I remember watching this movie, one of those grainy 8mm or super 8 home movies of this kid so full of joy dancing in the living room in front of his parents and their friends. I wonder sometimes where that kid went; where they all went; where the joy went.
It did go away. Perhaps it was frightened by the pressures of life. Too many bills not enough cash, things grew hard, tempers flared and though they all stayed in the same room in the same house some of them left, and the kid stopped dancing. There was no one to dance for anymore.
The screams, the tears they didn’t last forever maybe not even a year but the kid didn’t know what happened. He just knew they had forgotten him.
It was the first time he had lost the security of friendship, of family. There was nothing more in the world that he wanted than to be loved. The truly sad part was that the love hadn’t really stopped but nobody bothered to tell him because they were so caught up in the pain of life that they forgot to speak to the kid. They forgot to say we love you, it’s not your fault, it’s not about you, we’ll get through this, it will be ok. They forgot to hug him and say oh baby we love you so much. They knew it but they forgot to relay the information.
And so the kid forgot that they loved him. He couldn’t see it. He only felt this emptiness where once there was this glowing joy that warmed his heart – that made him dance.
Fast forward 46 years and find a man feeling a warmth in his heart that stirs something deep inside. That old warmth; the urge to dance as the joy of friends and family fill his heart once again. It feels good but he hesitates as fear knocks upon his door. What if it leaves again? What if he lets that joy fill his heart and then it all comes crashing down around him just like before?
There are no guarantees that those fears won’t come true. On the creature side of things there are no guarantees in the sovereign God’s plan filled with time and chance. Time and chance – sometimes they seem like bastards that need to be destroyed. He hates the fear of uncertainty – the uncertainty of the certain plan. He fears that God is just teasing him, giving him a taste to only take it away down the road a ways.
He’s seen these things blow up before –over and over again get close and die, get close and cry, get close –why bother.
Then he feels the warm glow, the joy and he knows that no matter what comes he cannot turn away from the opportunity to dance even if he trips and falls.
Feets don’t fail me now.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
sermon 8-29-10
Last week I talked about how the work of the Lord often times stops and starts. Chapter 4 of Ezra talked about the 25 year span of time that God stopped the reconstruction of the temple. From a New Testament perspective we can see that there are times when God does very little in the church. There is no rebuilding, the kingdom does not advance. In those times it feels as if God has abandoned his people, doesn’t it? I mean you have all this bondage and you want to be free from it and you pray about it but nothing happens. And the voice of the false prophets whisper in your ear: you don’t have enough faith. Or the enemy whispers in your ear: God doesn’t really love you, God has given up on you. Things like that can drive you to despair if you aren’t careful.
What does cause God to stop working in his people? Well, in Ezra chapter 5 verse 1 we read this: At that time the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. That really doesn’t tell us anything but when I saw it I thought we had better go there and see what the prophets said to them. I find it interesting that there are so many books of the bible focused on this period of Old Testament history: Parts of second kings and second chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and now Haggai and Zechariah. There may be more but this is what we have uncovered so far.
I want to look at the book of Haggai today, to see what God had to say about why he wasn’t allowing his church to be built. So if you will turn to Haggai which can be found by turning to Matthew and going back three books. It’s a short book only two chapters. As you go backwards from Matthew it will be Malachi, Zechariah and then Haggai.
I will read it out of the new Living Translation. After finding such translation problems with the NASB I thought I might as well give this a try. I really like its readability, especially in these Old Testament texts. I will do like I usually do; read some verses and then make some comments. I think it is rather appropriate that we read these verses today on August 29th because the book of Haggai begins like this:
On August 29 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord gave a message through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
It blows my mind that somewhere around 2500 years ago on this very date the following message was given by God to his people: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’” After 25 years of silence the congregation is beginning to doubt whether the move out of Babylon to come rebuild the temple was of God or not. Maybe we got it wrong. Maybe God didn’t bring us here. Maybe God doesn’t want to rebuild the temple. Do you ever feel like that? Maybe God didn’t really save me. Maybe I’m not really a Christian. Maybe I’m not good enough for God. Maybe this or maybe that and what is happening is that doubt is beginning to creep into your head. Maybe I just didn’t hear God right to begin with. I thought he called me here but now I just don’t know. If he called me here why isn’t he doing anything? Why hasn’t the church grown in 25 years? Why are people still drinking milk? Why are our families in such a mess? Those are the kind of doubts that go through my head when I’m wondering where God is.
God knows the way our minds work and the doubt that can assail us so he sends the following message through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? 5 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! 6 You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! 7 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! 8 Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. 9 You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. 10 It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. 11 I have called for a drought on your fields and hills—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.”
I think it was last Sunday morning that I talked about the fields not always being ripe for harvest and this passage is directly related to that. Here God is saying the fields are not ripe for harvest, from a New Testament perspective people aren’t coming to the Lord, people aren’t getting saved because HE has called for a drought. Why? To ruin everything that we have worked so hard to get.
That is a concept that is rarely talked about these days. Who wants to hear that God will bring to ruin everything the church tries to do when the church does it out of selfish motives or is more concerned about the houses that they live in than their own spiritual condition.
I know this is striking a little too close to home for me. I get so caught up in working on my house, going to my day job, paying my bills, getting out of debt and I say I’m doing it for the Lord but where is my heart really at? What am I sacrificing in order to advance the kingdom? Not much when it comes down to it.
I realize that in many churches these words of prophecy would be written off as not applicable to us because they are Old Testament. Some would even say: oh that was when people were saved by works. I’m here to remind you that from a biblical perspective people have never been saved by their works of righteousness. We can be saved by grace alone from the time that Adam and Eve sinned until the day we all find ourselves in glory. There are not two modes of salvation.
If we understand that we can only be saved by grace then we must conclude that the quality of our salvation, the depth of our salvation or better yet the depth of our walking in righteousness and life is a prime factor in what God does in the world in which we live. In this passage God is clearly saying that he has stopped work on the temple, the body of Christ for 25 years because of the hearts and actions of the people.
It sounds to me like they have taken the things that the Babylonians gave them to rebuild the temple and spent in on their own houses. Now I want you to understand that I believe that many of us here have already started turning the focus away from ourselves and toward building ourselves up in Christ Jesus. I know that some of you are working hard to walk in Christ and I commend you for that. Keep it up. Don’t get discouraged because as I see the Lord work in your lives I see the ground beginning to get rain. I can see the fields of your lives being plowed and I am greatly encouraged by that.
At the same time on a national level, even on a community level I see the ground is parched and not ready for planting and yet I see the church driving the combines around as fast as they can trying to look like they are harvesting crops. But the truth is we have planted much but harvest little. We eat but are not satisfied. We drink but are still thirsty. we put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Our wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! We hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when we brought your harvest home God blew it away.
Let me put that in the context of my own experiences in the church. You start your bus ministries and your VBS outreaches and your youth groups and you bring all these kids in and you hope to get them all saved and many professions of faith are made but when they grow up and go to college they leave the church and never come back. And years later you look back on all the people that made professions of faith over the years and you rejoice in all your labors but you have nothing to show for all the work you did: Because God blew them away.
If we are honest about our situations we can see this in our children’s lives. It is not an accident that the majority of kids that are raised in the church leave the faith by the time they go to college. It is a reflection of our own hearts toward God. Our salvation is about us. I get saved so that I can get to heaven. Salvation is about me. What can I get out of it? I do it to make me happy. I’m saved by grace so now I can do what I want and still go to heaven when I die. Salvation becomes the house that I build for myself and I make it a very luxurious house with pictures of me all over the walls. It’s time we stopped working on our own houses and making salvation about us and began to focus our salvation toward the one who saved us. That is the core of this passage for New Testament times.
Look at verse 12: Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord.
I must tell you that I am a blessed man to be the pastor of this congregation. I am blessed because I see you all beginning to obey the message, the word of God. I see you beginning to learn to fear the Lord. I see you beginning to embrace parts of the word of God that in the past you would have preferred to ignore. That is a blessing. I still have to pinch myself some days because I can’t believe it is happening. I can’t believe that you are embracing the word of God the way you do because before I came here I was at the place where I didn’t think there was any hope of that happening in my lifetime.
To be around people that are learning to fear the Lord and apply his word is a wonderful thing because the church as a whole in our country doesn’t even know what fear is when it comes to God. Most would say God is our best bud that would never ever discipline us because he loves us too much to spank us. He wants us to grow up wild and free. So to be here in a place that is going against the grain of culture is a glorious thing.
I want you to know that if you are learning to fear the Lord and humble yourself before him then God says to you through Haggai: “I am with you.” Take those words to heart to continue on the path of humbleness before God. He is with you. The very fact that you are embracing his word, submitting your heart to him, and are beginning to remodel your heart to be more like Jesus proves that the Lord is with you. You can’t do that stuff in your own power.
The book of Haggai tells us that the Lord sparked the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the enthusiasm of Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the enthusiasm of the whole remnant of God’s people. I believe that is what is happening in my own heart. That word translated enthusiasm by the new living is translated stirred up by the New American. It means to rouse up, to wake up, to be excited and triumphant. You see, I was and can be, dismayed by the slowness of God’s work. I’ve told you that before. I was grumpy. I was thinking maybe God wasn’t going to do anything here but then God sparked my enthusiasm. He woke me up to see how he is doing things. He let me refocus my vision so that I could see what was going on in your lives. He let me begin to see that we are going to be triumphant if we stay humble. I pray that he lets that enthusiasm be sparked in you as well so that we can begin to work on rebuilding our hearts to be more like Christ instead of focusing on our selves and what we need.
Notice also that this didn’t happen the same day they heard the word of God. This change of heart took some time. Verses 14 and 15 tell us that: They began to work on the house of their God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, on September 21 of the second year of King Darius’s reign. So it took almost a month for them to hear the words of God and for those words to begin to soak down into their hearts and begin to wake them up and grow enthusiasm and excitement for what God was going to do. It took them a month to begin to work out their repentance into real action. You see their repentance meant that they had to stop working on their own houses and focus their attention on working on the house of the Lord. In our era that translates as: It takes time to stop living with your focus on you and start living with your focus on God.
A couple of weeks after that move toward repentance God sends another message to the people through Haggai. 3 ‘Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendor? How, in comparison, does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! 4 But now the Lord says: Be strong, Zerubbabel. Be strong, Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people still left in the land. And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 5 My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid.’ 6 “For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land. 7 I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be brought to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 9 The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”
We like to think of this passage as an end time passage. I’m afraid our focus on end times over the last 100 years has really warped our perception of reality. This is a picture of the church and God promises that he is going to shake the heavens and the earth and the church is going to be filled with his glory. The church in the future, maybe in our future will be greater and more glorious than it ever was in the past. It will be more glorious that the time of the Apostles. We have yet to see what the church filled with the glory of God will look like, how powerful it will be. The spirit of God will be so strong and so mighty in the church of this age, where we are now that it will cause the heavens and the earth to shake. And in the church there will be peace like we have never known before. I know that goes against all that we have been taught. We have had a lie shoved down our throats our entire life time that has told us that the world is going to get more and more wicked and the church is going to get weaker and weaker until we will be so pitiful and wickedness so great and mighty that Jesus will have to come and rescue us or he won’t get a bride. I am hear to tell you with the utmost clarity that is a lie. Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and earth. We are Christ’s body and therefore we have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Just because we are so focused on ourselves that we have neglected the things of God doesn’t mean that we are weak. Satan was DEFEATED at the cross. He wasn’t just badly wounded: HE WAS DEFEATED. How long are we going to let him walk all over us. How long are we going to give him a foot hold in our lives by toying with sin and death? How long are we going to moan about how hard things are instead of walking in the authority that we have already been given? If the people in the Old Testament could turn from their selfish ways and see God do mighty things in their lives why should we be settling for less? Why should we be walking around like we are poor beggars when Christ has already paid for our sins and the holy spirit already lives inside us? Why do we believe lies instead of the truth?
I don’t know. I do it as much as anyone. I think we can get a glimpse of what we need to be doing to change that in the next few verses starting with 10: On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai: 11 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. Ask the priests this question about the law: 12 ‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’” The priests replied, “No.” 13 Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?” And the priests answered, “Yes.” 14 Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord. Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin. 15 Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple. 16 When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. 17 I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord. 18 “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid. Think carefully. 19 I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn. You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward I will bless you.”
I believe this passage is very clear: the church in our day and age is weak and pitiful because it is in sin. We have rejected the law of God, we have believed lies instead of truth, we live for ourselves. It doesn’t have to be that way. If we will continually humble ourselves God promises to restore us to the place where we can once again rule and reign over the enemies of God. Notice that he tells them that the seed is still in the barn. It’s not time for planting, it is a time to break up the fallow ground of our hearts and of our communities so that it will receive the seed when it is planted. The hard times we are in are because of our sin as a whole. If we want to change those hard times then we must humble ourselves.
If we will do so I believe that the next prophecy of Haggai will begin to unfold around us. Listen to what God says he will do if we humble ourselves before him: I am about to shake the heavens and the earth. 22 I will overthrow royal thrones and destroy the power of foreign kingdoms. I will overturn their chariots and riders. The horses will fall, and their riders will kill each other. 23 “But when this happens, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, I will honor you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant. I will make you like a signet ring on my finger, says the Lord, for I have chosen you. I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”
God promises to destroy the powers of wickedness that are holding us back if we turn to him. He doesn’t say that he will do it overnight, it will take time and we will have to be vigilant in keeping our feet on the path of righteousness but he promises to make us into true leaders. He promises to make us his signet ring so that everything we do will have his mark on it. Everyone will be able to look at us and say That is what God is doing in our midst.
How long are we going to believe the lies that the church is supposed to be weak and defeated? How long are we going to expect things to get worse all around us. Things are only getting worse in this nation because the church has stopped being salt and light. We have buried our heads in the sand and loved darkness more than light. It is time for us to turn from that way of thinking and begin to wake up to who we are in Christ Jesus. We are the body of Christ. We have been forgiven of all our sins and we have been given the righteousness of Christ. We have all the authority in heaven and earth at our disposal because we are the body of Christ. Jesus is sitting on the throne of Power right now ruling and reigning. He will continue to rule and reign until every enemy is made his footstool.
May God let that soak into our heads and hearts and may the truth set us free from our cowardice and unbelief.
Let’s pray. Oh father, beat these truths into our lives. Let us begin to come to grips with reality and not with the things that we see around us. Help us to embrace the reality that Jesus your son has been given all authority in heaven and earth and that he is ruling and reigning over it all right now. Cause us to recognize that we are in Christ Jesus and we are ruling and reigning with him now as we walk in obedience to his commands. Be merciful to us oh God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
What does cause God to stop working in his people? Well, in Ezra chapter 5 verse 1 we read this: At that time the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. That really doesn’t tell us anything but when I saw it I thought we had better go there and see what the prophets said to them. I find it interesting that there are so many books of the bible focused on this period of Old Testament history: Parts of second kings and second chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and now Haggai and Zechariah. There may be more but this is what we have uncovered so far.
I want to look at the book of Haggai today, to see what God had to say about why he wasn’t allowing his church to be built. So if you will turn to Haggai which can be found by turning to Matthew and going back three books. It’s a short book only two chapters. As you go backwards from Matthew it will be Malachi, Zechariah and then Haggai.
I will read it out of the new Living Translation. After finding such translation problems with the NASB I thought I might as well give this a try. I really like its readability, especially in these Old Testament texts. I will do like I usually do; read some verses and then make some comments. I think it is rather appropriate that we read these verses today on August 29th because the book of Haggai begins like this:
On August 29 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord gave a message through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
It blows my mind that somewhere around 2500 years ago on this very date the following message was given by God to his people: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’” After 25 years of silence the congregation is beginning to doubt whether the move out of Babylon to come rebuild the temple was of God or not. Maybe we got it wrong. Maybe God didn’t bring us here. Maybe God doesn’t want to rebuild the temple. Do you ever feel like that? Maybe God didn’t really save me. Maybe I’m not really a Christian. Maybe I’m not good enough for God. Maybe this or maybe that and what is happening is that doubt is beginning to creep into your head. Maybe I just didn’t hear God right to begin with. I thought he called me here but now I just don’t know. If he called me here why isn’t he doing anything? Why hasn’t the church grown in 25 years? Why are people still drinking milk? Why are our families in such a mess? Those are the kind of doubts that go through my head when I’m wondering where God is.
God knows the way our minds work and the doubt that can assail us so he sends the following message through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? 5 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! 6 You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! 7 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! 8 Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. 9 You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. 10 It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. 11 I have called for a drought on your fields and hills—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.”
I think it was last Sunday morning that I talked about the fields not always being ripe for harvest and this passage is directly related to that. Here God is saying the fields are not ripe for harvest, from a New Testament perspective people aren’t coming to the Lord, people aren’t getting saved because HE has called for a drought. Why? To ruin everything that we have worked so hard to get.
That is a concept that is rarely talked about these days. Who wants to hear that God will bring to ruin everything the church tries to do when the church does it out of selfish motives or is more concerned about the houses that they live in than their own spiritual condition.
I know this is striking a little too close to home for me. I get so caught up in working on my house, going to my day job, paying my bills, getting out of debt and I say I’m doing it for the Lord but where is my heart really at? What am I sacrificing in order to advance the kingdom? Not much when it comes down to it.
I realize that in many churches these words of prophecy would be written off as not applicable to us because they are Old Testament. Some would even say: oh that was when people were saved by works. I’m here to remind you that from a biblical perspective people have never been saved by their works of righteousness. We can be saved by grace alone from the time that Adam and Eve sinned until the day we all find ourselves in glory. There are not two modes of salvation.
If we understand that we can only be saved by grace then we must conclude that the quality of our salvation, the depth of our salvation or better yet the depth of our walking in righteousness and life is a prime factor in what God does in the world in which we live. In this passage God is clearly saying that he has stopped work on the temple, the body of Christ for 25 years because of the hearts and actions of the people.
It sounds to me like they have taken the things that the Babylonians gave them to rebuild the temple and spent in on their own houses. Now I want you to understand that I believe that many of us here have already started turning the focus away from ourselves and toward building ourselves up in Christ Jesus. I know that some of you are working hard to walk in Christ and I commend you for that. Keep it up. Don’t get discouraged because as I see the Lord work in your lives I see the ground beginning to get rain. I can see the fields of your lives being plowed and I am greatly encouraged by that.
At the same time on a national level, even on a community level I see the ground is parched and not ready for planting and yet I see the church driving the combines around as fast as they can trying to look like they are harvesting crops. But the truth is we have planted much but harvest little. We eat but are not satisfied. We drink but are still thirsty. we put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Our wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! We hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when we brought your harvest home God blew it away.
Let me put that in the context of my own experiences in the church. You start your bus ministries and your VBS outreaches and your youth groups and you bring all these kids in and you hope to get them all saved and many professions of faith are made but when they grow up and go to college they leave the church and never come back. And years later you look back on all the people that made professions of faith over the years and you rejoice in all your labors but you have nothing to show for all the work you did: Because God blew them away.
If we are honest about our situations we can see this in our children’s lives. It is not an accident that the majority of kids that are raised in the church leave the faith by the time they go to college. It is a reflection of our own hearts toward God. Our salvation is about us. I get saved so that I can get to heaven. Salvation is about me. What can I get out of it? I do it to make me happy. I’m saved by grace so now I can do what I want and still go to heaven when I die. Salvation becomes the house that I build for myself and I make it a very luxurious house with pictures of me all over the walls. It’s time we stopped working on our own houses and making salvation about us and began to focus our salvation toward the one who saved us. That is the core of this passage for New Testament times.
Look at verse 12: Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord.
I must tell you that I am a blessed man to be the pastor of this congregation. I am blessed because I see you all beginning to obey the message, the word of God. I see you beginning to learn to fear the Lord. I see you beginning to embrace parts of the word of God that in the past you would have preferred to ignore. That is a blessing. I still have to pinch myself some days because I can’t believe it is happening. I can’t believe that you are embracing the word of God the way you do because before I came here I was at the place where I didn’t think there was any hope of that happening in my lifetime.
To be around people that are learning to fear the Lord and apply his word is a wonderful thing because the church as a whole in our country doesn’t even know what fear is when it comes to God. Most would say God is our best bud that would never ever discipline us because he loves us too much to spank us. He wants us to grow up wild and free. So to be here in a place that is going against the grain of culture is a glorious thing.
I want you to know that if you are learning to fear the Lord and humble yourself before him then God says to you through Haggai: “I am with you.” Take those words to heart to continue on the path of humbleness before God. He is with you. The very fact that you are embracing his word, submitting your heart to him, and are beginning to remodel your heart to be more like Jesus proves that the Lord is with you. You can’t do that stuff in your own power.
The book of Haggai tells us that the Lord sparked the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the enthusiasm of Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the enthusiasm of the whole remnant of God’s people. I believe that is what is happening in my own heart. That word translated enthusiasm by the new living is translated stirred up by the New American. It means to rouse up, to wake up, to be excited and triumphant. You see, I was and can be, dismayed by the slowness of God’s work. I’ve told you that before. I was grumpy. I was thinking maybe God wasn’t going to do anything here but then God sparked my enthusiasm. He woke me up to see how he is doing things. He let me refocus my vision so that I could see what was going on in your lives. He let me begin to see that we are going to be triumphant if we stay humble. I pray that he lets that enthusiasm be sparked in you as well so that we can begin to work on rebuilding our hearts to be more like Christ instead of focusing on our selves and what we need.
Notice also that this didn’t happen the same day they heard the word of God. This change of heart took some time. Verses 14 and 15 tell us that: They began to work on the house of their God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, on September 21 of the second year of King Darius’s reign. So it took almost a month for them to hear the words of God and for those words to begin to soak down into their hearts and begin to wake them up and grow enthusiasm and excitement for what God was going to do. It took them a month to begin to work out their repentance into real action. You see their repentance meant that they had to stop working on their own houses and focus their attention on working on the house of the Lord. In our era that translates as: It takes time to stop living with your focus on you and start living with your focus on God.
A couple of weeks after that move toward repentance God sends another message to the people through Haggai. 3 ‘Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendor? How, in comparison, does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! 4 But now the Lord says: Be strong, Zerubbabel. Be strong, Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people still left in the land. And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 5 My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid.’ 6 “For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land. 7 I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be brought to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 9 The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”
We like to think of this passage as an end time passage. I’m afraid our focus on end times over the last 100 years has really warped our perception of reality. This is a picture of the church and God promises that he is going to shake the heavens and the earth and the church is going to be filled with his glory. The church in the future, maybe in our future will be greater and more glorious than it ever was in the past. It will be more glorious that the time of the Apostles. We have yet to see what the church filled with the glory of God will look like, how powerful it will be. The spirit of God will be so strong and so mighty in the church of this age, where we are now that it will cause the heavens and the earth to shake. And in the church there will be peace like we have never known before. I know that goes against all that we have been taught. We have had a lie shoved down our throats our entire life time that has told us that the world is going to get more and more wicked and the church is going to get weaker and weaker until we will be so pitiful and wickedness so great and mighty that Jesus will have to come and rescue us or he won’t get a bride. I am hear to tell you with the utmost clarity that is a lie. Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and earth. We are Christ’s body and therefore we have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Just because we are so focused on ourselves that we have neglected the things of God doesn’t mean that we are weak. Satan was DEFEATED at the cross. He wasn’t just badly wounded: HE WAS DEFEATED. How long are we going to let him walk all over us. How long are we going to give him a foot hold in our lives by toying with sin and death? How long are we going to moan about how hard things are instead of walking in the authority that we have already been given? If the people in the Old Testament could turn from their selfish ways and see God do mighty things in their lives why should we be settling for less? Why should we be walking around like we are poor beggars when Christ has already paid for our sins and the holy spirit already lives inside us? Why do we believe lies instead of the truth?
I don’t know. I do it as much as anyone. I think we can get a glimpse of what we need to be doing to change that in the next few verses starting with 10: On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai: 11 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. Ask the priests this question about the law: 12 ‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’” The priests replied, “No.” 13 Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?” And the priests answered, “Yes.” 14 Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord. Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin. 15 Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple. 16 When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. 17 I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord. 18 “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid. Think carefully. 19 I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn. You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward I will bless you.”
I believe this passage is very clear: the church in our day and age is weak and pitiful because it is in sin. We have rejected the law of God, we have believed lies instead of truth, we live for ourselves. It doesn’t have to be that way. If we will continually humble ourselves God promises to restore us to the place where we can once again rule and reign over the enemies of God. Notice that he tells them that the seed is still in the barn. It’s not time for planting, it is a time to break up the fallow ground of our hearts and of our communities so that it will receive the seed when it is planted. The hard times we are in are because of our sin as a whole. If we want to change those hard times then we must humble ourselves.
If we will do so I believe that the next prophecy of Haggai will begin to unfold around us. Listen to what God says he will do if we humble ourselves before him: I am about to shake the heavens and the earth. 22 I will overthrow royal thrones and destroy the power of foreign kingdoms. I will overturn their chariots and riders. The horses will fall, and their riders will kill each other. 23 “But when this happens, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, I will honor you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant. I will make you like a signet ring on my finger, says the Lord, for I have chosen you. I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”
God promises to destroy the powers of wickedness that are holding us back if we turn to him. He doesn’t say that he will do it overnight, it will take time and we will have to be vigilant in keeping our feet on the path of righteousness but he promises to make us into true leaders. He promises to make us his signet ring so that everything we do will have his mark on it. Everyone will be able to look at us and say That is what God is doing in our midst.
How long are we going to believe the lies that the church is supposed to be weak and defeated? How long are we going to expect things to get worse all around us. Things are only getting worse in this nation because the church has stopped being salt and light. We have buried our heads in the sand and loved darkness more than light. It is time for us to turn from that way of thinking and begin to wake up to who we are in Christ Jesus. We are the body of Christ. We have been forgiven of all our sins and we have been given the righteousness of Christ. We have all the authority in heaven and earth at our disposal because we are the body of Christ. Jesus is sitting on the throne of Power right now ruling and reigning. He will continue to rule and reign until every enemy is made his footstool.
May God let that soak into our heads and hearts and may the truth set us free from our cowardice and unbelief.
Let’s pray. Oh father, beat these truths into our lives. Let us begin to come to grips with reality and not with the things that we see around us. Help us to embrace the reality that Jesus your son has been given all authority in heaven and earth and that he is ruling and reigning over it all right now. Cause us to recognize that we are in Christ Jesus and we are ruling and reigning with him now as we walk in obedience to his commands. Be merciful to us oh God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Watermelon Man
Morning,
Last night I stood around on a gravel parking lot eating watermelon with friends: Just conversation, watermelon and salt. Finally this morning, I realized it doesn’t get any better than that. I have friends. Just saying that makes me nervous because my track record is not so good at maintaining friends.
I’m realizing at this momentous stage in my life, the big 50 comes in less than a week, that I must learn to change the way I live, the way I view the world, the way I run my life. Why? Because I am the master of dysfunction and I’m realizing finally that there is no ‘fun’ in dysfunction. I’m sure I’ve said this before (what haven’t I said before?) but I am a destination kind of guy. I want to get to where I am going.
I realize that I’ve spent the first half of my life trying to get somewhere that I will never find. There is always somewhere else to get to. Part of this musing comes in the midst of reading the memoirs of a man known as ‘Doc’ Ryder who was a fixture at the college that I eventually graduated from. Doc was an odd fellow, an eccentric. He walked his cat on a leash all over campus. And I was in such a big hurry to get out of school that I never got to know him except in passing. I never really got to know anyone in those days. People just came in and out of my life as I sped by in search of the unknown. But I knew I’d know it when I found it.
I think I found it standing in a parking lot eating watermelon.
I feel the urgent need to grieve all those things that I sped by for so many years. Now it is true that you don’t get hurt if you live your life on the run. You’re usually gone before the pain of a bad relationship or even the loss of a good relationship can hit you. But – and that’s one big but- (to quote Pee Wee Herman) you also miss out on the joy of friends.
From another perspective this face book thing has stirred all of this up inside me as well – all these old friends finding me have 30 or 35 years. It’s exciting and then empty because I realize that I have nothing with them. Not even many good memories because I was in too big of a hurry to get somewhere else not to mention the fact that I trained myself to forget the bad ones. I didn’t have time to make memories: Too busy in high school to get to college, too busy in college trying to get married, too busy being married trying to get divorced, too busy at work trying to find the perfect job.
It’s time for a change and perhaps that change is to not changing anything in my life by moving on to the next best thing. Maybe I need to stay where I am even when I feel pressed to go to the next level after the next thing. Maybe I just need to learn to be a better juggler.
I mean I have all of these friends and granted some of them pay me to hang around, ok most of them do, but that’s ok. It doesn’t make them less than friends. Would it be so strange to keep these friends for the rest of my life? For me – yes it would be strange: But that strangeness may be exactly what I need on the down hill side of life.
Maybe, just maybe, I need to settle into life the way it is and ride that horse ‘til it dies.
I say these things with an understanding that things are getting ready to change or rather that a glorious change in my life is coming to an end. I have had the great opportunity to have a wife the last three months. If you remember, Judy lost her job in the great Nashville flood of 2010. Contrary to popular opinion that has been a tremendous blessing to me. I have spent more time with my lovely bride these last three months than in any of the rest of our18 years of marriage. Without the stress of juggling work and home and other people’s homes I have seen her relax. I have heard her laugh a new, deeper laugh that brings joy to my heart. The members of my congregation actually believe I have a wife now because she is with me all the time. We’ve spent Saturdays letting our wonder lust take us all over the Tennessee country side. We have found many new restaurants. We have gained many new pounds. What a blessing that has been but it is coming to an end in October because she has been given her old job back when the Opryland Hotel re-opens. Then it will be back to 10 hour days, rotating shifts and Judy who?
I will have time to write again. Large quantities of me time. I’m just not sure I want to go back to the way things were. I’ve been spoiled. I will remember what it is like to think I have nothing to go home to so I might as well stay at work.
Now , I’m not trying to get sympathy or anything. In fact, loss is part of the thing that makes a deep friendship so valuable. If you don’t mind the loss maybe you didn’t have too much invested in the relationship to begin with. I thought I was being smart when I avoided that pesky feeling of loss all these years but I’m finding that emptiness is a much worse feeling.
It’s time for me to learn to embrace the pain of loss and cherish it because I can say with all honesty that I have had something rare and valuable in my life these last few weeks. Something I will cherish because given the rest of my life and the hectic nature of the hotel business it may never pass my way again. Loss and joy will intertwine in my life and leave me with a cherished memory. That is truly a rarity in my heart. I am a blessed man.
I think it’s time to listen to Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock.
Grace and Peace,
Brad
Last night I stood around on a gravel parking lot eating watermelon with friends: Just conversation, watermelon and salt. Finally this morning, I realized it doesn’t get any better than that. I have friends. Just saying that makes me nervous because my track record is not so good at maintaining friends.
I’m realizing at this momentous stage in my life, the big 50 comes in less than a week, that I must learn to change the way I live, the way I view the world, the way I run my life. Why? Because I am the master of dysfunction and I’m realizing finally that there is no ‘fun’ in dysfunction. I’m sure I’ve said this before (what haven’t I said before?) but I am a destination kind of guy. I want to get to where I am going.
I realize that I’ve spent the first half of my life trying to get somewhere that I will never find. There is always somewhere else to get to. Part of this musing comes in the midst of reading the memoirs of a man known as ‘Doc’ Ryder who was a fixture at the college that I eventually graduated from. Doc was an odd fellow, an eccentric. He walked his cat on a leash all over campus. And I was in such a big hurry to get out of school that I never got to know him except in passing. I never really got to know anyone in those days. People just came in and out of my life as I sped by in search of the unknown. But I knew I’d know it when I found it.
I think I found it standing in a parking lot eating watermelon.
I feel the urgent need to grieve all those things that I sped by for so many years. Now it is true that you don’t get hurt if you live your life on the run. You’re usually gone before the pain of a bad relationship or even the loss of a good relationship can hit you. But – and that’s one big but- (to quote Pee Wee Herman) you also miss out on the joy of friends.
From another perspective this face book thing has stirred all of this up inside me as well – all these old friends finding me have 30 or 35 years. It’s exciting and then empty because I realize that I have nothing with them. Not even many good memories because I was in too big of a hurry to get somewhere else not to mention the fact that I trained myself to forget the bad ones. I didn’t have time to make memories: Too busy in high school to get to college, too busy in college trying to get married, too busy being married trying to get divorced, too busy at work trying to find the perfect job.
It’s time for a change and perhaps that change is to not changing anything in my life by moving on to the next best thing. Maybe I need to stay where I am even when I feel pressed to go to the next level after the next thing. Maybe I just need to learn to be a better juggler.
I mean I have all of these friends and granted some of them pay me to hang around, ok most of them do, but that’s ok. It doesn’t make them less than friends. Would it be so strange to keep these friends for the rest of my life? For me – yes it would be strange: But that strangeness may be exactly what I need on the down hill side of life.
Maybe, just maybe, I need to settle into life the way it is and ride that horse ‘til it dies.
I say these things with an understanding that things are getting ready to change or rather that a glorious change in my life is coming to an end. I have had the great opportunity to have a wife the last three months. If you remember, Judy lost her job in the great Nashville flood of 2010. Contrary to popular opinion that has been a tremendous blessing to me. I have spent more time with my lovely bride these last three months than in any of the rest of our18 years of marriage. Without the stress of juggling work and home and other people’s homes I have seen her relax. I have heard her laugh a new, deeper laugh that brings joy to my heart. The members of my congregation actually believe I have a wife now because she is with me all the time. We’ve spent Saturdays letting our wonder lust take us all over the Tennessee country side. We have found many new restaurants. We have gained many new pounds. What a blessing that has been but it is coming to an end in October because she has been given her old job back when the Opryland Hotel re-opens. Then it will be back to 10 hour days, rotating shifts and Judy who?
I will have time to write again. Large quantities of me time. I’m just not sure I want to go back to the way things were. I’ve been spoiled. I will remember what it is like to think I have nothing to go home to so I might as well stay at work.
Now , I’m not trying to get sympathy or anything. In fact, loss is part of the thing that makes a deep friendship so valuable. If you don’t mind the loss maybe you didn’t have too much invested in the relationship to begin with. I thought I was being smart when I avoided that pesky feeling of loss all these years but I’m finding that emptiness is a much worse feeling.
It’s time for me to learn to embrace the pain of loss and cherish it because I can say with all honesty that I have had something rare and valuable in my life these last few weeks. Something I will cherish because given the rest of my life and the hectic nature of the hotel business it may never pass my way again. Loss and joy will intertwine in my life and leave me with a cherished memory. That is truly a rarity in my heart. I am a blessed man.
I think it’s time to listen to Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock.
Grace and Peace,
Brad
Saturday, August 21, 2010
sermon 8-22-10 rough draft
These days I find my heart and mind driven to lay a foundation from which we can begin to build into the future. I spoke last week about that foundation being Christ. When I began this departure a few weeks ago I thought it would be short lived but I’m not so sure now; Because as I study the books of Ezra and Nehemiah I am finding new things that need to be brought to light. I will be honest this is one thing that I don’t like about looking at the scriptures from a new paradigm shift or a new way of viewing the world – you can’t go back and see it the way you used to. Even though you may be looking at the same old words you’ve looked at a hundred times before you are looking at them with new eyes and you just see them differently.
I find myself reading these Old Testament passages and not being able to get Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 out of my head: These things (the entire narrative of the Old Testament) happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age (or after the work of Christ). 12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
What I hear that passage tell us is that the things that are written in the Old Testament, the stories of people’s lives are written so that we can understand what is going on in our lives but also what is going on in the lives of our families and our communities, even our nation. If we see them and understand them rightly then we can turn from our sin. The temptation is the same from the beginning to now: we want to be like God determining right and wrong for ourselves. Paul says that god will show us how to turn from that sin and walk rightly. What he doesn’t say is that we will want to do what’s right. If you rightly look at the word of God the way out is clear: humble yourself and repent. What we see over and over again in scripture is that most people who say they are in the church refuse to bow the knee and so they die in the wilderness. Paul exhorts us to see what the Old Testament church did and not to do the same things. Instead of doing that we have throne out the Old Testament and said it no longer applies. I hope we still have time to repent of our arrogance.
I’m going to start in Ezra chapter 4 today but I’m also going to go back to the time of the Babylonian captivity to look at some things because I think we need to do that we can understand from a biblical perspective what is going on in the times we live in. I know sometimes I make jumps that seem logical to me but may leave you scratching your head. If I do that ask me later please. I don’t want to confuse you I want to help you understand the times we live in better.
What I’m beginning to see in Ezra and in all of the Old Testament narrative is the understanding that God’s work doesn’t always go in a straight line. Sometimes it stops and starts. That’s comforting to me because I can get unbelievably frustrated when I don’t see things working out the way I want them to. I want God’s spirit to just come down and change everybody. I want him to transform our families and communities in the blink of an eye. What I really want is for things to be easy. Part of me knows that is not going to be the case but there is the other part of me that still believes that life is supposed to be that way. When it’s not, well I get frustrated, I get angry, and I get grumpy. I mean if it were up to me the judgment of God would have already fallen on our nation and we would be moving on. But it’s not up to me. Nothing is up to me. My calling is to proclaim the truth to the best of my ability but sometimes I’m not content with that; I want to be in charge of everything.
So we are in Ezra 4; we’ll start with verse 1 and go from there: The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were rebuilding a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel. 2 So they approached Zerubbabel and the other leaders and said, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God just as you do. We have sacrificed to him ever since King Esarhaddon of Assyria brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other leaders of Israel replied, “You may have no part in this work. We alone will build the Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, just as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us.”
We are getting a glimpse here of how the enemy tries to stop the advancement of the kingdom of God. Let me lay a little ground work so that we can understand who these people in the land were. In the New Testament times they were known as the Samaritans but they have a history which we are probably not too familiar with so we’ll look at it briefly.
What we see in this passage is that the enemy attempts to compromise the mission and the message by offering to help. The attempt is made to mix the work of God and the work of man. They are trying to mix world views. The church has been doing that for most of our existence. Even here in the Old Testament we are seeing unbelievers trying to get in and be a part of building the church. They say, Hey we just want to help you get the plan of God accomplished but unbelief in hearts and in views of the world do not help the church advance, rather, they destroy the very foundation upon which the church is built. We live only by every word that comes from the mouth of God; not every word plus the help of unbelievers, of Greek philosophy, humanist philosophy, or the latest business growth models and also not less than every word and all those things.
The latest method to infiltrate the church in our day and age is pragmatism – whatever works to grow the church is ok. But that is not acceptable to God. He expects us to use his methods and work within the confines of his word. There is a difference between the ways of the world and the ways of God; one is right and the other is wrong. The prophet Zechariah made it very clear to Zerubbabel the leader of the building process during this time during this time: when he said, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts.
We don’t understand that these days because we have opted for might and power instead of the Spirit of God. We want to take back our country by political means, by a show of force, by business means, by throwing money at all the problems but all of those things are rooted in something other than the word of God and they do nothing to help the kingdom grow. Instead they sow the seeds of destruction.
I cannot stress this enough to you: if and when judgment falls upon this nation of ours it will not be because of the wicked people out there somewhere, it will be because of the wickedness of the church. It will be because we have compromised the word of God. It will be because we have added to and taken away from the word of God. The judgment to come will be on the church, not the non-churched, and for us to fight against it in order to protect what is ours is to be fighting against God himself. If you plan on keeping what you have by force and might and not the spirit of God then you are doing nothing but kicking against the goads. If we think that we can save this country by political maneuvering and the strong arm tactics of the moral majority then we really don’t understand the word of God at all.
If the coming judgment is because of the waywardness of he church then for us to rise up against it is to rise up against God himself. We must learn from the examples God gives us in his word. First, we need to remember that they were there now in Judah rebuilding the temple because the church had been in rebellion against God. THEY REFUSED TO REPENT. When God came in judgment upon Israel in the form of Babylon he told them not to fight against it at all. In Jeremiah 29 we read this: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5'Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 6'Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' 8"For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. 9'For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,' declares the LORD. 10"For thus says the LORD, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'
When God said that to his people he did not say: go and become pagans. At the same time he did say: go and make the Babylonians Christians. He said: go and live in the land where I am sending and live your lives unto me. Build houses, have kids, get married and live your lives unto me. Seek me and you will find me.
What we often miss when we read those passages is that God knew and the people knew that he wasn’t going to make himself found for 70 years. He knew he wasn’t going to set his people free from the captivity that they brought on themselves until they had paid for it by receiving the promised covenant curse, not the promised covenant blessings. It is important that we understand that it was the obedient members of the church, the real believers like Daniel and his friends that had to endure 70 years of captivity. When we say the rain falls on the just and the unjust the same holds true for the judgment of God. The just go into captivity for 70 years.
Actually, captivity for 70 years was a piece of cake compared to those who didn’t listen to the words of God at all. Some of the members of the church, the non-believers in the church got much worse. Jeremiah writes: thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile--
17thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. 18'I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19because they have not listened to My words,' declares the LORD, 'which I sent to them again and again by My servants the prophets; but you did not listen,' declares the LORD. 20"You, therefore, hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
You see before judgment came there were some preachers in the land saying God doesn’t want us to go into exile. They were saying stand up to the Babylonians. Church leaders were saying God doesn’t want his church to go through troubles. He will deliver us from these hard times. And the result of that preaching was that God promised to destroy those false teachers and preachers because they were preaching what the people wanted to hear and not what God was really going to do.
It’s important that we understand that the church today is no more chosen that the church in the time of Israel. It is no more saved; it is no less saved. If Israel could become full of unbelievers and fall then the church do the same thing. I would say it has become the same as it was in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is corrupt. It is in just as much sin and rebellion against the commands of God as Israel was before it went into captivity. But our preachers keep telling us we just need to evangelize more, we just need to think positive thoughts. The Old Testament doesn’t apply any more. I’m am here to tell you that you had better take real close look at our old testament examples and you better compare their culture to our culture and you better get ready to accept the judgment of God that is coming. Because it is coming.
It is only after the judgment of God is done that the church will begin to blossom once again and not until then. In the midst of captivity we must get to the place where we are willing to stand for the word of God alone regardless of the consequences; Regardless of the difficulty that it brings into our lives. We should be prepared to go into the Lions Den or the fiery furnace as a result.
The question is: are we at a place where we can say the words of Daniel’s friends and mean them? As they faced the authorities who were getting ready to take them down they said: O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. 18 But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
You see the rebuilding in Ezra’s time could have gone quicker and easier if they would have just accepted the help of the people that were living in the land. The people that were trying to help them out were the same people that refused to bow the knee to God’s judgment and captivity. They refused to bow the knee to Babylon and therefore to God. They stayed in Judah. The ones that are still there 70 years later are the descendents of those that God promised destroy with to the sword, with famine and with pestilence; make a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19because they refused to listened to the word of God. They have still not repented. But they were church members weren’t they? I mean the exiles took money from the King of Persia and all their pagan neighbors didn’t they? What’s the difference?
The difference is that God orchestrated the pagans to contribute funds not lay the foundation or draw up the plans for what the temple was to look like or act like and these who stayed in the land are still in rebellion against God after 70 years of judgment.
So the returned exiles refused to compromise with the word of God. But that didn’t stop the enemies of the church they just switched tactics. If compromise wouldn’t work then they would try to scare the church to quit advancing the kingdom. In verse 4 we read: Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work. 5 They bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their plans. This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne. Throughout that time period spiritual forces in heavenly places were continually stirring up the unbelievers to go the government officials to complain and finally two or three kings later Artaxerexes wrote a letter that said: issue orders to have these men stop their work. That city must not be rebuilt except at my express command. 22 Be diligent, and don’t neglect this matter, for we must not permit the situation to harm the king’s interests.” 23 When this letter from King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai, and their colleagues, they hurried to Jerusalem. Then, with a show of strength, they forced the Jews to stop building.
24 So the work on the Temple of God in Jerusalem had stopped, and it remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.
I want to stop here to remind us that nothing is easy or simple. We come to these little books and assume that God did great things in the blink of an eye in these people’s lives, at least I do. I want the things of God to be quick and easy but we must learn from our examples. Now I will admit that I am a little gun shy when it comes to long term planning. I got myself into trouble once for even considering a plan 100 years into the future. That’s how I ended up here actually. Long term planning ruined my career options. But the truth is long term planning is our only hope because God Moves Slowly in working out his plan in time and history. That last sentence we read: This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne: That sentence takes up around 25 years. God gave them permission to rebuild. He put it on the heart of the King to pay the way. The Jews moved back into the land and began to rebuild the temple but then from my perspective Spiritual warfare begins to take place. And the process goes slow: Twenty-five years later the rebuilding process is allowed to proceed and 4 years after that the temple is rebuilt.
One of the things that we need to understand out of this passage is that God builds the church in his timing and in his ways. Sometimes he puts a halt to church growth. Unless we are sensitive to what the Spirit of God is doing in our midst we might mistake the lack of growth in the church with a lack of effort on our part. But church growth IS NEVER ABOUT OUR EFFORT. If the church is not growing then perhaps God is not pleased with the condition of his bride. We assume that when Jesus said the fields were ripe for harvest but the laborers were few that it applied to all time; but it doesn’t. The fields are ripe for harvest when God makes them ripe for harvest. In our day and age the fields are not ripe for harvest. Why because the church is in rebellion against God. We have compromised the word of God.
The only way that the fields will ever become ripe for harvest again is if the church turns from its ways to God’s ways. Is God done with the church? Of course not but it may be that God has to bring his bride to repentance before he can allow the fields to be ripe for harvest again. That is what the coming judgment is all about. We have left our first love and unless the church as a whole repents in this nation then Jesus himself will remove our lampstand.
Regardless of how things go with us as a nation here are my questions to you to day: Are you willing to lay down everything you have, everything you are in order to live solely by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God? Are you willing to have no compromise in your life? Are you willing to take the risk of Immanuel Baptist church dying in order to build her only by the ways of God and refuse to use the ways and wisdom of the world? Are you willing to let go of your church and let God have his church? These are the things that we must be honest about.
Unless we are willing to give up the church we attend for the God we say we love we have no hope, our families have no hope, our community has no hope.
May God have mercy on us as we answer those questions.
Let’s pray. Oh father, open our eyes. Give us the grace to repent. Give us the eyes to see the difference between our ways and your ways. Save us from ourselves.
Amen.
I find myself reading these Old Testament passages and not being able to get Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 out of my head: These things (the entire narrative of the Old Testament) happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age (or after the work of Christ). 12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
What I hear that passage tell us is that the things that are written in the Old Testament, the stories of people’s lives are written so that we can understand what is going on in our lives but also what is going on in the lives of our families and our communities, even our nation. If we see them and understand them rightly then we can turn from our sin. The temptation is the same from the beginning to now: we want to be like God determining right and wrong for ourselves. Paul says that god will show us how to turn from that sin and walk rightly. What he doesn’t say is that we will want to do what’s right. If you rightly look at the word of God the way out is clear: humble yourself and repent. What we see over and over again in scripture is that most people who say they are in the church refuse to bow the knee and so they die in the wilderness. Paul exhorts us to see what the Old Testament church did and not to do the same things. Instead of doing that we have throne out the Old Testament and said it no longer applies. I hope we still have time to repent of our arrogance.
I’m going to start in Ezra chapter 4 today but I’m also going to go back to the time of the Babylonian captivity to look at some things because I think we need to do that we can understand from a biblical perspective what is going on in the times we live in. I know sometimes I make jumps that seem logical to me but may leave you scratching your head. If I do that ask me later please. I don’t want to confuse you I want to help you understand the times we live in better.
What I’m beginning to see in Ezra and in all of the Old Testament narrative is the understanding that God’s work doesn’t always go in a straight line. Sometimes it stops and starts. That’s comforting to me because I can get unbelievably frustrated when I don’t see things working out the way I want them to. I want God’s spirit to just come down and change everybody. I want him to transform our families and communities in the blink of an eye. What I really want is for things to be easy. Part of me knows that is not going to be the case but there is the other part of me that still believes that life is supposed to be that way. When it’s not, well I get frustrated, I get angry, and I get grumpy. I mean if it were up to me the judgment of God would have already fallen on our nation and we would be moving on. But it’s not up to me. Nothing is up to me. My calling is to proclaim the truth to the best of my ability but sometimes I’m not content with that; I want to be in charge of everything.
So we are in Ezra 4; we’ll start with verse 1 and go from there: The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were rebuilding a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel. 2 So they approached Zerubbabel and the other leaders and said, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God just as you do. We have sacrificed to him ever since King Esarhaddon of Assyria brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other leaders of Israel replied, “You may have no part in this work. We alone will build the Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, just as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us.”
We are getting a glimpse here of how the enemy tries to stop the advancement of the kingdom of God. Let me lay a little ground work so that we can understand who these people in the land were. In the New Testament times they were known as the Samaritans but they have a history which we are probably not too familiar with so we’ll look at it briefly.
What we see in this passage is that the enemy attempts to compromise the mission and the message by offering to help. The attempt is made to mix the work of God and the work of man. They are trying to mix world views. The church has been doing that for most of our existence. Even here in the Old Testament we are seeing unbelievers trying to get in and be a part of building the church. They say, Hey we just want to help you get the plan of God accomplished but unbelief in hearts and in views of the world do not help the church advance, rather, they destroy the very foundation upon which the church is built. We live only by every word that comes from the mouth of God; not every word plus the help of unbelievers, of Greek philosophy, humanist philosophy, or the latest business growth models and also not less than every word and all those things.
The latest method to infiltrate the church in our day and age is pragmatism – whatever works to grow the church is ok. But that is not acceptable to God. He expects us to use his methods and work within the confines of his word. There is a difference between the ways of the world and the ways of God; one is right and the other is wrong. The prophet Zechariah made it very clear to Zerubbabel the leader of the building process during this time during this time: when he said, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts.
We don’t understand that these days because we have opted for might and power instead of the Spirit of God. We want to take back our country by political means, by a show of force, by business means, by throwing money at all the problems but all of those things are rooted in something other than the word of God and they do nothing to help the kingdom grow. Instead they sow the seeds of destruction.
I cannot stress this enough to you: if and when judgment falls upon this nation of ours it will not be because of the wicked people out there somewhere, it will be because of the wickedness of the church. It will be because we have compromised the word of God. It will be because we have added to and taken away from the word of God. The judgment to come will be on the church, not the non-churched, and for us to fight against it in order to protect what is ours is to be fighting against God himself. If you plan on keeping what you have by force and might and not the spirit of God then you are doing nothing but kicking against the goads. If we think that we can save this country by political maneuvering and the strong arm tactics of the moral majority then we really don’t understand the word of God at all.
If the coming judgment is because of the waywardness of he church then for us to rise up against it is to rise up against God himself. We must learn from the examples God gives us in his word. First, we need to remember that they were there now in Judah rebuilding the temple because the church had been in rebellion against God. THEY REFUSED TO REPENT. When God came in judgment upon Israel in the form of Babylon he told them not to fight against it at all. In Jeremiah 29 we read this: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5'Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 6'Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' 8"For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. 9'For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,' declares the LORD. 10"For thus says the LORD, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'
When God said that to his people he did not say: go and become pagans. At the same time he did say: go and make the Babylonians Christians. He said: go and live in the land where I am sending and live your lives unto me. Build houses, have kids, get married and live your lives unto me. Seek me and you will find me.
What we often miss when we read those passages is that God knew and the people knew that he wasn’t going to make himself found for 70 years. He knew he wasn’t going to set his people free from the captivity that they brought on themselves until they had paid for it by receiving the promised covenant curse, not the promised covenant blessings. It is important that we understand that it was the obedient members of the church, the real believers like Daniel and his friends that had to endure 70 years of captivity. When we say the rain falls on the just and the unjust the same holds true for the judgment of God. The just go into captivity for 70 years.
Actually, captivity for 70 years was a piece of cake compared to those who didn’t listen to the words of God at all. Some of the members of the church, the non-believers in the church got much worse. Jeremiah writes: thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile--
17thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. 18'I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19because they have not listened to My words,' declares the LORD, 'which I sent to them again and again by My servants the prophets; but you did not listen,' declares the LORD. 20"You, therefore, hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
You see before judgment came there were some preachers in the land saying God doesn’t want us to go into exile. They were saying stand up to the Babylonians. Church leaders were saying God doesn’t want his church to go through troubles. He will deliver us from these hard times. And the result of that preaching was that God promised to destroy those false teachers and preachers because they were preaching what the people wanted to hear and not what God was really going to do.
It’s important that we understand that the church today is no more chosen that the church in the time of Israel. It is no more saved; it is no less saved. If Israel could become full of unbelievers and fall then the church do the same thing. I would say it has become the same as it was in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is corrupt. It is in just as much sin and rebellion against the commands of God as Israel was before it went into captivity. But our preachers keep telling us we just need to evangelize more, we just need to think positive thoughts. The Old Testament doesn’t apply any more. I’m am here to tell you that you had better take real close look at our old testament examples and you better compare their culture to our culture and you better get ready to accept the judgment of God that is coming. Because it is coming.
It is only after the judgment of God is done that the church will begin to blossom once again and not until then. In the midst of captivity we must get to the place where we are willing to stand for the word of God alone regardless of the consequences; Regardless of the difficulty that it brings into our lives. We should be prepared to go into the Lions Den or the fiery furnace as a result.
The question is: are we at a place where we can say the words of Daniel’s friends and mean them? As they faced the authorities who were getting ready to take them down they said: O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. 18 But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
You see the rebuilding in Ezra’s time could have gone quicker and easier if they would have just accepted the help of the people that were living in the land. The people that were trying to help them out were the same people that refused to bow the knee to God’s judgment and captivity. They refused to bow the knee to Babylon and therefore to God. They stayed in Judah. The ones that are still there 70 years later are the descendents of those that God promised destroy with to the sword, with famine and with pestilence; make a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19because they refused to listened to the word of God. They have still not repented. But they were church members weren’t they? I mean the exiles took money from the King of Persia and all their pagan neighbors didn’t they? What’s the difference?
The difference is that God orchestrated the pagans to contribute funds not lay the foundation or draw up the plans for what the temple was to look like or act like and these who stayed in the land are still in rebellion against God after 70 years of judgment.
So the returned exiles refused to compromise with the word of God. But that didn’t stop the enemies of the church they just switched tactics. If compromise wouldn’t work then they would try to scare the church to quit advancing the kingdom. In verse 4 we read: Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work. 5 They bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their plans. This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne. Throughout that time period spiritual forces in heavenly places were continually stirring up the unbelievers to go the government officials to complain and finally two or three kings later Artaxerexes wrote a letter that said: issue orders to have these men stop their work. That city must not be rebuilt except at my express command. 22 Be diligent, and don’t neglect this matter, for we must not permit the situation to harm the king’s interests.” 23 When this letter from King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai, and their colleagues, they hurried to Jerusalem. Then, with a show of strength, they forced the Jews to stop building.
24 So the work on the Temple of God in Jerusalem had stopped, and it remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.
I want to stop here to remind us that nothing is easy or simple. We come to these little books and assume that God did great things in the blink of an eye in these people’s lives, at least I do. I want the things of God to be quick and easy but we must learn from our examples. Now I will admit that I am a little gun shy when it comes to long term planning. I got myself into trouble once for even considering a plan 100 years into the future. That’s how I ended up here actually. Long term planning ruined my career options. But the truth is long term planning is our only hope because God Moves Slowly in working out his plan in time and history. That last sentence we read: This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne: That sentence takes up around 25 years. God gave them permission to rebuild. He put it on the heart of the King to pay the way. The Jews moved back into the land and began to rebuild the temple but then from my perspective Spiritual warfare begins to take place. And the process goes slow: Twenty-five years later the rebuilding process is allowed to proceed and 4 years after that the temple is rebuilt.
One of the things that we need to understand out of this passage is that God builds the church in his timing and in his ways. Sometimes he puts a halt to church growth. Unless we are sensitive to what the Spirit of God is doing in our midst we might mistake the lack of growth in the church with a lack of effort on our part. But church growth IS NEVER ABOUT OUR EFFORT. If the church is not growing then perhaps God is not pleased with the condition of his bride. We assume that when Jesus said the fields were ripe for harvest but the laborers were few that it applied to all time; but it doesn’t. The fields are ripe for harvest when God makes them ripe for harvest. In our day and age the fields are not ripe for harvest. Why because the church is in rebellion against God. We have compromised the word of God.
The only way that the fields will ever become ripe for harvest again is if the church turns from its ways to God’s ways. Is God done with the church? Of course not but it may be that God has to bring his bride to repentance before he can allow the fields to be ripe for harvest again. That is what the coming judgment is all about. We have left our first love and unless the church as a whole repents in this nation then Jesus himself will remove our lampstand.
Regardless of how things go with us as a nation here are my questions to you to day: Are you willing to lay down everything you have, everything you are in order to live solely by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God? Are you willing to have no compromise in your life? Are you willing to take the risk of Immanuel Baptist church dying in order to build her only by the ways of God and refuse to use the ways and wisdom of the world? Are you willing to let go of your church and let God have his church? These are the things that we must be honest about.
Unless we are willing to give up the church we attend for the God we say we love we have no hope, our families have no hope, our community has no hope.
May God have mercy on us as we answer those questions.
Let’s pray. Oh father, open our eyes. Give us the grace to repent. Give us the eyes to see the difference between our ways and your ways. Save us from ourselves.
Amen.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
When will I ever learn to live in God?
Morning,
Sometimes I forget the important stuff. For instance, in the last couple of weeks I forgot that God moves at the speed he wants to move at. The result of me forgetting was looking at the world in the context of my time table. I began to find myself stressed to no end because things weren’t happening now. You see I am a product of my generation and I want everything now. I want God to keep his promises now, I want people to be set free from bondage now, I want my house put back together now. I want to be working a single good paying job now. I want to spend more time writing now.
The list is endless. And if I can’t have it now, yesterday will be ok.
I guess I’m still a tween or a teen in my heart of hearts. I never have liked growing up – oh I’ve wanted to be grown up since I can remember but I have always wanted it to be an instant and painless thing. But that’s not the way growing up works now is it?
Maybe, I’ve just been obsessed with time lately or at least my lack of it. There are so many things to do, to get done, to put into practice that the tasks seem overwhelming. It is when that happens that I begin to forget. I forget that I am not in charge. I forget that I can’t change anyone or anything. I forget that I do not have the power to control the planet, not even the little micro dot of life that is my existence.
Van Morrison sings when will I ever learn to live in God when will I ever learn? He gives me everything I need and more. When will I ever learn?
I don’t know is the answer to that question.
I mean my forgetfulness has gotten so bad that I lost it yesterday over a couple of comic books. Yeah, Comic books. They are one of the few things I do in this world for myself, one of my distractions. I collect Daredevil comics. In the world of comic merchandizing the big companies sometimes do a huge story across several different magazines so that die hard fans will purchase vast quantities of comics over a short period of time. Such is the turn of events with Daredevil for the next few months, instead of one comic book a month they are turning out 3 or 4 comics a week or at least it seems that way to me.
It has been an interesting story line: Good Catholic superhero crosses over to the dark side to bring justice in New York where justice has become a joke. Kind of like what the church is famous for: using the wisdom of the world when the wisdom of God just doesn’t seem to be up to snuff.
Anyway, I’m a little particular when it comes to my comic story lines: I like to read them in order. I like to understand the many faceted sides of a story as I read it which is why one comic a month is a good thing for me. To make a long story even longer, I missed last weeks comics. You see, I knew I was going to get my regular monthly in the mail so I didn’t bother buying it in the store. Not a big deal. I thought that there was supposed to be another comic but I didn’t see it. No big deal. Then yesterday it was confirmed I missed an issue. I bought this weeks issues and headed home. When I got home – no comic book in the mail. And I basically lost it.
Crap.
The mail has not been my friend lately. Doesn’t the Federal government know that I need to get my packages on time, my time, even if they haven’t been mailed yet? For a couple weeks I have been like Ralphie in A Christmas Story running home to check the mail box to see if my decoder ring has come. Every day nothing. I am expecting that decoder ring to change my life forever with its glorious message of 'Drink More Ovaltine' from afar but everyday it is the same: nothing and my life stays the same. I need that decoder ring.
It took me a couple of hours to get over the comic book funk that I put myself in. I was frustrated because nothing was going my way and daredevil was the last straw. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not but the daily dose of wasted trees was sitting on the couch when I sat down in a huff after being told to go to the other room because I was in a huff and no one else in the house wanted to share that experience with me. So I picked up the top piece of shredded trees and saw a story about Pastors being stressed out, overweight and prone to heart attacks because they do the Lord’s work in their own way and not His. I tried to brush it off but it kept sticking in my craw.
It was this episode yesterday that helped me remember that I am quick to forget whose world this is and who is in charge. The answer to both of those questions is somebody besides me. If I could remember that, maybe, just maybe, I could simply focus on the tasks that I have before me and leave the timing and outcome of things to God. Maybe. Given my track record I have my doubts.
I’m not so sure why I get so frustrated over God’s time table but I do. Maybe I should try to remember that he is dealing with the contingencies of the actions of over 6 billion people every second of every day and they are all vital aspects of the single plan of God and everything works together to bring about that plan, that glorious plan. And maybe I should remember that the only plan that matters isn’t going to fail.
I try to remember, honest I do, but then I see people do stupid stuff like lose it over comic books, or run away from sobriety, or refuse to be responsible for themselves and their families and I just want to scream.
This is the cycle of my life. Right now, I remember and there is a semblance of peace but given my track record I will forget again. You see, I haven’t punched in to the work a day world yet so I haven’t felt like punching anyone out so far.
When will I ever learn?
We’ll see what the plan unfolds today.
Brad
Sometimes I forget the important stuff. For instance, in the last couple of weeks I forgot that God moves at the speed he wants to move at. The result of me forgetting was looking at the world in the context of my time table. I began to find myself stressed to no end because things weren’t happening now. You see I am a product of my generation and I want everything now. I want God to keep his promises now, I want people to be set free from bondage now, I want my house put back together now. I want to be working a single good paying job now. I want to spend more time writing now.
The list is endless. And if I can’t have it now, yesterday will be ok.
I guess I’m still a tween or a teen in my heart of hearts. I never have liked growing up – oh I’ve wanted to be grown up since I can remember but I have always wanted it to be an instant and painless thing. But that’s not the way growing up works now is it?
Maybe, I’ve just been obsessed with time lately or at least my lack of it. There are so many things to do, to get done, to put into practice that the tasks seem overwhelming. It is when that happens that I begin to forget. I forget that I am not in charge. I forget that I can’t change anyone or anything. I forget that I do not have the power to control the planet, not even the little micro dot of life that is my existence.
Van Morrison sings when will I ever learn to live in God when will I ever learn? He gives me everything I need and more. When will I ever learn?
I don’t know is the answer to that question.
I mean my forgetfulness has gotten so bad that I lost it yesterday over a couple of comic books. Yeah, Comic books. They are one of the few things I do in this world for myself, one of my distractions. I collect Daredevil comics. In the world of comic merchandizing the big companies sometimes do a huge story across several different magazines so that die hard fans will purchase vast quantities of comics over a short period of time. Such is the turn of events with Daredevil for the next few months, instead of one comic book a month they are turning out 3 or 4 comics a week or at least it seems that way to me.
It has been an interesting story line: Good Catholic superhero crosses over to the dark side to bring justice in New York where justice has become a joke. Kind of like what the church is famous for: using the wisdom of the world when the wisdom of God just doesn’t seem to be up to snuff.
Anyway, I’m a little particular when it comes to my comic story lines: I like to read them in order. I like to understand the many faceted sides of a story as I read it which is why one comic a month is a good thing for me. To make a long story even longer, I missed last weeks comics. You see, I knew I was going to get my regular monthly in the mail so I didn’t bother buying it in the store. Not a big deal. I thought that there was supposed to be another comic but I didn’t see it. No big deal. Then yesterday it was confirmed I missed an issue. I bought this weeks issues and headed home. When I got home – no comic book in the mail. And I basically lost it.
Crap.
The mail has not been my friend lately. Doesn’t the Federal government know that I need to get my packages on time, my time, even if they haven’t been mailed yet? For a couple weeks I have been like Ralphie in A Christmas Story running home to check the mail box to see if my decoder ring has come. Every day nothing. I am expecting that decoder ring to change my life forever with its glorious message of 'Drink More Ovaltine' from afar but everyday it is the same: nothing and my life stays the same. I need that decoder ring.
It took me a couple of hours to get over the comic book funk that I put myself in. I was frustrated because nothing was going my way and daredevil was the last straw. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not but the daily dose of wasted trees was sitting on the couch when I sat down in a huff after being told to go to the other room because I was in a huff and no one else in the house wanted to share that experience with me. So I picked up the top piece of shredded trees and saw a story about Pastors being stressed out, overweight and prone to heart attacks because they do the Lord’s work in their own way and not His. I tried to brush it off but it kept sticking in my craw.
It was this episode yesterday that helped me remember that I am quick to forget whose world this is and who is in charge. The answer to both of those questions is somebody besides me. If I could remember that, maybe, just maybe, I could simply focus on the tasks that I have before me and leave the timing and outcome of things to God. Maybe. Given my track record I have my doubts.
I’m not so sure why I get so frustrated over God’s time table but I do. Maybe I should try to remember that he is dealing with the contingencies of the actions of over 6 billion people every second of every day and they are all vital aspects of the single plan of God and everything works together to bring about that plan, that glorious plan. And maybe I should remember that the only plan that matters isn’t going to fail.
I try to remember, honest I do, but then I see people do stupid stuff like lose it over comic books, or run away from sobriety, or refuse to be responsible for themselves and their families and I just want to scream.
This is the cycle of my life. Right now, I remember and there is a semblance of peace but given my track record I will forget again. You see, I haven’t punched in to the work a day world yet so I haven’t felt like punching anyone out so far.
When will I ever learn?
We’ll see what the plan unfolds today.
Brad
Sunday, August 15, 2010
sermon 8-15-10
I want to continue going through the book of Ezra this morning. Unlike my other sermon series where I go through verse by verse I am going to simply hit the highlights and make application as I see it. You are welcome to read the text in its entirety at your leisure. What I am trying to do is look at the Old Testament text from a New Testament perspective so that we can learn from the examples that have been given us. Today we will begin with Ezra chapter 3.
In the first couple of chapters of Ezra we learn that over 40,000 people returned to Israel from Babylon when Cyrus gave permission to go back home. In verse one, we read: In early autumn, when the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people assembled in Jerusalem with a unified purpose. 2 Then Jeshua son of Jehozadak joined his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his family in rebuilding the altar of the God of Israel. They wanted to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, as instructed in the Law of Moses, the man of God. 3 Even though the people were afraid of the local residents, they rebuilt the altar at its old site. Then they began to sacrifice burnt offerings on the altar to the Lord each morning and evening. 4 They celebrated the Festival of Shelters as prescribed in the Law, sacrificing the number of burnt offerings specified for each day of the festival. 5 They also offered the regular burnt offerings and the offerings required for the new moon celebrations and the annual festivals as prescribed by the Lord. The people also gave voluntary offerings to the Lord. 6 Fifteen days before the Festival of Shelters began, the priests had begun to sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord. This was even before they had started to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple.
Let’s stop there. From a New Testament perspective what these refugees did was center their lives on the work of Jesus. The Altar and the sacrifices are pictures of what Christ has done for us. So if we are going to rebuild the temple today we need to make sure that our Cornerstone is set in place. To use the metaphor of the body we need to make sure that we have our head on straight.
What does that mean? Well, it means understanding the right view of the world and how it works. If you begin on the wrong foundation then your understanding of what Jesus and the altar mean will be wrong and the house you build will not be what you intended. The biblical view of the world begins with “In the beginning God”. In the beginning there was only God, God was before the beginning. At one point in history God was all there was. And when God spoke his powerful words he created all that is. Every fact in creation is a created fact. From God’s perspective there are no accidents or mistakes. All that exists flows out of his spoken word.
He spoke and the material world was created and it was good. On the last day of creation of this age he made man who was also good. Out of man he made woman and she also was good. And he charged them both to take dominion over the earth, to subdue it, to understand it.
What we often times miss with regard to creation is that God doesn’t need any of it. He is self sustaining. In fact, the entire creation as we know it on this planet was made for us. It was made so that our eyes could see it, our ears could hear it, our senses could experience the reality. God doesn’t need eyes, or ears or a heart, or a brain. Can I explain that? Not on your life. But we are told that God’s ways are not our ways; we will never be God. However, we were made to rule the created universe under the authority of God. Adam was made king of the created world on the day he was created but like King Josiah that we read about in II Chronicles he had a heart for God but he was not wise. Just like the promised testing of wealth in Deuteronomy Adam and Eve were given everything they needed and then their hearts were tested. They were created into a covenant relationship with God. God laid out the stipulations of the covenant very clearly. In fact, God said, much like he does with us, you are free to do anything you like except sin but if you break covenant you will die. For us who are in Christ, it is if you break covenant you will be disciplined. Adam and Eve’s option for sin was centered around the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Paul in Romans chapter 7 writes: I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." 8But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
This is exactly what happened with Adam and Eve. The law was made clear to them. It was written on their heart. Did the law make Adam and Eve sin? Not at all. What it did was reveal the righteousness of God and correspondingly the lust that was in their own hearts. Sin took the opportunity through the commandment: don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil to produce coveting of every kind in them.
I think James hits the nail on the head in chapter 1of his letter when he writes: 12Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. 16Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Unfortunately, the lust in their hearts lead Eve to be deceived and Adam to willfully follow after her. Their lust was conceived and it gave birth to sin and the minute that was done covenant was broken and mankind was subjected to death. The same law which was the path of life when it was obeyed became the path of death when they rebelled against it.
It is important to understand that a covenant with God is an eternal th
ing. Once it is broken it is broken for good. When Adam broke covenant he did so as the head and founder of the human race. We all broke covenant with God when Adam sinned because we were all in Adam. The theological term for that is to say that Adam is our Federal Head (in case you were wondering). This is the condition that mankind finds itself in at this point in history. Everyone is born in rebellion against God and his covenant. We are all born covenant breakers. If that is not true the Christ didn’t need to die on the cross and we don’t need to be saved from sin. Does that make sense?
When I say that this is the foundation upon which we can clearly understand the world around us I mean it. When people start trying to tweak the scriptures and say this is not important, that is not important then we fall off the foundation that allows us to rightly understand the world we live in. That is the place that most of our culture finds itself these days, off of the only foundation that allows them to see the way the world really works. Creatures of chance don’t need to be saved from anything. Accidents can have no meaningful life. If we came out of the slime then we can be no better than the slime and we cannot rule over it and take dominion. The earth is then our mother to be worshiped even though she can’t really do anything at all. Foundation is everything.
Let’s move on: Immediately after we sinned, God came looking for us in the garden and it was then he instituted a new covenant of life to provide redemption for any of the human race that desired to walk in life. Now this new covenant relationship was divided into two parts what we call the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Both parts are covenants of grace. The difference is that the first part of covenant lays down the laws of redemption and looks forward to the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. The second part lays out the story of the coming of the lamb, his sacrifice, and the redemption of all of creation including the humans who want to be redeemed. Rebellion still runs deep in our hearts and the truth is that very few of those in rebellion want to give that up.
It is important that we understand that God saves us by the laws of redemption. If the Old Covenant, the Old Testament had not laid forth a lawful form of redemption there would be nothing but death in the world and in our lives. Because God gave us law by which we would be saved there is therefore only one way to be saved. When Jesus says he is the way, the truth and the life he is simply saying that he is the lawful redemption provided by God. By God’s own decree only a blood sacrifice can atone for our rebellion and cause us to be born again into a new covenant relationship with God. Jesus’ death and resurrection is not simply one option among many it is the only option by the decree of the one who made every fact that ever existed.
This is why the first thing the Israelites did when they went back to Jerusalem was to restore the altar and sacrifices. Remember, they had been given the law back after they had lost it, just before they went into captivity. They had had 70 years to get familiar with the first five books of the bible. They knew the story and they knew their only hope was in the sacrifice. They were looking forward to the promise of the seed who would crush the head of the serpent.
I want to read something about the sacrificial process that was written by a man named Vern Poythress in a book called The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses. It is an outstanding book and I would highly recommend it. Dr. Poythress writes: The sequence of events in sacrifice is also instructive to Israelites. In a typical case the process begins with the worshiper who brings an animal without defect to the priest. The worshiper has raised the animal himself or paid for it with his earnings, so that the animal represents a "sacrifice" in the modern sense of the word. It costs something to the worshiper, and a portion of the worshiper's own life is identified with it. The worshiper lays his hand on the head of the animal, signifying his identification with it. He then kills the animal at the entranceway into the courtyard, signifying that the animal dies as a substitute for the death of the worshiper.
You see because we are born in rebellion against God we need a substitute to die for us so that we can enter into a new relationship, a new covenant with God.
Peter writes in chapter 2 of his first letter: 4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. 5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” 7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” 8 And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. 9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
The scriptures call Jesus the chief cornerstone because without him there can be no new covenant building – there can be no salvation. That is how vital Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection are to the world. By the decree of God there can be no covenant relationship with God unless his blood pays for our sins. Unless you die in Christ Jesus on the altar you cannot not enter into the holy of holies, the presence of God – you cannot enter into the path of life.
Not only do those who returned to the land reinstate sacrifices they also begin to celebrate the feasts and festivals prescribed in the Old Testament. All of these feasts are, once again, pictures of Christ and his work. The main feast mentioned here in Ezra is called the feast of booths, the feast of tabernacles, or the feast of shelters. It is described along with the other feasts in Leviticus chapter 23. Let me read a bit of it to you.
33 And the Lord said to Moses, 34 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Begin celebrating the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the appointed month—five days after the Day of Atonement. This festival to the Lord will last for seven days. 35 On the first day of the festival you must proclaim an official day for holy assembly, when you do no ordinary work. 36 For seven days you must present special gifts to the Lord. The eighth day is another holy day on which you present your special gifts to the Lord. This will be a solemn occasion, and no ordinary work may be done that day. 37 (“These are the Lord’s appointed festivals. Celebrate them each year as official days for holy assembly by presenting special gifts to the Lord—burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and liquid offerings—each on its proper day. 38 These festivals must be observed in addition to the Lord’s regular Sabbath days, and the offerings are in addition to your personal gifts, the offerings you give to fulfill your vows, and the voluntary offerings you present to the Lord.) 39 “Remember that this seven-day festival to the Lord—the Festival of Shelters—begins on the fifteenth day of the appointed month, after you have harvested all the produce of the land. The first day and the eighth day of the festival will be days of complete rest. 40 On the first day gather branches from magnificent trees—palm fronds, boughs from leafy trees, and willows that grow by the streams. Then celebrate with joy before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You must observe this festival to the Lord for seven days every year. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed in the appointed month from generation to generation. 42 For seven days you must live outside in little shelters. All native-born Israelites must live in shelters. 43 This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
One aspect of the feasts in the Old Testament is that they all expand upon the concept of Sabbath, the concept of Rest. They are pictures of the multitude of ways that we are to find rest in Christ because in his sacrifice we find true rest.
This specific feast speaks of God’s providential care for his people as they walk in the wilderness, as they walk this world waiting for the journey to end. It lets us know that if we are in Christ Jesus God is with us wherever we go. He is our shelter from the Storm of life.
Of course that makes me think of Bob Dylan and so I will paraphrase him a bit: ’Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and bloodWhen blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mudI came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form“Come in,” he said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”
That is what salvation is all about, that is what Jesus dying on the altar as your substitute is for: to give you rest from your sins. Peace from being at war with God.
The most important thing that you can do as a Christian is learn to rest in Christ Jesus. We don’t do that very well in our culture. In fact, the further we get from Christ the less we can find rest. The fact that you can go to the store 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to get anything you want is not a sign of progress: It is a sign of the lack of rest. It is a sign that we are still trying to be God. We want to be omnipresent so we carry our cell phones with us all the time. We want to be all knowing so we surf the web for information every chance we get. We want to be all powerful so we want to be able to buy whenever and whatever we can.
Salvation comes as we stop trying to be God and start resting in the fact that God is God and we are his creatures whom he loves and cares for every minute of every day. You begin to work out your salvation with fear and trembling when you quit trying to save yourself and learn to rest in God. Van Morrison sings: When will I ever learn to live in God? When will I ever learn? He gives me everything I need and more When will I ever learn? That is what our time in the wilderness is trying to teach us: to rest in Jesus the only true rest available to a broken, sinful people.
That is a very brief explanation of the importance of starting with the altar and living out the feasts in our day and age. Any questions?
Let’s pray. Dear Father, have mercy on us oh Lord. Teach us to rest. Teach us to receive our rest from you. Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name sake. Pour out grace and mercy upon us. In Jesus’ name we ask these things. Amen.
Let’s sing our final song and then I’ll give the benediction.
Receive the word of the Lord from Psalm 37: 1 Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. 2 For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. 4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. 5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. 6 He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. 7 Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. 8 Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper— it only leads to harm. 9 For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land. 10 Soon the wicked will disappear. Though you look for them, they will be gone. 11 The lowly will possess the land and will live in peace and prosperity. Go in Peace.
In the first couple of chapters of Ezra we learn that over 40,000 people returned to Israel from Babylon when Cyrus gave permission to go back home. In verse one, we read: In early autumn, when the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people assembled in Jerusalem with a unified purpose. 2 Then Jeshua son of Jehozadak joined his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his family in rebuilding the altar of the God of Israel. They wanted to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, as instructed in the Law of Moses, the man of God. 3 Even though the people were afraid of the local residents, they rebuilt the altar at its old site. Then they began to sacrifice burnt offerings on the altar to the Lord each morning and evening. 4 They celebrated the Festival of Shelters as prescribed in the Law, sacrificing the number of burnt offerings specified for each day of the festival. 5 They also offered the regular burnt offerings and the offerings required for the new moon celebrations and the annual festivals as prescribed by the Lord. The people also gave voluntary offerings to the Lord. 6 Fifteen days before the Festival of Shelters began, the priests had begun to sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord. This was even before they had started to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple.
Let’s stop there. From a New Testament perspective what these refugees did was center their lives on the work of Jesus. The Altar and the sacrifices are pictures of what Christ has done for us. So if we are going to rebuild the temple today we need to make sure that our Cornerstone is set in place. To use the metaphor of the body we need to make sure that we have our head on straight.
What does that mean? Well, it means understanding the right view of the world and how it works. If you begin on the wrong foundation then your understanding of what Jesus and the altar mean will be wrong and the house you build will not be what you intended. The biblical view of the world begins with “In the beginning God”. In the beginning there was only God, God was before the beginning. At one point in history God was all there was. And when God spoke his powerful words he created all that is. Every fact in creation is a created fact. From God’s perspective there are no accidents or mistakes. All that exists flows out of his spoken word.
He spoke and the material world was created and it was good. On the last day of creation of this age he made man who was also good. Out of man he made woman and she also was good. And he charged them both to take dominion over the earth, to subdue it, to understand it.
What we often times miss with regard to creation is that God doesn’t need any of it. He is self sustaining. In fact, the entire creation as we know it on this planet was made for us. It was made so that our eyes could see it, our ears could hear it, our senses could experience the reality. God doesn’t need eyes, or ears or a heart, or a brain. Can I explain that? Not on your life. But we are told that God’s ways are not our ways; we will never be God. However, we were made to rule the created universe under the authority of God. Adam was made king of the created world on the day he was created but like King Josiah that we read about in II Chronicles he had a heart for God but he was not wise. Just like the promised testing of wealth in Deuteronomy Adam and Eve were given everything they needed and then their hearts were tested. They were created into a covenant relationship with God. God laid out the stipulations of the covenant very clearly. In fact, God said, much like he does with us, you are free to do anything you like except sin but if you break covenant you will die. For us who are in Christ, it is if you break covenant you will be disciplined. Adam and Eve’s option for sin was centered around the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Paul in Romans chapter 7 writes: I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." 8But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
This is exactly what happened with Adam and Eve. The law was made clear to them. It was written on their heart. Did the law make Adam and Eve sin? Not at all. What it did was reveal the righteousness of God and correspondingly the lust that was in their own hearts. Sin took the opportunity through the commandment: don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil to produce coveting of every kind in them.
I think James hits the nail on the head in chapter 1of his letter when he writes: 12Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. 16Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Unfortunately, the lust in their hearts lead Eve to be deceived and Adam to willfully follow after her. Their lust was conceived and it gave birth to sin and the minute that was done covenant was broken and mankind was subjected to death. The same law which was the path of life when it was obeyed became the path of death when they rebelled against it.
It is important to understand that a covenant with God is an eternal th
ing. Once it is broken it is broken for good. When Adam broke covenant he did so as the head and founder of the human race. We all broke covenant with God when Adam sinned because we were all in Adam. The theological term for that is to say that Adam is our Federal Head (in case you were wondering). This is the condition that mankind finds itself in at this point in history. Everyone is born in rebellion against God and his covenant. We are all born covenant breakers. If that is not true the Christ didn’t need to die on the cross and we don’t need to be saved from sin. Does that make sense?
When I say that this is the foundation upon which we can clearly understand the world around us I mean it. When people start trying to tweak the scriptures and say this is not important, that is not important then we fall off the foundation that allows us to rightly understand the world we live in. That is the place that most of our culture finds itself these days, off of the only foundation that allows them to see the way the world really works. Creatures of chance don’t need to be saved from anything. Accidents can have no meaningful life. If we came out of the slime then we can be no better than the slime and we cannot rule over it and take dominion. The earth is then our mother to be worshiped even though she can’t really do anything at all. Foundation is everything.
Let’s move on: Immediately after we sinned, God came looking for us in the garden and it was then he instituted a new covenant of life to provide redemption for any of the human race that desired to walk in life. Now this new covenant relationship was divided into two parts what we call the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Both parts are covenants of grace. The difference is that the first part of covenant lays down the laws of redemption and looks forward to the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. The second part lays out the story of the coming of the lamb, his sacrifice, and the redemption of all of creation including the humans who want to be redeemed. Rebellion still runs deep in our hearts and the truth is that very few of those in rebellion want to give that up.
It is important that we understand that God saves us by the laws of redemption. If the Old Covenant, the Old Testament had not laid forth a lawful form of redemption there would be nothing but death in the world and in our lives. Because God gave us law by which we would be saved there is therefore only one way to be saved. When Jesus says he is the way, the truth and the life he is simply saying that he is the lawful redemption provided by God. By God’s own decree only a blood sacrifice can atone for our rebellion and cause us to be born again into a new covenant relationship with God. Jesus’ death and resurrection is not simply one option among many it is the only option by the decree of the one who made every fact that ever existed.
This is why the first thing the Israelites did when they went back to Jerusalem was to restore the altar and sacrifices. Remember, they had been given the law back after they had lost it, just before they went into captivity. They had had 70 years to get familiar with the first five books of the bible. They knew the story and they knew their only hope was in the sacrifice. They were looking forward to the promise of the seed who would crush the head of the serpent.
I want to read something about the sacrificial process that was written by a man named Vern Poythress in a book called The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses. It is an outstanding book and I would highly recommend it. Dr. Poythress writes: The sequence of events in sacrifice is also instructive to Israelites. In a typical case the process begins with the worshiper who brings an animal without defect to the priest. The worshiper has raised the animal himself or paid for it with his earnings, so that the animal represents a "sacrifice" in the modern sense of the word. It costs something to the worshiper, and a portion of the worshiper's own life is identified with it. The worshiper lays his hand on the head of the animal, signifying his identification with it. He then kills the animal at the entranceway into the courtyard, signifying that the animal dies as a substitute for the death of the worshiper.
You see because we are born in rebellion against God we need a substitute to die for us so that we can enter into a new relationship, a new covenant with God.
Peter writes in chapter 2 of his first letter: 4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. 5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” 7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” 8 And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. 9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
The scriptures call Jesus the chief cornerstone because without him there can be no new covenant building – there can be no salvation. That is how vital Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection are to the world. By the decree of God there can be no covenant relationship with God unless his blood pays for our sins. Unless you die in Christ Jesus on the altar you cannot not enter into the holy of holies, the presence of God – you cannot enter into the path of life.
Not only do those who returned to the land reinstate sacrifices they also begin to celebrate the feasts and festivals prescribed in the Old Testament. All of these feasts are, once again, pictures of Christ and his work. The main feast mentioned here in Ezra is called the feast of booths, the feast of tabernacles, or the feast of shelters. It is described along with the other feasts in Leviticus chapter 23. Let me read a bit of it to you.
33 And the Lord said to Moses, 34 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Begin celebrating the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the appointed month—five days after the Day of Atonement. This festival to the Lord will last for seven days. 35 On the first day of the festival you must proclaim an official day for holy assembly, when you do no ordinary work. 36 For seven days you must present special gifts to the Lord. The eighth day is another holy day on which you present your special gifts to the Lord. This will be a solemn occasion, and no ordinary work may be done that day. 37 (“These are the Lord’s appointed festivals. Celebrate them each year as official days for holy assembly by presenting special gifts to the Lord—burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and liquid offerings—each on its proper day. 38 These festivals must be observed in addition to the Lord’s regular Sabbath days, and the offerings are in addition to your personal gifts, the offerings you give to fulfill your vows, and the voluntary offerings you present to the Lord.) 39 “Remember that this seven-day festival to the Lord—the Festival of Shelters—begins on the fifteenth day of the appointed month, after you have harvested all the produce of the land. The first day and the eighth day of the festival will be days of complete rest. 40 On the first day gather branches from magnificent trees—palm fronds, boughs from leafy trees, and willows that grow by the streams. Then celebrate with joy before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You must observe this festival to the Lord for seven days every year. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed in the appointed month from generation to generation. 42 For seven days you must live outside in little shelters. All native-born Israelites must live in shelters. 43 This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
One aspect of the feasts in the Old Testament is that they all expand upon the concept of Sabbath, the concept of Rest. They are pictures of the multitude of ways that we are to find rest in Christ because in his sacrifice we find true rest.
This specific feast speaks of God’s providential care for his people as they walk in the wilderness, as they walk this world waiting for the journey to end. It lets us know that if we are in Christ Jesus God is with us wherever we go. He is our shelter from the Storm of life.
Of course that makes me think of Bob Dylan and so I will paraphrase him a bit: ’Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and bloodWhen blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mudI came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form“Come in,” he said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”
That is what salvation is all about, that is what Jesus dying on the altar as your substitute is for: to give you rest from your sins. Peace from being at war with God.
The most important thing that you can do as a Christian is learn to rest in Christ Jesus. We don’t do that very well in our culture. In fact, the further we get from Christ the less we can find rest. The fact that you can go to the store 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to get anything you want is not a sign of progress: It is a sign of the lack of rest. It is a sign that we are still trying to be God. We want to be omnipresent so we carry our cell phones with us all the time. We want to be all knowing so we surf the web for information every chance we get. We want to be all powerful so we want to be able to buy whenever and whatever we can.
Salvation comes as we stop trying to be God and start resting in the fact that God is God and we are his creatures whom he loves and cares for every minute of every day. You begin to work out your salvation with fear and trembling when you quit trying to save yourself and learn to rest in God. Van Morrison sings: When will I ever learn to live in God? When will I ever learn? He gives me everything I need and more When will I ever learn? That is what our time in the wilderness is trying to teach us: to rest in Jesus the only true rest available to a broken, sinful people.
That is a very brief explanation of the importance of starting with the altar and living out the feasts in our day and age. Any questions?
Let’s pray. Dear Father, have mercy on us oh Lord. Teach us to rest. Teach us to receive our rest from you. Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name sake. Pour out grace and mercy upon us. In Jesus’ name we ask these things. Amen.
Let’s sing our final song and then I’ll give the benediction.
Receive the word of the Lord from Psalm 37: 1 Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. 2 For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. 4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. 5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. 6 He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. 7 Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. 8 Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper— it only leads to harm. 9 For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land. 10 Soon the wicked will disappear. Though you look for them, they will be gone. 11 The lowly will possess the land and will live in peace and prosperity. Go in Peace.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Painting by numbers
Morning to you all,
I was thinking, if, in 1973, my band teacher had let me hear Wood Herman’s album Giant Steps, I might still be playing the clarinet today. I just heard it for the first time this week and it is a really good set of music. Back then, to think that someone who was sixty could groove with such intensity was beyond the realm of comprehension for me. What a foolish thought. But, I can admit it now that I understand that time increases speed exponentially once you get past a certain point in life (the down hill side). I realize now that the 60 year mile marker will be speeding past in no time at all and I have yet to have completed a really good set of music.
One thing that I regret is that, as with my band teacher, there have been so few good teachers in my life. There have been plenty of instructors, people who give you the information, and then expect you to figure out how to do it. But, for instance, I don’t think I have ever met someone who could tell me the why’s of algebraic formulas. I’m not sure I know anyone who knows the why’s of algebraic formulas. I’m not sure I know anyone who knows what they are for. And that’s a sad statement.
It has taken me a long time to begin to search out the why’s. Most of my life has been spent studying to pass tests, not to learn the why’s of things and there is a huge gap between the two. The last time I was in test passing mode I was hoping to get ordained. Never mind that I was already ordained, it was a new place and new tests had to be passed. Somewhere in that process it dawned on me that my instructors in the process didn’t want me to think, they wanted me to jump through the hoops and not cause any problems. Just like all the teachers I had ever had: Tow the party line and we will let you pass.
When I finally saw it for what it was I dropped out of the testing process and gave up my chance to join the establishment. Other than the money, I have not yet regretted that decision. I have been blessed to be able to pursue ‘the why’ in recent years. It has caused me much pain, as in the above scenario, but it has also allowed me to be honest about faith and doubt, belief and unbelief. It has also allowed me to play a little more free form than some would like but though what I say and write is sometimes perceived as the equivalent of Avante Guard Jazz the reality is that there is a structure, purpose and meaning behind it all. I understand why I write, why I speak, why I do what I do for perhaps the first time ever in my life. And it has opened me up to minister in people’s lives like I could have never imagined. My paradigm of what a Christian should be and should do has shifted and I will never be able to go back to the old way of thinking. For that I will ever be grateful.
I gave one of my books to a waitress at Panera the other day. She was excited to get it, of course she hadn’t read it and so I wait for a post read response. I find that I have written some rather dichotomous books. People either love them or hate them. If they hate it they usually will never mention it ever again, nor will they look me in the eye. Such is the case at Lowes where I have given three books away. The first one loved it, gave it to her husband to read and he loved it. It opened up opportunities for dialog. The other two have stopped looking me in the eye. I’m getting used to the sound of silence.
But that silence dims in comparison to the joy that comes from someone looking me in the eye and saying ‘How did you know? I thought I was the only one who felt like that. I knew those characters because they were me.’ I’m looking for those people: The ones who get ‘the why ‘and want to dig deeper.
I’m finding that the dearth of teachers is proportionate to the dearth of people who really want to learn. I would take a handful of people that want to dig down to ‘the why’ in my life any day compared to a mega church of people just going through the motions. I long to see a generation arise that wants ‘the why’ so badly that they are willing to go against the grain of culture to get it. I don’t mean this pretend against the grain crap that is paraded in alternative circles these days. That’s just the same old self centered me-ism that has been going on since Eve was deceived and Adam tagged along for the ride.
I want see people get down to the heart of ‘the why’. Why do we follow the heard of lemmings over the cliff in every area of life? I want to see people start to say ‘no’ to the way we thoughtlessly do things. I want to see the death of cool. Why do we dress the way unbelievers say we should? Why do we make our homes and gardens better according to unbelievers? I understand that we think like unbelievers when it comes to better homes and gardens. We have believed the lie that those areas are neutral. What does it mean to think Christianly and act Christianly with regard to fashion in clothes and home decoration? What does it mean to think Christianly about energy consumption and being a part of a consumer society? When are we going to stop following the so called Christian script of our age and start THINKING about 'the why' and start living accordingly?
How long are we going to go gaga over the paint by numbers Last Supper that is our life instead of embracing the real last supper and the crucifixion and resurrection? Why are we so quick to paint by the numbers – and I want to be clear - just because you are not painting the same picture as the last generation doesn’t mean that you aren’t painting by the numbers: Painting a velvet Elvis, or a Lady GaGa portrait by the numbers is still painting by the numbers.
Perhaps James McMurtry says it best:
The gates of the schoolyard are padlocked and chained
to keep all the children in out of the rain
The art teacher's preaching the virtues of pastel shades
You pay no attention but it won't hurt your grades
You take a position In the old man's firm
He signs all the papers You agree to the terms
They let you run errands and you don't get days off
You take out the garbage and hope it pays off
You might be in grad school Up at M.I.T.
You might be down in the canal zone Being all that you can be
You might get to thinking you're ahead of the game but when you break it all down
It all comes out the same
'Cause you’re painting by numbers connecting the dots they don't have to tell you, you don't call the shots
You jump when they say jump and you don't ask how high 'cause painting by numbers they know you'll get by
You're painting by numbers connecting the dots
You work from the neck down as often as not
See it’s not enough to know theology even if it is orthodox, especially if it’s not. You can know all the formulas of algebra and pass all the tests in home school or the Montessori school (do they even have tests?) but that doesn’t make you a mathematician. Until true truths are applied in the real world in the lives of real people we have no more hope than the lost.
May you go deeper than the facts, find the whys, and live them out in every area of life.
Grace and Peace,
Brad
I was thinking, if, in 1973, my band teacher had let me hear Wood Herman’s album Giant Steps, I might still be playing the clarinet today. I just heard it for the first time this week and it is a really good set of music. Back then, to think that someone who was sixty could groove with such intensity was beyond the realm of comprehension for me. What a foolish thought. But, I can admit it now that I understand that time increases speed exponentially once you get past a certain point in life (the down hill side). I realize now that the 60 year mile marker will be speeding past in no time at all and I have yet to have completed a really good set of music.
One thing that I regret is that, as with my band teacher, there have been so few good teachers in my life. There have been plenty of instructors, people who give you the information, and then expect you to figure out how to do it. But, for instance, I don’t think I have ever met someone who could tell me the why’s of algebraic formulas. I’m not sure I know anyone who knows the why’s of algebraic formulas. I’m not sure I know anyone who knows what they are for. And that’s a sad statement.
It has taken me a long time to begin to search out the why’s. Most of my life has been spent studying to pass tests, not to learn the why’s of things and there is a huge gap between the two. The last time I was in test passing mode I was hoping to get ordained. Never mind that I was already ordained, it was a new place and new tests had to be passed. Somewhere in that process it dawned on me that my instructors in the process didn’t want me to think, they wanted me to jump through the hoops and not cause any problems. Just like all the teachers I had ever had: Tow the party line and we will let you pass.
When I finally saw it for what it was I dropped out of the testing process and gave up my chance to join the establishment. Other than the money, I have not yet regretted that decision. I have been blessed to be able to pursue ‘the why’ in recent years. It has caused me much pain, as in the above scenario, but it has also allowed me to be honest about faith and doubt, belief and unbelief. It has also allowed me to play a little more free form than some would like but though what I say and write is sometimes perceived as the equivalent of Avante Guard Jazz the reality is that there is a structure, purpose and meaning behind it all. I understand why I write, why I speak, why I do what I do for perhaps the first time ever in my life. And it has opened me up to minister in people’s lives like I could have never imagined. My paradigm of what a Christian should be and should do has shifted and I will never be able to go back to the old way of thinking. For that I will ever be grateful.
I gave one of my books to a waitress at Panera the other day. She was excited to get it, of course she hadn’t read it and so I wait for a post read response. I find that I have written some rather dichotomous books. People either love them or hate them. If they hate it they usually will never mention it ever again, nor will they look me in the eye. Such is the case at Lowes where I have given three books away. The first one loved it, gave it to her husband to read and he loved it. It opened up opportunities for dialog. The other two have stopped looking me in the eye. I’m getting used to the sound of silence.
But that silence dims in comparison to the joy that comes from someone looking me in the eye and saying ‘How did you know? I thought I was the only one who felt like that. I knew those characters because they were me.’ I’m looking for those people: The ones who get ‘the why ‘and want to dig deeper.
I’m finding that the dearth of teachers is proportionate to the dearth of people who really want to learn. I would take a handful of people that want to dig down to ‘the why’ in my life any day compared to a mega church of people just going through the motions. I long to see a generation arise that wants ‘the why’ so badly that they are willing to go against the grain of culture to get it. I don’t mean this pretend against the grain crap that is paraded in alternative circles these days. That’s just the same old self centered me-ism that has been going on since Eve was deceived and Adam tagged along for the ride.
I want see people get down to the heart of ‘the why’. Why do we follow the heard of lemmings over the cliff in every area of life? I want to see people start to say ‘no’ to the way we thoughtlessly do things. I want to see the death of cool. Why do we dress the way unbelievers say we should? Why do we make our homes and gardens better according to unbelievers? I understand that we think like unbelievers when it comes to better homes and gardens. We have believed the lie that those areas are neutral. What does it mean to think Christianly and act Christianly with regard to fashion in clothes and home decoration? What does it mean to think Christianly about energy consumption and being a part of a consumer society? When are we going to stop following the so called Christian script of our age and start THINKING about 'the why' and start living accordingly?
How long are we going to go gaga over the paint by numbers Last Supper that is our life instead of embracing the real last supper and the crucifixion and resurrection? Why are we so quick to paint by the numbers – and I want to be clear - just because you are not painting the same picture as the last generation doesn’t mean that you aren’t painting by the numbers: Painting a velvet Elvis, or a Lady GaGa portrait by the numbers is still painting by the numbers.
Perhaps James McMurtry says it best:
The gates of the schoolyard are padlocked and chained
to keep all the children in out of the rain
The art teacher's preaching the virtues of pastel shades
You pay no attention but it won't hurt your grades
You take a position In the old man's firm
He signs all the papers You agree to the terms
They let you run errands and you don't get days off
You take out the garbage and hope it pays off
You might be in grad school Up at M.I.T.
You might be down in the canal zone Being all that you can be
You might get to thinking you're ahead of the game but when you break it all down
It all comes out the same
'Cause you’re painting by numbers connecting the dots they don't have to tell you, you don't call the shots
You jump when they say jump and you don't ask how high 'cause painting by numbers they know you'll get by
You're painting by numbers connecting the dots
You work from the neck down as often as not
See it’s not enough to know theology even if it is orthodox, especially if it’s not. You can know all the formulas of algebra and pass all the tests in home school or the Montessori school (do they even have tests?) but that doesn’t make you a mathematician. Until true truths are applied in the real world in the lives of real people we have no more hope than the lost.
May you go deeper than the facts, find the whys, and live them out in every area of life.
Grace and Peace,
Brad
Sunday, August 8, 2010
sermon 8-8-10
Sorry I am so late in posting this.
The things that are going on in our nation these days are revealing just how big the divide is between those that base their lives on the Sovereign God and his revelation of himself to us and those that don’t. I want to make it clear that what is going on in our nation is not about Liberal and Conservative, nothing could be further from the truth. This is about being a servant of God or a servant of man. This is about belief and unbelief in every area of life: That is the divide of our times.
Judge Vaughn Walker drew a line in the sand this week when he overturned the gay marriage ban in California and said: "The evidence shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for a belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite-sex couples." In doing so he might as well have said: the evidence also clearly shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for the belief that mass murderers are different from non-mass murderers, pedophiles are different from non-pedophiles, and bank robbers are different from non-bank robbers.
But his conservative opponents did not and could not prevail in court against such reasoning because they, more than likely, believed his reasoning to be 100% correct, even if they didn’t like the outcome. Why? Because unless you live your life in submission to the God of Scripture there is no other option for law: It can only be made up by the will of the people or the will of those with power. Right and wrong is nothing but an illusion forced upon people by someone stronger if the God of Scripture is to be ignored.
Until Christians stop playing salvation games and start thinking like Christians, in accordance with every word that proceeds from the mouth of God then we are no different at the core than Judge Vaughn Walker. The issue isn’t homosexuality. The issue isn’t abortion. The issue is: when is the church going to start thinking biblically about every area of life? When are we going to stop building our house on the sand and start building it upon the Rock of Jesus who was totally obedient to the law of God? That is the question. It is also important that you understand that a Jesus who throws out the law of God isn’t the Rock of our salvation: He is a cheap imitation.
Last week we talked about Daniel who had to go through the destruction of two cultures in his life time – Israel’s and Babylon’s. We must remember that cultures come and go, they do not last forever. Every culture that has ever existed has died at some point in time. Most of them don’t last very long at all. I shouldn’t say every culture because the culture of the Kingdom of God will grow until it fills the whole earth and then it will last for all eternity.
At the end of Daniel’s term of duty God raised up Ezra in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia. Listen to what Isaiah wrote in chapter 45 of his book about this Pagan King 200 years before he came into power: 1Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: 2"I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. 3"I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 4"For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me. 5"I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God I will gird you, though you have not known Me; 6that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; 7the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.
What a powerful expression of the Sovereignty of God. He raises up leaders, even unbelieving leaders, for his own glory, to advance his own plan.
So while there is upheaval where Daniel is because Babylon has fallen to the Persians, the two hundred year old words of Isaiah are still true: God holds the conquerors on a leash. They go where he lets them go. Even if the leaders don’t know God he still controls their every action. We need to hear this for our day and age, just like Cyrus: Obama, Judge Walker and all the others in power in Washington are nothing more than shepherds in the hand of God. They do his bidding. They are not in control. Listen to me: If you don’t like what is going on in Washington – repent and call everyone you know to repentance. Because that is the only way that God will turn his shepherds to favor us instead of vex us.
I’ve started seeing signs that say II Chronicles 7:14 on them and then say: If my people will pray. But that is not the important command in that verse. The important part is if my people who are called by my name WILL HUMBLE THEMSELVES and pray. Until we humble ourselves before every word that comes from the mouth of God there is no point in praying. God refuses to listen to the haughty.
If we try to change our nation through political means then we have lost the battle before we begin. Anger will not change this nation. Conservativism will not save this nation. It will only make it have a slower more painful death. Our only hope is to be humble before our God and beg him to let us as individuals walk in righteousness.
You see we are so used to thinking like fools when it comes to politics, we’re so used to thinking like unbelievers that we forget that God is in control. We forget that we are in covenant with God and because we have despised and neglected to obey covenant we therefore DESERVE large government, debt up to our eyeballs, medicine controlled by the government, we deserve our families falling apart, and our children following after other gods, new diseases springing up, and natural disasters increasing and on and on and on. Those are all a part of the covenant curses. We the people of God have broken covenant, ignored covenant, and pretended that it didn’t apply to us anymore. And now, God is simply showing us that it does apply by giving us covenant curses.
Don’t think for a minute that these curses will bring everyone to repentance: Not at all. Our example of that is Israel. The book of Ezekiel reveals to us the hearts of many of those who were left behind in Israel after Babylon conquered them. In chapter 33 we read the following starting in verse 10 “Son of man, give the people of Israel this message: You are saying, ‘Our sins are heavy upon us; we are wasting away! How can we survive?’ 11 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die? 12 “Son of man, give your people this message: The righteous behavior of righteous people will not save them if they turn to sin, nor will the wicked behavior of wicked people destroy them if they repent and turn from their sins. 13 When I tell righteous people that they will live, but then they sin, expecting their past righteousness to save them, then none of their righteous acts will be remembered. I will destroy them for their sins. 14 And suppose I tell some wicked people that they will surely die, but then they turn from their sins and do what is just and right. 15 For instance, they might give back a debtor’s security, return what they have stolen, and obey my life-giving laws, no longer doing what is evil. If they do this, then they will surely live and not die. 16 None of their past sins will be brought up again, for they have done what is just and right, and they will surely live. 17 “Your people are saying, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right,’ but it is they who are not doing what’s right. 18 For again I say, when righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and turn to evil, they will die. 19 But if wicked people turn from their wickedness and do what is just and right, they will live. 20 O people of Israel, you are saying, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right.’ But I judge each of you according to your deeds.”
And then jumping down to verse 30: “Son of man, your people talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors. They say to each other, ‘Come on, let’s go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying!’ 31 So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money. 32 You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don’t act on it! 33 But when all these terrible things happen to them—as they certainly will—then they will know a prophet has been among them.”
After 70 years of captivity the people who had been left in the land of Israel were for the most part still unrepentant. But God has a plan.
I want to go back to the people who are in captivity and begin to look at the book of Ezra. When the time of the promised captivity had come to an end, just as he had promised through Isaiah 200 years before, God stirred the heart of Cyrus the pagan king and one of the most powerful men of his day to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom: 2 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. And may your God be with you! 4 Wherever this Jewish remnant is found, let their neighbors contribute toward their expenses by giving them silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock, as well as a voluntary offering for the Temple of God in Jerusalem.” 5 Then God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. 6 And all their neighbors assisted by giving them articles of silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock. They gave them many valuable gifts in addition to all the voluntary offerings.
Let me remind you of what Paul says concerning Israel and their experiences: They were given to us as examples. The word translated example is typos, they are a type, a picture, given to us to show us how God works in the midst of history. Israel is a type or picture of the church. We are to learn from their mistakes so that we do not wind up without faith like they did, dead in the wilderness. At the same time, when we discover that we have behaved no better than Israel and find ourselves headed into captivity and under covenant curses we need to pay close attention to how God worked in the world in the past to deliver his people.
It makes no difference if we are already in captivity or we are getting ready to go into captivity the point is that there will come a time when the church’s captivity will end and when that happens we need to be ready to rebuild the temple, the church. In first Corinthians Paul reminds us that we, the church, ARE the temple of God. Personally, I believe now is the time to start rebuilding the temple of God. It is time that we stopped working for the church and began to understand that we are the church, we are the temple and we are in desperate need of repair and rebuilding so that God can dwell in our midst once again. It is time we stopped working on our buildings of pomp and circumstance and started to repair the real bricks and mortar of the church: its people.
Back in Ezra notice that God gave the church favor with the unbelieving nation. First, he gave them favor with the government. Second, he gave them favor with their neighbors. He gave them so much favor that the unbelievers FINANCED their return to Israel and the rebuilding of the temple.
This is important and I want you to understand something: money is not how you build the church. God is not concerned with how much money you have before he begins to rebuild the church. God is concerned with one thing and that is your heart: If we the church, the temple of God, the people of God will humble ourselves before God and his commands; then God will provide what ever we need to rebuild the church into a strong vibrant people once again.
Let me put it to you in the context of our day and age: if we were to walk humbly before our God and God put on our hearts a ministry opportunity that was out of our financial reach it would be nothing for him to turn Larry Collins heart towards us and have him open up his pocket book and give us what we need.
Now your first reaction may be but Larry Collins is, well, he’s tainted, he doesn’t follow the commandments, that’s dirty money. That may or may not be true but that is beside the point. Israel didn’t go to the wicked to try and convince them to finance their project for the good of the community. God moved upon the wicked hearts of the pagans surrounding them including Cyrus the king to provide for his people. In effect, God took their money away from them and gave it to his people.
We must remember Proverbs 14: 35 - The king's favor is toward a servant who acts wisely. But the reverse is also true his anger is toward him who acts shamefully. That later half is where we find ourselves today. Because the church has acted shamefully with regard to the commands of God we see the government acting in a hostile way toward us. In fact, our very existence is threatened more with each passing day. But if we put the blame on the government and those wicked people then we are exalting man to a position of power that he does not have. The government is nothing more than a tool in the hands of God. The blame for the anger of the government towards the people of God is on us, the people of God, who have acted shamefully.
You see the covenant blessings promise that if we walk in obedience God will give us the wealth of the wicked. That is exactly what we see in Ezra – the government commands the neighbors of the church to give to them.
Why am I pointing all of this out to you today? Because we are a people of unbelief who are used to operating the church in the ways and wisdom of the world. We are setting out on a huge endeavor, the rebuilding of the church, the restoration of the people of God and we have next to nothing. We have few people. We have little money. We have no power. We have no might. We are like ants in the midst of a land of giants. The wicked have everything that we lack. They have the power to do what they want. They have a seemingly endless supply of money.
But we have God and they do not.
That being said, I will be honest with you there is a part of me that is afraid to trust God because I’m afraid he won’t come through in the end. I have no reason to believe that he will act that way but that doesn’t make it any easier to believe. I was going to lay a big challenge before you today to test God and make him prove himself. But the closer it came to drawing the line in the sand the less confident I became. I became less confident because I became more aware of just how powerless I am. I mean if God is so big why does it seem like he refuses to intervene? These are real questions that need to be answered and none of us here can answer them. We are powerless to change anyone; even ourselves. These are the questions of doubt that try to assail me when I attempt to trust God to begin to move in our lives.
And yet at the same time, I am reminded of my own responsibility, my own call to persevere until God moves. I’m reminded of Jesus’ own words, in Matthew 17: A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.” 17 Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well. 19 Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?” 20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Some but not all of the texts say: "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
How serious am I about wanting God to move in our midst? How much time am I spending in prayer? When was the last time I seriously fasted? Do I really even want God to do anything in anybody’s life if it is going to cost me something? The question boils down to this how much do you want to be saved? I mean do you just want to be saved from inconvenience? Do you want to be saved so you can just do your own thing? How bad to we want it? If my own life and actions are the measure of that then the answer is not that bad. I haven’t lost any sleep or given up any meals begging God move in people’s lives.
If I’m not willing to do that for my own dear brothers and sisters, my own family, what does it say about my heart for the condition of the nation I live in?
I am learning that when it comes to salvation you have to want it to get it. The book of James tells us this: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
I am going to challenge us all today. I challenge you to ask God to deliver us from our unbelief, to deliver us from our complacency so that we will begin to trust God to do things, real, visible, measurable things that everyone in our families and communities can begin to see. Until God allows us to throw off the shackles of unbelief that hold us back then we can do nothing but beg for mercy as the dark times come.
May God be merciful and deliver us from ourselves.
Let’s pray. Holy Spirit please intercede for us. Jesus please intercede for us. Father please hear our prayers and have compassion on us. Stir our hearts to press after you with a desire we have never known before. Cause us to desire after you in a new and deeper way. Have mercy on us oh Lord.
The things that are going on in our nation these days are revealing just how big the divide is between those that base their lives on the Sovereign God and his revelation of himself to us and those that don’t. I want to make it clear that what is going on in our nation is not about Liberal and Conservative, nothing could be further from the truth. This is about being a servant of God or a servant of man. This is about belief and unbelief in every area of life: That is the divide of our times.
Judge Vaughn Walker drew a line in the sand this week when he overturned the gay marriage ban in California and said: "The evidence shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for a belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite-sex couples." In doing so he might as well have said: the evidence also clearly shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for the belief that mass murderers are different from non-mass murderers, pedophiles are different from non-pedophiles, and bank robbers are different from non-bank robbers.
But his conservative opponents did not and could not prevail in court against such reasoning because they, more than likely, believed his reasoning to be 100% correct, even if they didn’t like the outcome. Why? Because unless you live your life in submission to the God of Scripture there is no other option for law: It can only be made up by the will of the people or the will of those with power. Right and wrong is nothing but an illusion forced upon people by someone stronger if the God of Scripture is to be ignored.
Until Christians stop playing salvation games and start thinking like Christians, in accordance with every word that proceeds from the mouth of God then we are no different at the core than Judge Vaughn Walker. The issue isn’t homosexuality. The issue isn’t abortion. The issue is: when is the church going to start thinking biblically about every area of life? When are we going to stop building our house on the sand and start building it upon the Rock of Jesus who was totally obedient to the law of God? That is the question. It is also important that you understand that a Jesus who throws out the law of God isn’t the Rock of our salvation: He is a cheap imitation.
Last week we talked about Daniel who had to go through the destruction of two cultures in his life time – Israel’s and Babylon’s. We must remember that cultures come and go, they do not last forever. Every culture that has ever existed has died at some point in time. Most of them don’t last very long at all. I shouldn’t say every culture because the culture of the Kingdom of God will grow until it fills the whole earth and then it will last for all eternity.
At the end of Daniel’s term of duty God raised up Ezra in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia. Listen to what Isaiah wrote in chapter 45 of his book about this Pagan King 200 years before he came into power: 1Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: 2"I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. 3"I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 4"For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me. 5"I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God I will gird you, though you have not known Me; 6that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; 7the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.
What a powerful expression of the Sovereignty of God. He raises up leaders, even unbelieving leaders, for his own glory, to advance his own plan.
So while there is upheaval where Daniel is because Babylon has fallen to the Persians, the two hundred year old words of Isaiah are still true: God holds the conquerors on a leash. They go where he lets them go. Even if the leaders don’t know God he still controls their every action. We need to hear this for our day and age, just like Cyrus: Obama, Judge Walker and all the others in power in Washington are nothing more than shepherds in the hand of God. They do his bidding. They are not in control. Listen to me: If you don’t like what is going on in Washington – repent and call everyone you know to repentance. Because that is the only way that God will turn his shepherds to favor us instead of vex us.
I’ve started seeing signs that say II Chronicles 7:14 on them and then say: If my people will pray. But that is not the important command in that verse. The important part is if my people who are called by my name WILL HUMBLE THEMSELVES and pray. Until we humble ourselves before every word that comes from the mouth of God there is no point in praying. God refuses to listen to the haughty.
If we try to change our nation through political means then we have lost the battle before we begin. Anger will not change this nation. Conservativism will not save this nation. It will only make it have a slower more painful death. Our only hope is to be humble before our God and beg him to let us as individuals walk in righteousness.
You see we are so used to thinking like fools when it comes to politics, we’re so used to thinking like unbelievers that we forget that God is in control. We forget that we are in covenant with God and because we have despised and neglected to obey covenant we therefore DESERVE large government, debt up to our eyeballs, medicine controlled by the government, we deserve our families falling apart, and our children following after other gods, new diseases springing up, and natural disasters increasing and on and on and on. Those are all a part of the covenant curses. We the people of God have broken covenant, ignored covenant, and pretended that it didn’t apply to us anymore. And now, God is simply showing us that it does apply by giving us covenant curses.
Don’t think for a minute that these curses will bring everyone to repentance: Not at all. Our example of that is Israel. The book of Ezekiel reveals to us the hearts of many of those who were left behind in Israel after Babylon conquered them. In chapter 33 we read the following starting in verse 10 “Son of man, give the people of Israel this message: You are saying, ‘Our sins are heavy upon us; we are wasting away! How can we survive?’ 11 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die? 12 “Son of man, give your people this message: The righteous behavior of righteous people will not save them if they turn to sin, nor will the wicked behavior of wicked people destroy them if they repent and turn from their sins. 13 When I tell righteous people that they will live, but then they sin, expecting their past righteousness to save them, then none of their righteous acts will be remembered. I will destroy them for their sins. 14 And suppose I tell some wicked people that they will surely die, but then they turn from their sins and do what is just and right. 15 For instance, they might give back a debtor’s security, return what they have stolen, and obey my life-giving laws, no longer doing what is evil. If they do this, then they will surely live and not die. 16 None of their past sins will be brought up again, for they have done what is just and right, and they will surely live. 17 “Your people are saying, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right,’ but it is they who are not doing what’s right. 18 For again I say, when righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and turn to evil, they will die. 19 But if wicked people turn from their wickedness and do what is just and right, they will live. 20 O people of Israel, you are saying, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right.’ But I judge each of you according to your deeds.”
And then jumping down to verse 30: “Son of man, your people talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors. They say to each other, ‘Come on, let’s go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying!’ 31 So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money. 32 You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don’t act on it! 33 But when all these terrible things happen to them—as they certainly will—then they will know a prophet has been among them.”
After 70 years of captivity the people who had been left in the land of Israel were for the most part still unrepentant. But God has a plan.
I want to go back to the people who are in captivity and begin to look at the book of Ezra. When the time of the promised captivity had come to an end, just as he had promised through Isaiah 200 years before, God stirred the heart of Cyrus the pagan king and one of the most powerful men of his day to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom: 2 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. And may your God be with you! 4 Wherever this Jewish remnant is found, let their neighbors contribute toward their expenses by giving them silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock, as well as a voluntary offering for the Temple of God in Jerusalem.” 5 Then God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. 6 And all their neighbors assisted by giving them articles of silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock. They gave them many valuable gifts in addition to all the voluntary offerings.
Let me remind you of what Paul says concerning Israel and their experiences: They were given to us as examples. The word translated example is typos, they are a type, a picture, given to us to show us how God works in the midst of history. Israel is a type or picture of the church. We are to learn from their mistakes so that we do not wind up without faith like they did, dead in the wilderness. At the same time, when we discover that we have behaved no better than Israel and find ourselves headed into captivity and under covenant curses we need to pay close attention to how God worked in the world in the past to deliver his people.
It makes no difference if we are already in captivity or we are getting ready to go into captivity the point is that there will come a time when the church’s captivity will end and when that happens we need to be ready to rebuild the temple, the church. In first Corinthians Paul reminds us that we, the church, ARE the temple of God. Personally, I believe now is the time to start rebuilding the temple of God. It is time that we stopped working for the church and began to understand that we are the church, we are the temple and we are in desperate need of repair and rebuilding so that God can dwell in our midst once again. It is time we stopped working on our buildings of pomp and circumstance and started to repair the real bricks and mortar of the church: its people.
Back in Ezra notice that God gave the church favor with the unbelieving nation. First, he gave them favor with the government. Second, he gave them favor with their neighbors. He gave them so much favor that the unbelievers FINANCED their return to Israel and the rebuilding of the temple.
This is important and I want you to understand something: money is not how you build the church. God is not concerned with how much money you have before he begins to rebuild the church. God is concerned with one thing and that is your heart: If we the church, the temple of God, the people of God will humble ourselves before God and his commands; then God will provide what ever we need to rebuild the church into a strong vibrant people once again.
Let me put it to you in the context of our day and age: if we were to walk humbly before our God and God put on our hearts a ministry opportunity that was out of our financial reach it would be nothing for him to turn Larry Collins heart towards us and have him open up his pocket book and give us what we need.
Now your first reaction may be but Larry Collins is, well, he’s tainted, he doesn’t follow the commandments, that’s dirty money. That may or may not be true but that is beside the point. Israel didn’t go to the wicked to try and convince them to finance their project for the good of the community. God moved upon the wicked hearts of the pagans surrounding them including Cyrus the king to provide for his people. In effect, God took their money away from them and gave it to his people.
We must remember Proverbs 14: 35 - The king's favor is toward a servant who acts wisely. But the reverse is also true his anger is toward him who acts shamefully. That later half is where we find ourselves today. Because the church has acted shamefully with regard to the commands of God we see the government acting in a hostile way toward us. In fact, our very existence is threatened more with each passing day. But if we put the blame on the government and those wicked people then we are exalting man to a position of power that he does not have. The government is nothing more than a tool in the hands of God. The blame for the anger of the government towards the people of God is on us, the people of God, who have acted shamefully.
You see the covenant blessings promise that if we walk in obedience God will give us the wealth of the wicked. That is exactly what we see in Ezra – the government commands the neighbors of the church to give to them.
Why am I pointing all of this out to you today? Because we are a people of unbelief who are used to operating the church in the ways and wisdom of the world. We are setting out on a huge endeavor, the rebuilding of the church, the restoration of the people of God and we have next to nothing. We have few people. We have little money. We have no power. We have no might. We are like ants in the midst of a land of giants. The wicked have everything that we lack. They have the power to do what they want. They have a seemingly endless supply of money.
But we have God and they do not.
That being said, I will be honest with you there is a part of me that is afraid to trust God because I’m afraid he won’t come through in the end. I have no reason to believe that he will act that way but that doesn’t make it any easier to believe. I was going to lay a big challenge before you today to test God and make him prove himself. But the closer it came to drawing the line in the sand the less confident I became. I became less confident because I became more aware of just how powerless I am. I mean if God is so big why does it seem like he refuses to intervene? These are real questions that need to be answered and none of us here can answer them. We are powerless to change anyone; even ourselves. These are the questions of doubt that try to assail me when I attempt to trust God to begin to move in our lives.
And yet at the same time, I am reminded of my own responsibility, my own call to persevere until God moves. I’m reminded of Jesus’ own words, in Matthew 17: A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.” 17 Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well. 19 Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?” 20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Some but not all of the texts say: "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
How serious am I about wanting God to move in our midst? How much time am I spending in prayer? When was the last time I seriously fasted? Do I really even want God to do anything in anybody’s life if it is going to cost me something? The question boils down to this how much do you want to be saved? I mean do you just want to be saved from inconvenience? Do you want to be saved so you can just do your own thing? How bad to we want it? If my own life and actions are the measure of that then the answer is not that bad. I haven’t lost any sleep or given up any meals begging God move in people’s lives.
If I’m not willing to do that for my own dear brothers and sisters, my own family, what does it say about my heart for the condition of the nation I live in?
I am learning that when it comes to salvation you have to want it to get it. The book of James tells us this: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
I am going to challenge us all today. I challenge you to ask God to deliver us from our unbelief, to deliver us from our complacency so that we will begin to trust God to do things, real, visible, measurable things that everyone in our families and communities can begin to see. Until God allows us to throw off the shackles of unbelief that hold us back then we can do nothing but beg for mercy as the dark times come.
May God be merciful and deliver us from ourselves.
Let’s pray. Holy Spirit please intercede for us. Jesus please intercede for us. Father please hear our prayers and have compassion on us. Stir our hearts to press after you with a desire we have never known before. Cause us to desire after you in a new and deeper way. Have mercy on us oh Lord.
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