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ruins of the city of Jerash in Jordan
Bible Studies

Are You Living in Laodicea?

by Tom Terry
written by Tom Terry

Laodicea was a rich church as the community was a financial center in Asia Minor. Some scholars note that it was the financial capital of the region, with a wealthy banking system. When the city was destroyed in an earthquake in 60AD, the Laodiceans rebuilt the city at their own expense, without the help of Rome. Thus, the city was very affluent and self-sufficient. Sound familiar?

Some scholars believe that the book of Ephesians was a circular letter written to several churches, including Laodicea, though only references to Ephesians survive to today. Additionally, some Greek manuscripts of I Timothy end with the words: “Written at Laodicea, metropolis of Phrygia Pacatiana.” This may refer to copies written in Laodicea and sent out elsewhere.

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.  “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.  For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ ” (Revelation 3:14-22).

EXAMINATION

Contrasts:

Jesus used things from his audience’s own location or culture to make his points. That is no less true with these contrasts. Notice the contrasts:

  • Wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked
  • Rich, white garments, clothe, salve that you may see

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot.”

Notice that Jesus ties in the church’s works with the phrase cold or hot. What does cold or hot have to do with works? The answer comes in what cold or hot represent. Cold water was used for planting and drinking. I.E., refreshment. Hot, like the mineral springs, was used medicinally. The hot waters came from six miles north in Hierapolis and the cold came from Colossae. One is evangelism, one is discipleship. Jesus wanted his people engaged in either hot or cold works. But apparently, Laodicea didn’t have either of these works. They were a self-sufficient church.

“Lukewarm.”

The waters from Hierapolis would gather into pools that by the time of arrival would become lukewarm. The lukewarm pools were known for making people sick.

“Spit you out of my mouth.”

Jesus’ reference here is kind of the nice way of saying what he means. This is literally a reference to vomit. The modern way of saying this is, “You make me sick.” When someone says this, they usually say this in anger or disgust. This is the emotion being conveyed in this passage. “You make me sick.”

This is not the picture of “Jesus meek and mild,” is it? We tend to think of the gentle Jesus, the loving Jesus, the compassionate Jesus. But we sometimes forget that Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. He is just as much wrathful and hating of sin as he is loving through his sacrifice. One New Testament scripture even tells us, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Thankfully, the hands that have embraced us were first nailed to the cross.

“Rich, Prospered, Need nothing.”

Occasionally, I visit a church that reminds me of Laodicea. They are a dynamic church, but since thousands attend, they spend that money on things like giant screens, smoke machines for worship, and other extravagant things for their worship service. I’m not criticizing the pastor, but these things don’t seem necessary to me for genuine worship. I even watched a service one day when one of the associate pastors said to the crowd, “Our church is the best church in the world.” He wasn’t kidding. Things like this make me think of this part of our passage: rich, prospered, needing nothing. But Jesus has something more to say about this.

“Wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Here we see the contrast that Jesus is drawing from Laodicea’s culture to get their attention. Though the city was wealthy and had no physical need other than water. So too, this church felt equally secure in its wealth and self-sufficiency.

“Gold refined by fire.”

The smelter would fire gold and other precious metals to the point of becoming a fluid and the impurities would rise to the surface, called dross, and be scooped away, leaving only pure gold.

We should not miss the fact that when God does this in our lives it’s a process that hurts. Jesus wants us for pure use. It may even be said that God doesn’t really come into full use of us without first having us hurt deeply.

“Rich.”

What are you looking for in your spiritual life?

Jesus uses the word, “Rich” here in a different way than the Laodiceans used it. Their riches of the world were spiritual poverty. Jesus wanted to give them true riches for eternal life. Genesis 15 says that God is, “…our great and exceeding reward.” In him are our riches. Not in things, even heavenly things.

“White garments.”

Whereas Laodicea was “Naked,” Jesus offered “White garments.” This is a contrast on three levels. First, they are spiritually naked, so they need clothing. Their sin needs to be covered over. Second, the use of “White” is also a contrast because the city was known for producing a fine, black wool. “White garments,” as we know from scripture, represent purity and holiness. 

“’The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:7-8).

Third, the priests of the temple in Ezekiel 44:17-19 were forbidden from wearing wool while serving God in the temple. Their garments had to be white linen.

“When they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen garments. They shall have nothing of wool on them, while they minister at the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen turbans on their heads, and linen undergarments around their waists. They shall not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat. And when they go out into the outer court to the people, they shall put off the garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers. And they shall put on other garments.”

This is a picture of holiness and being set apart for the Lord’s service. But it also a type for you and I when we are clothed in righteousness we will never leave the temple. As the priests had to disrobe into normal cloths when they left the temple. But you and I will be clothed in holy garments forever, signifying that we will never leave God’s presence in the New Heaven and Earth.

“Shame of your nakedness.”

This reference goes back to Genesis 3. Remember that Adam and Eve sinned before God and tried to cover themselves with leaves. After finding them in hiding, the scripture says that God gave them clothes made of animal skin.

“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).

This indicates an animal sacrifice for the sin of Adam and Eve, and the skins represent the covering over of their sin by the sacrifice. This also looks ahead to the sacrifice of Jesus. So, don’t miss this correlation from Revelation 19:8, “To clothe herself in fine linen.” The coverings are no longer of animals because animal sacrifice was done away with because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Our symbol is not animal skins or black wool, but fine, white linen.

“Salve…so that you may see.”

Laodicea produced a salve that was said to have healing properties for eye conditions. Jesus uses this reference to show the church that they are blind and need his healing. Spiritual blindness occurs when we see our sufficiency and think we need nothing. In reality, we end up spiritually blind.

There is an interesting correlation here with Jesus’ discussions with the Pharisees in John 9:39-41. After healing a blind man, Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

The same application is being made in today’s passage. Sometimes when we look at ourselves, we think we need nothing beyond where we are spiritually. Once, when teaching a men’s class I taught on spiritual growth. One of the members, a man who claimed Christ for many years, interrupted me and said, “Why do I have to learn this stuff. I prayed the prayer. I’m in!” Sadly, he didn’t’ see his own spiritual poverty. He didn’t think he needed to do anything to grow in Christ.

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.”

Though this letter is harsh, the Laodicean’s should have taken comfort in Jesus’ declaration of love. This is similar to Hebrews 12:5-6,11, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

“If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” I think this is a terrifying thing. For Jesus to be outside the door is to be separated from him spiritually. The home is ours; we occupy it. Jesus is on the outside. Here’s the catch. When you open the door to Jesus, you surrender the ownership of your home to him. He is your Lord. He indwells you and retains all of the rights to your life, and he can do with you whatever he pleases.

Do you sometimes feel like you are in control of your life, or that you have not surrendered all to him?

“As I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

Just like above, when we go to the Father’s throne, we are entering his house. And he shares his throne with us. It does not put us in charge. But it demonstrates the great depth of his forgiveness and love that he would share his reign with us.

Consider also this great contrast in our passage. The Laodiceans go from being spit out of Jesus’ mouth to sitting on God’s throne in victory. No matter how bad we are, how disobedient we are, there is always hope for great reward from God when we repent of our sins and truly surrender our lives to him.

INTERPRETATION

  1. If we look at ourselves and don’t see sin that needs repenting, then we are spiritually blind. 
  2. If we think that we have all that we need in life and don’t see a need for spiritual growth, then we are spiritually poor. 
  3. If we think that we have “arrived” and don’t need to know more to have a relationship with God, then we are spiritually naked.

Jesus wants to reverse our spiritual condition so that we become spiritually rich, dressed, and seeing. He wants us saved, spiritually growing, and spiritually active. If we are not under these three things, then our salvation is in question.

Many Christians see financial security as a sign that God is blessing us because he is pleased with our lives. Laodicea may have felt the same way. But financial blessing may not be a sign of God’s pleasure. It may be that we have a Prosperity Gospel attitude, that God wants to give us the best. In fact, one of the greatest blessings the scripture says we can receive is being granted the right to suffer for Jesus’ name. Did you catch that? GRANTED to suffer as if it is a blessing and a right.

“For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake…” (Philippians 1:29).

Are you cold, hot, or lukewarm?

APPLICATION

Let’s ask some questions of ourselves to figure out which category we belong in.

  1. Do I want others to come to know Christ so much that I’m willing to do something about it? I did not want to move to Mongolia. But when we learned that 98% of Mongolians had never heard the Gospel, we knew we had to go. We had to do something about it.
  2. Do I want to build up others in their faith so much that I’m willing to do something about it?
  3. Do I want a vigorous and active faith in Christ, always expressed in my speech and works? Or do I only pursue my Christianity at church on Sunday?

John’s big idea is not just so we can be rich, dressed, and see. It’s so that we can use those things to advance the kingdom of God. We become rich so that we can share our riches with others. We become dressed so that we can present the Gospel through our lives and words. And we become seeing so that we can recognize the opportunities around us so that we might share the Gospel and help others see Christ as well.

This is what Jesus wanted the Laodiceans to do, and he wants us to do it as well.

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Articles

Why Doesn’t My Neighbor Go to Church?

by John Beeson
written by John Beeson

There was a time when going to church is what respectable people did. Church was a place not just of worship, but, for the worldly-minded, of upward mobility. My childhood was at the tail end of these days. When I was in sixth grade, our family became acquaintances with a businessman at church. My mom and dad ended up doing business with him only to be burned by his less-than-ethical business dealings. Church, it turned out, was just a handy place for him to expand his business.

Long gone are those days. And good riddance to them. I have no desire to have our society return to “the good old days” of church attendance done for the sake of appearances.

Any vestige of attending church because it is the right thing to do was killed by Covid. With online services and world class worship artists a click away, why go to your local church? Why not just sleep in?

But the local church is not just a dispenser of spiritual wares, it is the local manifestation of God’s people, where we are called to serve and love. I long for people to come to church not because I want an outdated institution propped up. Attending your local church isn’t propping up the last physical movie rental store in your zip code. Participating in your local church is choosing to encounter your holy and loving God in the presence of his people, experience the warmth of God’s family, and steward the gifts God has given you for the sake of others.

A recent survey asked people why they do and don’t attend church. Those who attend cited reasons such as “to get closer to God,” “because I find the sermons valuable,” and “to be part of a faith community” as some of their answers. Those who don’t attend listed these as their top reasons for not attending:

1.      I practice my faith in other ways

2.      I am not a believer

3.      I haven’t found a church I like

4.      I don’t like the sermons

5.      I don’t feel welcome

That’s a helpful glimpse into the heart of the non-church attender. You might notice that four of the five reasons don’t have anything to do with their beliefs. That means that the most significant objection you might fear from your neighbor (disagreeing with your faith) is unlikely to be the main reason they aren’t attending.

If we consider that in a town like Tucson somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of residents very rarely, if ever, attend church, each of these reasons represents a huge number of people. An argumentative approach is certainly not the way to go. Instead, lovingly addressing each of these concerns is far more effective.

So let’s consider these reasons:

1)     I practice my faith in other ways. Sharing with this person the benefits and blessings you have experienced from church is a wonderful way to gently push back on this belief. You can share what you’ve learned through sermons or how you have been challenged. You can share how blessed you are in worshiping alongside others. You can share how the family of God has come alongside you in times of need. You can also, more boldly, but just as lovingly, suggest that the Bible doesn’t have a category for Christianity without meaningful connection to other believers. Our witness is predicated on our unity (John 15), our spiritual gifts are given for the benefit of other Christians (1 Corinthians 12), and we are directly told not to forsake gathering together (Hebrews 12). While individual expressions of faith are important and purposeful, they are not the entirety of the Christian experience.

2)     I am not a believer. While the main purpose of the gathered body is for the encouragement and upbuilding of believers, the church always welcomes unbelievers. In fact, it’s a great way to test out what someone has heard about Christianity. Some sects and cults don’t allow unbelievers in their worship. That is not so with Christianity. There are no secrets behind the veil. And doesn’t such a significant decision—what one chooses to believe about who God is and what we were made for—merit meaningful time, energy, and inquiry?

3)     I haven’t found a church I like. The best way to find a church that is a good fit is to go with a friend. And you never know what you might end up liking if you give it a shot. What wound out being some of my favorite TV shows, I almost didn’t make it to the second or third episode. If your friend doesn’t like your church, maybe you know another church they might like, or maybe your pastor can suggest a church that might better fit their preferences. Ultimately, of course, our commitment to the church shouldn’t be predicated on our preferences, but rather our commitment to Christ and his people.

4)     I don’t like the sermons. Why doesn’t your friend like the sermons? Because of a disagreement? Because they are boring? Because they are too elementary? Because they aren’t grounded in the Bible? Each of these reasons has a different response. If the sermons aren’t grounded in the authority of the Bible, then it is a good idea to consider a different church. If you disagree with the pastor, perhaps you can walk through those disagreements, or even encourage your friend to sit down with the pastor and walk through disagreements? If the sermons are boring or too elementary, perhaps digging into the Bible during the sermon you yield even deeper insight as the pastor preaches. Or perhaps there is a loss of thirst for spiritual things. Pray earnestly for a true spiritual thirst.

5)     I don’t feel welcome. This is an easy one! There is no better way for someone to feel welcome than you driving with them to church, walking through the doors with them, and sitting next to them. In fact, it’s hard to imagine them not feeling welcome in that scenario!

Every church is flawed. I wish our church perfectly welcomed everyone who walked through our doors; I wish my sermons never left a single person bored, frustrated, or turned off, and I wish that we were able to play music that meaningfully connected with every person. I long for us to continue to grow to be the church God has called us to be. And we won’t ever stop challenging ourselves to have the next Sunday be even better than the last Sunday.

But I still believe in the church! Every gathering of God’s people is a place where God brings his transformative power, where God spills his love out over his people, and where he calls unbelievers to himself. Don’t stop believing in God’s church. And don’t miss out on your opportunity to invite the many who are disconnected from God’s family to come and see what God is doing.

www.thebeehive.live.

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Articles

Consumerism and the Church

by Carey Nieuwhof
written by Carey Nieuwhof

“Consumerism and the Church: Reclaiming the Gospel From Our Most Powerful Religion” is written by Joe Terrell, content manager at CareyNieuwhof.com. Joe’s writings for Medium, Relevant, Carey Nieuwhof, and his personal blog, Instrument of Mercy, have been read by over three million people.

For the past six decades, the local and institutionalized church has positioned itself as a place to be entertained, discover your purpose, and “plug in” to community.

And it’s a strategy that’s been wildly successful.

Until now.

Echoing national trends of a growing distrust of “large institutions,” a 2017 Gallup poll found that only 41% of Americans view the Church as a “trustworthy organization.”

According to a Barna research study, only 2 out of 10 millennials believe church attendance is “important or worthwhile.“

At the same time, nearly 40% of millennials consider themselves “Religiously Unaffiliated.” Additionally, members of Gen Z (the generation currently entering college) are twice as likely to identify as atheists than the general population.

What happens to large institutions when people begin to lose faith in large institutions?

In other words, what happens when miming secular culture finally leads the Church down a road it can’t follow without dismantling itself?

While high-profile scandals, partisan politics, and generational shifts in opinion regarding controversial social issues certainly contribute to the modern disillusionment of organized religion, I believe a much larger unifying force is at play here.

It’s called consumerism.
And it affects nearly every aspect of your life.

Consumerism has not only infiltrated our understanding and application of Christianity, but it is also essentially a religion in and of itself.

And, by almost every metric, it could easily be considered th

What is Consumerism?

Consumerism is a cultural ethic born out of the advent of mass production and further cemented by the advertising boom of the fifties and sixties. Consumerism hinges on the belief that if we only bought what we needed, our economy would collapse.

Therefore, the goal of consumerism is to create artificial demand for goods and services you don’t really need and probably didn’t even know existed.

Consumerism is so much more than an advertising strategy.

It’s a worldview that fundamentally alters the way we approach our bodies, our relationships, our mental health, and our religion.

The goal of consumerism is to create artificial demand for goods and services you don’t really need and probably didn’t even know existed. 

There is no aspect of the American experience that hasn’t been infiltrated by consumerism.

In The Shattered Lantern, Ronald Rolheiser writes,

“Our lives become consumed with the idea that unless we somehow experience everything, travel everywhere, see everything, and are part of a large number of people’s experience, then our own lives are small and meaningless.”

It’s an economic system that thrives on your lack of self-control and preys on your insecurities. We give magazines, home-makeover TV shows, and social media accounts permission to sow discontent in our personal lives and shape our desires for something better.

From diamond engagement rings to home ownership, we’ve been led to believe that “Bigger is Better” by corporations and financial institutions that profit from that very belief.

Our religious and national holidays have become excuses to shop. Products – like cars and smartphones – are purposefully designed to make you yearn for the newer model. One of the fastest growing real estate markets in the U.S. is storage containers – so we can fill them with stuff that can’t fit in our too-big houses.

We are taught through an endless barrage of advertisements that love is best expressed through the exchange of expensive gifts and purpose can be obtained by a trip abroad.

The consumer culture has slyly commodified conversations about happiness, contentment, mindfulness, and empowerment into conversations about individualism and materialism under the banner of “pursuing an authentic life.”

Even the virtue of simplicity quickly became the marketable aesthetic of minimalism – another ‘lifestyle’ only available to those wealthy enough to afford it.

In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari writes,

“Consumerism sees the consumption of ever more products and services as a positive thing. It encourages people to treat themselves, spoil themselves, and even kill themselves slowly by overconsumption. Frugality is a disease to be cured. Consumerism has worked very hard, with the help of popular psychology (“Just do it!”) to convince people that indulgence is good for you, whereas frugality is self-oppression.”

Consumerism absorbs, modifies, and commodifies preexisting belief systems and ideologies. And Christianity is not immune.

Because, make no mistake, consumerism is a religion.

Our temples are malls and digital storefronts, our altars are checkout counters and online baskets, our priests are advertising agencies, our sacrifices are the dollars in our checking accounts, and God is our unmet desires.

Consumerism absorbs, modifies, and commodifies preexisting belief systems and ideologies. And Christianity is not immune. 

The Marriage of Consumerism and the Church

In the early 1970s, a generation was coming of age that didn’t seem to want much to do with their parent’s faith; church attendance among young people began to plummet.

(Sound familiar?)

The sixties and seventies were periods of immense social and political upheaval, and people were questioning the role of religion in the new cultural landscape.

At the same time, color TVs were making their way into every living room in America, and the entertainment industry was experiencing its heyday – some of the most iconic films and bands were born out of this era.

How could a stuffy church service possibly compete with Star Wars, the Rolling Stones, televised sports, and the bloom of New Age spirituality?

However, a few innovative pastors began to experiment with new ways of doing church. Instead of shying away from cultural expectations, these ministries leaned in and began crafting a church experience with something to offer everyone.

In How Churches Became Cruise Ships, Skye Jethani writes,

“The logic was simple: if the Baby Boomers did not feel the need to connect with God, then perhaps another felt-need would draw them into the church: the need for community, or entertainment, or help with their children and marriages. While they consumed the upbeat music, support groups, dramas, and therapeutic sermons, the hope was that they would find God as well.“

Evangelical churches began orientating their Sunday morning services around worship experiences with an emphasis on production. In the 1990s, the emphasis shifted to offering programs, art, and services that mimicked the secular culture, but offered a “Christian twist.”

New churches stripped religious iconography from their exteriors and interiors and gravitated toward an architectural style that blended the aesthetics of a mall, community college campus, and movie theater.

Church could be anything, as long as it wasn’t boring.

And this cycle began to perpetuate itself: The growth and direction of the modern church were fueled and influenced by money donated by the congregations attracted by entertainment and conditioned by consumerism.

In The Forgotten Ways, pastor Alan Hirsch writes,

“Win them with entertainment, and you have to keep them there by entertaining them. For a whole lot of reasons, this commitment seems to get harder year after year. We end up creating a whip for our own backs.”

And this creates all sorts of weird problems.

For example, people become more prone to leave if the reason they were attracted to a church (entertainment, community, etc.) in the first place gets a sleeker and more productive counterpart in the secular culture (this phenomenon explains, in part, the surge of popularity in “community-based” fitness programs like CrossFit and SoulCycle).

Additionally, seeker-friendly churches that construct their congregational appeal around family-oriented programming often find it difficult to engage young professionals who don’t have children and re-engage parents whose children have left home.

It’s important to note that none of this was driven by ill intentions. It’s simply an organization responding to market pressure.

And a lot of these changes were for the better. Obviously, we shouldn’t try to make our church experiences more miserable and inaccessible to the average American.

And it worked.
God has clearly used (and is using) the attractional model to change countless lives for the sake of the Gospel.

But there was a cost.
And it’s catching up to us.

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Bible Studies

Victory over Worldliness

by Tony Evans
written by Tony Evans

Introduction

In today’s world, it is common for people to identify themselves using their “preferred pronouns” to reveal how they want others to address and identify them. The cultural assumption here is that Biblical the definition of man and woman is up for debate. And, while it leaves God and the truth about gender out of the conversation, it also plays into Satan’s aim to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10). When we approve of or incline ourselves to the world’s system of operations, we heed to the commands of worldliness led by Satan whose goal is to draw us into his realm of darkness.

The structures of this world, led by Satan, seek to draw us away from God into the opposite of God’s will for us. And when believers – indwelt by the Holy Spirit after making Jesus our Lord & Savior – succumb to the culture’s way of life, we submit to friendship with the world. And friendship with the world creates an inner conflict in us as the Spirit in us wars again our flesh and results in, as James puts it, ‘hostility toward God.’

However, when we understand God’s character and recognize His passionate desire for us, our  response should be an overwhelming sense of humility. And when we are humble before Him, He offers us grace. And God’s grace is the cure to worldliness because as we reflect on His goodness and provision, we see the depth of our need for Him. And our need for God should motivate us to cultivate a relationship with Him and a willingness to reject the pressures to conform to the culture. Worldliness is corrected by humble repentance, where we turn away from worldliness and return to fellowship with God.

Getting Started

1. What are examples of worldliness? In what ways would you consider yourself worldly?
2. How have you seen worldliness affect others and their decisions?

Let’s Get Personal

1. Think about a time in which you acted worldly. What were the consequences?
2. Have you ever allowed worldliness to dictate your decisions? How did it affect you?
3. Have you ever humbly repented and rejected the culture’s way of living?

Take the Next Step

1. In your own words, how is understanding God’s character a cure for worldliness?
2. What steps can you take to correct the influence of worldlines in your life?
3. Want to go deeper? Take time to look at the following passages: James 1:1‐12; 1 Peter 1:6‐9; Hebrews 10:35‐39; 2 Corinthians 1:3‐11; Isaiah 43:1‐2; John 16:33; Romans 12:12; 1 Peter 5:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; Romans 5:3‐5; James 1:13‐18; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 13‐ 15; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Peter 2:9; Psalm 50:15; Genesis 39:6‐18; Matthew 4:1‐11, 6:13, 26:41; Luke 8:13; 1 Corinthians 7:5; Genesis 3:1‐6; James 1:19‐27; 1 Peter 2:1‐2; 2 Corinthians 3:17‐18; Psalm 139:23‐24; 1 John 3:16‐18; Luke 10:25‐37; Romans 7:22; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 5:11‐14; John 8:31‐32; Luke 8:4‐15; James 2:1‐13; Galatians 2:11‐20, 3:28‐29; John 4:1‐42; Numbers 12:1‐16; Ephesians 2:11‐22; 1 Corinthians 1:26; Romans 12:16; Malachi 2:9; Acts 10:34; Deuteronomy 24:19; 2 Chronicles 19:7; Romans 10:12; Matthew 23:1‐12; Acts 6:1‐6; Romans 14:1‐12; James 2:14‐26; Romans 4:1‐5; Ephesians 2:8‐10; Romans 4:17‐20; Romans 5:8‐10; Isaiah 41:8; 2 Chronicles 20:7; John
19:30; Genesis 22:1‐19; Joshua 2:1‐21, 6:22‐25; James 3:1‐12; Mark 11:20‐26; Matthew 12:31‐37; Matthew 15:16‐20; Psalm 16:23; Psalm 19:14; Proverbs 18:20‐21; Psalm 15:4; Psalm 12:18; Proverbs 13:3; Colossians 4:6; Psalm 141:3; Proverbs 15:14; Ephesians 4:29‐ 30; Ephesians 5:4; Psalm 109:17‐18; James 3:13‐18; James 1:5‐8; Ephesians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 1:19‐24; Job 28:12‐23; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 2:1‐7; Colossians 1:9; Ephesians 1:16‐18; Romans 11:33‐34; Proverbs 15:1‐7; Proverbs 10:13‐14; Proverbs 2:1‐ 6; Proverbs 3:5‐6; Daniel 2:19‐27; Proverbs 21:30; Romans 16:27; Romans 12:1‐2; Galatians 1:4; 6:14; 1 John 2:15‐17; 5:19; 1 Corinthians 10:21‐22; 1 Corinthians 3:1‐3; John 15:8‐19; 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus 2:12

Renew Your Mind

“You lust and do not have; so you commit murder.
You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have because you do not ask.”
James 4:2

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Bible Studies

Judges: Stepping Away from God

by Abraham Kuruvilla
written by Abraham Kuruvilla

Faithfulness to God manifest in uncompromising godliness and reliance on God brings blessing.

Joshua, the one who had begun to lead the Israelites so successfully against the Canaanites, and who was God’s agent for assigning land to the various tribes, was now gone. An era had concluded with the death of Joshua. A new beginning was at hand, and with it the challenge of finding godly leaders. Who would be the next godly servant to lead Israel? The Israelites do not ask Yahweh for a leader, only for a tribe to lead the battle. Commitment and confidence is thereby shown to be shaky from the start.

The living arrangements between the Israelites and Canaanites as this passage progresses are revealing. Initially, with the endeavors of the Judah-Simeon alliance (1:3–21), we are not told of Canaanites living among the Israelites; then from Benjamin to Zebulun (1:21–30), the Canaanites are found living with the Israelites; the situation worsens with Asher and Naphtali: here it is the Israelites who are living among the Canaanites (1:31–33); in the final phase, they are themselves displaced, unable to occupy the valley (1:34–36). Far from a conquest, this is an “anticonquest”! In sum, this pericope portrays a failed project to take over Canaan. So while there is a seeking of God at the beginning of this pericope (1:1–2), there is, unfortunately, only a weeping before him at the end (2:4–5).

A litany of incomplete “successes” and outright failures highlights our text (1:19, 21, 24–36). Our curiosity is aroused about the cause of all the continued failures in battle. We find the real answer only in 2:1–5—there was a spiritual reason for the Israelites’ lack of military success. These failures, we are told there, stemmed from an illicit covenanting with the inhabitants of Canaan, noted in 1:22–26. Despite the assured presence of Yahweh as the house of Joseph went against Bethel, the campaign was a failure—not only did a Hittite family go free (1:25), the destroyed city was also rebuilt as Luz (1:26): the people and their culture had rebounded. This was clear disobedience to divine will that no covenant be made with the local peoples: Israel was to destroy them utterly (Jdg 2:2; Deut 7:1–2, 16). All of these miscarriages in Judges 1 form the basis for Yahweh’s indictment of Israel in 2:1–5.

Yahweh’s rebuke is stinging: his people, forgetting their covenant God, had made covenants with the Canaanites, and not destroyed their cultic sites: they had disobeyed the explicit commands of Deut 7:1–5, 16, 25–26 (see Jdg 2:1–2). In fact, it was because of their disobedience that God was refusing to drive out the Canaanites before the Israelites, that otherwise would have been accomplished by God himself (2:3).

Therefore, Yahweh announced, he would not completely drive out the land’s inhabitants who would end up as thorns to the Israelites (and their gods as snares; 2:3). Of course, Yahweh would be faithful to keep his covenant and Israel would possess the land, as he had promised the “fathers” (2:1).

Compromise and disobedience are always disastrous. In sum, the degradation of the nation had begun immediately after the demise of Joshua. This pericope begins with the most positive of the tribes (Judah) and ends with the most negative (Dan). Almost the same sequence of tribes is followed in the sections on individual judges (Jdg 3:7–16:31), with this progressive dissolution expressly detailed.

Nonetheless, the contrition exhibited by the Israelites in Jdg 2:4–5 is hopeful but, as it turns out, this change of heart is only transitory: the Israelites’ apostasy only worsens as the next pericope will show and the rest of the book will depict.

[For more details, see my Judges commentary.

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Bible Studies

Understanding the Book of Judges

by Abraham Kuruvilla
written by Abraham Kuruvilla

The Book of Judges closely parallels the times we live in today. We can learn much about our culture from studying this Bible book! Scholar Abraham Kuruvilla introduces us to this study:

The verb “to judge” does not always indicate a judicial functionary. In Judges, the function of these God-raised leaders is best as seen as military judge-deliverers, as indicated in 2:16–17:

And Yahweh raised up judges
who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them.
Judges 2:16–17

The book is gory, with bloodletting without remit. Altogether, roughly a quarter of a million people perish in Judges! No wonder there is weeping by the nation at the beginning (2:4), and there is weeping by the nation at the end (20:23, 26; 21:2).

Evildoing and the recurring cycles of ever worsening leadership take over the structure of the book. All this, despite the graciousness of God in intervening in each chaotic iteration to raise up a deliverer to defeat the oppressing enemy. So, as one traverses the book, it is not only the judges who become increasingly misguided, but the Israelites themselves become progressively more culpable. And after the judges have passed from the scene, the Israelites plunge into an immoral cauldron of idolatry and brutality, including the slaughter of almost an entire tribe in a civil war (Judges 19–21). This book is, thus, quite negative: it begins bleakly, continues darkly, and ends horribly in an age of godlessness and leaderlessness, when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25).

Thus, though the book is about the misdeeds of God’s leaders, it is also entirely applicable to the lives of God’s people, for the latter are only as good as the former are. God’s leaders draw God’s people to their level, explaining the higher standards for leadership throughout Scripture Besides, all of God’s people are leaders in some arena or another, to some degree, in some fashion. Therefore it behooves all believers to take the lessons of the book of Judges to heart.

Here are the main themes of each of the passages of the book:

  • Uncompromising faithfulness to God, maintenance of godly traditional values, and reliance on divine strategies for success results in divine blessing (1:1–2:5)

  • Personal experience of God produces unwavering commitment to him (2:6–3:11 [Othniel])

  • Integrity in life, driven by reverence for God and reliance upon him, receives divine approbation (3:12–31 [Ehud])

  • Reverencing of God by fearless faith characterizes godly leadership (4:1–24 [Barak])

  • Participation in the endeavors of God, with God, keeps one in the realm of his blessing (5:1–31 [Song of Deborah])

  • Refusal to take prideful credit for divine action results in blessing (6:1–7:22 [Gideon-1])

  • Godliness is expressed in the rejection of self-glorifying pursuits (7:23–8:32 [Gideon-2])

  • An illicit thirst for power brings about the fitting retribution of God (8:33–10:5 [Abimelech])

  • Ungodly manipulation of God for selfish purposes can lead to tragic loss of blessing (10:6–12:15 [Jephthah])

  • Rejection of Yahweh’s interests in favor of selfish passions leads only to trouble (13:1–14:20 [Samson-1])

  • Disdaining of one’s divine calling can lead to destruction (15:1–16:31 [Samson-2])

  • Godless leadership brings about godlessness in society (17:1–18:31)

  • Immoral unconcern for the weak and defenseless marks a godless and leaderless community (19:1–30)

  • Continued ungodliness only leads to more evildoing, greater havoc, and a hopeless future (20:1–21:25)

And as God’s leaders and God’s people actualize these thrusts in their lives, conforming to Christlikeness pericope by pericope and sermon by sermon by the power of the Spirit, the Father’s kingdom is, in a sense, being established. This is the goal of applying Scripture, and of applying the book of Judges in particular. A grand task, indeed!

www.homiletix.com.

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Ask Roger

What Can We Learn about Treasures in Heaven?

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Dear Roger,
I’m a new Christian, and I have been reading in the Bible about the crowns, treasures, and rewards that Jesus will give to Christians who live God-honoring lives here on earth. Recently, I came across a passage where Jesus talked about storing up treasures in heaven. What exactly are the treasures in heaven He’s talking about? And how do I earn them?
Thank you, Ana

Dear Ana,

I took a survey of several thousand people, asking them your questions. I think you’ll relate to some of the answers I received:

“I don’t know what the treasures are—do they have something to do with the mansions Jesus promised for us?”

“I don’t get it. If our salvation doesn’t depend on ‘good works,’ why does Jesus tell us we have to earn something?”

“Don’t we get treasures if we do good things? Like every time I do something that the Bible tells me to do, that puts a ‘treasure’ in heaven?”

“Aren’t the ‘treasures’ just one of those parables? They’re not real?”

I understand the confusion! Yes, the treasures are part of a parable—a story Jesus told with simple examples to help us understand complex spiritual truth. But they’re also very literal, because they’re mentioned many other times in Scripture.

God’s Word also tells us exactly how to “store up” heavenly treasures while we’re here on earth, why earning them matters, and what they’ll eventually be used for in heaven. So, let’s dig in!

1. What are “treasures in heaven”? How do you store them up?

From one end of Bible to the other, storing up treasure in heaven is consistently associated with giving to people in need. In Luke 12, Jesus explained,

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (12:33-34)

Jesus had just shared the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:14-21). The rich man had an abundant harvest, but rather than giving a portion to those in need or sharing with the community, he simply built bigger barns. He saved it all for himself, saying, “Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:19).

God immediately called the rich man a fool, saying that he would die, and his wealth would go to waste. Jesus concluded, “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

His solution? Give to the poor.

To make it simple, let’s suppose that you earn $1000 a month.

You follow good biblical economics. First, pay your 10% tithe to God. Then, you pay taxes to the government. You pay all your bills and essential living expenses. You are out of debt on all depreciating items. You save 10% or more for the future.

Then, at the end of the month, you have $100 left. There are only two things we can do with that $100. We can either store it in heaven—by giving to those in need or supporting ministries that accomplish Kingdom work—or we can store it on earth.

Jesus challenged the ‘rich young ruler” who came to ask how he could become one of His followers; “Go, sell everything you have give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come follow Me” (Mark 10:21).

But WHY?

2. Caring for the poor identifies us as God’s people. He often uses our compassion to draw people to Himself.

Jesus taught His disciples how to live on earth so that the world would see Him in them:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

The love He’s talking about isn’t a nebulous emotion. It’s an action. It’s not only in our hearts; it’s in our hands. We show love by caring for one another—by meeting each other’s needs.

One of my favorite truths about sharing the gospel is, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

When people are hurting, struggling to meet their basic needs for food, shelter, and medical care, they can’t think beyond the physical. Can you imagine sitting on the side of the street, not remembering when you last ate, when someone comes up to you and tries to start a deep conversation about spiritual things?

You can’t focus on anything but the rumble in your stomach. You don’t want or need to talk. You need a meal. Dr. Tony Evans said it well; “They don’t need your words! They need your refrigerator!”

But when we generously share what we have, meeting critical needs first, people are often willing to listen. They see and experience God’s love through us, and they’re drawn to Him.

One of the ways we “store treasures in heaven” is by loving others and introducing them to the Savior. We will see each one in heaven for eternity.

3. Earthly riches come with no guarantee that they will last. Moth, rust, and thieves will eventually take it all.

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Jesus is saying that your earthly wealth and possessions will fail. They’re temporary. No matter how hard we try to hang on to them, they won’t last.

In Jesus’ day, wealth existed primarily in three forms:

First, if you had several changes of garments, you were considered to be wealthy. But the moths could eat up your clothes. Today consider the moth of “style” which can eat up your clothes. They won’t last.

Food was another form of wealth in those days. If you had grain and oil stored up, then you were considered wealthy. But rust could eat it up. “Rust” is the translation of a Greek word which literally means “the eaters.” It could include rodents, insects or even bacteria. Rust can eat away your food. Think about all the food in your fridge that goes bad before you have a chance to eat it! It won’t last.

Money existed primarily in the form of gold and silver. There were no bank vaults, so people tried to hide it or bury it to keep it safe, but thieves could easily find it and take it away. Even with the banking system, our wealth in money is dependent on many outside factors, from inflation to stock market fluctuation to the global value of currency. It won’t last.

Even if you’re able to stockpile wealth here on earth, you won’t take it with you when you die. It won’t last.

4. We cannot chase after both God and money. We have to make a choice.

Jesus divides all people into two categories: those whose goal is to store up treasures on earth and those whose goal is to store up treasure in heaven. He warns us,

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.” (Matthew 6:24)

But, of course, Jesus knew that we would attempt to pursue both goals, didn’t He? He knew that all generations—even His trusted followers—would attempt to gather wealth for themselves AND please God or “do the right thing” by giving to those in need.

Notice what Jesus didn’t say: “It’s inadvisable to serve two masters … unwise … difficult.”

He said, “It is impossible!” We can’t do the impossible. No man can serve two masters, so we must make a choice between the two.

I am convinced that the typical 21st-century Christian is attempting to do the impossible.

The typical Christian will swear his allegiance to Jesus Christ outwardly. Make no mistake about it. He or she will identify with the church in its mission and ministries, be faithful to the church, teach Sunday School class, give to missions, etc.

But inwardly, he or she clings to the love of things. His or her heart is torn in allegiance between two masters.

No matter how faithful we look on the outside, God knows our hearts.

5. Just because we choose to follow Jesus doesn’t mean that our thinking is straightened out on this subject.

Unless we have made a conscious choice—asking the Holy Spirit to guide us—to think biblically about material things, we will fall right into the trap of materialism. It’s part of our sinful humanness, and it takes God’s work in our lives to change our priorities.

We will naturally swear allegiance to Jesus, but we will still hold onto our things at all cost.

We want to be Christians and we want to be materialists.

We want to store up some treasures in heaven, and we want to have some stored up on this Earth as well.

We are choosing the impossible option. We must make a different choice.

Jesus told us exactly what to do in Luke 12:14; “Watch out! Be on our guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

6. Not all treasure bound for heaven will end up in heaven. God will use some of it to meet our needs on earth.

It is a grave error to believe that treasure stored in heaven is reserved exclusively for eternity!

By urging His followers to store treasure in heaven, Jesus had no intention of denying them their earthly needs. He declared,

Why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:28-33)

If God clothes billions of flowers with a beauty that cannot be duplicated in the laboratory or in the textile mill, throws them all away, and does the same thing the very next day, don’t you think that He can put clothing on a Christian who is concentrating on storing treasure in heaven?

He knows that the believer who is concentrating on storing treasure in heaven has earthly needs. He will not overlook that fact. He will meet your needs.

But there is no promise in the Bible that God will meet your needs if your goal is storing treasure on earth. In fact, the whole thrust of this passage is that storing treasure in heaven is the only means of assuring that our earthly needs will ever be met. This is our only guarantee of security on earth.

Imagine that God has a bank in heaven, and we have deposited treasure in it. If you have a need, God utilizes those resources to meet your needs. However, if you have made no deposits in Heaven, God has no resources with which to work.

That may be why some of you are in financial trouble and your needs aren’t being met by God—and your prayers seem to bounce.

6. Are you afraid to store your treasure in heaven? Are you worried about not having “enough”?

You may be afraid to store treasure in heaven. You may be afraid that you are going to run out on the earth. You may be afraid of losing financial security here, or you may be afraid that you will miss out on some joy or pleasure from that money.

I think we’ve all asked, “Lord, if I’m not laying up treasures on the earth, what assurance do I have that my earthly needs will be met?”

Jesus knew that you were going to ask that. Let’s look back at Matthew 6:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (6:25-26)

This passage is a conditional promise. Notice that it hinges on the word, “Therefore.” In Greek, it means, “assuming.” Jesus is tying together everything he just taught:

“Assuming that you have made a commitment to store up treasure in heaven instead of on earth … assuming that you actively move possessions from earth to heaven, then all the promises that are about to follow will be yours.”

Notice that this is not a blanket promise. There is no promise that God will provide for the Christian:

…who sets his or her heart on laying up treasure on earth.

…who refuses to work.

…who overspends his or her income.

…who mismanages his or her money.

…who lives contrary to the biblical principles of finances, such as tithing or caring for the poor.

Do you follow what Jesus is saying here? “If you follow my instructions here, then you will never have to worry about having your earthly needs met.”

Ana, I know it takes faith to store treasure in heaven because we can’t see it or measure it or count it in our checkbook. It takes faith to believe that it is really there. I think that’s why Jesus declares, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Matthew 6:32). He keeps His promises. Always.

Love, Roger

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Bible Studies

Return to Jesus from Worldliness

by Tony Evans
written by Tony Evans

Many of us enjoy stories about good versus evil. We love to watch the good guy defeat the bad guy. Still, we often underestimate how enticing and persuasive the bad guy can be. Our spiritual enemy wants to defeat us by trapping us in his warped way of thinking called worldliness, a satanic system that compromises our faith, twists our values, and distorts our priorities. This worldly way of thinking leaves God out completely. Scripture says that when we are friends with the world, we become enemies of God, and it compares us to someone committing adultery (James 4:4). Worldliness creates competing loyalties in our hearts, pulling us toward our sinful desires and away from God’s best for us and from God Himself. Christians must not allow the values of this world to interfere with our relationship with God.

We will pay a high price for our worldliness as it causes us to lose out on experiencing God’s presence, protection and perspective. While we will not lose our salvation due to a worldly mindset or behavior, we can lose our connection with God, no longer feeling His presence. This is because our sin puts a wedge between Him and us and blocks our prayers (Psalm 66:18). Second, we do not experience God’s protection fully because we face consequences for our sin. When our hearts and minds are under the spell of worldliness, we often do not confess our sins and are more likely to feel the sting of consequences. Third, when we operate with a worldly mindset, we do not have access to God’s thoughts and His perspective because our thinking is confused and double-minded. A double-minded believer is unstable (James 1:8).

Worldliness turns our priorities upside down by making pleasure more important than purpose and the temporary more important than the permanent. We become more interested in feeling good than fulfilling God’s purpose in our lives and pursuing His Kingdom Agenda. This great reversal causes us to treat temporary things as if they will last forever and things that are eternal as if they will not last. We must remember that eternity is more important than time. We must keep our eternal future in focus. We cannot let ourselves be distracted and confused by the worldly system so that our relationship with the Lord is not hindered. On this issue, the Bible is crystal clear: You are either on the side of the world or the side of God. Love the things of this world, and you do not have the love of God in you (1 John 2:15). On which side do you want to live?

GETTING STARTED

  1. What does our culture view as more valuable than God?
  2. What are some worldly things that people pursue which bring instant satisfaction but have lasting, negative consequences?

LET’S GET PERSONAL

  1. What tempts you to focus on the world instead of eternity? How have your values been twisted by worldliness?
  2. What new perspective did you gain about worldliness in light of this message?
  3. How has worldliness affected your relationship with God or damaged your relationships with others?

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

  1. How can you begin to reorder your priorities to value eternal things above temporal things?
  2. What sins do you need to confess to the Lord? How could you begin to strengthen your prayer life? Have an accountability partner help you pray consistently and prioritize confession this week.
  3. How can you help a friend or family member pursuing worldliness to return to God?
  4. Want to go deeper? Take time to look at the following passages: 1 John 2:15-17; Romans 12:2; Galatians 1:4; John 15:18-19; James 4:4; 1 John 5:4; 1 Corinthians 11:32; Galatians 6:14; John 12:31; John 14:30; 1 John 5:19; John 16:11; John 17:15-16; 1 Corinthians 7:31; John 16:33; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Colossians 3:1-11.

RENEW YOUR MIND

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

1 John 2:15

www.ocbfchurch.com. tonyevans.com.

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Ask Roger

What Did the Dishonest Manager Know that Most Christians Never Figure Out?

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Dear Roger,

 

I am not surprised when I see so many people in our world grasping for riches and money. What breaks my heart is to see Christians doing the same. These Christians are stretching out their hands for material things.

 

I once heard a Christian man say, “How we spend money is the story of our lives.” Am I right in my thinking? What do you think?

 

Sincerely,

Paul

 

Dear Paul,

 

I believe that you’re 100% right on target! How we handle our money reveals more about our values and priorities than anything else about us.

 

That is why God invests so many verses in the Bible talking about money.

 

Pastor Larry Burkett illustrated this principle in a story about Alan and Jean Hitchcock who had decided to end their marriage after 24 years:

 

In anticipation of the divorce settlement, Alan reviewed their financial records. As he sorted through the files, he came across a faded old check made out to the hotel where he and Jean stayed on their honeymoon. (Once upon a time banks returned copies of canceled checks to help people reconcile their accounts each month. Nothing was electronic.)

 

Another check was an installment payment for their first car.

 

He picked up another check and remembered with fatherly pride how he wrote it out to the hospital when their daughter was born.

 

And there was the $5,000 down payment on their first home.

 

After several hours of sorting through the old, canceled checks, Alan realized how much he and his wife had invested in the marriage. He paused in deep thought for several moments. Then he closed the files and dialed his wife’s phone number. After an awkward exchange he blurted out the reason for his call: “Would you work with me to rebuild this marriage?”

 

One of Jesus’ most powerful parables regarding money is found in Luke 16.

 

Let me explain the parable, and then I will draw some lessons and principles that will help us understand better how to handle our money in a manner that honors God.

 

Jesus told his disciples:

 

Once there was a rich man whose manager was accused of stealing his possessions. The rich man said to him, “I am going to have a complete audit of the books. If what I hear is true, then I am going to fire you.”

 

The manager said to himself, “What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg.“ (my paraphrase of verses 1-3)

 

The dishonest manager faced a crisis—the sudden and unexpected loss of his job. He knew that he was guilty and that the audit would only confirm it. He frantically searched for a way out of his dilemma.

 

Jesus was setting up an analogy. We Christians have a management contract with God to handle His resources on earth just as this manager had a contract to manage his landlord’s estate.

 

First, note that the sudden dismissal of the manager is analogous to the death of the Christian.

 

When we die, our management contract of God’s assets expires. There will be a complete audit of our management at the Judgment Seat of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 15).

 

In order to secure his financial future, the dishonest manager hit upon an ingenious plan.

 

Rapidly and secretly, he approached each one of the men who owed his master money and offered them the opportunity to settle their debts for a sharply reduced amount.

 

“I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.”

So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?”

“Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,” he replied.

The manager told him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.”

Then he asked the second, “And how much do you owe?”

“A thousand bushels of wheat,” he replied.

He told him, “Take your bill and make it eight hundred.” (Luke 16:4-7)

 

His plan was to gain the good will of these men so that when he lost his job, they would invite him into their homes out of gratitude and give him food, clothing, and shelter.

 

Here is the key to the entire parable: “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly” (Luke 16:8).

 

The rich man said to his manager: “You clever rascal. I’ve got to hand it to you. What a slick plan!”

 

He didn’t commend him for his management or for his honesty, but he did commend him for his clever ability to work out a plan to secure his future.

 

AT THIS POINT, JESUS PRONOUNCES A SWEEPING CONDEMNATION OF HIS FOLLOWERS.

 

For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. (Luke 16:9)

 

The people of the world are more shrewd at securing their financial future on earth than Christians are at securing their future assets in eternity.

 

JESUS DREW SEVERAL CONCLUSIONS FROM THIS PARABLE (see Luke 16:9-13).

 

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” (Luke 16:9)

 

FIRST, USE WORLDLY WEALTH TO GAIN FRIENDS.

 

Who are the friends? Most likely, “friends” refers to people here on earth with whom we share our material wealth. These are people who precede us in death. “Friends” also refers to those grateful people that we led to Christ before they died. They will welcome us into eternity.

 

Jesus doesn’t say: “Give X percent to church… or give money to the poor or… find a missionary or pastor to support financially… or you rich folks set up charitable foundations for the cause of Christ.” He tells us to use financial assets to build healthy relationships.

 

SECOND, WE MUST STOP THINKING LIKE OWNERS AND START THINKING LIKE MANAGERS.

 

 

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. (Luke 16:10)

 

 

We are so prone to reason, “If I just had a little more money, if I just had a little higher income, I’d be a better manager. If I could just get these debts paid off, if I could just get the kids through college, I could finally tithe; I’d be a better manager for the Lord.”

 

Don’t you believe it! Jesus said that that is false reasoning. It will not happen that way.

 

Imagine that we have nine dollars. We say, “I had another dollar, if I had $10, then I could give it to God.”

 

No. It will never happen.  If we are not managing wisely with the $9 that we do have, we will not change our pattern with another dollar more. We will spend it on ourselves, too.

 

A Barna Research Group Survey revealed that the average American adult believes that he or she needs an additional $15-$20 thousand dollars more per year to live comfortably. However, tracking studies show that even when adults reach or exceed the income levels to which they aspired, they still claim that they need another $15 to $20 thousand.

 

If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? (Luke 16:11)

 

“True riches” as Jesus speaks it here means rewards and treasures in heaven—that is all it can mean.

 

THIRD, JESUS TEACHES THAT WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING IN THIS LIFE. WE ARE JUST MANAGING GOD’S ASSETS FOR HIM.

 

And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? (Luke 16:12)

 

“Property of your own” is fascinating because according to the Scriptures, we do not own anything in this life. We are just managing God’s assets for Him.

 

FOURTH, AS WE BEGIN TO THINK LIKE MANAGERS, WE ACTUALLY BECOME OWNERS.

 

We know this, because we know that we will take nothing with us when we die.

 

For example, a miserly millionaire told wife, “I am placing a briefcase full of money in the attic. When I die, I intend to grab it on my way up to heaven. See to it that no one touches it until it is my time to go.”

 

She respected his wishes. Soon after he died his wife could hardly wait to run up in the attic and see if it were still there.  Sure enough, there it was right where he’d placed it. She said, “I knew he should have put it in the basement.”

 

Some people think, “Well, I don’t particularly care how much treasure I have in Heaven. I just want to get there.”

 

I want to say, “No, don’t you ever think like that!”

 

At the Judgment Seat of Christ those who lived like owners will have no rewards. Fortunately, they are saved through the fire, but they will suffer a loss (1 Corinthians 15).

 

On the other hand, those who manage God’s assets well while here on earth will be owners in heaven of all sorts of rewards.

 

Whole bodies of Scripture teach that Heaven is not a classless society. Jesus said that the first shall be last.  How we manage our finances here on earth makes a big difference in Heaven.

 

FIFTH, MATERIALISM IS A RIVAL GOD. AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS.

 

No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and noney. (Luke 16:13)

 

One of my friends and I were talking about the many stories we had heard about angels and demons appearing to Christians in third world countries.

 

One pastor from Mexico overheard us and said, “the reason that you don’t see this type of activity in the United States is because Satan does not need to bring out the big guns of demonism and overt spiritual warfare. He has you American Christians so enmeshed with materialism that he doesn’t need his big spiritual guns.”

 

Well, Paul, I hope you find this helpful. Feel free to ask other questions when you like!

 

Love,

Roger

 

 

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Devotionals

Are You Living in the Flesh or in the Spirit?

by Neil Anderson
written by Neil Anderson

SO I SAY, WALK BY THE SPIRIT, AND YOU WILL NOT GRATIFY THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH.
GALATIANS 5:16

One of the most dangerous heresies that confronted the Early Church in the second century was Gnosticism. The Gnostics taught that the spirit is good and that matter is evil. Therefore, our natural bodies are evil, but God is good because He is a Spirit. Salvation comes by special knowledge (gnosis is Greek for “knowledge”) that enables us to escape from the body. The Gnostics denied the fact that Christ came in the flesh. Anyone who did not acknowledge Jesus as coming in the flesh was a deceiver (see 1 John 4:1-3; 2 John 1:7).

 Some people influenced by Gnosticism taught that Jesus only seemed to have a body—a heretical view called Docetism. Others held that the “divine Jesus” joined the “man Jesus” at His baptism and left before the “man Jesus” died—a heresy called Cerinthianism. Because the body was evil, it was to be treated harshly.

The term “flesh” has many meanings in Scripture. In some instances it refers to the physical body. At times it refers to the whole person. John said of Jesus, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). In such uses there is no concept of sinfulness or evil. Jesus never sinned, and His body was never evil.

The common thread for all the uses of the word “flesh” is the idea of weakness or a transitory nature. Compared to the spirit, which denotes life and power, the flesh is weak. It is this concept of weakness that has contributed to the use of the term “flesh” for that which is sinful or contrary to God. Humans, as flesh, are not only frail as creatures but also frail morally. Apart from God, humans are no match for the power of sin and consequently come under its bondage.

The use of the word “flesh” in reference to humankind’s propensity to sin is prominent in the New Testament (this is translated in the New International Version as “old nature” or “sin nature” in such cases). It may be defined as existence apart from God. It represents our “old nature” before coming to Christ when we were “in Adam” or “in the flesh.” Paul wrote, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:8-9, NASB, emphasis added). In that one verse, Paul described the Trinity, interchanging “Spirit of God” with “Spirit of Christ.” Because all believers are “in Christ,” they are also “in the Spirit.”

In Galatians 5:17, Paul wrote, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another” (NASB). They are in opposition because the Holy Spirit and God the Father are one. The flesh is self-centered and functions independently of God. The flesh seeks life on human terms and standards rather than on God’s.

Our bodies are not sinful, but our minds retain certain flesh patterns that we learned before we came to Christ. In addition, we still have certain physical cravings that we have to subdue. Satan will work through those mental flesh patterns and cravings enticing us to live independently of God.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

  1. What was Gnosticism? How did it represent a problem for the Early Church?

  2. What does the term “flesh” mean in Scripture?

  3. How can you know whether you are living according to the flesh or living according to the Spirit?

  4. Why do you still have the propensity to sin? Do you believe you have the power to say no to sin? Why or why not?

  5. How can you manage self-control if it is a fruit of the Spirit?

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Sermons

How to Stand When Others Fall

by Skip Heitzig
written by Skip Heitzig

If you have ever tried to walk straight while aboard a ship being tossed by the ocean’s waves, you know how hard that is. The motion around you challenges the strength and the stability within you. If the New Testament repeatedly warns against falling away (see Matthew 13:1-9, 24-30; 1 John 2:18-19), if the apostles predicted that many would “depart from the faith” (1 Timothy 4:1; see also 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Timothy 3:1-14), what are we to do? Jude gives his audience a five-fold corrective for when people around you (even in the church) seem to be dropping like flies, carried by the current of this world.

Preached at Calvary Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

https://connectwithskip.com.

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Devotionals

Idolatry: Culture

by Tony Evans
written by Tony Evans

 

When athletic teams play at home, they know that there are extra odds in their favor. The extra boost of fan participation, applause, encouragement and recognition in their home stadium gives them the home-field advantage. In the past, Judeo-Christian ethics penetrated most facets of American culture, which gave Christians a home-field advantage when encountering the world. That semblance of advantage has dramatically waned as the culture has sought to infiltrate Christian values. For many, culture has become an idol.

 

The consequence of making an idol of the culture is that Christians today have been desensitized to (and even adopted) the images and definitions of the culture. In doing so, we look to man for truth rather than God – the ultimate source of truth.

 

This is called humanism. Dr. Evans mentioned that the permeation of humanism and secularism in the culture has resulted in creating a part-time saint mentality among our brothers and sisters in Christ. However, God wants us to choose our actions according to His will and affect the culture for Him rather than the reverse.

 

Daniel and his friends (who had been recruited for the court of the Babylonian king), refused to let the culture dictate who they should worship. They were resolute in choosing to worship only God. From the onset, King Nebuchadnezzar attempted to engulf the young men into Babylonian culture by changing their names, teaching them the language and customs and encouraging them to overindulge in food and wine. We see God honoring the young men’s faithfulness: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were left unscathed from Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace after they refused to bow down to the king as if he were God; and when King Darius’ officials found Daniel guilty of making a petition to anyone but the king, Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. But God favored Daniel who emerged from the den unharmed. Because of their faithfulness to God and not the culture, all four men survived and continued to serve the Lord for the rest of their lives.

GETTING STARTED

Appreciating and valuing cultural contributions to society is different from worshipping them as an idol. The culture becomes an idol when we treat something other than God as if it were God. Review Daniel 1:1-8. Identify examples in Scripture of cultural idols.

 

LET’S GET PERSONAL

  1. Have you ever had to choose between your faith and the secular world around you? What did that decision cost you?
  2. Daniel was fortunate to have friends who stood with him in his decision to honor the One, true God. Think about the people you spend the most time with. Will they stand with you when you are forced to choose between the culture and God? Do you have the kind of relationship where any of you could speak the truth in love if a cultural idol emerges?
  3. During celebrations that acknowledge your worldly achievements and accomplishments, how have you remained humble?

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

  1. Celebrity worship is one manifestation of the idol of culture. It can occur in the entertainment industry, the political arena and even in our churches. Think of the individuals who fit in these categories who you have supported in the past. Have you ever supported someone because of the material things they possess, the monetary riches they are known for, or simply because they are popular with a certain group you admire?
  2. Read Exodus 34:15. Say a prayer of repentance to God and ask for forgiveness from the ways you have idolized culture.

RENEW YOUR MIND

“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.”

Daniel 1:8

 

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Devotionals

Loving the Wrong World

by Tony Evans
written by Tony Evans

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world.” 1 John 2:15

When we as believers love this world more than our eternal home with Christ, we risk not experiencing the fullness of God on earth. To love the world is to value the organized system that is led by Satan. (John 12:31) If and when we find ourselves putting more emphasis on an evil kingdom, wherein God is excluded, we should expect that God will be more absent, than present in our day to day lives. Loving the world has a cost. When a person chooses to prioritize the world over God, he or she will miss out on intimate fellowship with God. Their love for the world effectively creates a conflict because they are seeking to replace God the Creator, with His creation. The love of the world involves three things – 1) lust of the flesh, 2) lust of the eyes, 3) the pride of life. The lust of the flesh involves the prioritization of physical appetite over God – we want what we crave with our flesh even if that means independence from God. The lust of the eyes occurs when we seek to value what we can see or understand even if that places us in opposition to God. The pride of life happens when we seek status independently of God. When we focus on what we crave, what we see, or significance independent of God, we miss out on the full and vibrant experience of His love. Loving the world means that one’s actions and decisions demonstrate a higher value on time than on eternity. People who love the world treat what is transient and temporary like it is permanent; they make the will of the world more important than the will of God. If we want an impactful relationship and experience with God in this life, it requires that we make the world secondary to our relationship with God. He must be first. Live in this world but love the world to come.

1. In what ways do people illustrate that they love the world?

2. What do you love in this world? Do you love that thing, person, experience, more than you love God? How do you know?

3. What are the influences that pull you towards loving things of this world?

4. What changes can you make to minimize those influences? 3. ? What often blocks our success when we attempt to redirect ourselves to value God more than the world? What things can you do to overcome these road blocks?

5. How does this understanding of an eternal perspective change your current perspective, priorities and actions?

6. What represents the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, or the pride of life for you right now? What specific action can you take this week to say no to those interruptions in your experience of God?

7. Want to dig deeper? Select some of the following verses to review individually or during the time of reflection with your group: Romans 12:2, John 15:18-19, James 4:4, 1 John 5:19, and Galatians 1:4; 6:11-16. What do each one of these verses teach you about loving the world verses loving God?

Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship.

 

 

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Sermons

How Strong is Your Faith Foundation?

by Tony Evans
written by Tony Evans

We need to build our faith on a strong foundation that will protect us when the storms rage. Because a man is the foundation of our society, anything a spiritually-strong man touches is going to be strong; including his family, his finances, and his career.  The only way a man can serve as the foundation that God intended him to be is by subjecting himself to the rule of God, and applying kingdom standards to his earthly life.

www.tonyevans.org. sermons.love.

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Sermons

Are You on the Rock or on the Sand?

by Tony Evans
written by Tony Evans

In the Bible, Jesus tells us a story about two men who built their houses on two very different foundations. While one was built upon the sand with little difficulty, the other was built upon a rock with much greater difficulty. Join Tony Evans as he compares these foundations to our application of God’s truth in our lives and how having the correct Biblical foundation can impact your future.

www.sermons.love.

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Articles

Is Your Ambition Godly or Selfish?

by Carey Nieuwhof
written by Carey Nieuwhof

” If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.” James 3:13-16

Carey Nieuwhof describes the battle with selfish ambition that can destroy our spirituality in his article entitled “The Slow Death of Selfish Ambition.” 

Most of us secretly want to be better known, valued and appreciated than we are.   For some of us, that’s just in a wider relational circle.  For others, it’s more public.  We long to be better known in our ministry, in our company, to see our product selling, our album get recorded, our blog get traction or to find ourselves thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook friends.  If we were to pry behind the secret motivation…we think that would make us successful.

I know I’ve struggled with this over the years.  When I was starting out in ministry, I wanted to be that guy who spoke at conferences and was well respected as a leader in ministry. You don’t talk about that kind of thing much, but if you were to gain access to my sinful mind, the thought spun around  in my head from time to time.

Then in a season of my life a few years ago, God wrestled that down.  Well, that’s putting it nicely.  He snapped my ambition.  He took me to a place where I realized that as much as I didn’t want to admit it even to myself, much of my motivation was selfish and not God-honouring.  I finally surrendered it to him.  In fact, I he brought me to a point where I could see myself serving as an effective pastor without ever anyone knowing who I was.  I didn’t really want that definition of success.  But I embraced it anyway. As best I could, I surrendered my ambition to God.

Ambition kills servants of God and turns them into servants of themselves. I’ve come to enjoy the slow death of selfish ambition in my life.  It’s not complete, but it’s in progress. Here’s what I’m learning and (now) loving about the difference.

  1. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, your personal sense of worth goes up and down with the opportunities ahead of you.  When you’re motivated by God, your value is solidly found in Christ every day.
  2. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, failure is terrifying.  When you’re motivated by God, failure becomes an opportunity for grace and growth.
  3. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, you think you’re the deal.  When you’re motivated by God, you know that He’s the deal.
  4. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, you use people to get you where you want to go.  When you’re motivated by God, you value people as you go.
  5. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, you take the credit.  When you’re motivated by God, you realize how much God and the people around you deserve the credit.
  6. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, you strive for breadth of exposure.  When you’re motivated by God, you focus on depth in your walk and let God determine the breadth of exposure he gives you.
  7. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, you are always thinking about the next thing.  When you’re motivated by God,  you’re always thinking about what God wants to accomplish in your life today.
  8. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, you’re always comparing yourself to the other guy.  When you’re motivated by God, you begin to celebrate what God is doing through the other guy.
  9. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, it’s hard to say no to any opportunity.  When you’re motivated by God, it’s easier to say yes to balance and priorities.
  10. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, you can feel entitled to any success that comes your way.  When you’re motivated by God, you simply feel grateful.
  11. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, the need to win is greater than the need to love.  When you’re motivated by God, the need to love is greater than the need to win.
  12. When you’re motivated by selfish ambition, you are always insecure.  When you’re motivated by God, your security comes from His steadfast love.

I’m so grateful for these learnings.  The journey isn’t over yet, but I’m glad it’s begun.

The ironic part of this story is that a year or so after God broke me on this issue, I got a call from a major church to speak at a conference in front of thousands of people. When I got the call, I was a bit blown away, but it didn’t mean what it would have meant a year or two earlier. I could hold it loosely.  It was an opportunity for the Kingdom, not just for me.  Ironically, I’ve had more opportunities to do what I used to dream of doing than I ever did before God broke me.  But I don’t accept all of them – and those I do, I hold more loosely than ever before.  And when they’re over, I’m not ‘fulfilled’. Increasingly I’m just grateful that God would use me.

www.careynieuwhof.com. Used by permission. 

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Ask Roger

Can Christians Worship God AND Idols?

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Dear Roger,

I am presently pastoring a church in a remote area in Nigeria, a community of idol worshipers. My neighbor joined the church. In the process, I discovered that he was in so many religious societies. Free Masons, Ogboni Fraternity, and there is a strong local Juju idol worshipper to which he is strongly attached. He wants the freedom to practice Christianity as one of his religious beliefs.

He took ill a couple of months ago and instead of calling on Christ he resorted to a massive and open display of different animal sacrifices. This kept us apart for a while. But after I visited to greet him as a neighbor and admonished him, he resumed church with his family.

A few days ago, he performed more sacrifices as he had just been initiated into the traditional palace council of the King. I was advised by one of my pastor friends to visit him again and pray with the family. My spirit is so grieved inside me. I find it difficult to do in light of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians.

Sincerely,

Rev. Mrs. Constance Oyolu.

 

Dear Reverend Oyolu,

 

Two issues emerge from your question. The first is the issue of church discipline.

 

The Bible gives an example of church discipline in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. In this case, the discipline led to excommunication, and the apostle Paul explains the need for discipline.

 

One illustration he used is that sin is like yeast; if allowed to exist, it spreads to those nearby in the same way that “a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough” (verses 6-7). Also, Paul explains that Jesus saved us so that we might be set apart from sin, that we might be “unleavened” or free from that which causes spiritual decay (verses 7-8).

 

Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:25-27 that Christ wants to present His bride, the church, as pure and undefiled.  Finally, the testimony of Christ Jesus (and His church) before unbelievers is also essential. When David sinned with Bathsheba, one of the consequences of his sin was that the name of the one true God was blasphemed by God’s enemies (2 Samuel 12:14).

 

The ultimate goal of any disciplinary action a church takes against a member is to bring about godly sorrow and true repentance.

 

When repentance occurs, the individual can be restored to fellowship. The man involved in the discipline case in Corinth repented, and Paul later encouraged the church to restore him to full fellowship with the church (2 Corinthians 2:5-8).

 

Unfortunately, disciplinary action—even when done correctly and in love—is not always successful in bringing about restoration. But even when church discipline fails to bring about repentance, it is still vital to accomplish other good purposes such as maintaining a good testimony in the world.

 

The second issue you mentioned is idolatry.

 

You know it’s not possible to sacrifice to idols and be a Christian. The Ten Commandments are very clear about worshipping the One and Only God. In fact, idol worship is at the top of the list!

 

“You shall not make yourselves any idols: no images of animals, birds, or fish. 5 You must never bow or worship it in any way; for I, the Lord your God, am very possessive. I will not share your affection with any other god!” (Exodus 20:3-5)

Many Christians from other parts of the world do not understand that idol worship still exists. They also don’t realize that they too worship idols, but their idols come in different forms. All idolatry is insidious and destructive.

 

What is an idol? And who is an idol worshipper?

 

Usually when we think of idols we think of little statues or wooden figurines that people kneel before and pray and worship.

 

A close missionary friend of mine, Tom Terry, defines an idol as “any representation of a deity or exalted person that people venerate or worship. Idols are usually a focus of worship or a tool used to direct veneration or worship to what it represents.”

 

·      An idol is anything that is more important to us than God.

·      An idol is anything that absorbs our hearts and imaginations more than God.

·      An idol is anything that attempts to give us what only God can give.

·      An idol is anything that seeks to find meaning apart from Christ.

·      Money, power, and sex are idols that transcend every generation.

 

 

Essentially, an idol is anything real or imagined that takes a person’s focus off of the one true God and gives dedication, veneration, or worship to something or someone other than the one true God. Simply, we worship an idol ay time we attempt to find money, meaning, power, or pleasure apart from God.

 

How can we identify idol worship in our lives and overcome it?

 

First, be aware of your true spiritual situation.

 

Find anything that you might venerate more than or/in addition to, Jesus Christ.

 

Of course, as Christians in the Western World, we are not talking about little statuettes. We’re talking about all of the sins and activities that crowd the Lord Jesus out of our lives. Today, many people worship idols of money, possessions, or reputation. These are our real idols.

 

Second, recognize that idolatry is evil, because no idol represents a true deity or true reality.

 

The only true deity is the God of the Bible and no one knows what he looks like. “God does not have a physical form that can be accurately represented” (Tom Terry).

 

Third, it’s not possible to be fully devoted to Jesus Christ while simultaneously hanging on to our idols.

 

We all have a choice to make. Ask yourself the question, “Do I want my idols or my Lord Jesus Christ?” You can’t have both.

 

If we try to keep an idol while we are attempting to serve the Lord, we will spiral into a decimated Christian life. Jesus demands exclusive rights to our worship.

 

Fourth, make a commitment to let go of your idols and avoid them at all costs.

 

John the Apostle states it simply in 1 John 5:21; “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

 

We must conscientiously and deliberately put idols in the proper perspective or throw them away. This means confession, repentance and a renewed commitment Christ as Lord and Savior.

 

I pray you will be able to reach this man. You certainly are a Spiritual Warrior in Christ’s kingdom!

 

Sincerely,

Roger

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Articles

Do Not Fear This Brutal World

by Max Lucado
written by Max Lucado

Max Lucado calls us to life and peace in a world filled with uncertainty and violence:

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Matthew 10:28

Yet again, yet so soon, we struggle to make sense of bloodshed and violence. Last week bikers mowed down on New York City’s Westside. Sunday, worshippers slaughtered in a small-town South Texas church.

Life is a dangerous endeavor. We pass our days in the shadows of ominous realities. The power to annihilate humanity has, it seems, been placed in the hands of people who are happy to do so.

Contrary to what we’d hope, good people aren’t exempt from violence. Murderers don’t give the godly a pass. Terrorists don’t vet out victims according to spiritual resumes. The bloodthirsty and wicked don’t skip over the heavenbound. We aren’t insulated. But neither are we intimidated. Jesus has a word or two about this brutal world. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28).

His disciples needed this affirmation. Jesus had just told them to expect scourging, trials, death, hatred, and persecution (Matthew 17–23). Not the kind of locker room pep talk that rallies the team. To their credit none defected. Perhaps they didn’t because of the fresh memory of Jesus’ flexed muscles in the graveyard. Jesus had taken his disciples to the “the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, [where] two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs; they were so exceedingly violent that no one could pass by that road. And behold, they cried out, saying, ‘What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’” (Matthew 8:28–29 NASB).

These two men were demon-possessed and, consequently, “exceedingly violent.” People walked wide detours around the cemetery to avoid them.

Not Jesus. He marched in like he owned the place. The demons and Jesus needed no introduction. They had battled it out somewhere else, and the demons had no interest in a rematch. They didn’t even put up a fight. “Have you come to punish us before our time?” (Matt.8: 29 cev). Backpedaling. Stuttering. Translation? “We know you will put it to us in the end, but do we get double trouble in the meantime?” They crumpled like stringless puppets. Pathetic, their appeal: “please send us into those pigs” (Matthew 8: 31 CEV).

Jesus did so. “Move,” he exorcised. No shout, scream, incantation, dance, incense, or demand, just one small word. We Christians trace the source of violence back to the devil. We place the fault of bloodshed at the feet of the one whose days are numbered; Satan. We find our hope in the sure victory of Jesus.

And though this world with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us:
the prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him,
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure,
one little word shall fell him.[i]

This is the balance on which Jesus writes the check of courage “Do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28).

Courage emerges, not from increased police security, but from enhanced spiritual maturity. These days of violence call for people of faith. People of fear make poor decisions. They overreact, lash out and/or retreat. People of courage, on the other hand, keep a cool head. They are not blind to nor bewildered by the evil in the world.

Martin Luther King exemplified this courage. He chose not to fear those who meant him harm. On April 3, 1968, he spent hours in a plane waiting on the tarmac due to bomb threats. When he arrived in Memphis later that day, he was tired and hungry, but not afraid.

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” he told the crowd. “But it doesn’t matter to me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”[ii]

He would be dead in less than twenty-four hours. But the people who meant him harm fell short in their goal. They took his breath, but they never took his soul.

Evildoers have less a chance of hurting you, if you aren’t already a victim. “Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but to trust the LORD means safety (Proverbs 29:25 NLT).

Real courage embraces the twin realities of current difficulty and ultimate triumph.

Avoid Pollyanna optimism. We gain nothing by glossing over the brutality of human existence. This is a toxic world. But nor do we join the Chicken Little Chorus of gloom and doom. “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Somewhere between Pollyanna and Chicken Little, between blind denial and blatant panic, stands the level-headed, clear-thinking, still-believing person of faith. Wide-eyed, yet unafraid. Unterrified by the terrifying. The calmest kid on the block, not for lack of bullies, but for faith in our heavenly Father. The old people of God knew this peace: “Though a host encamps against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident” (Psalm 27:3 RSV).

Do not give in to your fears. Resist the temptation to retreat and hunker down. This is the time for faith; the season for God-based hope. “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about the evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes” (Psalm 37:7 NLT).

Courage is a choice. Let it be yours.

©Max Lucado

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Ask Roger

Why Do We Seldom Hear the Gospel Preached?

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Dear Roger,

I am shocked and disappointed. I have been to several dynamic, growing churches who end a service and asked if anyone in the audience wanted to “pursue a relationship with God?” or even “connect with Christ.” When hands were raised, EVERY time Jesus’ death on the cross was not mentioned, sin and repentance was not mentioned, heaven and hell were not mentioned in any way. I know that people who don’t know Christ are “on a continuum,” but what happened to Paul’s words: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the POWER of God unto salvation for those who believe.”

Where has the gospel gone? And where can we, in good conscience, bring people to a hunger for knowing Christ without giving them clear direction about the next step? The four spiritual laws may sound corny, but at least the gospel was clear and a choice had to be made or rejected. What has happened to our churches and pulpits today?

A Frustrated Christian

Dear Frustrated Christian,

Seduced by relevance and relationships, we can find it easy to neglect the cost inherent with the Gospel. Relevance and relationships are great tools for getting people to come and enjoy church.

However, I have noticed among many churches and church leaders a thundering silence when it comes to sharing the true essence of the Gospel.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer put the Gospel like this: “When Jesus Christ calls a man He bids him come and die.” 

In fact, I dare say that the Gospel is not fully communicated until people have enough understanding to say, “No.”

 

Jesus put it like this to the Rich Young Ruler: “Go and sell all that you have and come and follow me.” Jesus looked on him with compassion as he turned to walk away. I can imagine the Disciples thinking, “Surely, Jesus didn’t mean like that. Surely, He will all him back. We need people like him. But, Jesus did mean it that way and He let him walk away.

 

Bonhoeffer put it terms of cheap grace and costly grace: “Cheap grace doesn’t cost a person anything, and leads to Hell. Costly grace costs a person everything that he has, and leads to Heaven.”

 

A.W. Tozer, a Canadian pastor and writer put it like this: “Thank you America. You’ve given us instant coffee, instant TV dinners, instant communications and now you have bequeathed to the world instant Christianity by which a person can walk down the aisle of a church and say, “I believe in Jesus,” and in thirty seconds complete a divine transaction that he/she need seldom think of ever again.”

 

In a generation of relevance and relationships it’s easy to keep quiet about the cost of discipleship.

 

Once upon a time I was in a small group discussing the importance of understanding different cultures and responding accordingly. We were studying was Acts (    ) where Paul was preaching to the Greek inteligencia about Jesus and the Resurrection. We discussed how Paul referred to their idol dedicated to an “Unknown God” (just in case they had forgotten one). He spoke in terms that identified with his audience and with their cultural understandings.

A discussion ensured about how to make the church more relevant to our contemporary culture. We stopped there and it was time for fellowship and refreshments. But, first, I asked for permission to address an intriguing sidelight to the passage which only comes through in Greek.

 

Unlike English, Greek words are masculine, feminine or neuter and are declined accordingly. In Greek the word “Jesus” is masculine and the word “Resurrection” is feminine. The Athenians thought Paul was introducing them to a pair of new gods named “Jesus” and his female compatriot named “Resurrection”. They listened gladly until it dawned on them that Paul was really talking about a new God named, “Jesus” and His physical resurrection. About that time Paul got to the point of the Gospel: “God commands everyone to repent…” Most of the Greeks began mocking Paul and his speech, called him the “Babbler” and climbed down the hill. They faced the Gospel’s demands and they rejected it. Several remained and wanted to hear more.

That night, Paul, scorned by the most prominent philosophers of his day, spent the most depressed night of his life.

Julie said later in the car, “Did you see how some squirmed when you said that the Gospel is only fully presented when people are led to point where they have to make an intelligent, determined choice, “yes or no”?

 

The cost of discipleship is the most expensive decision we can ever make.

 

I was teaching in the Ukraine, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to several hundred Ukrainian pastors and wives concerning the cost of discipleship. If anyone knew of the cost these persecuted Christians certainly would. Under the communists they had been on the front lines of martyrdom and persecution every day for years.

 

I began one teaching session by addressing Paul’s longing in Philippians 3:10-11: “I want to know Christ—and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection of the dead.”

 

“How many of you want to know Christ?” I asked. All hands rose.

“How many of you want to experience the resurrection power of Christ?” All hands rose.

“How many of you want to share in the fellowship of His sufferings. No one moved. They, like very few others, understood the cost of following Jesus. Slowly, one hand went up … then another … then another … until all hands were in the air. Several men and women raised both hands!

 

We must help people understand the difference between cheap and costly grace. Their eternal destiny is at stake.

 

Some may feel that I am minimizing the importance of relevance and relationships. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Many churches are using relevance and relationships as creative ways to lure people into a user-friendly church setting. I agree wholeheartedly with this tactic. Relevance and relationships are essential in laying the foundation for sharing Christ. However, this is only good if the church has other ways to give people enough information and truth to make an intelligent decision to follow Christ, or not.

 

Decisions come in all shapes and sizes. The easiest person I led to Christ was a high school friend sitting in the front seat of my car. He looked at me and said, “I want to be a Christian. Can you tell me how?”

“Of course I can.” We talked about the wages of sin and the need for forgiveness and the life-time surrender to Jesus Christ at any price. He said, “yes” to Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior and he and his family have followed Christ faithfully ever since.

 

My most heartbreaking experience was watching a man cry as he said “no” to Jesus. Keeping his mistress meant more than following Jesus.

 

Julie led an ex-con to Christ one evening in her office at church. He prayed all the right prayers and said all the things. We arranged for several Christian friends to watch over him and help him along in his Christian life. He ate Easter dinner with us. He was so grateful.

Several months later we discovered that he was a contract killer. He stabbed his target 37 times behind an office complex. He and his “employer” are in prison for life without parole.

 

Wisdom and balance are essential in leading people to Christ. After all, no one has to know everything.

Buckner Fanning was approached by a seeker who was having trouble believing that the miracles were true—especially the Virgin Birth. Fanning advised him go ahead and think and act as if he had commit his life to Christ and to let the miracles take care of themselves. Several months later he returned to say, “I can see now how it all fits—even the Virgin Birth.

 

No one must know everything and have all their questions solved before they can have their sins forgiven and make a decision to follow Jesus at any price.

 

After all, I became a Christian when I was seven. I didn’t even know what a virgin was.

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Bible with earphones and red heart Symbolises devotion and love for hearing God's words. Christianity concept.
Sermons

Good Reasons Not to Go to Church: Image Problems

by Glenn Barteau
written by Glenn Barteau

The reality gap is this. Our God is an utterly amazing, incredible God. So we think – What does a God-believer look like? Every one of us comes up with an iconic image of what a Christian should be. The gap is – what do we do when we see the gap between out image of what a Christian should be, and our own reality?

Preached at Casas Church. Used by permission.

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Ask Roger

17 Ways to Identify a Dead Church

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Hello, Roger!

 

Jack Wellman of “Telling Ministries: Talking Truth Through Technology”, emailed me an article that he had written delineating some of the signs of apathy that tell the pastor that it is time for him/her to leave the church and move on.

 

Frankly, I always thought that I would “move on” by being fired. Every pastor I knew growing up got fired. I guess that emotionally, deep down inside, the image of those pastors’ painful dismissals were never far from the forefront of my brain.

 

Brother Johnson decided to stop being a Baptist and become a Methodist. I was only-five-years old but I vividly remember his going away party. I wondered at the time how everyone could be having so much fun at such a somber occasion. As I grew older I realized that his departure was amicable. Nevertheless he was asked to move on.

 

I sat under the teaching and leadership of Brother Baker for the next 13 years. His departure was not so sweet. Several men decided that the church could do better with another pastor. They had both reasons and power. I never thought the reasons were valid. There was no doubt about their power.

 

They forced him out. His sons and daughter were hurt, angry, and bitter. Most of them will never darken the door of a church again. Who can blame them?! The only lasting result of the insurrection centered around the hurting people of the church, most of whom had no idea what happened, only that something bad happened and all was not as it appeared to be. Brother Baker was kicked out on his ear. There was no party.

 

By the way, over 70% of all pastors will be fired, forced out, asked to leave, or maneuvered out by a few select church deacons or elders sometime during their church ministries. The only job I know of with less security than pastoring is being a college or professional football coach.

 

Fortunately, gratefully and thankfully I finished my career without being fired. I started pastoring at twenty-years old and kept pastoring for the next forty-four years until my heart said, “No more,” and the time had arrived for me to transition the church to new young leaders.

 

One group of eighteen people did try to get me fired. They told me that they would get me on the front page of the Sunday morning paper and so disgrace me that I would never preach again. Six months later I was on the Sunday front page. One of the eighteen said to one of our elders, “We’ve got him now; they’ll be lined up nope not now outside his door on Monday demanding his resignation.” He was wrong. There was no line on Monday and I lived to pastor another thirty years after that. One of my cherished memories is a retired Marine general took me to lunch to tell me he been watching closely to see how I would act under trial. I passed and he told me so. “They certainly meant to do evil; but, God meant it all for good.

 

When I first read Jack’s list, it dawned on me that most of the things on the list were the same things I was listening and watching for in order to be certain that my ministry was secure.

 

As I read through a second time, it dawned on me that Jack had outlined well what could be considered the marks of a dying church.

 

As a result I’d like to share Jack’s thirteen thoughts, along with four of mine, and consider, “Seventeen Ways To Know That Your Church Is Dying (Or, Already Dead).”

 

When the church body is becoming indifferent about anything and everything

 

When members stop attending

 

When members stop giving

 

When the church family stops evangelizing

 

When they stop serving

 

When church ministries begin to dissipate

 

When staff, elders, deacons, and volunteers stop doing their jobs

 

When the church building and/or property is no longer cared for and no one cares enough to do anything about it

 

When the fellowship hall is used only for family parties and post-funeral meals

 

When the church is shrinking

 

When your family is being attacked

 

When morality and sinful activities predominate

 

When church members refuse to be disciplined according to the biblical model

 

When the church is scrambling to pay the mortgage and the budget is devastated

 

When the number of first-time visitors drops to near zero and below

 

When the church fails to draw in a younger generation to rebuild and/or revive the church

 

When you hear someone say, “it’s time to find a new pastor.”

 

For members, it may be time to leave.

 

For pastors, it may be time to go.

 

But, by the way, you don’t have to leave the church just because it’s dying. The preceding list may give you some ideas on what to work on in stabilizing and healing your church.

 

By the way, no church lives forever. Churches are born, grow, stabilize, decline and die. What breaks my heart is that very few are willing to love a church and the church family through decline and finally to death.

 

Most dying churches began with great hope and vision. Through the church lifecycle, children leave, communities decline and the people who began the church, and stayed with it for years, now grieve in agony as their church dies and nothing they can do seems to help it. Oh, for men and women who will put aside their great desires to build a big church and give their lives away in comforting and strengthening the older members as their churches go away.

 

Thanks, Jack, for sharing your thoughts. I do believe that many in the Christian community will profit greatly from your ideas. I know they’re helpful to me.

 

Love, Roger

 

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Articles

Sex, Power and the Church: David and Bathsheba

by Jeff Elkins
written by Jeff Elkins

If you grew up in a conservative evangelical church like I did, it is possible there is a story from the Bible that was repeatedly used to teach you about sex – the story of David and Bathsheba in 2nd Samuel chapters 11 and 12. While our teachers’ intentions were good, the way the story was taught has planted seeds in our minds that have grown into weeds we must now deal with if we are to side with Jesus in the time of #MeToo and #TimesUp. In this short essay, I hope to give you a different understanding of David and Bathsheba, one that doesn’t just focus on sex, but also on power.

The Way I Learned the Story

David has outlasted his predecessor and been crowned king. He has defeated his enemies, he has returned the ark to Jerusalem, and he has constructed his place. He is at the peak of his power and his place in the history books as Israel’s greatest king was secure.

Then, on a Spring night, David took a stroll on the roof of his palace. While walking, he saw a beautiful woman bathing on a neighboring rooftop. He asked his servants to find out who the woman was. They told him it was Bathsheba, the wife of one of David’s soldiers. David sent a servant to get her, he had sex with her, and then he sent her home.

A little while later, Bathsheba sent the king a note that read, “I am pregnant.”

David’s first thought was to cover up that the baby was his. He brought Bathsheba’s husband home from war thinking the man would have sex with his wife while he was on leave, but out of loyalty to his troops who were still on the battlefield, Bathsheba’s husband wouldn’t sleep with her.

When David’s original plan failed, the king told his generals to arrange it so Bathsheba’s husband would die on the battlefield. After the husband was killed, David gave Bathsheba time to mourn before he married her.

This might have been the end of the story, one more political scandal cleaned before it damaged the throne if it had not been for God. In the story, God sent Nathan the prophet to speak to David. Nathan told David a story about two men, a rich man, and a poor man. The rich man had lots of sheep. The poor man had one sheep for which he cared a great deal. One night the rich man needed to feed a traveler. Not wanting to waste his own sheep, the rich man took the poor man’s sheep.

At the end of Nathan’s story, David was angry at the rich man and wanted justice for the poor man. With dramatic flair, Nathan explained to David that David was the rich man and Bathsheba’s husband was the poor man. Nathan then told David that his power would begin to fade because of the terrible thing he has done.

What I Learned in Church about Sex

Growing up in an Evangelical Southern Baptist church, I heard this story at least once a year. My Sunday school teachers and youth leaders pulled it out whenever it was time to talk about sex. It was used as a warning for boys on the dangers of sexual temptation. The central message was, “Have sex before marriage and bad things will happen, like a girl getting pregnant.”

I was told that David’s first mistake was being on the roof at midnight. If David had been in bed like he was supposed to be, this would have never happened.

David’s second mistake was looking for too long. My teachers explained that, Yes, there are beautiful women in the world, but don’t look at them. If you do, sexual temptation might overtake you.” Through this analysis of the story, my teachers gave the power to Bathsheba’s beauty. If lingered on, it would be more than any man could bear.

Above all else, it was important for young men to know that they should never investigate sexual temptation. That was David’s third mistake. He was tempted by Bathsheba’s powerful beauty and he then he dwelled on it. He did the Old Testament equivalent of Googling her. My teachers were clear, “Don’t Google sexual temptation.”

According to this line of teaching, David’s great failure was having sex with Bathsheba. All the other bad things that happened (trying to trick the husband, then killing him, then being lectured by Nathan) were born from the act of sex. If David just hadn’t of given in to his desires, everything would have been alright. It was implied (and sometimes openly stated) that if a man lingers in lustful thoughts, those thoughts will when and the man will fall into sin. The only way to escape such temptation was to run from it.

These teachings stuck with me for a long time. When I was in college, I remember walking through the mall with friends who had come from similar upbringings. As we walked by the Victoria Secret store, we’d talk loudly about how much we liked our shoes. The absurd exercise was a way to acknowledge to everyone around us that we were not going to be like David. We weren’t going to look at Bathsheba. We were going to look at our shoes because the beautiful women advertised in the windows of the store would not tempt us. We were aware that just one lingering glance at a poster could take us down a road that would end in an unwanted baby.

When I started in the ministry as a young adult, I was warned about meeting one-on-one with young women. If a meeting with a woman was necessary, it should not be done in public because people might think the meeting was romantic in nature and that would be bad. It should also not be done in private because then I wouldn’t have accountability for my behavior. I also should not ride to meetings in the same car with a woman, because that could lead to sexual temptation. Honestly, the only way meeting one-on-one with a woman would work is if I did it in my office, with the door open, and another guy was sitting outside just in case. Therefore, in the end, it was best just not to have one-on-one meetings with women unless another guy was around.

Consequences of that Teaching

Now in my forties with young boys of my own, I realize this line of teaching, although well intentioned, planted some bad seeds in my mind.

§  It taught me that David, and all men, were the victims in the story. David was being challenged by powerful temptation, the beauty of a woman, and he understandably failed to resist it. The teaching never went so far as to excuse him from responsibility, but it implied that giving in was the foregone conclusion if he remained exposed to the power of a beautiful woman.

§  It also taught me that Bathsheba and beautiful women like her were tools of temptation. Therefore, they were on the side of temptation. While they weren’t the problem, they weren’t helping. Their beauty was powerful and should be avoided unless appropriate romantic involvement was intended.

§  Finally, it taught me that the perspective that matters was David’s. This story was about him, and it was a tragedy. Poor David had fallen into temptation and lost things because of it. Just think of what an amazing king he might have continued to be if this hadn’t happened to him.

As women have begun to speak out about how they were assaulted, I feel the presence of these teachings in our cultural conversation.

When an allegation arises, we whisper about the women because we can’t help but ask Bathsheba, “Should you really have been bathing on the roof? Don’t you know how dangerous your beauty is for men?” We want to know the man’s side of the story, wondering where his moment of failure came; and after the second or third story is shared, we start asking if this whole thing has gone too far. We question allegations, asking for investigations into them, and then questioning the validity of the investigations when they do happen. We even mourn the loss of the assaulters when they are held accountable, saying things like, “Isn’t it sad that David never reached his full potential as the king because this happened to him.”

The Misuse of Power

Teachings like this version of David and Bathsheba have not served us well. I would, therefore, like to take a different look at the story. One that doesn’t place sex at the center, but focuses on the real issue – the issue we tend to ignore in conversations about sexual assault – power.

Let’s start with Bathsheba since she is the true victim of the story.

Notice that she is never the one taking action.

§  David looks at her.

§  David summons her.

§  David “lays” with her.

§  David tries to trick her husband.

§  David murders her husband.

§  David then marries her.

In contrast to David, she has no power in the narrative. At every turn, she is acted upon. This is not something she chose. This was forced upon her.

Also notice that, excluding a three-word note she writes, Bathsheba is silent in the story. In not giving her a voice, the storyteller is communicating to us that she could not speak. It is a stretch to say that she likely felt denying the king was impossible. He clearly had the power to kill her husband and end her life. She had no choice. Which is why this is not a story about an extra-marital affair. It is a story about sexual assault.

David had all the power. Bathsheba had no power. David abused his power to take what he wanted from Bathsheba.

Yet it is her life that is over. Because David stole her, she loses her home and her husband, and she is forced into a harem she didn’t ask to be a part of. Bathsheba’s life as she knows it ends because David took her.

To hammer this point home, let’s consider Nathan. The prophet speaks for God in the story. God and Nathan do not seem to think the problem is sex. They don’t lecture David about being in the wrong place or letting his eye linger on Bathsheba for too long. When Nathan arrives on the scene to speak to David, he tells a story about power. There was a rich man and a poor man. The rich man took the poor man’s things and this was the great injustice.

Notice also that Nathan does not lecture Bathsheba. He does not hold her accountable for tempting David. He does not criticize her for bathing on the roof. He does not tell her she should have covered up or been more careful. He does not have a story for her about sheep and power. In this story, Nathan sees Bathsheba as the innocent victim that she is. She is the poor man who did nothing wrong.

In Sunday School, we never got to the end of the story, and the end of the story is important.

Before leaving David, Nathan explains that because of David’s sin – his abuse of power over Bathsheba – the baby Bathsheba has given birth to will die.

And then the child gets sick.

And David refuses to eat, lying on the ground in mourning all day and night.

And after seven days, the child dies.

The conclusion of the story is that David is made to feel as powerless as Bathsheba was. Through his abuse of power, he is given a son, an heir, a symbol that his family name will go on; but then he is left to lay on the floor helpless and mourning as he watches that future die, just as Bathsheba had to watch as David destroyed her life.

It is clear to me now, as a grown man with sons, that while this story has sex in it, it is not about sex. It is about power. David had all of it, he used it to sexually assault Bathsheba, and the future she was building was destroyed because of it.

Where Should Christians Stand?

The biggest lesson for me (and the lesson I’m trying to teach my boys is) from the story of David and Bathsheba is about how Christ followers should respond when the story is repeated.

When the course of a person’s life is changed because someone with power abuses it to take what they want, where should the people of God be?

Nathan has two roles in this story.

First, he fearlessly holds power accountable.

David is king. He has armies of warriors at his disposal. He has proven himself to be a mighty warrior in battle. He has all the money, all the fame, all the resources of the kingdom.

Nathan only has his reputation and his integrity. He is the man who speaks for God.

Yet Nathan does not hesitate to look David in the eye and say, “You were wrong. You were wrong and you are going to pay for it.”

If we are going to call ourselves followers of God, we must not hesitate to speak truth to those in power. When they abuse their power (and they will because they always do), we must stand and say, “No. This behavior is unacceptable and it will be made right.”

Second, Nathan stands with the powerless.

After this story, Nathan disappears from the narrative. He doesn’t come back until David is an old man, on his deathbed. And when Nathan appears again, in the first chapter of 1st Kings, we see him standing next to Bathsheba. He encourages her to go to David and advocate for her second son, the son who was born after her life had been reset, Solomon. It is Nathan that orchestrates Bathsheba’s son Solomon becoming king. In the same way, when we see injustice happen, if we want to follow God we must also fight for the empowerment of the victims.

I tell my sons at every opportunity, “If you want to know where God is, find the people with the least amount of power, and go fight for them. You’ll find God there.”

The lesson the story of David and Bathsheba should teach us is not about sex. It’s about power. And if the church of America wants to call itself the people of God, if it wants to play the role of Nathan in the story, then it must fearlessly speak truth to power and stand alongside the victims, because that is where we will find God.

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Articles

Where is Satan Working Today?

by John Piper
written by John Piper

“The best way to think about Satan’s power is not in terms of physical strength, but moral deception.”

Deceiver and Accuser

Even though this supernatural being, this fallen angel and archenemy of God, has a remarkable power in the material or physical realm —he can make people sick, he can throw them in prison, and he can even kill them — nevertheless, his main way of opposing God and destroying God’s people is not in the physical or material realm, but in the mental or intellectual or moral realm. In other words, the best way to think about his power is not in terms of physical strength, but moral deception.

Let me try to illustrate this from the Bible. Here’s the passage that piles up more designations of Satan than any other passage in the Bible. If I had only one or two verses to put the identity and work of Satan before you, it would be Revelation 12:9–10.

Here it says, “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent.” And remember what the Bible said in Genesis 3 about him: he’s subtle. He’s subtler than every beast. So it’s his subtlety that’s being focused on here, his serpent-like reality. “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil  (slanderer, liar, cheat] and Satan [adversary], the deceiver of the whole world.”

I don’t think you can say anything more sweeping or more basic than the end of Revelation 12:9: “He is the deceiver of the whole world.” Verse 10: “The accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”

So at the center of Satan’s purpose is to deceive on earth and to accuse in heaven. If he can deceive you about God and Christ, you will perish. If he can successfully accuse you of unforgiven sin in heaven, you will perish.

Jesus calls him “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). The deception and the accusation and the eternal death that results from unforgiven sin is a way of destroying people and opposing God.

Worldwide Battleground

Josh asks me, “To what extent and by what means specifically does Satan influence the world?” My answer, therefore, is that the extent is worldwide and the means is deception.

“He destroys not mainly by the sword or disease or killing, but mainly by lying.”

We can see this in another text. Here’s Revelation 20:8: “[He] will come out to deceive the nations.” There’s the focus again on his major strategy of destroying the world — deceiving them. But he will be defeated, and he will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:8–10).

My basic answer to Josh’s question is that the extent of Satan’s influence is global; it covers all nations. The primary means of his influence is deception. He destroys not mainly by the sword or disease or killing, but mainly by lying. Jesus calls him “the father of lies” (John 8:44). He lies mainly about God, about Jesus, about the gospel, and about sin. Oh, how wonderful it is that he has been dealt a decisive blow!

You can see his deception about the gospel in 2 Corinthians 4:4: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Hating the Gospel

Josh’s second question is “Where do you see his works most clearly?” My answer is that wherever saving truth is hated and resisted and distorted and muted, Satan is at work so that people are kept from being saved by the truth of the gospel. That’s where I see his works most clearly.

Second Thessalonians 2:9–10 says, “[Satan comes] with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” Satan hates the truth of the gospel and the truth of the cross more than any other truth.

Remember when Satan was on earth, he tried to keep Jesus away from the cross. In Matthew 16:23, when Peter says, “No, no, no. This isn’t going to happen to you,” Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan!” That’s what Satan wants. He doesn’t want Jesus to die for the sins of the world. Even though at the end, Satan gave up on that strategy and filled Judas to get him to betray Jesus. Nevertheless, at the end, he’s trying to make it as horrible as possible. But his first design was “I’m not going to let him get to the cross, no way.”

Now, Satan is mainly bent on preventing the message of the cross from being spread, from being understood, and from being believed. And he does everything in his power to distort and silence the saving message of the cross.

Snatching the Word

Remember how Jesus said Satan snatches the word (Matthew 13:19). He snatches it. Just as soon as you preach the cross, just as soon as you preach the saving word of the kingdom, Satan will, if he can, snatch the word right out of the mind — just like birds snatching seed off of a path.

Why is he so opposed to this central truth? Because the gospel is the truth that Christ has paid the price for the sins of everyone who believes. That means Satan cannot successfully accuse us in heaven.

He cannot make a case against the elect because our sins have been covered. That’s the only means he has to destroy us, which means, of course, he can oppress us, he can distress us, he can tempt us, he can make us sick, he can kill us. But he cannot damn us — ever. We are eternally safe. The elect are eternally safe in God’s sovereign grace.

Satan Disarmed

He rages against the people of God, and he rages against the gospel that snatches people out of the damning hands of his own greedy self. You can see this in Colossians 2:13–14: “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Here’s what follows: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:15).

“Satan hates the truth of the gospel and the truth of the cross more than any other truth.”

When our sins are forgiven, nailed to the cross, the satanic rulers and authorities are decisively defeated. They are undone. Their one condemning, damning weapon has been taken out of their hands — namely, unforgiven sin.

If our sins are not forgiven, Satan can rightly accuse us before God, and we will be sentenced to hell. But if our sins are forgiven, Satan cannot successfully accuse us before God. Paul soars in exultation over the great gospel of deliverance in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” And Romans 8:33: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?”

That is in Satan’s face. “Who shall bring any charge? It is God who justifies, Mr. Satan. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, Mr. Satan. You couldn’t stop it. More than that, Jesus was raised from the dead, and he is at the right hand of God. He indeed intercedes for us, Mr. Accuser. So I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers — nor Satan — nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

Fight for Freedom

So, our weapon against Satan in this world is truth — especially the truth of the gospel of the cross of Christ. Our great mission is the deliverance of the world. Tell them the truth. Spread the truth. Defend the truth. Live the truth. As Jesus said, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Free from sin. Free from Satan.

The words of Jesus to the apostle Paul before he sent him out were, “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:17–18).

That’s our great liberating mission in the world — to open the eyes of the blind, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the great instrument of truth. Paul said, “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25–26).

May God make us valiant spokesmen and spreaders of liberating truth.

Excerpt from www.desiringgod.org. https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/where-is-satan-most-visibly-active-today

Used by permission of Desiring God.

 

 

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Ask Roger

What “Little Foxes” Destroy Your Faith?

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Dear Roger,

 

Our Bible study group was studying the Song of Solomon and came across Song of Solomon 2:15: “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards.” Could you please elaborate?

Sincerely, Susan

 

Dear Susan,

 

The context of this verse is the poetic picture of sexual love in marriage composed by Solomon’s fiancé as she looks forward to her upcoming wedding with King Solomon.

 

She knows that there are things which can spoil their relationship. These little foxes can destroy their marriage.

 

In the same way, little foxes can sneak in and spoil our Christian lives. We’ll look at the verse of this perspective.

 

FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINEYARD

 

Little foxes need little exposition. I won’t take time to elaborate because they are really self-explanatory.

 

Besides, I want to focus shortly on the Biggest Little Fox.

 

Look carefully! Some of these little foxes may be in your vineyard.

 

Quarreling with other Christians (First Corinthians 3:1-3)

 

Pride (Proverb 16:18)

 

Simmering bitterness (Ephesians 5:21)

 

Sexual immorality (Colossians 3:5)

 

Materialism (Colossians 3:5)

 

Prayerlessness (James 4:2)

 

Filthy language (Colossians 3:8)

 

Envy (Galatians 5:21)

 

Drunkenness and drugs (Galatians 5:21)

 

 

WORLDLINESS IS THE BIGGEST LITTLE FOX

 

 

How incredible would it be after the pastor pronounces, “husband and wife” at a wedding ceremony for the groom to take the maid of honor by the arm and walk her back down the aisle and out the door!

 

Unfortunately, Christians this all the time. We are married to Jesus Christ (Revelation 19:7). Yet, we leave Jesus at the altar and walk down the aisle arm in arm with worldliness!

 

“You adulterous people don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” James 4:4).

 

The word, “enmity”, means that worldly Christians are at war with God. What an awful position in which to be!

 

 

DEMAS: THE PREEMINENT PICTURE OF INCREASING WORLDLINESS

 

 

Three times Demas is mentioned in the New Testament. We see here three points on a graph which reveal his downward spiral into materialism

 

Point One: Demas was Paul’s close companion and fellow worker. There are few greater honors than that!

 

 “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers” (Philemon 23-24.

 

Point Two: Unfortunately, Demas was sliding away. In verses 7 to 13 Paul gave thanks for six fellow workers who had done great things for Christ. Unfortunately, Paul has no word of commendation for Demas: “Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings” (Colossians 4:7-14).

 

Is it any accident that in a context of eight Christian laborers, seven are pointed out for some good work, and one is passed over in silence?

 

Can you imagine that some Christian lives are best passed over in silence

 

Point Three: The final portrait of Demas is relayed in 2 Timothy 4:10:

 

“Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.”

 

“Demas, my fellow worker; Demas; Demas has deserted me!”

 

Three points on a curve enable us to plot the downward journey of a man who started with Jesus Christ, and ended up with the world!

 

Many Christians find it easy to love this present age. We make fine beginnings and some comfortable corner of this present age invites us and we nestle down in worldliness.

 

If I should accuse some of us of being Judas, we would be indignant. We would never deliberately sell anyone out.

 

But Demas, how many of us have been that?

 

 

HOW TO DRIVE OUT THE FOXES

 

 

I’m listing below a number of things we can do to help us conquer worldliness. Don’t try to do them all at once. Just pick two or three and when you’ve conquered those pick a couple or three more.

 

Understand correctly that worldliness is being concerned with worldly affairs to the neglect of spiritual ones.

 

Make growing to spiritual maturity a top priority (Ephesians 4:14-15).

 

Skip through the TV commercials: All advertising entices us to become worldly materialists.

 

Whether you have much or little, be content with what you have (Philippians 4:10-14).

 

Downsize: Be generous rather than selfish (Matthew 6:2): Think of the rich young ruler.

 

Manage your money well so you don’t over spend on worldly things (Proverb 27:23).

 

Associate with spiritual people instead of social climbers (Psalm 1:1-3).

 

Do not covet your neighbor’s house (Exodus 20:23).

 

Walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

 

Be warned. “Everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2: 16).

 

Refuse to be polluted by the world” (James 1:27).

 

Be warned: Choose to be a friend of the world and you’ll become an enemy of God (James 4:7).

 

Walk in the kingdom of light and stay away from the kingdom of darkness (Matthew: 6-33).

 

 

TEST YOURSELF.

 

 

One of the basic reasons that we have foxes in our vineyards is because we struggle with worldliness. We have yet to fully commit ourselves to doing things God’s way (James 4:7).

 

Either we are walking in the Kingdom of Light or we are walking in the Kingdom of Darkness.

 

In God’s Kingdom of Light everything is based on God’s will and way: “Let’s do it God’s way! Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

 

On the other hand, in the Kingdom of Darkness most everything is based on my way: “Let’s do it MY way.”

 

The language in the Kingdom of Darkness is spelled, “G-R-I-P-E”. People who live in the Kingdom Of Darkness are like the Israelites in the wilderness. They murmured and griped for 40 years. They griped about the food, the weather, the work, the water, and Moses!

 

On the other hand, the language of the Kingdom of God is spelled P-R-A-I-S-E. “In everything give thanks!” “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise will continually be in my mouth.”

 

It’s easy to pick out the people who live in the Kingdom of Light. They spend a lot of time praising the Lord: “The Lord gives, Lord takes away, Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

 

The problem with many Christians is that we’re living too close to the border. We want to submit to God but keep on doing things our way.

 

People who live in border towns often mix together the languages spoken on each side of the border. In my country, on the Texas side, people speak English. On the Mexico side they speak Mexican or Spanish. Over the years the two languages have meshed together. We call the new language, “Tex-Mex” or Spanglish”.

 

You’ll know if you have a foot in each kingdom, when you begin speaking, “Gripe-Praise”. “I feel terrible, but praise the Lord anyway!”

 

God says, “Stop flirting with worldliness! Keep both feet in the Kingdom of Light. From now on, let’s do it my way!”

 

After all, the problem with straddling the fence is that it always hurts in the middle!

 

Susan, I hope this is helpful.

 

Sincerely, Roger

 

 

 

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Articles

Diva or Heroine? What You DON’T Know About Queen Vashti

by Julie Barrier
written by Julie Barrier

Was Queen Vashti, King Xerxes’ ex-wife, as shallow and stubborn as we assume? I want you to ponder and puzzle with me. Queen Vashti’s gripping story is told in twelve short verses, Esther 1:8-20.

Was this sexy gal a diva, or a heroine? And why should we care? We know she was one gutsy lady.

Many theologians dismiss the Book of Esther from the canon because the name of God is not mentioned. Martin Luther wanted to pitch it into the river Elba. Au contraire. This little tale was a slice of Persian history discovered by a Jewish rabbi researching the origin of the Feast of Purim. In his writing, he used the acrostic for Jehovah (JHWH) four times. And get this! The unspoken name of God, “I AM,” is used only in Exodus and Esther. When God came to deliver Israel from their Egyptian oppressors, God told Moses “I AM” sent you (Exodus 3:8-14). God also used His Name “I AM” when He spoke of delivering the Jews from their Babylonian oppressors (Esther 7:5).

Most readers paint Queen Vashti (whose name means “beautiful”) in a negative light. Was she really arrogant, wicked and wanton? She was King Nebuchadnezzar’s granddaughter, Belshazzer’s cherished child. When King Darius invaded Belshazzar’s fateful feast, he plopped himself down on Belshazzer’s throne as the army decimated the guests. Terrified little Vashti climbed up in Darius’ arms thinking she was clinging to her daddy. Darius was so touched, he adopted Vashti and gave her to his son Xerxes to be his wife.

Let’s look at this lady and see what we can learn. Most queens were cloistered to the world except to appear on momentous occasions. Xerxes, a power-monger, brought dignitaries from around the globe to gawk at his wealth and grandeur. After 187 days of strutting his stuff, Xerxes held an obscene orgy for his guests. The king was “merry” with wine after spending a week in a drunken stupor, and commanded Vashti appear in front of his guests wearing her crown. (The actual translation infers that she appear naked, wearing ONLY her crown.) To appear in the nude would degrade and defile her. But the king was her husband, so she was required to come. To deny him, she would forfeit her crown, her wealth and probably her life.

Why did she say no? Hmmm….There are many possible answers. The Midrash (Persian history’s Us Weekly)  infers that Vashti was a Jew-hater who humiliated her Israeli slave girls by requiring they serve her buck naked on their sacred Sabbath. God got hot under the collar. The account reported that the Angel of the Lord struck her with leprosy and/or gave her a “tail” (male member) as retribution. Far-fetched, but you get the gist. Of course she couldn’t appear in the throne room with pus-filled sores or a you-know-what!

Other theologians (and there were many) heralded Queen Vashti as brave, moral and modest. Women were objectified and abused in this culture. By her refusal to be debased, she made a bold statement that women were to be treated with dignity.

Memucan, the advisor to Xerxes who had Vashti deposed, had it out for the royal. His daughter was supposed to take the throne, but was passed over for the job. He advised Xerxes to rid himself of his queen. Even though Memucan carried a grudge, he was right. With great power comes great responsibility. Vashti, whether she liked it or not, WAS a role model for every wife in the kingdom. The women of Persia watched her every move.

We know Queen Vashti was the sacrificial lamb. God needed Esther on the throne to save His beloved people.

What did these two women have in common?

  1. Each queen was faced with a decision whether to accept or reject the role expected of her.
  2. Each had to face the consequences of her decision. (Esther, to appear in the throne room unsummoned; Vashti, to fail to appear when she was summoned).
  3. Each woman had the unprecedented experience to have the ear of the King.
  4. Both violated His edicts-Vashti to preserve her modesty, Esther to save her people.

What can you learn from Vashti? We all are part-good, part-evil. That is the human condition. We have the choice to follow God courageously and faithfully, regardless of the circumstances or consequences. We must not rush to judgment of others. There is always a back-story.

Vashti might have been a villainess. She might have been a heroine. We’ll never know…. But every decision you make has a ripple effect. Choose to make a difference for God.

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A sad pregnant woman sitting outside on the grass crying in tears covering her face.
Articles

God’s Freedom from False Guilt

by David Ferguson
written by David Ferguson

So many of us suffer with false guilt; we take moral responsibility for actions, events, and situations that were not our fault. False guilt has no value; it is always detrimental. Where does false guilt come from? False accusations can come from other people (it was your fault that our parents got a divorce), from our own self-talk (if I hadn’t insisted on going out to dinner, we wouldn’t have had the accident). Satan is the primary source of false guilt. He is called the nefarious “accuser of the brothers” (Revelation 12:10). The Holy Spirit will convict us of sin (John 16:8), but Satan will not. True guilt is a good emotion. When we have wronged someone, we should feel guilty. If we seldom have guilty feelings, it may because our conscience is hardened, which is a dangerous condition. God doesn’t want guilt to remain in our hearts, and that’s why He instructs us to confess our wrongs to both God and those we have offended.

 

So many of us suffer with false guilt; we take moral responsibility for actions, events, and situations that were not our fault. False guilt has no value; it is always detrimental. Where does false guilt come from? False accusations can come from other people (it was your fault that our parents got a divorce), from our own self-talk (if I hadn’t insisted on going out to dinner, we wouldn’t have had the accident). Satan is the primary source of false guilt. He is called the nefarious “accuser of the brothers” (Revelation 12:10). The Holy Spirit will convict us of sin (John 16:8), but Satan will not. 

 

However, Satan and others may accuse us of:

  • Sins we have committed but properly confessed.
  • Sins and hurts for which we are not responsible.
  • Issues and actions that are not morally wrong and therefore do not need to be confessed.

 

Let’s look at each of these areas.

 

False guilt over sins we have committed but for which we have properly confessed. When we sincerely confess our sins to God, He always forgives. When we confess our sins to other people, they may or may not forgive us. But regardless of how people respond, our sense of guilt should be removed. We ma continue to sense regret over our actions, but we should not feel guilty. But often, Satan, the accuser, will continually remind us of past sins and suggest that the issue is unsettled. If we entertain his accusations, we’ll become entangled in a no-win mind game of confessing sins that we have previously confessed, only to find that relief is elusive. False guilt cannot be neutralized by confession.

 

False guilt over sins and hurts for which we are not responsible

 

Sometimes, we’re involved in a hurtful and/or sinful situation, but we’re not personally responsible for the sinful or hurtful acts. For instance, a child may feel false guilt over problems and conflicts his family is having. “Mom and dad are fighting again, it must be because of my grades at school.” “Our car got repossessed; it’s probably because my doctor bills cost so much.” “My younger sister got busted for doing drugs. That wouldn’t have happened if I were a better sister.”

 

False guilt over issues that are not wrong

 

We may confuse issues that are unfortunate or even hurtful with issues that are actually wrong. We should not feel guilt over the former, although feelings of sorrow and sadness may be appropriate. “I had ten kids audition for the main characters in the play. There were only three parts, so I know seven of the kids were sorely disappointed. I feel so bad about it.” “Our company is down-sizing, so I had to release several good employees. I feel awful about it.” “I had to discipline my four-year-old because she disobeyed me. She cried a lot. Did I do something wrong?”

 

So how do we avoid false guilt? Here are a few practical suggestions.

 

“Filter” your thoughts. Learn to filter questionable thought through several layers of scriptural truth. Unhealthy thoughts will have a hard time surviving. For instance, send troubling, guilt-ridden thoughts through the “filter” of Philippians 4:8: “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—think about these things.”

 

Share your thoughts with a close friend or spouse. It is important to emotionally de-brief with another person. During that time, it would be advantageous to talk about the significant thoughts that you had during the day, particularly those thoughts which were troubling or confusing or ones that might have caused you to feel bad about yourself. It’s amazing how clearly someone else can see through the fog of accusations and deception and minister truth to us.

 

So what is the biblical antidote for false guilt? Knowing and receiving truth. In John 8:32, Jesus declared that “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” In other words, as we replace lies with the truth, false guilt will be dislodged. “I’m not responsible for my Mom and Dad’s arguments.” “The sexual abuse I experienced was not my fault.” “There’s nothing wrong with disciplining my children appropriately.”

 

Receiving truth is also essential. Have you ever had the experience of knowing Bible verses intellectually and yet struggle with what they promise? For instance, it’s possible to mentally know that truth and “experientially” be unable to grasp its meaning.  For example, you may know that the psalmist writes that “…you are fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:4) and yet feel inadequate, unlovely and inept. You may know that you are forgiven (1 John 1:9), but still struggle with forgiving yourself.

 

So how can truth take the eighteen-inch plunge from our heads to our hearts? How can truth impact us emotionally?

 

We must allow others to confirm truth to us.

 

Sometimes lies can be planted so deeply in our hearts, that we need more than one person to minister truth to us. We need the confirming testimony of two or three witnesses. “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” (Deuteronomy 19:15)

 

Issues can be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses. There is power in the joint declaration of Christians. It’s often important for more than one person to confirm an issue. We have the ability and authority to bind and loose on earth, that which is bound and loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18) When we gather together and “confirm” a matter, we are simply declaring to be true what God has established in the heavens (Psalm 119:89). For instance, we can confirm to people that their sins have been forgiven because God’s Word declares it to be true; we can affirm a person’s worth because God has already established it. When we engage in this joint accomplishment, He will be with us. (Matthew 18:20) When we faithfully minister the Word of Christ, we are assured that Jesus will stand by us and ratify what we say and do.

 

As friends and family who are encouraging friends or family struggling with false guilt, we can comfort them, pray with them and affirm the truth.

 

“But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:16, 18-20)

www.greatcommandment.net. Used by permission.  

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Articles

Hidden Manna and White Stones: Uncovering the Mysteries of Revelation

by Eli Lyzorkin-Eyzenberg
written by Eli Lyzorkin-Eyzenberg

Revelation 2:17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

Once again, like the two previous calls, the one who hears is called to obey. Hebrew has no word for obedience. To hear someone means to obey him. He who obeys is described as conqueror and overcomer. To this particular overcomer, Christ is promising something very special – hidden manna and a white stone with a new secret name. First promise is easier to interpret than the second one.

Manna is a symbol of God’s sustenance and provision for the people of Israel in the wilderness as they came out of Egypt in obedience to God’s call, risking their own lives to go to a land they would only later be shown. When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan Israelite woman (John 4), his Judean Israelite disciples were returning from a nearby town with food acceptable for consumption by the Judeans (Ioudaioi). The disciples asked among themselves if perhaps someone already had brought Jesus food. He then answered them that he had something that was now, in this passage in Revelation, also being promised to the one who overcomes – the hidden manna. He said: “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” (Jn.4:32) This secret food that “the rest” did not know about is nothing less than divine energy that is able to provide sustenance in the most unimaginable and perilous circumstances. This characterized the-soon-to-be reality for believers in Pergamum. Jesus promised this energy to the one who obeys God’s words. This is why the one who obeys also is the one who overcomes.

As to the identity of the white stone things are more complicated. Among the most-likely interpretations that may fit the context is a suggestion that the white stones, with names of the recipients inscribed, were given to contest winners of the Roman sport races. The white stone inscribed with a personal name presumably served as a pass to a prestigious banquet only attended by the winners. This stone would have been received upon completion of the race. While this is not a particularly Jewish cultural reference, we do know of many biblical examples of the use of Greco-Roman cultural references as illustrations for and by the Jews. For example, the Apostle Paul used many Roman sports metaphors to make his points (Phil. 3:12-14; 1 Cor. 9:24-27; 2 Tim. 4:6-8). The writer of the letter to the Hebrews also employed Roman sport imagery of running a race and receiving a winner’s wreath (See also Hebrews 12:1). This kind of imagery was well known in Judea that housed elaborate sports arenas. This kind of analogy much more closely matches the culture of the Roman city of Pergamum. No doubt the persecuted believers, both Jewish and former pagans, were aware of this practice and the elaborate banquets of honor for the overcomers/winners of the race. Most of the believers did not take part in these games by the virtue of the fact that the games included a dedication to the Roman gods. Christ tells them that in all reality they have not missed out on anything. The real race is the race of perseverance dedicated to Israel’s God. Whoever perseveres in this race and overcomes will receive a pass into the heavenly banquet of eternal honor.

Another intriguing possibility continues with the theme of priestly attire as was already used in the letter of Revelation. The high priest’s robe had 12 stones with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. One of the stones was actually white – Yahalom (it was a stone number 6), signifying the 6th son of Leah – Zebulun. What’s important about Zebulun? We read in Is. 9:1-7, quoted in Matt. 4:15 that:

“In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned… For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”

According to this interpretation, the sacred white stone is a symbol of Greco-Romans residing in Galilee who would receive light through the birth of Jesus. Could the secret here be the Messiah himself? Could the white stone point to Jesus through the yahalom stone once adorning the breast of the High Priest of Israel? Perhaps.

Used by permission of eteacherbiblical.com.

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Articles

%&*#! What You Say Will Change Your Life!

by Julie Barrier
written by Julie Barrier

 %&*#! Potty mouth. Sexual innuendo. Cussing. Cursing. Smack talk. Smut. Swearing. OMG…Taking the Lord’s Name in vain!!! We have become desensitized to vulgarity.

“PG” ratings now use “R” language. What has happened to us? When did Christians tolerate such unclean language? Perhaps you don’t say those forbidden words…maybe you don’t say them in front of your children. But do you recoil when you hear them in the office, on your television or in the movie theater? Probably not.

WE CAN HAVE A BLESSED OR CURSED LIFE DEPENDING ON WHAT WE SAY.

 

TAKING GOD’S NAME IN VAIN

 

Your words can change you. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” Exodus 20:7 NKJV. What does it mean to “take the Lord’s name in vain?” Any use of God’s Name devalues His character and holiness. The Jews never even spoke the name of YHWH. Oh yeah-and God ALSO says that He will surely punish us for using His name irreverently. It’s hard to obey a God you don’t respect. When you devalue Him, you will take His commands casually and flippantly disobey Him. Serious stuff.

 

I first noticed how pervasive the use of God’s name was when I watched a television show on HGTV. Innocuous show, one would think…..The designer transformed the ratty room of a client and then brought the fortunate family in for the “reveal.” To my shock and chagrin, EVERY person who viewed the transformation said the same three words. “Oh, my God!”

 

Come on, people! God has better things to do: creating universes, writing history, transforming lives. I don’t think He spends a lot of time hanging wallpaper. Is our vocabulary so limited? Are our pea brains so small that we no longer have descriptors other than “Oh, my God?” Is He your God? If He is, then that statement is the most powerful declaration you can make. You are His and He is yours. Say it every day! All of the time! But say it because you love and worship the One who gave His only Son to die for your sins.

 

EMPTY PROMISES

 

Jesus warned about swearing in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:33-37 reads:

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not swear 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 swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” RSV

Jesus included these verses in His most significant sermon. He said, “Don’t make empty promises you don’t intend to keep. Do what you promised God you would do.” The Message translation describes this passage in a very relevant way:

“Don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it.” You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’”

Here comes the kicker. Verse 37.

37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” RSV

Swearing comes from the Devil. He is the father of lies, the prince of darkness. We trivialize our empty promises, assuming there will be no repercussions for our insincere words. But guess what? We have just given Satan a foothold in our lives.

 

UNCLEAN WORDS

 

Roger, my husband, relates this story about profanity. The Barrier family reunion was in full swing. Aunts, uncles and cousins scarfed boatloads of chicken casserole, sweet tea and strawberry shortcake. In the midst of the revelry, five-year-old Roger skipped into the kitchen yellng f**k, f**k, f**k at the top of his little lungs. He was simply repeating the words of Sam, his oldest cousin. Rog’s Mom Helen was appalled. She grabbed him by the arm, marched him to the bathroom and made him wash his mouth with Ivory soap until he puked. Her punishment was rather extreme, but Roger never said that word again. Today, most parents giggle and give their kids a glib warning if they use unclean words.

Why should we clean up our speech? Because unclean words come from a smutty heart. We become crass, filthy people. Our light to the world is extinguished and no one sees Jesus in us.

“Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand! 11 It is not what goes into your mouth that makes you ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes you unclean.” Matthew 15:10 NIV

Jesus also says that our unclean words lead us into depravity and sin. Our Christian purity is flushed down the toilet.

16 “Jesus said to them, “You are still no more intelligent than the others. 17 Don’t you understand? Anything that goes into your mouth goes into your stomach and then on out of your body. 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make you ritually unclean. 19 For from your heart come the evil ideas which lead you to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others. 20 These are the things that make you unclean.” GNT

James sums up the power of unclean speech in James 3:5-10.

“A large forest can be set on fire by a little flame. 6 The tongue is that kind of flame. It is a world of evil among the parts of our bodies, and it completely contaminates our bodies. The tongue sets our lives on fire, and is itself set on fire from hell. 7 People have tamed all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures. 8 Yet, no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil filled with deadly poison.

9 With our tongues we praise our Lord and Father. Yet, with the same tongues we curse people, who were created in God’s likeness. 10 Praise and curses come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen!” GWT

Notice the words I have emphasized in bold letters. Unclean words contaminate us and come straight from the pit of hell.

 

SO HOW DO YOU CLEAN UP YOUR MOUTH?

 

Confess your sin. (1 John 1:9) God is faithful to forgive your sin and cleanse you.

Stop talking. Let your words be few. That’s how you tame a horse. Bridle your mouth and give the reins to the Holy Spirit.

Read the Bible often. God’s Words are like Ivory soap. They purify your heart and uplift your thoughts.

Filter the filth input in your life. Practice saying and thinking positive things. Follow Paul’s advice, and you will experience peace and blessing.

 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9 ESV

Start today and watch God bless your life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sermons

Greed: When the American Dream Becomes a Nightmare

by Chris Brown
written by Chris Brown

The American Dream can be a curse when we are driven by greed, futile pursuits, and broken relationships.  There are four keys to avoiding the “American Nightmare.” We must value character above clients, family more important than finances, faith more important than feelings and the Kingdom more important than the company.

www.northcoastchurch.com.

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Articles

Was Jesus An Egomaniac?

by John Piper
written by John Piper

Erik Reece is writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, teaching environmental journalism, writing, and literature. He published a book last April entitled, An American Gospel: On Family, History, and the Kingdom of God. On May 13, 2009, he did an interview on National Public Radio with Terry Gross on the program Fresh Air about his book.

 

What he said is in large part why I am giving this message the way I am. It wasn’t the first time someone had said this. But it may have been the most recent and most public and most blatant. And just so you know, I wrote to Mr. Reece a long letter with my concern in the hope that I could give him another perspective.

Reece grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home, like I did. He rejected his. I loved mine and give thanks for it to this day. The background paragraph at the NPR website said that he struggled to find a different form of Christianity with the guidance of Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman, and other American writes.

Jesus Christ, Egomaniac

In the interview, Terry Gross pointed Mr. Reece to page 28 of his new book. On that page, he quotes from Jesus in Matthew 10:37–39.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Then after quoting Jesus, Reece says, “Who is the egomaniac speaking these words?” Terry Gross asks him, “Would you elaborate on that reaction?”

Reece replies, “Well, it just struck me as ‘Who is this person speaking 2000 years ago, a complete historical stranger, saying that we should love him, (who we are really incapable emotionally of loving) more so than we should love our own fathers and sons?’ It just seemed like an incredibly egomaniacal kind of claim to make.”

So in his book, he says that if Jesus talked like this, he is an egomaniac, and then in the interview, he confirms that conviction that someone who would talk like this is egomaniacal.

So here is Jesus saying: “Love me more than you love anyone in the world. If you don’t you are not worthy of me.” And Erik Reece says: “That is an egomaniac talking.”

Now Reece is not the only one who feels that way.

Like a Vain Woman Wanting Compliments

C. S. Lewis, eventually professor at Oxford and great writer of Christian apologetics and fiction 60 years ago, was slow to come to Christ. He was 29 before he was converted.

And he says in his book Reflections on the Psalms that one of the great obstacles in coming to believe in the God of the Bible was that when he read the Psalms, the constant demand from God to praise him seemed (to him) to picture God as craving “for our worship like a vain woman who wants compliments.”

In other words, he stumbled, just like Erik Reece, over the self-exalting commands of God that we praise him, and the self-exalting commands of Jesus that we love him more than we love our parents or our children or our own lives. To Lewis and Reece, this was sheer egomania.

Human Tyrants Crave Adulation

Almost seven years ago in the March 30, 2003, issue of the London Financial Times, Michael Prowse wrote the same thing from another vantage point:

Worship is an aspect of religion that I always found difficult to understand. Suppose we postulate an omnipotent being who, for reasons inscrutable to us, decided to create something other than himself. Why should he . . . expect us to worship him? We didn’t ask to be created. Our lives are often troubled. We know that human tyrants, puffed up with pride, crave adulation and homage. But a morally perfect God would surely have no character defects. So why are all those people on their knees every Sunday?

Or if he were here, he would say, “Why are these 20,000-plus students standing with their hands and their voices lifted in praise to a God and his Son who are such egomaniacs that they constantly demand that we think they are the greatest?

Why are all these young people cowed into doing just what these egomaniacs want them to do, namely, admire them and praise them above everybody else in the universe?

Until He Said, “Jealous”

My wife and I had dinner last night with Francis and Lisa Chan, and I was telling them about this talk and Oprah Winfrey came up as another example of someone who left traditional Christianity because of seeing God this way.

So I went back to my room and called up the You Tube clip of her statement and wrote it down. Here’s what she said. She was describing being in a church service where the preacher was talking about the attributes of God, his omnipotence and omnipresence. Quote:

Then he said, “The Lord thy God is a jealous God,” I was caught up in the rapture of that moment until he said, “jealous.” And something struck me. I was 27 or 28, and I was thinking God is all, God is omnipresent, God is . . . also jealous? A jealous God is jealous of me? And something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit because I believe that God is love, and that God is in all things.

In Exodus 34:14, God says, “You shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” In other words, God demands that you and I and Oprah Winfrey give him all our worship. If we give any of our worship to another, he is jealous, and if we don’t repent, he will break forth in wrath. “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:24).

So Erick Reece and the early C. S. Lewis and Michael Prowse and Oprah Winfrey all turned away from the God of the Bible because they thought he was too self-exalting. Too self-centered. Too much the egomaniac.

Such a Self-Exalting, Self-Centered God

I heard Don Carson, New Testament scholar from Trinity Seminary near Chicago, say a while back that as he has done evangelistic outreach on university campuses, the questions have changed over the years. Thirty years ago they tended to revolve around historical problems with Christianity.

Nowadays it is represented by questions like, How can you worship a God who so self-exalting and so self-centered as the God of the Bible—a God who is constantly pointing to his own greatness and constantly telling people that they should recognize this greatness and tell him how much you like it?

Touching the Very Center of Christianity

I don’t think that what we are seeing here is a small, marginal, or tricky opposition to Christianity. I think what Erik Reece, C.S. Lewis, Michael Prowse, and Oprah Winfrey are seeing touches the very center of Christianity.

If you say in response: I thought Christ crucified for sinners and risen triumphantly was the heart of Christianity, you would be right. Paul said, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

That’s true. But the amazing thing is that it’s the intersection of God’s apparent egomania with the human condition of sin that makes the cross of Christ necessary and makes it intelligible and reveals the deepest things about God in the death of Christ.

So we are not dealing with something small here or marginal, but something central and crucial.

God Lives for the Glory of God

I didn’t face this issue until I was about 23 years old—40 years ago now. I had grown up in a Christian home where I was taught 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” So it was clear to me that I should live for the glory of God.

But no one ever said to me that God lives for the glory of God. Then I read Jonathan Edwards’s The End for Which God Created the World, and everything changed. He simply blew me away with page after page of biblical texts showing God’s pervasive God-centeredness. That God does everything for his glory. That he is unwaveringly committed to uphold and display his glory.

And what became clear to me, and remains clear to this day, is that many Christians think it is good for us to be God-centered, but don’t feel at all comfortable with God being God-centered. We should be Christ-exalting, but Christ shouldn’t be Christ-exalting.

God’s God-Centeredness as the Test

What I have found in my own life, and in the life of many others, is that God’s God-centeredness is the test of whether our own God-centeredness is real: Do I rejoice in God’s unwavering commitment to uphold and display his glory—do I rejoice in God’s God-centeredness? Or am I God-centered only because deep down I believe God is man-centered, so that my supposed God-centeredness is really man-centeredness, even me-centeredness?

Does my opposition to God’s God-centeredness reveal that my supposed God-centeredness is just a cover for wanting myself at the center, and the use of God to endorse that because he is so centered on me?

God’s Radical Devotion to Himself

Reading the Bible with these eyes, I began to see what Erik Reece and C.S. Lewis and Michael Prowse and Oprah were seeing. God really is radically devoted to seeing himself exalted. God is radically committed to seeing that his glory is esteemed as the supreme value of the universe.

Here is a sampling of what I saw.

God creates for his glory.

Isaiah 43:6–7: Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, every one who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.

God elects Israel for his glory.

Jeremiah 13:11: I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.

God saves them from Egypt for his glory.

Psalm 106:7–8:  Our fathers rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake that he might make known his power.

God restrains his anger in exile for his glory.

Isaiah 48:9–11: For my names sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you . . . . For my own sake, for my own sake I do it, for how should my name be  profaned?  My glory I will not give to another.

God sends his Son at the end of the age for his glory.

2 Thessalonians 1:9–10: He comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all who have believed.

In all of redemptive history, from beginning to ending, God has this one ultimate goal: that his name be glorified. The aim of God in all that he does is most ultimately the praise of his glory.

All of redemptive history is bookended by this amazing purpose in God the Father and God the Son. And in the middle of that redemptive history stands the greatest event in the history of the world, the death of Jesus Christ.

And just at these points—the beginning and the ending and the middle (predestining of our salvation at the beginning, and the consummation of our salvation at the end, and the purchase of our salvation at the middle)—just at these points the problem of God’s apparent egomania finds its amazing solution.

God’s God-Centeredness from Start to Finish

Consider a passage of Scripture about each of these points—the beginning (predestination), the ending (consummation), and the middle (propitiation).

Beginning: Ephesians 1:4–6

God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

Before the foundation of the world, God planned a redemption in Christ with this great and ultimate goal: that we would praise his glory. And the apex of that glory would be the glory of his grace.

So from the very beginning, we see that God made his exaltation and our salvation one piece. You don’t have to choose between God’s glory and your joy, because the apex of your joy is praise, and the apex of his glory is grace.

What We Delight to Do

C. S. Lewis broke through to the beauty of God’s self-exaltation (thinking at first that the Psalms sounded like an old woman craving compliments). He finally saw something very different:

My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. (C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms [New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1958, 93–95])

Lewis saw that praising God is the consummation of joy in God. Therefore, when God is pursuing—even demanding—our praise, he is pursuing the consummation of our joy.

This may feel at first counter-intuitive—that when we are small and feel insignificant, while God is great and central, at those very moments we reach our highest joy. But it’s not counter to our deepest sense of where joy comes from. John is not in thinking highly of ourselves. Joy reaches its height in moments of self-forgetfulness in the presence of beauty and greatness.

So if Jesus wants you to feel most alive, most joyful forever, what would he show you?

Ending: John 17:24

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

When all is said and done, and the history of the world is complete, and the new heavens and the new earth are established, and the infinitely joyful age to come is here, the ultimate joy, the ultimate climax of history for our aching hearts, is “we will see his glory,” and we will be transformed by it into the kind of people who can enjoy it fully and not be incinerated by it.

When Jesus says, “Love me more than you love your mother and father and sons and daughters and your own children and your best beloved on earth,” he is not hurting anyone!

Jesus Is Saying…

He is saying: If you find your ultimate joy in your most cherished earthly treasure, you will be disappointed in the end, and I will be dishonored. Because I am offering myself to you as the all-satisfying beauty and greatness and wisdom and strength and love of the universe. I am what you were made for. And I am telling you that, if you see this—if you see me as your supreme Treasure—then you don’t have to choose between your satisfaction and my glorification, because in the very act of your being most satisfied in me, I will be most glorified in you.

Jesus continues, “When I pray for you, that in the end you will see my glory, it is simply because, as God, I am infinitely glorious, and I want you to see infinite glory and enjoy it. I want you to be with me and be satisfied in me. I am not an egomaniac. I am your all-satisfying friend.”

The Great Problem of Sin

But of course, there is a great problem—and this is that we are sinners. Not only do we not want to treasure someone above ourselves, we don’t deserve that privilege. And so how will sinners like us be able to stand in the presence of God and enjoy his greatness as our all-satisfying Treasure?

Which brings us now to the middle of history and the work of Christ on the cross.

The Cross at the Center

The center of God’s plan—from beginning to end—stands the mighty cross of Christ. And in it we see the clearest statement of God’s passion for his glory—precisely and amazingly in the salvation of sinners. Romans 3:23–26:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Note the argument:

What God did: He put Christ forward as propitiation by his blood (verse 25a). Christ died to remove the wrath of God.

Romans 8:3: “What the law could not do . . . God did: . . . he condemned sin in the flesh.”

Galatians 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”

Why did he need to do it this way—by dying on a cross? Verse 25b: “This was to show God’s righteousness.” Why did he need to show his righteousness? Verse 25c: “because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

Why does passing over sins call God’s righteousness into question? Verse 23: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. “Fall short” means “lack.” We have exchanged the glory of God in every sin (Romans 1:23). Every time we sin, we say that the glory of God is not the supreme Treasure to be desired above all others. It is not satisfying. It is not to be preferred.

When God passes over that, it looks as if he agrees. And if he agrees, he is unrighteous. He is wrong. He is acting in contradiction to what is true. His righteousness—his commitment to doing what is right—is his commitment to act as though his glory is supremely valuable, which it is. His righteousness is his commitment to upholding and displaying the infinite worth of his glory. And that is what the cross does.

God Is Passionate for God

Therefore, from beginning to end—from predestination before creation to the final state of contemplation of the glory of Christ at the end of history—God is passionate for his glory.

In the center of that history, the greatest event that ever happened, the death of the Son of God for sinners like us, is the demonstration of God’s righteousness—the demonstration of his unwavering commitment to uphold and display the infinite worth of his glory as the supreme Treasure of the universe.

Forgiveness for His Name’s Sake

Which means that now when we come to him for mercy and cry out to him for the forgiveness of our sins we do it for his name’s sake—for the sake of his glory.

For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (Psalms 25:11)

And we hear the promise from 1 John 2:12, “[Y]our sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.”

The greatest news in the world is that in the death of Christ, God has made a way for his name to be exalted and my sins to be forgiven in the very same act. God is both just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

The Foundation of Our Salvation: God’s Value

And what makes this so spectacular is that the foundation under our salvation is not our value but God’s value. The consummation of our salvation is not that heaven is a hall of mirrors where we like what we see, but that we will be glorified and the universe will be glorified to the point where we can fully enjoy the glory of Christ.

Here is the end of the matter: God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is not the act of a needy ego, but an act of infinite giving. The reason God seeks our praise is not because he won’t be fully God until he gets it, but that we won’t be happy until we give it.

This is not arrogance. This is grace.

This is not egomania. This is love.

Written for the Passion Conference, 2010. By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org. Used by permission. Used by permission.

from Desiringgod.org

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Articles

Full-Body Scan or Re-spect Spectacles

by Leonard Sweet
written by Leonard Sweet

How many of you have had the experience of being stripped naked before a room full of strangers? Anyone here this morning ever been strip-searched?

You have if you’re a frequent flier. You have if you’ve recently flown through any of the sixty-plus airports that now use “full body scans” as part of their security procedures. Just as the “shoe bomber” made it a requirement for all of us to pad around barefoot on grungy airport floors, the “underwear bomber” has led to the use of these virtual strip-down scanners.

If modesty or indignation prompts you to refuse to let a total stranger fix on you with a “naked gaze,” you can opt for an extended “pat-down” instead. In that case rather than just being looked at by a total stranger, you get to be touched all over, including your private parts, by a total stranger – of the same sex, no less.

Since body-cavities are not revealed in either the body scan or the pat down, one wonders what voyeurist thought this up. But ours is not to reason why; ours is but to do and die.

Some groups are advocating an organized protest against full body scans .The hope was that by opting for the more time consuming “pat-down” procedure, security checkpoints would become clogged to the point of being non-operational. Air traffic would be disastrously disrupted, and security forces would “give up” these embarrassing and invasive procedures.

Right. This year, the week before Thanksgiving a homeland security spokesman assured travelers that they all had complete freedom to choose whether they wanted to go through a full body scan or pat-down or “not.” Of course, if we choose “not” then we would “not” be allowed on the airplane.

Thanks to digital technology, full body scans strip us bare without our having to remove a single stitch of clothing. It is only through the power of its light that we are revealed right down to our skin. The intensity and wavelength of the light allows nothing on our body to remain hidden. It is a different kind of intensity and wavelength of light that Paul is talking about in our text for this morning. But it is a similar kind of scan: except in this case it’s a full soul scan rather than a full body scan.

Truth be told, I suspect that the reason a lot of people refuse a full body scan isn’t because a stranger will get an embarrassingly good look at our body. It’s because we are afraid that a stranger will think we don’t look good or snicker at our looks. Supermodels and body-builders don’t have any qualms about showing off their bodies. It’s those of us who are lumpy, bumpy, flabby and dumpy, or pot-bellied and saggy bottomed, who worry about being revealed without the comforting camouflage of clothing.

However much the airport’s full body scans lay bare, they still are only skin deep. The light they emit cannot penetrate into our cavities, our mind, our heart, our spirit. Nor can they reveal the intentions, the desires, the hopes, the fears, the virtues or the vices we harbor within ourselves.

It takes a different kind of light to get under our skin and into our soul. Living fully exposed in that light is what Paul urged the Roman Christians to do in this week’s epistle text. Jesus’ followers are to live and leg it in the light of a new day, a new reality where the redemptive work of Christ illumines a dark world. Christ-light reveals everything. No compulsion is dark enough, no desire is buried deep enough, no motive is masked thick enough, to escape Christ-light.

Likewise, no act of love is too small, no words of forgiveness too soft, no feelings of compassion too subtle, not to caught in the gleam of Christ-light.

The light of Christ lays bare everything within us. Both the good and the bad.

And yet, Christ’s response to that full soul scan is not to declare judgment, pronounce doom, or laugh hilariously. When we allow the light of Christ to scan our souls and dare to bare our faults and blemishes, Jesus offers us forgiveness, redemption, salvation.

Why is it when we look at others we either look up or look down? Our tendency is either to look down on people, or look up at them. We size each other up, do a first impression scan, and quickly decide whether we are impressed by their looks, or their money, or their power, or whether we disdain their plainness, dismiss their poverty, or despise their lack of status.

The truth is what we see in others is mostly dependent upon what we want for ourselves.

What would happen if instead of looking at others with our self-centered stare; what would happen if instead of looking up or looking down at others: what would happen if we let Jesus throw a new light, give us a new view, a new perspective on people?

Paul told the Roman Christians that in order for them to see the light of the new day that was approaching they must “put on” Christ. What would happen to our vision of others if we “put on” Christ like a pair of respect spectacles. That word “re-spect” means to look again. Re-spect means for us to look again and again until we see the full picture. Jesus teaches us to look again at each other, beyond our critical sizing up and breaking down, and to use respect spectacles to receive every person as a gift to be celebrated rather than a specimen to be critiqued, dissected and dressed down.

Jesus didn’t look up or down at anyone he met. Instead Jesus treated every person he met with respect. In other words, Jesus looked at, Jesus looked into, and Jesus looked with each person he encountered.

He looked at the earnest, yet wealthy young man, and immediately saw his love for money overwhelmed everything else in his life. Yet Jesus loved him.

He looked into the cheating heart of the woman at the well and discerned the parched condition of her soul. Yet Jesus loved her.

He looked with the eyes of everyone he met, and he saw in us all the neediness of a child, a sponge for attention and nurture and encouragement. Yet Jesus loved children above all.

To put on Christ is to re-spect everyone. Instead of critiquing the shortcomings of others the re-spect spectacles offer compassion and companionship. Instead of finding failure the respect-spectacles focus our gaze forward onto a horizon of hope and possibility. Instead of condemnation, the respect-spectacles offer vistas and visions of forgiveness.

Even though none of us is perfect in every way, or has it all together, we together constitute in the Master’s hands a powerful force for good and light in the world.

An old fable tells of trouble in a carpenter’s shop. The tools were in a tizzy. “Brother Hammer, you’re too noisy.”

“Me? Brother Plane’s work is all superficial. No depth.”

“Me? Brother Rule is always telling others what to do, measuring us all by his own standards.”

“Me? It’s Brother Screwdriver who drives us all crazy going round in circles.”

“Me? Sister Sandpaper always rubbing the wrong way.”

“Me? Sister Saw goes back & forth endlessly.”

Suddenly the bickering ceased, for everyone heard the carpenter coming. When he entered the shop, he put on his apron, went to his bench, and began to make a table. He picked up Brother Rule, then Brother Plane, then Brother Hammer and Sister Screwdriver, then Sister Saw, and lastly Sister Sandpaper, whom he used to smooth all the rough edges.

To make a table on which to spread food for a hungry world, all the tools were necessary. None was more important than the others.

When you put on re-spect spectacles, and look at, look into, and look with the eyes of everyone you meet, then all of life becomes one Big Advent.

Leonard Sweet Sermons, Leonard Sweet, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2010, 0-000-1415

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Sermons

Lot’s Greed

by Larry Osborne
written by Larry Osborne

How do you know if you are greedy? If you make most decisions based on the financial impact, if you put financial opportunity over family and health, if you experience destination sickness, if you’d rather be a liar than be poor and if you have a history of conflict over money. You may be greedy if you rationalize that you may be generous someday.

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Sermons

Pergamum: The Compromising Church

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Jesus teaches that it is hard to live by God’s values when we don’t know what they are. He instructs us to saturate our minds with the Scriptures and live accordingly. Compromise usually starts small, erodes slowly, always lowers the original standard and is seldom offensive (except to true Christians and to Jesus). We are significant in the Lord’s eyes when we are faithful to His Word in all situations.

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