Words are powerful, aren't they? Words can tear down or build up (James 3:8-10, Eph. 4:29). Someone says to you, "you did a good job cleaning today," "I really got a lot out of the lesson this morning," "thanks for running that errand for me." Tender words heal wounds and facilitate love in the body of Christ. But what about when words aren't so tender? What happens when words don't heal wounds but instead they make wounds? You come home one day to your white carpet to find a rainbow in it. You knew from the book of Genesis that God gave us the rainbow to tell us He would no longer send a flood to destroy the earth, but you also knew that rainbow wasn't supposed to show up on your living room floor. Fruity pebbles. You ask your daughter (culprit) to vacuum the floor, but your words along with the pebbles are swept under the rug. Later you ask if it was done and you're given a firm "yes." Lies hurt. Deception hurts. But even "hurt" doesn't describe when these sins come from those you love. What happens when your best friend gossips behind your back to help them get a position at work that you've been praying for as long as you've worked there? What happens when you come home from church encouraged by the sermon and you have an unsaved family member who's words threaten to take an axe to your joy in the Lord? Now, with your child there will be discipline involved and the dynamic is somewhat different there, but you get the point, right? Sin is evil. That includes verbal sin.
SUBJECT QUESTION:
But the question I wanna ask you today is... how do you respond when that evil comes YOUR way?
Turn with me to Psalm 52. Psalm 52. King David experienced this evil and the prayer and attitude of his heart is recorded for us here in this Psalm. It's called a "maskil" of David. A maskil means "instructive." This Psalm is meant to teach us something. It's going to teach us that (BIG IDEA) Words of evil against us should bring a trust in the love of God for us. When evil is spoken against you and I, our response should reflect our trust in God.
READ Psalm 52.
We're told this Psalm was written during a specific time in David's life. Can I get someone to read 1 Samuel 21:1-9 (slowly and loud enough for everyone to hear)? And then someone else to read 1 Samuel 22:6-23.
After 1 Samuel 21:1-9...
David is on the run. His day to day life is consumed with trying to stay alive as a man he greatly loved (King Saul) seeks his life. The time comes when David is out of food so he travels to an unsuspecting uninformed priest for groceries. And this man Doeg heard the whole conversation.
After 1 Samuel 22:6-23...
Doeg does his duty and reports his information to the king. As a result the priest Ahimelech and many other innocent people die. *******Keep this story in your mind as we look at our text tonight.
READ V.1-4 show us first The Nature of the sin against us.
As we read these verses we're forced to ask who this is talking about. Who is this "mighty man?" The majority opinion is that David here is speaking of Doeg. I disagree. A lot of people try to connect these words to Doeg, but we're only told this was written during the time of this incident, not necessarily or entirely written because of the incident. This man Doeg only plays a small part in the greater story of David and Saul. In fact, after these two chapters he's never mentioned again in Scripture. Call me crazy, but I believe the man David has in mind here is King Saul. I can't share all of these observations, but we know Saul was a "mighty man" because he "stood a head above the rest" (1 Samuel 9:1-2). This was part of the reason he was chosen as king. Further this is someone who's "tongue plots destruction." Very often we see Saul plotting to kill David, don't we? (1 Sam 18:9-11, 18:21-22, 18:25, later 23:10). This is also someone who is deceptive (1 Sam 18:21). This is also someone who lies (1 Sam 18:17, 19:6). From the account in 1 Samuel, we have no reason to believe that Doeg did any of these things. We can't tell he was lying (in fact he gave an accurate report to Saul), being deceptive, or plotting anything.
But v.1 asks a kind of thesis-like question, Why practice evil when it's the love of God that actually endures? Maybe you've asked the same question. You find yourself wronged. Someone has spoken evil against you and you ask the question we all ask, "Lord, why are they doing this to me? Why are they saying these things about me? Why act that way when no good is going to come from it? Why do they even open their mouth? Why can't people just consider and act with the 'love of God'?" The simple answer to this question is original sin. People naturally gravitate toward what's wrong. If you don't believe that read psalm 51 and let David tell you about it. But it's one thing to state doctrine and theology and quite another to apply it to our moments of pain isn't it? Well I don't think our Psalm was written to teach us why people do the things they do. I think that's instructive for us. That tells us something. I'll come back to that in a minute. There are three major sins mentioned here: plotting, deception, and lying. These sins usually work in unity. They make decisions together. Where you find one you'll often find the other two in some form.
Plotting is something that happens in the mind. It's something that involves an active premeditation to harm someone. When Saul tried to kill David with the spear (1 Sam 18:9-11) he had to (1) Consider if it was possible to throw a spear that far "Can I hit him?" (2) Look at the spear and pick it up, weighing the balance and taking aim "Let's try it" (3) Throw the spear "Please hit him, please hit him." But the plotting here mentioned isn't merely mental and neither was all of Saul's plotting (18:22). Our text says, "your tongue plots destruction." The level of evil and bitterness must be great for someone to vocalize their plotting. God does say "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Deception is something that happens secretly by it's very nature. Saul deceived David by trying to give his daughter in marriage as a distraction and so that the Philistines would take advantage of this. You can't feel the blade of deception until the damage is done. It's like a disease that eats at your immune system and until you get the results, you had no idea how long it had been there. Lies are evil. Saul says he won't kill David on multiple occasions and yet he keeps going after him. We know after Saul's death that David greatly mourns this loss. He loved Saul, but this man he loved was doing everything in his power to kill him. Have you felt something similar when those you love sin against you? Husband? Wife? Mom? Dad? A good friend? David points out that Saul lied, but what about David's lie? Scripture is honest about the faults of God's people. David told Ahimelech the priest that the consecrated bread was for the men, but it was really for him. Yet this David is the one God says is a man after His own heart. Righteous people sin too don't they? We're not immune to verbal evil. So before you're tempted to lift yourself up and tear the other person down you need to remember that you could fall into the same thing, whether it be on a large or even a small scale. So I said this psalm doesn't dwell on answering the "why" question. Our psalm focuses instead on the "now what?" question (as we'll see). We know "why" in Saul's case. If you remember from 1 Samuel 18, Saul wanted to keep his kingdom and fight what God was doing in replacing him with David. BUT this Psalm still asks the question why yet it doesn't seek any more of an answer to that question. This may not be the best example of this point, but this is very common throughout the Lament psalms. I think that's important, because the answer isn't important. So often we dwell on and speculate about why something is happening to us or we try to make assumptions and use our imagination about someone's motives, but assumptions are SO dangerous. I think an indirect lesson here is that our focus needs to be on the now and not on the why just as the psalmist' focus was.
So we see The Nature of the sin against us. It's primarily verbal and it's evil, but we aren't immune to it and we don't need to ask why it happened.
Secondly, in v.5-7 God shows us the The Judgment of the sin against us.
V.5 begins with two words of comfort, "but God." The intervention of God in our moments of pain ALWAYS means hope and spiritual growth. David here expresses the certainty of God's judgment. Samuel said Saul's kingdom would be torn from him. Here David predicts Saul's removal from the kingdom and his death. A tent is a temporary dwelling place. Saul's stay in the palace was now temporary. Beyond this he would no longer be firmly planted, but he would be uprooted from the land of the living. He would die (1 Sam. 31:4). He would also be subject to humiliation. Why? Because He wouldn't take refuge in God, but did instead look to his own riches and his own evil. The riches here are I believe pointing us to the riches of Saul's kingdom. Saul wanted to maintain his own wealth and trusted that it would remain steady, that his kingdom would survive. There's considerable difference in translation about the second half of v.7.
ESV, "and sought refuge in his own destruction!"
NIV, "and grew strong by destroying others!"
NASB, "And was strong in his evil desire."
Amplified Bible, "seeking refuge and security for himself through his wickedness."
*I think the idea is expressed best in that Saul "sought refuge in his work of evil or his work of wickedness." Saul put his trust in the evil He was doing and not in God. When people sin against us they aren't trusting in God or they wouldn't resort to lies, deception, and scheming. These things are attempts at solving our problems or getting what we want without considering God. It's important to note here too that we don't know if Doeg was torn from his dwelling place or if he died as a result of God's judgment. We also have no concrete evidence that he was trusting in riches or in his works of evil. To what end would he be trusting in such things?
But we must ask how could David say such things? David did know by the prophecy of Samuel that Saul's time would come to an end and it would be a reflection of God's judgment on him, but on what principle could he stand on to be so certain ...He knew the character of God. God is just and "vengeance is the Lord's." He's the one who punishes the guilty. He's the one who deals with hearts. How does this help you and I? We may not have a Samuel today to tell us how our situations will turn out. We can't go to a witch of Chicago and conjure up the spirit of Samuel to prophesy over our situation. I hope you wouldn't try to do that. Very problematic. But when people sin against us with words that feel like swords we can rest in the character of God. I'm not talking about a Buddhist idea of Karma... what comes around goes around. I'm talking about a just God in heaven who knows exactly how and to what degree to rebuke the sins of mankind and especially the sins of His children. God disciplines those He loves. We need to believe that. We need to rest in that truth. We rest in it though, we don't glory in it. Proverbs 24:17-18 tells us, "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Or the Lord will see it and be displeased, And turn His anger away from him."
So we see The Nature of the sin against us, and The Judgment of the sin against us.
Finally we see The Response to the sin against us in READ v.8-9.
David says he is not like the tree that Saul would be... the one that's uprooted from life. David is like an olive tree. This tree grew for hundreds of years, yielding 6 gallons of oil on alternate years. This is a tree that stands and it stands in the presence of God. V.8 tells us David trusts in the steadfast love of God "forever and ever." We see a return here to the opposite of the evil in v.1. David's hope is found in his trust in the love of God. If you are a child of God tonight, do you believe God loves you? There's so much confusion and misuse of the love of God these days. We're so busy showing people the justice of God in our culture (and rightly so) that we sometimes minimize a biblical understanding and application of God's love. I want to tell you today that if David could trust in the enduring, steadfast love of God then we can do the same! Psalm 36:7 says, "How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings." Romans 8:39, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God." You see if we forget that God loves us we begin to think of a way to retaliate when others sin against us. We begin to do some plotting of our own. If not that, we get angry, we go into panic mode and freak out. We must remember that the love of God is upon us and we can trust that His love for us will help us endure... because that's what it does!
Not only does David TRUST in the love of God though... he also THANKS God. How often do we actually thank God because of His character and His justice? I gotta tell ya I'm thankful that God is just and that He's the one who takes care of all that. It saves me the time, pain, and heartache it would involve to worry about paying someone back. So I ask you... how often do you thank God because of who He is? How often do you (in the midst of being wronged) thank God that He is sovereign and still on His throne? Finally, David WAITS for God. We're so reactionary aren't we? When someone hurts us we want to kick and scream and DO something about it. It's so contrary to who we are to wait. A pastor once gave me some great advice. He said when something major happens or something that really hits your heart hard... that it's a good general rule that you wait 48 hours before acting on it. This is wise advice because no matter how mature we think we are... we can still be unstable. We don't like waiting. We're a culture in which the microwave doesn't beep fast enought. And the older I get the more I realize that the Christian life is really just a series of waiting seasons. We wait until God moves in this direction or that direction then we wait until a door opens or closes in another direction. Waiting is hard, isn't it? But when God moves and the waiting is over it's usually just followed by another kind of waiting. Getting what we want or God culminating our waiting period doesn't solve the problem. No... instead we need to learn how to wait. David was on the run for his life. He had no choice but to wait on God to bring justice in the situation. We may not have David's exact situation, but we need to learn from his example. You may have a similar situation... one that's just as sticky. Maybe the person who has sinned against you is your boss and they have a firey temper. In fact you fear for your job if you were to retaliate. They've slandered you behind your back and told your co-workers things that simply aren't true and what can you do now? They have the authority.
TRUST God
THANK God
WAIT on God
How do we do these things?
By grasping the truth that Words of evil against us should bring a trust in the love of God for us.
All this comes back to trusting God... trusting that He loves us and knows the situation, trusting that He is still sovereign and still just and He'll bring about the end that most glorifies Him.
"Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt us." This is true in the end not because it's a pithy saying, but because we have a God and Father who loves us and His love endures despite the evil of others... forever and ever.
Let's pray...
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Is it alright for God's people to express sorrow?
Sitting at Starbucks one night at about 11pm, a friend expressed that in her younger years she greatly struggled with depression. She grew up in the church until 5th grade and in her moments of lament she was simply told to be joyful in the Lord because that's how Christians were supposed to be. She was given the impression that being upset was wrong. I believe the Body of Christ often walks the halls of the local church, shares in times of fellowship, and sings praises to God alongside one another with this same perception. It shows when we share "too much" of what is going on in our lives and our "too much" is met with skepticism, harsh dogmatism, or rebuke by our brothers and sisters. It shows perhaps even in our definition of "too much" as we grow a fear of how our candid thoughts and feelings would be received. It also shows at times in our own prayer life as we relate to God. The Lament psalms come to us as an instructive example that speaks directly to such perceptions. Is lament legitimate among God's people? What does biblical lament look like? How can the church practically address this issue? These are the questions the church needs to answer for the health of the Body.
Psalm 4 is a psalm of individual lament that opens with "Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! " In this verse David gives his Address to God. If we were to stop here the point could be reasonably made by this verse alone. In these words we hear an urgency and an honesty. It comes across as a kind of demand. There is no nuance of "answer me if you want to, God." This is the true heart of David as he wrestles with the place of this distress in his life. When we read these words and ask if it is wrong to say similar things to God, in some sense we are asking the wrong question. The question instead is, "Is it honest or realistic to talk this way to God?" The answer to this question must be yes. David pours his heart out to the Lord without fear or reservation, calls for mercy in his situation, and calls for God to listen to his prayer. The tenor of this address is common throughout the Psalms (13:3-4, 69:13-14, 119:145-146, 143:7).
Lament psalms also have a section describing the specific situation of the distress. It is actually called the Lament or Complaint portion. Psalm 4:2 says, "O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?" V.6a also says, "There are many who say, 'Who will show us some good?'" Similarly and more directly we find statements like "I pour out my complaint before Him; I tell my trouble before Him." (142:2), "...I am restless in my complaint and I moan" (55:2), and of an important theological comfort, "Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and He hears my voice." (55:17). Is it alright to complain to God? Rather, is it honest and realistic to complain to God? To this we also must answer yes. He hears our cries and listens to our complaints as the loving patient Father He is. In our church culture we often operate under the assumption that it is wrong to complain to God. The truth is that the Lord is intimately acquainted with the struggles of the human soul and He meets us where we are in our normal complaints just as He met David where he was in Psalm 4:3b, "The Lord hears when I call to Him."
Lament psalms also contain a Petition. In Psalm 4 we find this petition in the call for God to hear and in v.6b to "Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!" Similar themes in Psalms are petitions for God to "forget not the afflicted" (10:12). We also find the impreccatory requests like, "Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none" (10:15). Without getting too bogged down in the impreccatory issue it's important I believe to note that these requests are bundled up in the psalmists' trust in and assumption of the character of God. He is a just God and it's clear that he deals out justice appropriately to those who deny Him. The Psalmist only makes these requests in accordance with His known character. The most familiar part of our prayers is our asking things of God. This comes most natural to us and therefore doesn't need too much defense. When the psalmist asks God not to forget those who are afflicted though, we may immediately question his theology. Doesn't he know God doesn't forget things? Doesn't he know God doesn't forsake us? Doesn't he know God listens to us? "God isn't deaf," we may say. Here we must all admit that in our moments of pain the amount of theology or propositions we can know simply don't do the job. The head often doesn't communicate well with the heart. The beauty of Lament psalms is from them we can see that God understands this and He is patient to hear us in these moments and meet us there.
Finally the Lament psalms give us a portion expressing a certainty of having been heard. This is often a call to praise or trust in God. Psalm 4 shows us this in v.7-8, "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Similarly, psalm 55 ends with the brief yet heavy phrase, "But I will trust in You." This is encouraging because the prayer to God that begins in pain will end in a firm trust that God not only will be but is faithful. Often our laments don't see the optimism the psalmists show us. We must show the church that biblical sorrow is legitimate, however it should be surrounding in praise. This presents a challenge for us. In our moments of lament we need to look to the promises of God and the sufficiency of God to grant us help, grace, and strength.
From all of this I believe we can learn a simple truth. It is that God's people today can be honest in their times of sorrow because God's people in the Psalms were honest in theirs. The church today is afraid to be vulnerable. We've bought into a culture of religious individualism. We think our faith and how our pain and struggles relate to it should be our own. We buy this lie and in doing so we stunt our growth in so far as it depends on us. We believe this and wonder why we have trouble relating to those to whom we want to minister. I believe to address this situation we need a biblical world view to affect how we express our sorrow. We need to look to the psalms and see their no-nonsense nature. We need to know that God's people need not be divorced from their feelings. We can express them in all their naked glory to a God who sees that nakedness, sent His Son to die for it, and knows it better than we do. We have a God who entered our earthly reality in the person of Jesus Christ and can "empathize with our weaknesses" (Heb. 4:15).
Secondly we must use this biblical understanding as a foundation to then teach God's people how to pray. We need to know that it is alright to let it all out before God. We need not force or fabricate emotion in our prayer, but we need to know that it is legitimate and that He is unafraid to hear and respond to our honesty in His own sovereign way. It may be that in our familiarity with verbal prayer that we find it difficult to be honest. In these cases it would help for us to write out a prayer as a letter. We can also look toward the communal Laments in Psalms (12, 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85) as examples of prayers that depart from the "I" of individuality and present a unified plea to God in a group. For those who are in a place where they can express distress in their individual times of prayer it may be helpful to join a small group of other brothers and sisters who share the same lament and can seek the Lord in honesty together. If God is not afraid to hear us then we need not be afraid to speak to Him both alone and together. As God's people today may we follow the example of those who have gone before us!
Psalm 4 is a psalm of individual lament that opens with "Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! " In this verse David gives his Address to God. If we were to stop here the point could be reasonably made by this verse alone. In these words we hear an urgency and an honesty. It comes across as a kind of demand. There is no nuance of "answer me if you want to, God." This is the true heart of David as he wrestles with the place of this distress in his life. When we read these words and ask if it is wrong to say similar things to God, in some sense we are asking the wrong question. The question instead is, "Is it honest or realistic to talk this way to God?" The answer to this question must be yes. David pours his heart out to the Lord without fear or reservation, calls for mercy in his situation, and calls for God to listen to his prayer. The tenor of this address is common throughout the Psalms (13:3-4, 69:13-14, 119:145-146, 143:7).
Lament psalms also have a section describing the specific situation of the distress. It is actually called the Lament or Complaint portion. Psalm 4:2 says, "O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?" V.6a also says, "There are many who say, 'Who will show us some good?'" Similarly and more directly we find statements like "I pour out my complaint before Him; I tell my trouble before Him." (142:2), "...I am restless in my complaint and I moan" (55:2), and of an important theological comfort, "Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and He hears my voice." (55:17). Is it alright to complain to God? Rather, is it honest and realistic to complain to God? To this we also must answer yes. He hears our cries and listens to our complaints as the loving patient Father He is. In our church culture we often operate under the assumption that it is wrong to complain to God. The truth is that the Lord is intimately acquainted with the struggles of the human soul and He meets us where we are in our normal complaints just as He met David where he was in Psalm 4:3b, "The Lord hears when I call to Him."
Lament psalms also contain a Petition. In Psalm 4 we find this petition in the call for God to hear and in v.6b to "Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!" Similar themes in Psalms are petitions for God to "forget not the afflicted" (10:12). We also find the impreccatory requests like, "Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none" (10:15). Without getting too bogged down in the impreccatory issue it's important I believe to note that these requests are bundled up in the psalmists' trust in and assumption of the character of God. He is a just God and it's clear that he deals out justice appropriately to those who deny Him. The Psalmist only makes these requests in accordance with His known character. The most familiar part of our prayers is our asking things of God. This comes most natural to us and therefore doesn't need too much defense. When the psalmist asks God not to forget those who are afflicted though, we may immediately question his theology. Doesn't he know God doesn't forget things? Doesn't he know God doesn't forsake us? Doesn't he know God listens to us? "God isn't deaf," we may say. Here we must all admit that in our moments of pain the amount of theology or propositions we can know simply don't do the job. The head often doesn't communicate well with the heart. The beauty of Lament psalms is from them we can see that God understands this and He is patient to hear us in these moments and meet us there.
Finally the Lament psalms give us a portion expressing a certainty of having been heard. This is often a call to praise or trust in God. Psalm 4 shows us this in v.7-8, "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Similarly, psalm 55 ends with the brief yet heavy phrase, "But I will trust in You." This is encouraging because the prayer to God that begins in pain will end in a firm trust that God not only will be but is faithful. Often our laments don't see the optimism the psalmists show us. We must show the church that biblical sorrow is legitimate, however it should be surrounding in praise. This presents a challenge for us. In our moments of lament we need to look to the promises of God and the sufficiency of God to grant us help, grace, and strength.
From all of this I believe we can learn a simple truth. It is that God's people today can be honest in their times of sorrow because God's people in the Psalms were honest in theirs. The church today is afraid to be vulnerable. We've bought into a culture of religious individualism. We think our faith and how our pain and struggles relate to it should be our own. We buy this lie and in doing so we stunt our growth in so far as it depends on us. We believe this and wonder why we have trouble relating to those to whom we want to minister. I believe to address this situation we need a biblical world view to affect how we express our sorrow. We need to look to the psalms and see their no-nonsense nature. We need to know that God's people need not be divorced from their feelings. We can express them in all their naked glory to a God who sees that nakedness, sent His Son to die for it, and knows it better than we do. We have a God who entered our earthly reality in the person of Jesus Christ and can "empathize with our weaknesses" (Heb. 4:15).
Secondly we must use this biblical understanding as a foundation to then teach God's people how to pray. We need to know that it is alright to let it all out before God. We need not force or fabricate emotion in our prayer, but we need to know that it is legitimate and that He is unafraid to hear and respond to our honesty in His own sovereign way. It may be that in our familiarity with verbal prayer that we find it difficult to be honest. In these cases it would help for us to write out a prayer as a letter. We can also look toward the communal Laments in Psalms (12, 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85) as examples of prayers that depart from the "I" of individuality and present a unified plea to God in a group. For those who are in a place where they can express distress in their individual times of prayer it may be helpful to join a small group of other brothers and sisters who share the same lament and can seek the Lord in honesty together. If God is not afraid to hear us then we need not be afraid to speak to Him both alone and together. As God's people today may we follow the example of those who have gone before us!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Home Again... short lived.
My semester and my time at Moody is rapidly approaching its' end, yet I find myself sitting in the library of my community college in Hurst, Texas. This was expected, yet it wasn't. My mom's health has been so up and down lately that I wanted to mkae sure I could see her while I was still able to. It's one thing to have ups and downs, but quite another for them to be as drastic as they have been. First she seemed near death and then we found out her infection was gone and the tests were looking good. They were about to move her to a physical rehab center to stay for months to continue recovery. But then it got worse. The fluid her body has been collecting due to a pretty inoperative liver has reached her lungs. She needs a tube to breath. In response to the question, "how long will she live?" The doctors have said it's a day to day thing. I wanted to see her in case I wasn't able to before the semester ended.
"Lord, I know You can do great things. I have a Book that says You do and shows You have. God, you raised Lazarus from the dead... can You raise my mom from spiritual death? You are mighty to save. God, people ask how I'm doing. I don't know what to tell them. I knew my mom's body would give out. I knew that. I just want to see her in heaven one day. I want to leave this world to find that she came to know You. That's all I care about and that's what hurts the most right now. Lord, I believe the time is near for her. I know you can break the hard heart and heal the broken heart. Please do that God. Do it with her and do it with all those affected by this, Your will permitting. Oh God please work here I ask You. Yet in all things, not my will, but Yours be done. It's in Christs' name I pray it, Amen."
As I continue to wonder what God may do as this chapter in my life comes to its' end, I find that I have no more answers than I did when I last wrote. After a very interesting couple months, I feel like I'm back at square 1 in many respects. I'm sure that isn't the case though. God has a purpose for all things even if it's hidden deep in His sovereignty. This doesn't stop me from bewilderment though. It's not easy to be willing to take God's sharp turns and hit His predestined potholes gracefully in life, knowing and trusting that He brought us to them for good reason. Schoolwork is one of, if not the last thing on my mind. Procrastination pursues me. Today is the day of the week when I spend time in prayer about my current and future ministry. I have been diligent here. Still speaking with 2 churches. The one in Michigan hasn't responded back but supposedly has reviewed my resume and answered questions. I had another one in KS call me. They added me to a list of people they'd narrowed it to from the mass of those who applied. They only did this after they'd realized they overlooked me on accident. So I slipped through the first filter process on accident!!! But was it accident God? So I read through their doctrinal statement and constitution. I answered a list of questions they had. They responded to my doctrinal questions and we agree!!! In fact they said one of the reasons they're looking for a new pastor is because their old one didn't preach in accordance with the things I mentioned! I was very pleased to hear that. We'll see what God does there. It's close enough to home that I can see people I care about and far enough away that I'm not at home. I continue to pray about my future in minitsry. As I return home I'm reminded again that I don't want to stay here. The house is filthy and soon it will be populated with 4 people, 4 dogs, and 5 cats. I WANT OUT!
"Lord God, You know the plans You have for me. I know they are good, but I don't know what they are... and that's ok. I trust You. God I don't know where I'll be this time next year, but You know. Lord, I graciously ask that You would give me a glimpse into what's next God. If not, please supply the faith I need to keep taking steps off of cliffs. I'm in Your hands God. You know my desire to serve You. You know how You've prepared me and to what end. You know who I am better than I do. Please God, please work in me. I believe it's all coming soon Lord. I may be wrong, but I've seen too much to not believe that. Too much has happened for that not to be true. Yet in all things not my will but Yours be done. In Christs' name I pray, Amen."
"Lord, I know You can do great things. I have a Book that says You do and shows You have. God, you raised Lazarus from the dead... can You raise my mom from spiritual death? You are mighty to save. God, people ask how I'm doing. I don't know what to tell them. I knew my mom's body would give out. I knew that. I just want to see her in heaven one day. I want to leave this world to find that she came to know You. That's all I care about and that's what hurts the most right now. Lord, I believe the time is near for her. I know you can break the hard heart and heal the broken heart. Please do that God. Do it with her and do it with all those affected by this, Your will permitting. Oh God please work here I ask You. Yet in all things, not my will, but Yours be done. It's in Christs' name I pray it, Amen."
As I continue to wonder what God may do as this chapter in my life comes to its' end, I find that I have no more answers than I did when I last wrote. After a very interesting couple months, I feel like I'm back at square 1 in many respects. I'm sure that isn't the case though. God has a purpose for all things even if it's hidden deep in His sovereignty. This doesn't stop me from bewilderment though. It's not easy to be willing to take God's sharp turns and hit His predestined potholes gracefully in life, knowing and trusting that He brought us to them for good reason. Schoolwork is one of, if not the last thing on my mind. Procrastination pursues me. Today is the day of the week when I spend time in prayer about my current and future ministry. I have been diligent here. Still speaking with 2 churches. The one in Michigan hasn't responded back but supposedly has reviewed my resume and answered questions. I had another one in KS call me. They added me to a list of people they'd narrowed it to from the mass of those who applied. They only did this after they'd realized they overlooked me on accident. So I slipped through the first filter process on accident!!! But was it accident God? So I read through their doctrinal statement and constitution. I answered a list of questions they had. They responded to my doctrinal questions and we agree!!! In fact they said one of the reasons they're looking for a new pastor is because their old one didn't preach in accordance with the things I mentioned! I was very pleased to hear that. We'll see what God does there. It's close enough to home that I can see people I care about and far enough away that I'm not at home. I continue to pray about my future in minitsry. As I return home I'm reminded again that I don't want to stay here. The house is filthy and soon it will be populated with 4 people, 4 dogs, and 5 cats. I WANT OUT!
"Lord God, You know the plans You have for me. I know they are good, but I don't know what they are... and that's ok. I trust You. God I don't know where I'll be this time next year, but You know. Lord, I graciously ask that You would give me a glimpse into what's next God. If not, please supply the faith I need to keep taking steps off of cliffs. I'm in Your hands God. You know my desire to serve You. You know how You've prepared me and to what end. You know who I am better than I do. Please God, please work in me. I believe it's all coming soon Lord. I may be wrong, but I've seen too much to not believe that. Too much has happened for that not to be true. Yet in all things not my will but Yours be done. In Christs' name I pray, Amen."
Thursday, November 4, 2010
John 3:1-8: You Must Be Born Again
I wanna introduce you to a man this morning. He wasn't the richest man really, but he could afford some of the finer things. He was a deeply spiritual man. His name was Nicodemus. Maybe you can relate to him. Perhaps your parents had a drug problem. They drug you to church on Sunday, they drug you to church on Wednesday, they drug you to church prayer meetings. You've been in church nearly right out of the womb it seems. You heard the Bible stories as a kid in Sunday School. You went on mission trips in Youth Group. But something happened. You began to wonder about this Jesus stuff. You believe in Jesus and think He had some good things to say. But after having tried all that growing up you found that it just didn't work. Your life wasn't any better because of it. You still had to work to put gas in your car. You still got dumped by the most amazing guy or girl in high school. Your grandma, who was the kindest woman anyone could ever meet still died of cancer. You hear Christians all the time talking about morals, but they're no better than you are. You can be just as moral as they can. "I can be a good person without being a Christian and going to church," you say. "There's no reason why I shouldn't go to heaven."
What's the difference between the one who is spiritual and the one who is born again? You see this is the question at the heart of the matter today and this is the question that Jesus Himself answers for us this morning in John 3:1-8. John is the fourth book in the New Testament, just after Luke and before Acts. John 3:1-8.
READ: John 3:1-8
Now Nicodemus was a spiritual man, but he was more than that. He was a leader of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a Jewish sect of legalistic leaders that were antagonistic to Christ and His followers. To distinguish them from another major group in the New Testament it's been said that because they were legalistic they weren't "fair...u see" as compared to the Sadducees who denied the resurrection and therefore had no future hope and were "sad...u see." Him being a leader meant that he was likely part of the Sanhedrin, which was like the Jewish Supreme Court. And Nicodemus wanted to meet with Jesus. But there was a problem. He was a Pharisee. How would he do this? He knew that his comrades wouldn't think too highly of him going to see this trouble maker. So I imagine he began thinking, "I can't talk to Him during the day because the people are all over Him. Surely they would see me." So after the fanfare dispersed, the linen weavers went home, and the carpenters packed up their things, the sun took its' place beneath the earth and the crickets brought the night with them. Now it was time to go see Jesus. This "ruler of the Jews" Nicodemus traveled carefully and quietly to now go see the man who would later be called the "King of the Jews." So he traveled quietly and secretly. His first words to Christ in v.2 are, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher;" Do know what it took for someone to be recognized as a Rabbi in this culture? A Rabbi was made being the disciple of another Rabbi. Jesus had no mentor and in fact was wowing teachers in the temple even when He was a twelve year old boy! And this man recognized Him as Rabbi and teacher.
Some of you today may say the same... Jesus was a real man and a good teacher. He's the one who said, "Do to others as you would have them do to you." He said to "love your neighbor as you love yourself." But is that all He said? because if He is a good teacher than the things He taught were good, and right, and true... weren't they? Keep that in mind as we continue in this story together. Why did Nicodemus say He was a good teacher? V.2 continues as he tells us, "for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Look back with me at v.2:23-25. You may say, "I don't believe in miracles!" Well let me ask you this, "Is what you or I believe really the issue?" Or is it a matter of truth? You see truth by it's very nature stands beyond what we believe and how strongly we believe it. This man saw the miracles with his very eyes and believed them. They were so real to him he would some risk to go see this Jesus Christ. He still could've been seen at night, just not as well. Now I want you to notice what Christ did NOT do... He didn't tell Nicodemus He was right to call Jesus Rabbi. He didn't commend him for his bravery in coming to chat. He didn't confirm that He had in fact come from God.
What did Jesus say? v.3, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." This was the heart of the issue. You see Jesus knew what was in the heart of man. Nicodemus saw the miracles and acknowledged Jesus Christ, but Christ did not acknowledge him. He needed to be born again. You may have heard Christians say this today. You may have seen the street preacher on your way to the mall and heard him say this. "What exactly does it mean?! "born again?!" You ask in utter confusion" Well, you're not alone. Because Nicodemus asked the same question. He says in v.4-5, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit."
"Born Again"
In the original language this idea of being born again can also be translated "born from above" and the idea is that you must be "born from heaven." Nicodemus heard this and thought it meant physical birth, but Jesus was referring to something VERY different. He says this heavenly birth is to be of the "water and the Spirit." Some of you today may have been raised in a church where you had to be baptized, maybe as a baby, and the impression you got is that it was in some way to help you get to heaven. Is this the water Jesus is talking about here? I don't think we can say it is. There's no mention of baptism in this entire chapter. It doesn't fit in what Christ is saying here at all. There is no physical outward act you can do to help you get to heaven. The Bible says...
"He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit," (Titus 3:5)
Do you see that? No righteous thing or physical earthly act we do can help us get any closer to heaven. I've been baptized three times. Does that get me any nearer to God than you? No. Here it says the "washing of regeneration/rebirth." This new birth is not like the old one. THIS new birth actually cleanses the soul! The water here gives us a metaphorical picture of what being born again looks like. In Matthew 3:11, the Bible also says, "As for me I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." When someone is born again and God the Holy Spirit moves upon them they don't catch on fire. They don't become the Human Torch. Fire has a purifying effect to it, just as water can have. The fire here is metaphorical, just like the water is. Jesus goes on to explain that physical earthly birth is simply that. It remains physical and earthly. It's nature and worth is different... it's not divine. Spiritual birth however is heavenly. It's this birth that Jesus speaks of as the birth that will allow someone to experience the kingdom of God after they die.
Think with me for a moment about the birth of a child. Before a child is born it lives in one reality, the reality of its' mother's womb. This is the only world the child can experience. Life is good in this world... the baby is protected and nurtured and even its' food is even provided for. But the baby wasn't meant to stay in that world. It's temporary. When the baby leaves the womb, a whole new world is opened up to them. Once the baby settles down and begins to look around at the new world, it sees people in a new way (from the outside no longer from the inside). It experiences a whole new way of life. And as the baby's father witnesses this birth, he is filled with a joy that words cannot know. This is similar to spiritual birth yet wholly different if I can say that, because you see right now this reality... this life as you know it, the way you see the world, the way you approach the difficulties and challenges of life... it all becomes new. You won't ask, "God why did you take my grandma?!" You'll say, "Lord, thank you for giving me such a sweet woman for so many years." When God changes your heart, when you're born again, you're given new eyes for this life and a new hope for heaven.
Jesus continues in v.7, "Do not be amazed that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." The Holy Spirit of God works like the wind. He works invisibly. You can't see Him, but He begins to pull at you and the time comes when you hear these truths and you begin to believe them. God says that His people know and hear His voice. Some of you may feel the breath of the Holy Spirit on your heart and mind today. You see yourself in Nicodemus. You've been very religious, but you know it's not enough. I need to tell you today...
Drop the fake devotion to religious things.
Stop following a spirituality that you made up.
Stop trusting in your good morals.
Why do we need cleansing? Because no matter how hard we try to reform ourselves and our morals... we've already blown it.
We've told lies, we've put God last in our lives, we've looked with lust committing adultery in our heart, we've taken God's name in vain. We're not good people. And your religious cloak can't hide our nakedness before God. God says you are are dead in your sins. You're the walking dead. And you're walking straight into Hell.
We need the cleansing that only God can give. And He gave it when He became a man in Jesus Christ, who died on a cross to take your sin and mine upon Himself. he didn't die so you could go to church on Easter or Christmas and feel a little better about yourself. He died as a sacrifice for sin. He then rose from the dead on the 3rd day, proving who He was. God says you must surrender all that you are. You must lay your excuses, your fears, and your religiosity at the foot of the cross of Christ. You must turn your back on sin and put your trust in Christ alone not in your parent's religion, your baptism, your prayers or any good things you did to your fellow man.
You see, through this story about the man Nicodemus God is showing you that...
To know about Jesus Christ only means you're the walking dead, but to know Jesus Christ means you are born again.
Now I'm not asking you to join the church. I'm not trying to sell you anything. I just wanna see you in heaven one day. So as our service ends, a few of us will be up front. If you have any questions or want to talk further about this. Please feel free to come and speak with us.
Let's pray...
What's the difference between the one who is spiritual and the one who is born again? You see this is the question at the heart of the matter today and this is the question that Jesus Himself answers for us this morning in John 3:1-8. John is the fourth book in the New Testament, just after Luke and before Acts. John 3:1-8.
READ: John 3:1-8
Now Nicodemus was a spiritual man, but he was more than that. He was a leader of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a Jewish sect of legalistic leaders that were antagonistic to Christ and His followers. To distinguish them from another major group in the New Testament it's been said that because they were legalistic they weren't "fair...u see" as compared to the Sadducees who denied the resurrection and therefore had no future hope and were "sad...u see." Him being a leader meant that he was likely part of the Sanhedrin, which was like the Jewish Supreme Court. And Nicodemus wanted to meet with Jesus. But there was a problem. He was a Pharisee. How would he do this? He knew that his comrades wouldn't think too highly of him going to see this trouble maker. So I imagine he began thinking, "I can't talk to Him during the day because the people are all over Him. Surely they would see me." So after the fanfare dispersed, the linen weavers went home, and the carpenters packed up their things, the sun took its' place beneath the earth and the crickets brought the night with them. Now it was time to go see Jesus. This "ruler of the Jews" Nicodemus traveled carefully and quietly to now go see the man who would later be called the "King of the Jews." So he traveled quietly and secretly. His first words to Christ in v.2 are, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher;" Do know what it took for someone to be recognized as a Rabbi in this culture? A Rabbi was made being the disciple of another Rabbi. Jesus had no mentor and in fact was wowing teachers in the temple even when He was a twelve year old boy! And this man recognized Him as Rabbi and teacher.
Some of you today may say the same... Jesus was a real man and a good teacher. He's the one who said, "Do to others as you would have them do to you." He said to "love your neighbor as you love yourself." But is that all He said? because if He is a good teacher than the things He taught were good, and right, and true... weren't they? Keep that in mind as we continue in this story together. Why did Nicodemus say He was a good teacher? V.2 continues as he tells us, "for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Look back with me at v.2:23-25. You may say, "I don't believe in miracles!" Well let me ask you this, "Is what you or I believe really the issue?" Or is it a matter of truth? You see truth by it's very nature stands beyond what we believe and how strongly we believe it. This man saw the miracles with his very eyes and believed them. They were so real to him he would some risk to go see this Jesus Christ. He still could've been seen at night, just not as well. Now I want you to notice what Christ did NOT do... He didn't tell Nicodemus He was right to call Jesus Rabbi. He didn't commend him for his bravery in coming to chat. He didn't confirm that He had in fact come from God.
What did Jesus say? v.3, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." This was the heart of the issue. You see Jesus knew what was in the heart of man. Nicodemus saw the miracles and acknowledged Jesus Christ, but Christ did not acknowledge him. He needed to be born again. You may have heard Christians say this today. You may have seen the street preacher on your way to the mall and heard him say this. "What exactly does it mean?! "born again?!" You ask in utter confusion" Well, you're not alone. Because Nicodemus asked the same question. He says in v.4-5, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit."
"Born Again"
In the original language this idea of being born again can also be translated "born from above" and the idea is that you must be "born from heaven." Nicodemus heard this and thought it meant physical birth, but Jesus was referring to something VERY different. He says this heavenly birth is to be of the "water and the Spirit." Some of you today may have been raised in a church where you had to be baptized, maybe as a baby, and the impression you got is that it was in some way to help you get to heaven. Is this the water Jesus is talking about here? I don't think we can say it is. There's no mention of baptism in this entire chapter. It doesn't fit in what Christ is saying here at all. There is no physical outward act you can do to help you get to heaven. The Bible says...
"He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit," (Titus 3:5)
Do you see that? No righteous thing or physical earthly act we do can help us get any closer to heaven. I've been baptized three times. Does that get me any nearer to God than you? No. Here it says the "washing of regeneration/rebirth." This new birth is not like the old one. THIS new birth actually cleanses the soul! The water here gives us a metaphorical picture of what being born again looks like. In Matthew 3:11, the Bible also says, "As for me I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." When someone is born again and God the Holy Spirit moves upon them they don't catch on fire. They don't become the Human Torch. Fire has a purifying effect to it, just as water can have. The fire here is metaphorical, just like the water is. Jesus goes on to explain that physical earthly birth is simply that. It remains physical and earthly. It's nature and worth is different... it's not divine. Spiritual birth however is heavenly. It's this birth that Jesus speaks of as the birth that will allow someone to experience the kingdom of God after they die.
Think with me for a moment about the birth of a child. Before a child is born it lives in one reality, the reality of its' mother's womb. This is the only world the child can experience. Life is good in this world... the baby is protected and nurtured and even its' food is even provided for. But the baby wasn't meant to stay in that world. It's temporary. When the baby leaves the womb, a whole new world is opened up to them. Once the baby settles down and begins to look around at the new world, it sees people in a new way (from the outside no longer from the inside). It experiences a whole new way of life. And as the baby's father witnesses this birth, he is filled with a joy that words cannot know. This is similar to spiritual birth yet wholly different if I can say that, because you see right now this reality... this life as you know it, the way you see the world, the way you approach the difficulties and challenges of life... it all becomes new. You won't ask, "God why did you take my grandma?!" You'll say, "Lord, thank you for giving me such a sweet woman for so many years." When God changes your heart, when you're born again, you're given new eyes for this life and a new hope for heaven.
Jesus continues in v.7, "Do not be amazed that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." The Holy Spirit of God works like the wind. He works invisibly. You can't see Him, but He begins to pull at you and the time comes when you hear these truths and you begin to believe them. God says that His people know and hear His voice. Some of you may feel the breath of the Holy Spirit on your heart and mind today. You see yourself in Nicodemus. You've been very religious, but you know it's not enough. I need to tell you today...
Drop the fake devotion to religious things.
Stop following a spirituality that you made up.
Stop trusting in your good morals.
Why do we need cleansing? Because no matter how hard we try to reform ourselves and our morals... we've already blown it.
We've told lies, we've put God last in our lives, we've looked with lust committing adultery in our heart, we've taken God's name in vain. We're not good people. And your religious cloak can't hide our nakedness before God. God says you are are dead in your sins. You're the walking dead. And you're walking straight into Hell.
We need the cleansing that only God can give. And He gave it when He became a man in Jesus Christ, who died on a cross to take your sin and mine upon Himself. he didn't die so you could go to church on Easter or Christmas and feel a little better about yourself. He died as a sacrifice for sin. He then rose from the dead on the 3rd day, proving who He was. God says you must surrender all that you are. You must lay your excuses, your fears, and your religiosity at the foot of the cross of Christ. You must turn your back on sin and put your trust in Christ alone not in your parent's religion, your baptism, your prayers or any good things you did to your fellow man.
You see, through this story about the man Nicodemus God is showing you that...
To know about Jesus Christ only means you're the walking dead, but to know Jesus Christ means you are born again.
Now I'm not asking you to join the church. I'm not trying to sell you anything. I just wanna see you in heaven one day. So as our service ends, a few of us will be up front. If you have any questions or want to talk further about this. Please feel free to come and speak with us.
Let's pray...
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