strong words here to cause us to recognize that we can’t just play around with sin as Christians. Christianity is not just about saying a prayer that will help us get into heaven, it is about being a part of his kingdom, and that includes us becoming more and more like him. Living out what kingdom life is supposed to look like. We also need to realize that sin left unchecked in our lives does not draw us toward Christ, but away from Him. And that leads us in the wrong direction. We can’t have that. We can’t just treat sin casually; we need to treat it surgically, even radically.

So my challenge for us is to recognize that Jesus is calling us to get real with sin and not just let it reign in our lives. And as I was originally thinking about preaching on this passage, I was reminded of another passage, that reminds me a lot of this one, and I think it helps us to consider this idea of cutting off a limb, in a practical maybe figurative way.

Here is what Paul says in Romans 6 about dealing with sin: “12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” I don’t think that practically speaking many of us are going to go out and gouge out an eye or cut off a limb in order to stop sinning, but practically speaking, what about recognizing the importance of literally looking at it like no longer offering that part of our body to sin, and with the recognition that instead we are offering our eyes, our hands, our lives to God.

We don’t have to cut off a limb or gouge out an eye, but lets stop offering those parts of our body to sin. Let’s recognize that as followers of Christ, we are being called to deal with our hearts. What I love about this is that Jesus is moving past our actions and wanting to change us from the inside out. He wants us moving toward purity and holiness. And I know that seems tough when we are in the midst of the battle, but He who began this good work in us will be faithful to complete it. We can trust in Him. But we need to let Him work in our lives. Let’s stop offering our eyes and arms and other parts of our bodies to sin, and instead let Christ have His way in us. Recognizing that He has so much better for us in His kingdom and radically choosing to follow Him.

January 9, 2017May 1, 2018

Under the influence

How do you know when someone is drunk? I actually found some answers to that question on wiki-how. It was pretty standard stuff glassy or bloodshot eyes, smell alcohol on their breath or clothes, inability to walk a straight line, or handle simple motor function, like fumbling with their keys, spilling a drink, etc., slurred speech. Changed behavior like fewer inhibitions, more talkative, mood swings, difficulty in pronouncing words, speaking overly loud or soft, things like that.

Now you may be thinking what kind of opening illustration is this? Why are we talking about identifying drunk people? Well believe it or not, this has pertinent information for what we are going to be talking about today.

So as we arrive in Ephesians 5 we find Paul talking about our walk with God. He speaks of walking in love, and walking as children of the light rather than walking in darkness. Actually there are some similarities between what we see here and the Galatians 5 passage we looked at a couple of weeks ago. Paul even speaks of fruit of the light compared to unfruitful works of darkness.

But we are going to pick things up after that, in Ephesians 5 beginning with verse 15: “15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

So there is a lot in this little passage, but you are probably noticing that there is actually not much mention of the Holy Spirit here. That’s true, but I believe this is an important passage in our understanding of the Hoy Spirit in relation to our lives. So let’s begin by making sure we understand the overall context of what Paul is talking about here.

Let’s start with verses 15 and 16: “15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

The word here translated as walk is the Greek verb peripateo and it speaks of how we live our lives. Paul has used it four other times between the last chapter and this chapter. He has talked about walking in light rather than darkness, and about walking in love, and about not walking as the Gentiles do, and about walking in a manner worthy of our calling, but here he compares the idea of walking in wisdom rather than foolishness. He is saying to pay careful attention to how we are living our lives.

Notice he talks about wise and unwise in verse 15 and then follows it up with not being foolish in verse 17. In proverbs we read about how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the fool is spoken of as the one who says in their heart there is no God. So how does that help us understand what it looks like to walk as wise rather than as unwise? Basically our walk through this life is made up of a multitude of choices. As we walk through this life we have the opportunity to live in ways that are not in step with God’s plan for our lives or we can walk in our own ways. Here we are reminded that we need to be walking in the ways God wants us to walk. Notice also that Paul says making the best use of the time. When Paul uses the word time here he could have used the word chronos, which has to do with clock time, like hours, minutes, seconds. But instead he used the word kairos, which speaks instead of like a fixed period of time, like an era or period. Our lives themselves are a fixed period. We have a beginning and an end on this world, which means that we have only have x amount of time in our lives. We have already used up as much as however old we are and we don’t know how much we have left. When we think back over our lives to this point I am sure we can all think of things we have done with our time that was a waste. We can’t do anything about the time that is already gone. But we can make the most of the time we have left. When Paul speaks of making the best use of time, that phrase carries with it the idea of buying back or ransoming the time. We only have so much time left, are we going to waste that time, or are we going to make the most of it?

Lets take a look at the rest of this passage: “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

So what are the different things that Paul is calling us to do and not do here? Don’t get drunk, be filled with the Spirit, address one another with psalms, etc., give thanks, and submit to one another.

Okay so first he mentions to not get drunk. This can be a touchy topic in the church today. Some churches condemn drinking completely. Some people won’t be part of a church or a denomination that suggests that drinking is wrong. The Bible clearly condemns drunkenness, but does not do the same with drinking . However, Scripture suggests being careful with alcohol and recognizing the dangers. Just because it is permissible does not mean it is the best choice for us. Here Paul talks about drunkenness leading to debauchery. What does he mean by that? The word actually refers to a life devoid of virtue. It actually speaks of wastefulness, like a wasted life. It is the word used in the parable of the prodigal son and how he squandered all he had on reckless living. When we get drunk, we wind up under the influence of the alcohol and we end up doing things that we probably should not be doing. This fits in well with the earlier verses about not wasting the time that we have. Instead we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

So this is a big theological question. That we could answer very theologically, but I love the simple analogy Paul is making here as he compares being filled with the Spirit, to drunkenness. It seems that he is suggesting that being filled with the Spirit has some similarity to getting drunk.When we are drunk, it changes the way we walk, talk, think, and act. And Paul uses that for an analogy of being filled with the Spirit. So what do you think of being filled with the Spirit based on that analogy? Basically we can look at it as being under the influence of the Spirit. Letting him have control. Doing what he wants us to do. Letting the Holy Spirit change the way we walk, talk, think and act. Now does this mean that the Holy Spirit is in us sometimes and then he overtime leaks out or goes away when we sin or something like that, and the filling of the spirit refers to like a constant refilling?

No. When we come to faith in Christ, part of that is the baptism of the Spirit. He must work in our lives to accomplish the rebirthing process so we can be born again and he comes and lives in us as we talked about a few weeks ago. So he is already in our lives. But while he is living in us, there are still some parts of our lives that are not yet full surrendered to him. And that is what is suggested here. Being filled with the Spirit means yielding every area of our lives to him and his authority. It means giving up the right to lead my own life and placing myself under him, submitting to him and his will and plan for my life. Letting all of me be under his influence. And only as we do that, will we be able to live the kind of life that is described here. So let’s continue on.

What does it look like to address one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and making melody to the Lord with our hearts? Does this mean that we should sing everything we say rather than speaking to each other? No, that would be silly. Not to mention embarrassing. It is talking about what is going on in our hearts, thankfulness and praise to God, overflowing out of our lives, as we come together to worship and praise the Lord with our eyes focused on him and lifting each other’s eyes toward the Lord. It means having thankful hearts and submitting to one another. Every time we open our mouths we have opportunities to praise the Lord or curse him, to lift others up or tear them down, to build unity or to create division, to give thanks or to complain. Unfortunately, our default is to tear down rather than to build up. Complaining, arguing, gossip, slander, and other forms of degrading conversation have become so prevalent, that we don’t even notice we are doing it so much anymore. But that is not beautiful music to the Lord’s ears. It is not worship and praise and thanksgiving.

Every time we gather together as the church we have the opportunity to be like this in each other’s lives. Our worship is not just the songs we sing while looking at the screen, and it is not like it is just me who has a message, or word that needs to be heard. God is at work in all of our lives and when we come together there should be this melody of praise and thanksgiving as we remind each other of whom God is.

Now understand these verse are talking about what our lives should look like. But this is not so much a challenge for things we should put on our to do list but rather things that should be exemplified in our lives. Overall these verses are giving us this picture of walking with God and what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit.

Lets focus on verse 18 as we close “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,”

Ultimately I don’t think that the main emphasis of this verse is about alcohol. That is a part of it. Scripture seems to indicate pretty clearly that while drinking is okay, being drunk is not. But I think the main reason that Paul is talking about drunkenness here is to give us this powerful analogy to being filled with Spirit. As he talks about walking over and over again and living our lives for God this idea of the filling of the Spirit is critical. We need to realize that we have been given a precious gift of having the Holy Spirit live in our lives. Our response should be to yield every area of our lives to him and walk in the ways that God has planned for us. That is walking in wisdom and not wasting our lives.

But I want to really dig down into this beautiful analogy. I want you to think about drunkenness for a moment and how people look when they are drunk. How they are so intoxicated with alcohol that it is changing how they walk, and talk, and act. And you can see the effects of the alcohol in their lives. Their attitude and behavior are different, their inhibitions are gone. With that image in mind, I want to take you to a time when Christ has just recently left for heaven and all the believers were gathered together, and for the first time they received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Jesus had promised he would send his Holy Spirit to live in them and finally he comes and they are filled for the first time with the Holy Spirit. They began speaking in different tongues and some people were passing by who were from other areas of the world, and they heard these people speaking in their own native languages and they were amazed and astonished. They couldn’t figure it out. It was an amazing time that led to thousands of people getting saved. And some of the crowd mocked the believers who were filled with the Holy Spirit. They said, they are filled with wine. They thought these Christians who were filled with the spirit, were drunk. But they were not drunk on alcohol; they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were so intoxicated with him, so filled up with him that he was bubbling up, overflowing their lives to the point that other people could see. The Holy Spirit was changing the way they walked, talked and acted. It was evident that they were under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

That is my challenge for us, to be so filled with the Holy Spirit, so completely inebriated with him in every facet of our lives, that we are like drunk people, living our lives, moment by moment, completely intoxicated with God in such a way that everyone around us see Christ in the way we walk.

January 9, 2017May 1, 2018

For God so loved

So the Nativity story is basically found in two places. It is found in the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two chapters of Luke. In Luke 1 we find the story of Mary being visited by the angel Gabriel who tells her that she is going to give birth to Jesus. And then she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist, and sings her song, the Magnificat. Then in Luke 2 we have the traditional Christmas story, with Mary and Joseph making the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem where Jesus is born and the story of the angel appearing to the shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks. In Matthew 1 we have the genealogy of Jesus and then the nativity story from Joseph’s perspective as he is thinking about divorcing Mary after finding out that she is pregnant, but an angel appears to him in a dream and tells him to take Mary home as his wife and that the baby will be Immanuel, which means “God with us”. Then in Matthew 2 we have the story of the visit of the magi, which happens at some point after Jesus’ birth, but is still considered part of the nativity story. That is where we would typically turn. But what if I told you that there is another place in Scripture that gives us some insight into the nativity story, which is not in either one of those places? And it is not one of the prophecies about the birth of the Messiah, but rather it is probably the most famous verse in the Bible.

I am talking about John 3:16. Well, I think John 3:16 belongs with the nativity, or at least fits with the story of the nativity, in that it gives us just a little glimpse into the mindset of God as he sets into motion this plan of sending his son to earth.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 3. This is part of a conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a member of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, and he came to see Jesus one night to talk with him, and Jesus told him that in order to see the kingdom of God, he needed to be born again. And then Jesus followed that up with talking about spiritual rebirth, and then a little bit about himself and a hint of what he was going to do.

And then we arrive at this famous verse, followed by some lesser-known verses. Let’s pick things up in John 3, with verses 16 and 17: “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

So like I said, this passage is actually kind of like a nativity passage. I know that seems kind of strange considering this takes place about 30 years or so after Jesus’ birth, but let’s consider for a moment what we find here about what is going on inside the mind of God as he gets ready to send his Son.

God’s motivation for this is love. Not our love for Him, but simply His love. God’s love for us is agape love, which is a Greek word referring to love that is not based on merit or emotion, but based rather on will. He determines to love us. We talk about how God is a god of love, but this puts that into practice, it is not just theoretical. He shows us his love by what he does here. What does He do? He gave his Son. What does that mean? It means he sent him to earth with the purpose of reconciling the world to himself, which would be accomplished through his son’s death on the cross. And he did all this because he loved us.

Now let me also point out that Jesus is talking with Nicodemus here about himself. It is easy to get detached from that reality. These are not just some words about Jesus, this is Jesus speaking about himself and about God’s plan for the world. Earlier we mentioned that Nicodemus was a Jewish teacher. With that in mind, it might have been difficult for Nicodemus to understand the concept of God loving the world this much. He probably had never thought of God loving anyone other than Israel. The people of Israel believed that they were God’s chosen people and he loved only them. So Jesus saying that God so loved the world would have been a revolutionary concept for Nicodemus. Jesus isn’t telling him that God loved Israel so much that he sent the Messiah; he is saying that he loved the world so much that he sent his Son. This might have been a revolutionary concept to Nicodemus, but it was always God’s plan. Even way back in the life of Abraham God’s plan was to bless the whole world through him and his people. He chose Israel as his chosen people to display himself to the world, but he loved the whole world. That was true in the Old Testament, it was true when Jesus came, and it is true today.

God loved us so much that he gave his son. Basically, this is the first ever Christmas gift. I know that sounds a little cheesy, but I think it is important to understand the concept of God giving up his son. We can’t really quantify God’s love, but this idea of him giving up his son to die for us, helps us understand the depth of his love for us, at least a little bit.

Why did God need to send his son, according to verse 16? Verse 16 points out that the world is perishing. Not just physical death, but spiritual. Ever since sin entered the world, we are born as sinners, separated from God because of our sin. That means that people are dying every day without a savior and are facing an eternity of separation from God. God gave Jesus to the world so that people might not perish. That does not mean so that they would not die, but so that when they die, they don’t need to die without a Savior, without being brought back to a right relationship with God.

The word salvation refers to rescue, like a drowning person being thrown a lifeline. Jesus did not come to bring condemnation or judgment, but rather to save people from perishing. He came to give us the possibility of eternal life.

So what do we do with this information? How do we respond to such an amazing act of love? Belief. It is like the person who was drowning and is thrown a lifeline they can choose believe that the lifeline is real and they can be saved by grabbing hold of it, or they can ignore it and continue to drown. These verses remind us that God’s plan of salvation was for the whole world. He sent his Son for all of us. He sent us a Savior. Unfortunately, some choose not to believe in him.

Take a look at verses 18-21: “18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

So verse 17 spoke of how God did not send Jesus to the world to condemn it, but rather to save it. However, by that very point, those who choose to not believe in Christ, are condemned, not because of Jesus, but because of their refusal to believe in him.

In these verses we see this reference between darkness and light. It is an interesting picture of people who are living in darkness and yet actually prefer that darkness rather than the light. Why would anyone want darkness instead of light? Darkness hides the evil things that they do or want to do. Maybe because they are comfortable where they are or indifferent or because they think they are fine where they are. For whatever reason, they are choosing to not believe and are choosing to stay in the darkness rather than coming into the light. Notice even these verses speak of their works. Some people might be staying in the darkness simply because they think they can save themselves or that something other than Jesus is what will save them. Maybe they are trusting in their own abilities or the good things that they do, but salvation is not about doing anything. It is about what has been done for us. That is a major difference between Christianity and other religions. Salvation is a free gift that we did not and cannot earn, but must freely receive.

The response to the Gospel is simply belief. It is not doing something, it is simply believing. That is pretty amazing. It actually reminds me a little bit of some of the Christmas movies we see out there during this time of year about Santa Clause. The focus in many of them is on the need to believe. We just have to believe in Santa and he will be real. Like in the movie Elf, when the only way that Santa’s sleigh will fly is if people believe in him. The problem is that Santa is not real and no amount of belief is going to change that. It is fine for the movies, but not for real life.

The great thing about the Gospel is that it is true. It is not some fairy tale or some Christmas fable. It is truth that is backed up by Scriptural prophecies from hundreds of years before Jesus was born that could only have been fulfilled in Jesus. And by solid testimonies of believers who saw Jesus’ life and ministry and died telling others about what they saw. The Gospel is true, so believing in Jesus is not like believing in Santa Claus. He doesn’t need us to believe in him in order for him to be real. He is the real deal and worthy of our belief. Make no doubt about it. Jesus is the Savior of the world. That is a fact. Whether people believe in him or not, he came to save the world. The choice is whether or not we will believe.

With all of that in mind, let’s move back up to verse 16. I don’t know what you get out of Christmas, but the thing that I most want to remind us of today is God’s love. This verse gives us just a glimpse into the mindset of God sending his son and we see the motivation was love. He loved us so much, that he sent Jesus. An important thing for us to understand as we approach Christmas is that it all begins with God. He is the one who pursued us, not the other way around. It is not like we pursued him so hard that he decided to do something for us. He loved us so much that he sent his son to bring us back to a right relationship with him so that we could spend eternity with him in Heaven.

This Christmas season, celebrate that it all starts with God. Celebrate his love. Celebrate how much he cares about you. I know sometimes we don’t feel loved or we feel unlovable, but if nothing else, let Christmas remind us that that is not true. We are loved. God is not looking to condemn us or judge us, he is looking to save us. He went out of his way to do everything he could to save us so that we could be with him forever. That is love.

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017

Nativity Story

So throughout this advent season I am trying to tie my sermon in with the advent reading. Last week we looked at Mary’s Magnificat, because that was the passage. But when looking at the advent reading for today, I was really resistant to preaching a sermon on this passage. Let me tell you why. You see, the passage for today is Luke 2:1-20. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that passage. Actually I love this passage. It is the traditional nativity passage. It is the passage that Linus quotes in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. The one our mind most naturally goes to when we think of the nativity, with the census, and no room at the inn, and the manger, and the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night.

But for that reason, I typically save this passage till the Sunday closest to Christmas. So when I saw that it was here I didn’t want to preach on it this Sunday, I would have waited until next weekend. But next weekend the focus is on the visit of the magi and for those of you who have heard me speak during the Christmas season in the past, you probably know that I have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to the magi and nativity scenes, but we will talk more about that next week.

So with that in mind, today we will take a look at Luke 2 although, I think I am going to only cover the first 7 verses rather than the whole story. “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

So one of the things that I love about Luke is the way that he includes details like the names of people and places that help us understand the events he describes in the overall historical timeline. Actually in chapter 1 he mentions that he is writing this Gospel because he wants to provide an orderly account, considering all of the other accounts that were being written, so that Theophilus, the guy he is writing it for, could have certainty about these things that he has been taught. Luke really seems to be approaching his writing of this Gospel from the perspective of a historian and we see that in some of the details he includes.

Now with that also come problems, which we will talk about in just a moment. First of all, Luke fixes this story in the time period of Caesar Augustus and Quirinius. Naming him here helps us begin to fix a point about when actually this occurred. He also adds two other names, King Herod and Governor Quirinius. Those also are historical people, so when we intersect those names, we begin to see a time period for the birth of Jesus.

The information about a census being taken also helps us pinpoint the timing of Jesus’ birth, but actually this is where some of the controversy comes in. Scholars differ on their thoughts about all of this, but it appears that the census Luke is referring to seems to have been recorded elsewhere as being at a later date, that does not coincide with the period where Herod, Augustus and Quirinius’ rules intersect. But there are all kinds of theories that help explain this. And most scholars just pick one of the theories and stick with it. If you want to study that more, you can always talk with me later. But even if the controversies make it hard for us to pinpoint the exact date that Jesus was born, we have it narrowed down to a pretty specific time range of about 2,000 years ago during the period where King Herod and Caesar Augustus overlap by about 23 years.

This census or registration is different than what we might do today. We need to remember that at this time, Israel was an occupied country. It was a province of the Roman Empire. A census at that time from the Roman Empire was typically taken for one of two reasons, either for taxation purposes or for military service. The Jews were exempt from military service, but not from taxation, so most likely that is what this was all about. And Joseph had to travel to the hometown of his family lineage, which was Bethlehem, so that he could register. This helps us understand a little bit of background about the life that Jesus was born into and the mindset of Joseph and Mary as they move forward toward Jesus’ birth.

Bethlehem was about 5 miles outside of Jerusalem. Scholars disagree on the length of the journey from Nazareth. I find it interesting that there are some things that are just so hard to pinpoint historically, not with the Bible, but just in general. Like how far it was from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Scholars suggest that it was probably anywhere from 70-100 miles? Now for us that does not seem so far. We would just hop in our car and be there in less than an hour and a half. But they didn’t have cars. No bullet trains or other public transportation. Not even a raggedy old bus. This trip was most likely done on their own two feet. They might have had a donkey that Mary could occasionally ride, but most likely they were walking for a good portion of this trip.

We do not know how pregnant Mary was at this point, but figuring that after hearing from the angel Gabriel that she was going to have a baby, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth and was there for 3 months, before going back to Nazareth. And considering the wording of what we see later in this passage, it seems like she might have been in her third trimester when they made the trip. I have never been pregnant, but I have been married to a pregnant woman, and I cannot imagine her having to make this long and hard journey in her third trimester of a pregnancy. As we go through this story, think about the reality of what we are saying.

And then we have the most famous part of the story, for some reason there was no room for them at the inn. Now first of all, this word translated as inn here is not the traditional Greek word for inn. Actually later on in this Gospel, in the story of the Good Samaritan, Luke uses the typical Greek word for inn, so if that is the kind of place he was suggesting here, why didn’t he use that word? This word seems to refer more to something along the lines of a guest room at a home. Actually later on in Luke 22 when Jesus tells his disciples to go and find this guy who will lead them to the place where they will partake in the last supper, he tells them to ask the guy, “where is the guest room” and he uses this word which here is translated for inn. Interesting right?

Anyway, some scholars believe that Mary and Joseph may have come to Bethlehem and were staying with family or friends in like a guest room, or a living area, but it was probably pretty crowded, so it was not conducive to giving birth there, so when the time came for the baby to be born, they moved to the only place that was available for them. The place where the animals were kept. Some scholars believe that during those times the upper area of the home was where the people stayed, and many homes would have a spot in the lower level where they would keep their animals. So it could be that the room for Mary and Joseph might have been some kind of upper room where they were staying with several other people and that there was not room for them up there when the baby needed to be born, so they moved down to the lower area where animals were kept for the birth. It is interesting that Luke never mentions a stable or even animals. The only reference we have that causes us to picture it this way is the mention of a manger, which is a common feeding trough for animals. I read one scholar who suggests that maybe they gave birth more in the family living area of a home and pulled in a manger because it would be a good place to lay the baby.

We don’t know the details, but we have a few things here that help us to form a picture. Just make sure that the picture you are forming fits with the details we do have. Notice that there is no innkeeper even mentioned. And yet people get all up in arms about this nasty innkeeper who did not make room for a pregnant lady about to give birth. This might have been a much more simple answer that doesn’t really have a bad guy involved. It just might have made sense for where to have the birth.

But, while it might not be as involved as we sometimes make it out, it still would have been far from ideal. I think it would have been much nicer for them to have been in Nazareth, in their own home, surrounded by their family and friends, with a more normal delivery.

So that’s the story of the nativity. It is not long. Only 7 verses. Not counting the stuff with the shepherds that comes next. It’s interesting to see what we have made out of it. 7 verses and yet there are books, songs, movies about this nativity story. I have preached on this passage many times and you have probably heard sermons on this passage many times and even read it for yourself several times as well.

So I have a question for you. What do you think we are supposed to get out of this? Is it just the historical account of the birth of the Messiah so that we know a little bit about it or is there some lesson that we are to get out of this story? Is it supposed to reveal something about God or about us or about life? I was wrestling with that question earlier this week. I don’t want to just preach a sermon where I give you little fun facts about the nativity or challenge some of the things that you may have always pictured. So as I was thinking about it, I started thinking specifically about what do I learn about God from this story and it’s details? And I guess one of the things that jump out at me is that I don’t think that God is nearly as concerned as we are about some of the things of this world. He could have easily made this a much easier birth for Mary and Joseph and the baby. He could have given them a midwife or had a better room somewhere, like Bethlehem General Hospital. He didn’t have to make them take an 80 mile journey in her third trimester. He could have stopped Rome from having a census or had it earlier or later. Some might specifically point to the fact that this is what he chose because this was exactly best. That’s probably true, but I also think that maybe some of the things that we get so concerned with are not the main concerns for God.

I am not saying that he doesn’t love us or doesn’t care about our lives, I am just saying that he has a different focus than we do. Sometimes we get so concerned about our comfort or the things of this world, and make those things so important, like God why are things going this way? And I just think that God has more important things in mind. And if it means that we have to travel 80 miles in our third trimester and give birth in a stable, then so be it, if that is what accomplishes God’s purposes and plans.

January 2, 2017May 1, 2018

Bucket List

As the old year-ends and the New Year begins this is a time when thinking about things we might like to accomplish or experience comes naturally to us.

I don’t have an actual list, but Jacob and I have talked about a few things that we would like to do together sometime as a father and son. We want to attend a super bowl, a final four, a home run derby, a slam dunk contest, a world cup game, as you can see they pretty much all revolve around sports that we would like to see.

Well, today we are going to take a quick look at a couple of people from Scripture who had maybe a different kind of bucket list. Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2. So over the last few weeks we have been looking at different parts of the traditional nativity story from the Bible. We looked at Mary’s magnificat, the story of the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus, and then also the visit of the Magi. I mentioned last week that I have a little bit of a pet peeve when it comes to the presence of the Magi in our traditional nativity scenes, not because I don’t like the story, but because everything that we read in Scripture suggests that they most likely arrived later, potentially when Jesus was closer to two years old. And yet many nativity scenes include the wise men with the shepherds at the manger with the baby Jesus.

Now as I mentioned last week, it is fine to consider them part of the nativity story, as long as we recognize the actual facts from Scripture compared to what we have made up over time. But one thing that I find really interesting is that there are a couple of other people who were most likely present much closer to Jesus’ birth when Jesus was still a baby compared to when the Magi showed up and yet while the Magi are included, these two people are not.

Simeon and Anna. We find their story in Luke 2 right after the passage on the shepherds. “22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” 33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

So like I said, this story is from when Jesus was still a baby, most likely much closer to his actual birth than the story of the Magi. Take a look at verse 22: “22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”

So this law is recorded for us in Leviticus 12 where it speaks of what to do after a woman conceives a child. If the child is a boy, they are to wait 40 days and then bring him to the priest and offer a sacrifice. The sacrifice is actually to be a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering, although if they can’t afford the lamb, they can bring two pigeons or two turtledoves, which is what we see Mary and Joseph bringing here. So this is taking place when Jesus is about six weeks old. He is still a baby, which is why I think that Simeon and Anna kind of get the raw end of the deal being left out of most of our nativity story pictures. But that is not my main point.

I have been working through the book of Luke lately in my devotions and I came across this passage, on December 22. And so I just thought for a short devotional message today before our time of communion and sharing, it would be good to share something from my recent devotions. The thing that really jumped out at me is the devotion of Simeon and Anna.

Let’s take another look at Simeon “25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples…”

The Holy Spirit has revealed to Simeon that he will not die until he lays eyes on the Messiah. And he is perfectly content with that. Then Joseph, Mary and Jesus show up and he has the opportunity to take the baby Messiah and hold him in his arms. Imagine what that must have been like. And then he says that now he can die in peace because he has seen God’s salvation. God has fulfilled his promise and let him see the Messiah. How cool is that? He didn’t get to see Jesus grow up. He never got to hear any of Jesus’ sermons or witness any of Jesus’ miracles. He didn’t see Him die for the sins of mankind. All he really got to do was hold a baby. How did he know that this was the Messiah? Only because the Holy Spirit inside of him was letting him know. He was so in tune with God that he knew.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be that in tune with the Holy Spirit inside of me that I know what God is saying and doing without having to see some kind of tangible evidence. Everyone else around them just saw Jesus as a baby, but Simeon recognized the Messiah. That is pretty cool. I want to be like Simeon.

There is a lot more we could probably get into here, but since this is just a devotional, I am going to skip over to Anna. Take a look at verses 36-38: “36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

So Anna is also an amazing character. She is an elderly lady and has been a widow for quite some time. We don’t know exactly when she got married, but many girls in that time got married as teenagers so she was probably pretty young when she became a widow. And for who knows how long she has been basically living at the temple, worshipping, fasting, and praying night and day.

Anna maybe got some strange looks from passersby. Even other church going passersby probably looked at Anna as pretty extreme. You know those people in church who are so devout, so focused on God that they are maybe a little out of touch with the rest of the world? Let’s be honest with ourselves right now. How many of us have seen or known someone that seemed to be a little extra Jesus freaky in the church? You know what I am talking about? Like they seem kind of religiously kooky? And so maybe sometimes we avoid them a little bit, or look at them a little bit strange? I bet she had many people who avoided her or didn’t know what to think about her. But look at her now. We can really see the hand of God with her in this passage. And it makes me wonder if sometimes there are people that we pass by who seem a little religiously kooky to us and yet maybe we are missing out on their connection with God?

I guess this passage just shows off to me two amazing people who are often overlooked and yet God was at work in their lives in an amazing way. Probably not very many people at that time noticed what was happening with Simeon and Anna as they met Jesus. And sometimes even today we skip over their story to get to some more interesting ones. But there is something really cool about Simeon and Anna. I don’t think they probably had a bucket list, but I would imagine that if they did, seeing the Messiah would probably have been on the top of the list. I think that God was more important to them than anything else in their lives. They lived for him. And it is great that we get to read their story, and be inspired by their devotion.

December 20, 2016May 1, 2018

Christmas Eve at The River

This year The River Church will be celebrating Christ’s birth with a Christmas Eve Service on Saturday, December 24th at 4:00 p.m. We will not have our regular worship service on Christmas morning. We will be back to our normal Sunday morning time of 9:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day with a time of sharing and communion.

November 17, 2016May 1, 2018

Hezekiah’s Prayer Part 2

So we learned a lot about prayer from Hezekiah, last week. But I think there is more that we can still learn from Hezekiah about prayer. So today we are going to address what happens in the next chapter of his life. Let’s begin by look at Isaiah 38, verse 1: “In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”

So let’s try and put ourselves in Hezekiah’s shoes for just a moment. He is sick. We don’t know exactly what the illness is, just that it is bad enough that he is going to die. Remember, at this point, Hezekiah is still pretty young. He is probably only around 39 years old.

All of those reactions would be very normal. But, let’s also make sure that as we think about his context. In the chapters right before this, Hezekiah prayed to the Lord about the Assyrian situation and God delivered in a really big way. We don’t know exactly the time frame for all of this, but from what we know from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles it seems like these two events were very close to one another, potentially even being in the same year.

I think that he had seen God work in a miraculous way already once, so he might have been more likely to have hope at this point, because of that. So he was probably still discouraged and anxious about his situation, but maybe he also had hope that God was going to do something?

Let’s take a look at how he responded in verses 2-3: “2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 and said, “Please, O Lord, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.”

Okay, so first let me say that I think it is cool that Hezekiah’s first response after receiving bad news is to go to the Lord in prayer. We saw that last time as well. I have to admit that I am not sure what to think of his prayer. Some of the commentaries I read, really give him the benefit of the doubt. They talk about how facing the wall, was like an opportunity to just be alone with God and that his prayer is one of kind of just a thoughtful trust in God in the midst of what he is going through. But when, I read it, I’m not so sure that I agree. Let me explain this way. In part one, we took a look at his prayer and noticed a couple of things about it that were really great reminders for us for when we pray. I find this prayer to be a lot different than that prayer.

Let’s put them up side by side for us. In the first prayer he began by taking his eyes off of his problem and remembering who God is. Taking our eyes off of our problems and praising God helps us get a right perspective, because no matter how big our problem is, God is bigger. And so we need to remember that.

But I don’t see him doing that here. Actually I see the opposite. Rather than talking about God, all that he does is talk about himself. Rather than reminding himself what God has done, it is like he is trying to remind God of what he has done.

He doesn’t really seem to ask God for anything. All he does is remind God about how well he has been following him and then he weeps bitterly. I could be wrong, but I see a very “woe is me” kind of attitude here. He seems to be more complaining to God, along the lines of “why did this happen to me, I have been trying to follow you, and now I get hit with this.” And that is very different than his previous prayer.

I don’t know his heart here and what he means with all of this, but based on these two prayers what I see on the left is very different from what I see on the right. This is a very different kind of prayer than last time. The prayer on the right seems much more self-focused and kind of whiny. There is no recognition of who God is, there is really no request for God to work, and there seems to be no realization of the bigger picture of how God could be glorified in the midst of all of this. It seems to be a very different kind of prayer.

Take a look at verses 4-6: “4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.”

Once again, God is going to step in and provide for Hezekiah. Even though his prayer was very different, God still steps in and gets involved in his life in a miraculous way.

God actually even gives Hezekiah a sign that his prayer will be answered. Look at verse 7-8: “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised: 8 Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.”

That is an amazing miracle all by itself. You can read more about it in 2 Kings 20. So God actually did heal Hezekiah. And we know from the rest of the story that Hezekiah went on to live for 15 more years. Now that seems like great news right? He was miraculously healed. But the rest of his life took a turn for the worst.

Let me first point out that there were a lot of great things that Hezekiah did. He was a good king. We find out that during his reign he had the temple repaired and cleansed and then he restored the worship and sacrificing that should have been happening there all along, getting the Levites and priests back to work. We see him singing praises to God and leading the people to praise the Lord. He also reestablished the observance of the Passover celebration.

In 2 Kings 18:5-6, we read: “He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses.”

In the first part of Hezekiah’s life, it seems like he really followed God. But there seems to be some kind of switch in the second half of his reign. And it starts with his response to this healing that he receives. In 2 Chronicles 32:25 this is what we find out about Hezekiah’s response after God healed him: “25 But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.”

Apparently after he was healed, Hezekiah was proud. It seems like maybe he didn’t give God the glory that He deserved. But there is also more. At some point there was an envoy that was sent by the prince of Babylon, who had heard that Hezekiah was sick and had been healed. The envoy showed up and Hezekiah took them around and showed them all his treasures. After Isaiah hears about it, he criticizes Hezekiah and tells him that Babylon will eventually come and carry off all of those riches. It is not expressly pointed out what the specific issue was, but one thing that jumps out at me is that this was a perfect opportunity for Hezekiah to give glory to God for his healing, and instead he focused on showing off.

Look at what it says in 2 Chronicles 32:31 about this event: “31 And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.”

God let him go through this to test, and Hezekiah didn’t do so well. Overall, it seems like the first part of Hezekiah’s reign was very different than the second part. And the critical point in the middle was the healing.

So think this through with me for a moment. Hezekiah was doing awesome. He was serving the Lord and leading the people of Judah in serving the Lord. Everything was going well. God even provided for them in a miraculous way in the case of the threat of the Assyrian empire.

But then we have this illness and Hezekiah’s prayer, which is very different than his previous prayer, but God still grants his request. He lives for another 15 years. But the problem is that in this 15 years, he doesn’t do so well. We see a very different side of Hezekiah. The question that comes to mind is, “Would it have been better if Hezekiah died?”

Everything in our culture screams, live the extra 15 years. But it seems to me that at the time of his illness, Hezekiah was on the mountain top in pretty much every way. And then after the healing, his life went in a different direction.

I think I would rather die on the mountain top than to live another 15 years in the valley. So my take away from this passage is this. When we pray, it’s fine for us to ask for God to work. Actually as we talked about last week, I think it is good for us to make sure that we take that step and invite God to intervene in our lives in specific ways. But I think we also should always make sure that ultimately our desire is for what God’s will is for us. God’s will may not be to take you out of the hard time you are going through. He may not want to save you from something you are going through, simply because He has something better in store for you.

I don’t think that it is a good thing when God gives us what we prayed for, if it is not what He really wants for us. I’d rather have God’s will for me, than my will.

Let me remind us of an extreme example. What if God had granted Jesus his prayer request rather than His will when Jesus was praying in the garden? Remember He prayed, father take this cup from me. He didn’t want to have to suffer through the experience of the cross, but then he said not my will but yours.

What if God had said okay, “You don’t have to go through the whole cross thing. I will take that cup from you.” We would still be in our sin and guilt.

This probably sounds stupid in the world’s eyes, but I would rather die on the mountaintop in my relationship with the Lord than to live 15 more years on this earth wandering away from Him in the valley.