All posts by mikethestrand

Mark 12:13-44 Sermon Manuscript

-What does it mean that Jesus is Lord? If, as we saw last week, He has complete authority, what does that look like in our world today? If we’re His followers, how do we live that out?

READ/PRAY (pg. 495)

  1. 3 Questions (13-34)

-Increasing opposition to Jesus. He’s seen as a threat, a liability, competition to the power, prestige, and social standing of the day (as will be pointed out again as we walk through this)

-What are the issues that we’re not supposed to talk about at the dinner table? Politics, religion, money. Guess what is dealt with in today’s passage!

-Jesus didn’t come to offer an easy life, or a simple path to prosperity, He came to usher in literally a new kingdom that isn’t of this world. It affects this world, it subverts the expectations of the world, but the world cannot contain or comprehend this new kingdom that Jesus brings.

  1. Taxes (13-17)

-The first issue that is brought to the forefront is politics. (yay) There’s no debate about how we engage politics today, is there?

-The first thing Mark tells us is who is in opposition to Jesus here: Pharisees and Herodians. Pharisees have shown up before: conservative, small government people. Herodians were named after Herod, the Roman ruler of the province. They were liberal, big government people. You can literally replace those 2 terms with Republican and Democrat! What should stand out to you about this is that both parties are united under a common threat: Jesus.

-Before we’ve even gotten through the first verse, we can already see that Jesus transcends (is above) any political ideology. Both of them view Him as a threat, yet both sides (even today) will still use Jesus’ words as proof texts for their position. A podcast I really appreciated on politics today said it this way: “Jesus is political, but He is not partisan. The kingdom of God has political implications, but it is not a political kingdom.”  Cunningham

-Back to the text: they begin by flattery, but they’re really lying. Look back at the end of vs. 13. They’re trying to trap Jesus, to give him a problem that is unsolvable. And in worldly terms, it is.

-Look at what they say: true, do not care, not swayed by appearances (read that as power), teach the way of God. The irony is all those descriptions are true! Jesus is the manifestation of truth, He is the only way to God, but they don’t see that, they see Him as a threat.

-The issue they bring up was the predominant political debate of the day: should Jews pay a “head” tax (the privilege of living as a citizen of Rome). Jews were HEAVILY taxed. Paid to the temple and to Rome. This head tax was significant not because of the sum (a quarter) but because it was a reminder of their oppression. Denarius had a picture of Caesar on it, and an inscription saying “Caesar, the son of god, the great high priest.” Zealots (one of Jesus’ disciples) led a revolt centered on this godless tax. They’re asking Jesus: whose side are you on? Are you a Democrat or a Republican? If he said no, don’t pay the tax he’d be liable for insurrection, if he said yes pay the tax he’d see a mass rising against him from the people. In their minds, an impossible political situation!

-The irony continues as Jesus asks for a denarius. He didn’t need to ask for one, but they demonstrate their heart issue by giving in to the worldly systems because they’re the ones that have the coin, not Jesus! They’re demonstrating their beliefs before Jesus even gets to the real issue.

-After they find the coin, Jesus asks them whose image (better translation than “likeness”) is on the coin. Obviously, Caesar. This is a profound statement! Jesus is legitimatizing the role of government in our lives. The government has a sphere of authority! By saying this, Jesus is running contrary to the Zealots who wanted to overthrow the Romans, but He’s also running contrary to the worldly expectations of the Messiah, which were limited to purely political control. But Jesus doesn’t play by worldly games, and He doesn’t stop by saying “give Caesar his coin,” let’s finish the statement:

-What belongs to God? EVERYTHING! What’s left out? NOTHING!

-podcast: “Give Caesar his little coin, give Rome to God.” As great as the Roman Empire was, with effects even down to us today (how often do you guys think about the Roman Empire?), it’s nothing to God. Jesus isn’t threatened by Rome, He doesn’t play by Rome’s rules, nor does Rome have any eternal significance (apart from serving as the time for God’s Son to come to Earth!) 

-This gives us a whole new vision and purpose for politics for those of us who claim the name of Jesus. Just as that little coin has an image of a so-called god on it, who bears the image of the one true God? You and me. What that means is we need to give ourselves wholly and completely to God. We can’t treat politics as non-thing, we can’t be indifferent. We instead need to bring God’s image to bear in every culture we find ourselves in. Partisan politics will not usher in God’s kingdom, God’s kingdom advances by people who aren’t bound by any partisan ideal. Our kingdom can’t be contained by a donkey or an elephant, our kingdom advances through love, through demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, through living out the Beatitudes.

-We saw this in Psalm 2: the nations rage, the kings of earth set themselves against God, and what does God do? He laughs! These silly little political games don’t matter to Him, because He is the Lord! Yes, politics matter! Yes, engage in the political sphere (I want more of Jesus in the south metro!), but don’t look to politics to do what only Jesus can and save you. Lots more could be said, but we’ve got a theological debate to look at!

  • Resurrection (18-27)

-After the Pharisees and Herodians are left marveling, the Sadducees decide to get into a theological debate with Jesus. Notice how Mark describes them: they don’t believe in the resurrection.

-Pharisees and Sadducees are the 2 competing religious groups of the day. The Sad. only believed that the first 5 books of the Bible were the Bible. Prophets weren’t authoritative, but they viewed themselves as the people of the book! 

-They pose a question that, once again, seemed to have no answer! Most likely a debate they had been having. Levirate law commanded that if a man dies, his husband is to take her as his wife and produce a child with her so that the genealogy will continue. But in this case, it happens to all 7 of the men in the family! The question is who will the woman be married to in the resurrection? Their question is meant to points out the absurdity of believing in a resurrection. It’s nonsensical! To them. But not to Jesus.

-The issue is they don’t know how to understand the Bible, nor do they know what the God of the Bible is like. This is the biggest diss Jesus could have given to them! For claiming to know the Bible, Jesus is saying they don’t actually know it, nor do they know the God the Bible points to!

-What they fail to see is the logic of God, and the reality that life after the resurrection isn’t just a glorified version of the life we live today. Marriage is something for this side of eternity, not that side. Marriage is only meant to serve as a picture of what we’ll experience when we’re finally united to Christ.

-Then he goes straight to their primary theological issue: the resurrection of the dead, and demonstrates how we need both Scripture AND the power of God.

“Notice that Jesus does not hang the hope of life after death (like the Greeks did) on the idea of an immortal part of us. Rather, He rests in the commitment of God to us (“I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”). This is a very powerful argument for life after death. We have a God who cannot, at our death, scrap that which is precious to Him!” (Keller, “Mark,” 161) Danny Akin, CCE

-Since God is the God of the living, that’s our hope for life after death: God always keeps his promises to us, even after death! (if you have questions, ask anyone that is in my class!)

-It’s also important to note where Jesus quotes from. Sadducees only viewed the first 5 books as authoritative, so He goes straight to Exodus to point out what they should have understood.

-We all have a tendency to elevate or fixate on specific verses at the expense of others. We need to understand the whole Bible together, not just pick and choose the passages we like. We need both the Scripture and the power of God!

  • Greatest Commandment (28-34)

-The third issue is something we’ve looked at before, so we’ll go through this section quickly, because we’ve got 3 other sections to look at! Scribe comes up to ask a question about the most important commandment, Jesus replies with the most well known verse of the time (shema), and adds to it the command to also love neighbors. These 2 commands can’t be separated!

-One thing that came out from my study this week, the Greek word translated “with” is better translated as “from”. Love God FROM our heart, not just with. This requires a completely transplant! It requires a complete change of being, which is only possible through the Spirit within us.

-The scribe found a companion in Jesus – he agrees with the assessment Jesus has offered. So Jesus commends Him: how can he be “not far” from God’s kingdom? If he got the answer right, isn’t that a demonstration that he’s in?

-The only way we can love God from our heart is to put our faith in Jesus. This scribe is so close, yet so far! He hasn’t taken that 1 life transforming step that he needs to take to be in the kingdom of God.

-Mark leaves us hanging – did this guy take that step or not? I think it was intentional to motivate us as the readers to decide if we’re going to take that step! What’s stopping you from putting your faith in Jesus? Both believer and unbeliever need the Bible and the power of God to transform us, the make us new, to make us more like Jesus. What’s stopping any of us from taking that next step? That’s what Jesus invites all of us to do!

  • Jesus’ Teaching (35-44)

-After all this interrogation, Jesus goes on the offensive.

-One of the characteristics of debating in the first century was the winner was determined by whomever was silenced. So Jesus has been batting 1.000 in his debates! 

  1. Question (35-37)

-Jesus asks a common question regarding the coming Messiah (remember, Christ is just another term for Messiah, not Jesus’ last name)

-This connects back to the political question at the beginning of this chapter. Scribes (experts in the Word) argued that the Messiah would sit on the throne as a royal heir of David. And while that’s true, it also misses the bigger picture (just as the Sadducees did before). 

-Jesus quotes from the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament: Psalm 110, which by this time was viewed as a Messianic Psalm. Many people believe David wrote it when His Son, Solomon was being crowned king, but it also has Messianic undertones that gave future readers glimpses of what the future Messiah would look like.

-Notice that Jesus talks about the inspiration of Scripture here. How was the Bible given to us? Through the Holy Spirit!

-How can David refer to his son as the Lord? Because He’s great David’s even greater Son! In the lineage of David, yes, but so much more than just that lineage. God has an even bigger plan than what a human genealogical line can contain. Once again, those who have been tasked with reading and understanding God’s plan don’t have a solution to the question. But the crowd listening loves it!

-We all love a David & Goliath story! Even our post Christian culture knows what we’re talking about! When the little guy beats the big guy (every sports movie ever). The crowd loves Jesus winning in a battle of the wits with the “experts.” It’s a reminder that worldly wisdom has limits (just as worldly politics have their limits)

  • Appearances (38-40)

-Not only does Jesus ask them questions they can’t answer, He also will call publicly condemn them for their hypocrisy. Look at the description Jesus gives:

-Long robes: dressing for public recognition. “greetings” similarly, they want everyone to know who they are so they can be known as important.

-“Best seats and places of honor.” They’re served everywhere they go. Everyone defers to them and they are given certain social status everywhere they go.

-“Devour and pretense” they give no regard to the poor or marginalized. Instead of loving and caring for their neighbor (remember, we saw that a few verses ago) they prey on those who have the greatest need, and then pray the longest prayers as if the length of the prayer makes them superior. Nothing in this list is coming from a heart that loves God supremely and others sacrificially. Instead, all they’re doing is demonstrating the condemnation that is coming.

-Watch out for religiosity. Not from the heart of God, not from a heart of someone who has been transformed by God! Instead, it’s a demonstration of someone who’s trying to achieve what only Christ can: a way of approaching God.

  • The Heart (41-44)

-Jesus then gives us a picture of what God is looking for instead of what the scribes are offering. 

-Still in the temple, watching the pomp and circumstance brought by the wealthy, who are demonstrating their wealthy by the abundance given to the temple. In contrast to all these wealthy people, in comes a poor widow (almost goes without saying. Like calling someone a “poor homeless person”) 

-This becomes a teaching opportunity – this woman gave out of her poverty, and that’s what God cares about, not the sum given, the heart of the person who gives.

-God doesn’t care about the external obedience, He cares about the heart. This goes back to the great commandment, and the question Jesus had about taxes.

-Remember what we saw before: what is God’s? Everything! Even our money is a gift from God that we’ve been given to steward. The question for us is what kind of stewards are we? How are we using our money? The idea of tithing wasn’t anywhere near what the church practiced in the 1st Cent. What we see throughout the NT is regular, cheerful, and sacrificial. The tithe (10%) is a good starting point, but a bad ending point. 

-Regular: 1 Cor. 16:2

-Cheerful: 2. Cor. 9:7

-Sacrificially: 2 Cor. 9:6, 8:3

-Politics, death, theology, and money. God cares about all of them, and so should we!

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by mikethestrand on October 8, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon, Theology

Posted by mikethestrand on October 8, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/10/08/mark-1213-44-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 11:27-12:12 Sermon Manuscript

-Jumping back in to Mark, been a few months since we were in this book, so some refreshers:

-Jesus is the focus of this book, unlike the other Gospels, Mark is straight to the point. Jesus’ focus is on teaching, other ministries flow out of that.

-Theme of “immediately”

-Ended with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem: Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, people shouting praises to Him who is seen entering as a king! 

-Today’s text can be viewed through the lens of a high school – at least a high school like I grew up in! There were various clicks/groups in high school who all had a certain standing in the school and didn’t have a lot of overlap with each other.

-Jocks played sports, theater kids put on shows, nerds played chess (Bob asked me to change this to scholars, your future boss). There was a social hierarchy that was meant to be followed! Sometimes those social standings would be messed up, or someone new would move to town who would attempt to join one of the groups, and it was always viewed with suspicion. The school was already operating well, didn’t need someone new to come in!

-It also tended to threaten the social standing of someone in the group! In basketball, only 5 guys are starters. In football, only 11 guys are on the field at a time. If someone was going to be replaced, they weren’t going to be happy! 

-Unfortunately, that sentimentality doesn’t just stop in high school, does it? If a new hire is brought into work and starts succeeding it’s viewed as a threat. In churches, if a new pastor is hired at the church down the road and they start growing it’s hurtful. We all have places and spaces where we have some kind of social standing and position that if we were being pushed on would struggle.

-That’s what’s been happening to the Jewish leaders throughout this book. Pharisees, Sadducees have been seen as Jesus’ opposition. Questioning, doubting, looking for ways to trip Jesus up, sow seeds of doubt in others, and eventually stir up enough people to kill Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was threatening the social order of the day.

-If we go back to the high school illustration, Jesus was mixing all the various groups together and changing the way people were meant to spend their time. He was upsetting the apple cart, and in the beginning of Mark 11, he upsets the entire temple by kicking out those looking to make a profit off God’s people. How do you think people would respond to their source of power and influence being questioned?

READ/PRAY (pg. 495, or 72)

  1. Doubting God’s Work (11:27-33)
    1. Questioning (27-28)

-After Jesus had run out the money changers, he and his disciples left the city to stay outside, but then returned back to Jerusalem the next day. Not only did they come back, notice that they went back to the temple.

-How do you think He was received? The market, the place where offerings were sold so people could worship God correctly, had been a place of chaos the day before. Jesus was upsetting the social order! 

-Look who approaches him: chief priests, scribes, elders. These 3 groups comprised the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. They help all the power and influence for the rest of the Jewish people. 

-They were the “cool kids” of the high school, or the 3 bodies of the government if you’re thinking in adult terms! They held all the power and all the societal influence in their day. 

-Their next attempt to discredit Jesus gets to the source of his authority.

-This question isn’t a flippant one! Jesus has been going around telling people “truly, truly I tell you!” Where does he get the right to tell people what’s true? God’s people have, since the beginning of human history, been people of the word. God’s Word has been the highest authority since Adam was formed from the dust of the ground. Sanhedrin were people of the word. Trusted it, studied it, worked their hardest to apply it to every area of their lives and everyone around them. They were considered the authority, and they sure hadn’t authorized Jesus to tell people how to interpret and live out God’s Word!

-Think of it like a teacher in a school. If one of the kids were to begin telling the class how they should study the material, how they should apply it to their lives, the teacher would rightly be upset! Here we have Jesus who is viewed to be the student telling all the other students how to live and study. Would be wildly inappropriate if he was stepping out of line! 

-From a worldly perspective, they’re asking the right question. All of us are accountable to someone and refusing to acknowledge that reality demonstrates a hardness of heart, and need to be corrected. But Jesus is a major exception to the normal rules, and he produces some evidence that points to that truth:

  • The Evidence (29-32)

-Just as they asked Jesus a question, Jesus answers their question with another question. You can imagine this being a frustrating proposition for the Sanhedrin. They’re used to being respected and responded to quickly.

-But what is the evidence Jesus produces? It’s not His teachings, not His healings, not His exemplary life, it’s the work and ministry of someone else – His cousin John.

-Remember, John was a divisive person too! He preached in the wilderness, baptized people for repentance, and called out the sinful leaders. It all culminated with John condemning Herod for marrying His husband’s ex-wife. As you can guess, Herod (and his new wife) didn’t appreciate that, so John was eventually beheaded for betrayal, but not before creating quite a following and a stir throughout Israel. Just as Jesus had a following, John had a following, and the leaders had gone out to visit John. So Jesus asks them – who gave John authority? Was he a madman? Leading people astray, forcing people to disobey the one true God, or was he right? 

-Why does Jesus jump to John?

-There was a special even that Mark records all the way back in the first chapter that answers the question being asked. Remember, John had created quite the following, but he wasn’t he main event, he was just the hype man! He came in to stir up the crowd, get them ready and excited for someone else to come. Someone who had more power and authority than John could ever dream of! Enter Jesus.

-Jesus first act in ministry (at least from what we see in Mark’s Gospel) is being baptized by John. This was the initiatory right for Jesus’ ministry, so if the leaders wouldn’t believe that John was speaking on behalf of God, they wouldn’t view Jesus’ call to ministry as legitimate.

-But another reason Jesus asked this question was because something unique happened at Jesus’ baptism. Many people were being baptized by John, John’s call to all them was to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Meant to signify a radical change of their lives. But something different happened when Jesus came – no repentance needed, no change in life required from Him, instead look at what the text says:

-heavens being torn (just as the heavens will open when Jesus returns), they were getting a glimpse into the normally unseen realm. At a conference this week walking through Exodus, one of the speakers was assigned Ex. 24. Could you imagine seeing God like this? But look at the description of Him: look at His feet. Anytime throughout Scripture that people are given a peek into the greater reality, suddenly they all become tongue tied, as if there are no words that could adequately describe the reality their eyes are beholding. But what’s even crazier about this is when heaven came down to earth as a man, suddenly people refused to believe Him, as we’re seeing in this story! 

-It’s really easy for us who know the story, who know what’s going to happen to act as if we’d have gotten it right, that we always know and respond to Jesus as we should. But we’re only lying to ourselves! The temptation for everyone who encountered Jesus at His first coming wasn’t to fall at His feet and worship Him, it was to mock and belittle Him because He looked just like everyone else. Remember, we’ve seen His family try to take Him back home, we’ve read about others who dismissed Him because they knew the rest of His family. The incredible truth about God’s redemption plan is how seemingly ordinary it was. Except for a few rare moments where the greater reality breaks through, which was seen at Jesus’ baptism.

-Spirit descends on Jesus with the appearance of a dove. Finally, God the Father Himself also speaks from heaven and commissions Jesus to begin His ministry. If anyone wanted to question who authorized Jesus, do you think they would take this as authorization enough? All 3 persons of the Trinity demonstrated in power at Jesus’ baptism.

-Think of it like if someone were to walk up to the White House and walk in like it was their home, how successful would their approach be? They wouldn’t get very far before facing some VERY unpleasant circumstances! But what if it’s a child of the president? Not only would they be welcomed in, anyone who stood in their way would face some pretty negative repercussions! Similarly here – who gave Jesus permission to minister? God the Father, as evidenced by His baptism.

-But the Sanhedrin didn’t want to admit that – and notice their thought process: 

-John was viewed as a threat too, and they didn’t believe him which means they didn’t view his baptism from heaven. But if they say it was only from man (earthly with no spiritual reality) they would face an uprising from the people because the people knew he was a prophet.

-And notice the irony of vs. 32: who are they afraid of? The people! Who should they be afraid of? God!

-The run ins with the high priests doesn’t stop here either. We read of a run in Peter (and the rest of the apostles) have with them, and as if condemning them for their questioning of Jesus here, Peter responds “We must obey God rather than men.” Yet another example of the Jewish leaders having their priorities misplaced, leading to misunderstanding God’s message and messenger in Jesus. So what’s the outcome to this debate?

  • The Solution (33)

-Instead of being honest, they respond with “No clue!”

-These were supposed to be the leaders of the day, the people with all the answer! The ones to whom everyone else looked for how to faithfully interpret, understand, and apply God’s Word, yet they couldn’t give answer to a simple question from Jesus. 

-So Jesus won’t answer them, because the answer was right in front of them, but they refused to acknowledge it. Their pride and drive for power and prestige blinded them to the realities of what God was doing among them, and they refused to admit where even their authority came from.

-This seems to be a timely message as authority has gotten a really bad rap recently. We’ve all read the stories of pastors who have abused their authority, or elder boards who have enabled unqualified leadership to perpetuate instead of calling out sinful behaviors, or maybe you’ve experienced one of those issues yourself! Life east of Eden is full of difficulties, abuse, and sin. But that doesn’t mean we just dismiss all leadership as wrong or inherently sinful. Instead, the only way to combat abuse of authority is to double down on good authority, and go back to what the Bible commands.

-Read a book this past week titled ‘Authority: How Godly Rule Protects the Vulnerable, Strengthens Communities, and Promotes Human Flourishing’ The author uses David’s last words recorded for us in 2 Samuel 23 to demonstrate what godly authority looks like: begins with fearing God, then uses that authority to provide a context of flourishing for those under his care. Could summarize this as using authority like Jesus did: not to demean others, not to be served by others, but to serve others. 

-Which means Christian authority is supposed to be equipping authority. Doesn’t meant that everyone gets to do whatever they want (read the book of Judges to see what happens when that’s the reality), but it means that everyone is using their gifts to serve each other, recognizing godly leadership as those who will have to give an account to the Lord for how they lead, but also recognizing that I will give an account for how I submit to godly leadership. Notice what I said there: godly leadership. Leadership the way God has designed, and in the contexts that He commands. There’s more that could be said about this, but that’s not where Jesus goes next:

  • Response to God’s Work (12:1-12)

-The last parable Jesus tells also happens to be probably the easiest to interpret! Using a well-recognized practice in the first century to tell His story.

-Wealthy landowners would entrust their fields to various tenants to take care of it while they were gone. The stipulation was the tenants had to pay some of the fruit back to the owner each year as their rent for the use of the land. It wasn’t their land to keep, they were merely tasked with caring for it.

-As they should have expected, the owner sent a servant to collect his dues. And how do they treat him? Shamefully! And this continues through numerous servants, with the owner never getting what he’s owed.

-Your first reaction should be “this was a really dumb owner!” Don’t you think he should have just kicked these crazy guys out? That’s when we are reminded that God’s authority is never vindictive. Remember God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness to those who fear Him. God wants no one to perish, but wants all to love Him, so He will continue being faithful even when His servants are punished.

-The last person He sends is His one beloved son. Instead of honoring Him as the Son, they kill him too in an attempt to steal His inheritance. Guess what, that doesn’t work at all! Finally the owner comes and kills the tenants and gives it to others.

-This story serves to demonstrate that Jesus fulfills a prophecy from Psalm 118 (connects back to Jesus’ entry where the people quoted Psalm 118 to Him)

-The leaders reject Jesus as the true heir of God, but then God uses His Son to be the primary stone of His unfolding plan of redemption. 

-Think of the song we sing: “Who would imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame.” What person in their right mind would be so gracious to people who continually refuse to submit to His rule?

-Even the Sanhedrin could understand this parable, and it made them upset! Instead of fearing God, they continued fearing the people and remained in their sin.

-As we come to the end of this text, the question in front of us today is whose authority do you submit to? Do you trust godly leadership in your life, or do you refuse to acknowledge God’s good design for our good and His glory in our life?

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by mikethestrand on October 1, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on October 1, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/10/01/mark-1127-1212-sermon-manuscript/

Equipping Classes – Sermon Manuscript

Equipping Classes

-We’ve seen the importance of discipleship, the nonnegotiables for us to grow (Scripture, Sunday, Serve)

-Those are essential, vital elements for every Christian to grow more like Jesus! But then what’s the role of the church in discipleship? How can we be a part of helping people take 1 step closer to Jesus? 

-Different series than normal, VERY different sermon than normal! 

-Trying to cram lots of learning into 1 message, today’s message is more philosophical and educational (the way we learn)

-As I’ve shared before, I’ve read LOTS of books over my life that try to answer this question! They’ll say things like: the best way to do discipleship is small groups. We need that accountability. Or the best way to do discipleship is Sunday Schools where we’re able to instruct people the truths of the Bible. Or the best way to do discipleship is ABF where we’re in community together with similar aged people.

-The hard part is this is going beyond what Scripture commands. There are some things that are explicit: meeting together, learning from the Bible, leadership in a body, teaching, using your gifts, but the Bible says very little about the practical and specific ways we should do that, and it gets even more tricky when we start taking steps outside of the corporate gathering (what Heb. 10 was talking about last week).

-In order to accomplish what God has commanded there are probably an infinite amount of ways we could do that! But we have to choose something. Paralysis by analysis is a real thing. And every option we choose is at least somewhat culturally conditioned.

-We place a high value on education in our culture. Such a high value that we demand every child growing up get an education. We pay taxes towards it, track children as they grow up to ensure they’re being educated in the ways we want. Don’t you think that’s going to have an influence on the way we view training in the church too? And one of the biggest drivers for education in our Western world was the church.

-Did you know that the reason Sunday school was started was to teach children how to read so they could read and understand the Bible? Many children were forced to work to provide for their families, but Sunday off, so churches started schools as a way to provide education for them. 

-I had an overseer at the previous church I served buy me a book titled ‘The Search for God and Guinness’ which was the story of Arthur Guinness who founded Guinness Brewing in 1759. Arthur was a strong believer, who used his gifts and talents to combat alcoholism (his beer had much lower alcohol content and was more filling than alternatives) and used the proceeds from his beer sales to bring Sunday School to Ireland. Some of you may have even read books by his great-great-great grandson, well known apologist Os Guinness. The Guinness family has carried on the legacy of Arthur in both ministry and business

-With all that background, I have wrestled with what is the best way for us to provide a framework (trellis) to help as many of us grow 1 step closer to Christ as we can, and as I’ve read and studied I came across a passage in 1 Tim. That I think summarizes what we all need: life & doctrine. Both need to be growing together to become a mature Christian. Because of that, what we offer to help people grow should correlate to Life and Doctrine.

-This is what led to the name change from small groups to life groups, and the change to classes to being more focused on teaching specific doctrines than correlating to life stage.

-As many of you know (and are very grateful for!) we also have various ministries and community groups that do work to provide opportunities for relational connections or focus on a specific group of people, but the focus is toward the Life Groups and Equipping Classes. If you only have time to spend in 1 area, let it be one of those.

-In an ideal world, we would all be involved in as many areas as we could! And if you have the time and the bandwidth, please do look for more areas to get involved in and grow! But don’t forget, we’re also called to go into the whole world. The church doesn’t exist for herself nor should we be living our whole lives removed from the world around us. At the same time, some of these discipleship classes are great places to invite your friends and neighbors to so they can hear the truths that we believe.

-Today we’re going to be focusing on the right side of the trellis: the equipping classes.

READ/PRAY (Matt. 22 – pg. 483)

  1. Love God With Your Mind (Matt. 22:37)

-What do you think it means to love the Lord your God with all your mind?

-Do we just work our hardest to keep any thought not about God at bay? How do I provide for my family if I’m just supposed to think about God all the time?

-Remember that a way of summarizing what Jesus is saying here is everything we have and are is meant to be used to love God. Another way you could think about this is in connection to worship – we are supposed to worship God 24/7. Worship isn’t just music (although music can be used to worship), worship is living a life that is fully surrender to God and doing our best to honor Him with everything we do.

-Piper: Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Me: discipleship exists because worship doesn’t. If we are going to worship God correctly, we need to know and understand who He is.

–Rom. 12:1-2: connection between worship and living, goal is transformation but how? By the renewal of your mind, thinking God’s thoughts after Him.

-If I told you that I love my wife (which I do!) and went on to tell you that she’s a 6’ blonde woman who loves swimming and McDonalds you should have some questions.

-Similarly, if we claim to love God (I hope you do!) then you need to know some things about Him. What is He like? What does He enjoy? What does a relationship with Him look like? 

-God has revealed Himself to everyone in the world in more ways than we’ll ever fully understand. There’s a beautiful picture of this in The Lion King where Timon and Pumba are star gazing: “Timon, ever wonder what those sparkling dots are up there?” “Puh. I don’t wonder, I know” “Oh, what are they?” “They’re fireflies. Fireflies that uh, got stuck up in the big blueish black thing.” “Oh, gee, I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.” “Pumba, with you everything’s gas.” 

-When you look up at the stars it creates a sense of wonder and insignificance. In the big scheme of things, we’re tiny! And God made it that way! The seemingly infinity of space is a constant reminder at how little we actually know.

-But that doesn’t mean that God keeps things hidden from us. My college had a motto that said “All truth is God’s truth.” (which as I got older I found out they stole from some guy name Augustine who lived in the 300s)

-What this means is Christians should be all about the truth (or a helpful way to say it in today’s age is “true truth.”) What that means is: worshipping God with our minds means looking for everything that is true, celebrating that it is true, and then making those connections back to God (worship)

-The reality is there are going to be people that aren’t Christians that we can learn from! Celebrate God’s gift in that person (common grace), and look for opportunities to share with them how that points them to God!

–Evangelism in a Skeptical World is a great way to learn about that! It’s a different way of approaching evangelism than many of us had been taught before.

-But another implication in this is that we need more “Christian” thinking – we need more Christians involved in every area of life

-Politics, businesses, trades, health care, teaching, science all of these areas help humans to be obedient to God’s command to “fill the earth and subdue it” which involves creating and sustaining culture. 

-So loving God with your mind means using your gifts to the best of your ability and using them as a tool to worship God, recognizing that He is the one who has gifted you and sharing with others how God your gifting points to God. But how do we make those connections?

  • Loving God Requires Teaching (Matt. 28:20, Acts 18:24-28)

-If you can remember back to the Spring, one of the things that came out in our study of Mark is that Jesus came to teach. We have so many accounts of the different things He addressed during His time on earth! Heaven and hell, marriage, divorce, death, money, love, neighboring. Nothing was off limits!

-Additionally, one of the things Jesus commanded in the great commission was teaching. What kind of teaching? Teaching that helps obey what Jesus commanded. What did Jesus command? A whole bunch of things! How do we know what those things are? It requires teaching.

-Micah: we don’t know what we don’t know. If we ever arrive at the place of thinking we’ve learned all there possibly is to know we’re either deluded or liars.

-Prince Caspian: “Aslan, you’re bigger!” “No, but each time you come back you’ll find me a little bigger.” 

-That is ESPECIALLY true of God! Think if you’ve ever had a conversation with a child and they ask things like “Why is the sky blue?” or “Is God big enough to pick up our house?” You become a much better theologian very quickly in those conversations!

-Think of the way God describes this in Isaiah 55: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We’ll never completely understand God, but that doesn’t mean we can’t understand Him truly. 

-Teaching didn’t stop with Jesus. The Apostles throughout Acts are shown to be teaching the crowds, in homes, and one on one.

-My favorite picture of this is in Acts 18. A guy named Apollos is a sharp dude, and knew the Bible really well! He had been taught really well, so he continues that tradition of teaching others. He had natural gifts and supernatural gifts. Yet what happens? He needs to be taught! He had all this understanding, but it wasn’t complete (missing the baptism of HS)

-Look at the way this teaching is described here: “explained to him the way of God more accurately.” That’s a great summary of what we’re aiming to do in our classes! Every person in this room, whether we realize it or not, believe some erroneous things about God.

-“He used to believe this, but now that he’s in heaven he knows better” We’ll all know better!

-Kelly’s story

-This trend has continued throughout history. Remember that the reason we’re here is because of a line of teachers over the past 2,000 years who have poured into us and culminated in where we are today. Now what is one of the best ways for us to communicate something to a large group of people? Offer a class that many people can attend! Which gets us to the final point:

  • Loving God Requires Maturity (Heb. 5:11-14, 1 Cor. 3:1-9)

-Put our thinking caps on: if we’re supposed to pursue maturity, what does that look like? What things would we need to know about in order to be “mature”?

-Money, marriage, parenting, grandparenting, prayer, Bible study, work, politics, sickness, health

-In order for us to address issues like that, there must be teaching so we can know how to faithfully engage the world we live in. There’s a few examples of this in the Bible:

–Hebrews

-The writer here is assuming that people will continue growing.

-Think of how children grow (I’m reminded of this every day!) It’s good for babies to drink milk! If you give them anything else you’ll make them very sick. But there’s something weird about a 3 year old nursing, right? Or even a worse a 30-year-old! Yet how many times are people content to spiritually be a 30-year-old infant who can’t eat milk? Not a call for everyone to go to seminary, but a call to never stop learning and growing.

-Look how he defines mature: constant practice to distinguish good from evil, being given training in how to engage our world.

-Recovering youth pastor, one of the most disheartening things was the sheltering that would take place. Don’t dump things on kids, but don’t shelter them forever! Help them work on their “powers of discernment.” Provide avenues for them to be exposed to the way the world works.

1 Corinthians 3:

-Paul picks up the same idea as before. 

-Notice this time the connection to maturity: jealousy and strife. Competition. Teachers aren’t meant to be in the place of God. In the day of “celebrity” preachers don’t forget that they’re only servants.

End on Eph. 4

-Maturity involves growing in knowledge and understanding of who God is. 

-In order to help us we will offer classes on a wide assortment of topics to get to the aim of presenting everyone mature

-One of the things we need to realize is that we’ll never stop learning, even in heaven

-I remember trying to contemplate eternity as I was growing up. I would lay awake in bed and try to wrap my head around it (I realize I was a weird kid). What was hard for me is I confess it sounds almost boring. At some point I get tired of doing whatever hobbies or activities I enjoy, so how would heaven be better? Here’s the thing: in heaven everything will be as it should be, and we’ll have the opportunity to continue learning everything we could ever want. I attended conference onetime where one of the speakers said he was so excited for heaven because he wanted to learn Mandarin, and in heaven, even if it takes him 10,000 years to learn it, that’s fine, because he’s got eternity to go!

-Gregory the Great: “Scripture is like a river again, broad and deep, shallow enough here for the lamb to go wading, but deep enough there for the elephant to swim.”

-While we’ll never master the God, or the Bible, we should never stop digging in.

-What Jesus invites us into when we are saved is a journey of growth. Day by day learning and growing more like Him.

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by mikethestrand on September 17, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Relationships, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on September 17, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/09/17/equipping-classes-sermon-manuscript/

How Do I Grow as a Disciple – Sermon Manuscript

-Last week we looked at the need to keep discipleship at the forefront of our focus

-Great Commandment, Great Commission, our great need.

-This week we’ll be looking at what we need to grow as disciples. Just as plants need soil, water, sun, and air to grow, we need certain things added to our lives to become everything God has called us to be.

-Diagram

-Explain T&V “the basic work of any Christian ministry is to preach the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of God’s Spirit, and to see people converted, changed and grow to maturity in that gospel. This is where the life and power of all ministry is to be found: in the prayerful, Spirit-backed speaking of the message of the Bible by one person to another (or to more than one).”

-Need some sort of trellis (location, Bibles, chairs are helpful, as is an HVAC system) But if we only focus on the trellis (the programs we have) we’re missing the point of a trellis. A trellis is designed to provide structure for a vine.

-Another extreme to avoid is all vine with no trellis. Vine become unhealthy and dies without a way to anchor itself and grow.

-The primary point of this is for the vine (us) to grow healthier and more like Jesus on a daily basis. Remember: each of us need to consciously decide every day to take 1 step closer to Jesus, and pray for the faithfulness to help others take 1 step closer to Jesus because of our time together.

-For all of us, there are some non-negotiables if we want to grow into maturity: it’s the 3 Ss that you see in the sermon outline: Scripture, Sunday, and Serve. We can have the best programs in the world, we can have the best Bible teachers, the best curriculum, the best facility but none of that will help you grow UNLESS you’re spending regular time in Scripture, committing to gather together as God’s people on Sunday, and using your gifts to serve one another. 

PRAY

  1. Scripture (Deut. 6:6, 2 Timothy 3:14-17)

-“These words…on your heart.” Guiding, directing everything.

-Not just a NT idea, this is the way God designed our lives to operate. Centering everything we do around His Words.

-What are we teaching our kids? God’s Word. What should we be talking about as we go about our days? God’s Word! What should be bound between your eyes and on your hands? God’s Word! What should be written on your doors and gates? God’s Word! The focus is God’s Word. 

-As we talk about this idea, I think many of us make the mistake of viewing this solely through our individualistic lenses. When we hear that we need to spend time in God’s Word, our minds immediately jump to “I must have a daily quiet time where I wake up at 5 AM and spend 2 hours reading and studying the Bible.” 

-Don’t take this too far where I’m saying that’s not good, because ANY time reading and studying God’s inspired words to us is worthwhile! But think of how Deuteronomy talks about this. Where do we talk about God’s Word? Not when we’re sitting in “my spot” with my cup of coffee and my journal! Throughout our lives. 

-The other thing that’s important to remember is we’re all wired differently. Some are taller than others, some are stronger than others. Some people thrive by doing the same thing every day, some strive by having variety every day, the primary thing is getting God’s Word in your life some way. Do a verse! Meditate, reflect, put them in your car, on your computer monitor, tattoo them on your arm!

-Timothy: “Continue…from childhood.”

-Praying for a boring testimony for my kids. If you were saved under the age of 18, praise God for the influence of godly people in your life.

-If you didn’t become a believer until later, thank God that you now have the opportunity to grow more like Jesus, but notice that the way salvation comes (through Jesus) is by being acquainted with the sacred writings.

-Heard people say “Don’t put God in a Bible shaped box” I don’t, that’s literally the way God designed it. You can’t separate God from His Word

-“All Scripture” 

-We don’t get to pick and choose which verses or sections we like and ignore the rest. In order to grow more like Jesus, it requires knowing and understanding ALL Scripture. And the crazy part about it is the more you come to know the more you realize you don’t know. I know no one who has completely mastered this book. I know people who have been reading and studying this book for their whole lives and still haven’t mastered it.

-The biggest thing I want you to take away from this section: the point of Scripture in our lives is not to master it, but to be mastered by it. In everything we do we conform ourselves to the Bible.

-A way I’ve been contemplating this reality recently: I’ve read a LOT of books in my life! Do you know how many have really stood out to me and I can remember specific things from? 3: Fellowship, Two Towers, ROTK! (little more than that) But I am the product of the hundreds of books I’ve read, each one somehow affecting and influencing me. Same with the Bible! I’ve read it cover to cover more times than I can count, I’ve dug deep into all sorts of passage regularly. How many times has it been amazing? A few. (Adam was there with her, let your gentleness be evident to all Phil. 4:5)

-“Breathed out by God”

-Translation of 1 Greek word “God-breathed”

-Think of what we see God’s breathe doing in the Bible: creation is by speaking, salvation comes by Jesus breathing on us (weird verse in John 20:22)

-“Profitable” No time spent in God’s Word is wasted. 

-“Teaching” 

-It’s no coincidence that most of our time on Sunday morning is taking up by the teaching of what? God’s Word! Takes place in more than just the preaching too! We sing God’s Word, we pray God’s Word, we see God’s Word (ordinances)

-What should we be teaching each other? God’s Word! Only teaching that is centered on God’s Word is profitable and thus worth our time

-“Reproof”

-Beliefs to avoid, correcting false doctrine

-“Correction”

-how not to live

-“Training in righteousness”

-Culmination of everything else. If we know what to believe, what not to believe, as well as how not to live, we’ll live rightly (or righteously)

-“Complete, equipped for every good work”

-Do you want to become everything God has called us to be? It only comes about through God’s Word. Our north star that guides everything else we do. Gives us everything we need to be obedient to God. Does that mean we should spend 24 hours a day doing nothing but read the Bible? No! But should the Bible be a regular part of our lives? Yes! 

-Read an article this week titled ‘Spiritually Hungry? The Church Service Is Your Main Meal’ where the author said if you ever feel discouraged about not having your “quiet times” think back to what you did when you gathered together with God’s people on Sunday morning. If you’re at a true/faithful church, God’s Word has been spoken over you and worked in you. But that assumes you’re at church, and the second thing we need to remember is God’s Word isn’t about us as individuals.

-Most of the NT was written to the gathered church, when God speaks, He’s speaking to His people (group) We have a tendency to view our faith only in terms of how it affects me instead of seeing how it affects us as a church.

  • Sunday (Hebrews 10:19-25)

-Everything that takes place on Sunday helps to center us on God’s Word, and it’s no coincidence that the way God has designed our world is centered on 7 days. Life is hard!

-Remember and remind. We gather to remember who God is, what He has done in human history (and our lives), remember how He has commanded us to live, and to remind others (and each other) to be faithful living as God has called and commanded.

-Stumbled across a podcast a couple years ago that interviewed some of my previous favorite musicians (CCM world when I was growing up) many of whom have “deconstructed” and left their faith, and honestly sent me spiraling for a few weeks. Why do I believe this, why do I keep putting all this time and effort into this? Is it true? Can I honestly devote the rest of my life to this? Then I stumbled across a guitarist who went through the same process and then realized the times he would question or doubt were when he missed the weekly gathering of God’s people. If we don’t have that, we won’t remember who God is and what He’s like, we’ll ask the question our first parents asked: “Did God really say?” 

-Once again, God’s Word gives us something about this! 

-Just as we saw last week, all of this is dependent on Jesus’ work. Under the old covenant (OT) the only way to enter any holy places was through animal blood, sacrifices, and even then with fear and trepidation for fear of coming face to face with the holy God. And even then, the only person who would try to enter were priests. But that’s the old covenant.

-Now, we have confidence, boldness, full assurance. Nothing to fear, nothing else to do, Jesus has provided the way for us to come straight into God’s presence. So how do we respond? If anyone is a vegetarian in the room, 3 heads of lettuce:

1) Draw Near:

-Full assurance, through faith, hearts sprinkled clean (Jer. 31) bodies washed (communion, the external evidence of our internal faith)

2) Hold fast: to what? Our confession. 

-Doesn’t that seem a bit weird? We hold fast to what we confess to be true, because our faith isn’t dependent on the strength of our faith, but the object of our faith.

-Back to remember and remind! We believe certain things to be true, but we forget them.

3) Consider how to stir up one another.

-How do we stir one another up? By meeting together, and as we meet together we encourage each other. You can’t stir one another up unless you’re actually together.

-COVID got us in a whole bunch of bad habits! Everyone learned how to consume church instead of be the church (heard a pastor one time say even the way our buildings are designed communicate that we’re here to consume. Didn’t offer any alternatives, but pointed it out!) 

-Carson quote

-Not a new idea! Even shortly after Jesus’ ascension people had the habit of not meeting together! There’s nothing new!

-Increasing urgency as “The Day” comes near! Love the way one pastor put this: we’re not on the planning committee, we’re on the welcoming committee. If we’re on the welcoming committee, we need to ensure we’re ready, and as we see that day drawing ever closer we need to scramble to get ready! Like having someone over

  • Serve (1 Peter 4:7-11)

-Just as the urgency in Hebrews was more important as “The Day” approached, Peter is reminding the church that the end is here. 

-Because of that reality, we should live self-controlled and sober-minded lives. Not careless, flippant, or unconcerned. Careful and intentional lives. If we know what the future looks like (we do) then we need to live like we do. Not fearful of what’s going on, not tentative about what God’s doing, not giving in to whatever feelings you have in the moment, instead boldly sharing what God has said: self-controlled and sober-minded. What one person called “Eschatological clearheadedness.”

-“Keep loving one another.”

-Anyone in this room not want to be loved? The reason we need to be reminded of this is it’s easy to forget or refuse to live in that reality. “Earnestly” could also be translated “constantly,” as in this needs to mark all of us. Do you live a life marked by love?

-This love (slow to anger) means it will be able to endure all sorts of sins. Are you unoffendable? 

-Show hospitality without grumbling.

-Talked to people who were tired of always planning the group get togethers. Read this past week about someone who felt called to open up their home to others, had dreams of creating a place where weary travelers could stop, but started thinking that they would be ungrateful and so decided it wasn’t worth it. Talked to a monk who said “love in the theoretical is easy, in the real world very difficult.”

-What does this say the purpose of gifts is? To serve on another.

-Not to build a brand, not to build a following – to serve. Think of Jesus who came not to BE served, but to serve. Who washed His disciples’ feet, a job no person in their right mind would willingly do (clean toilets)

-The primary reason God gave us these gifts is to steward. Not hide it, not bury it: steward it. I’ve shared before I think one of the greatest witnesses today is someone who enjoys all of God’s good gifts in moderation. That’s what stewarding means, not ignoring God’s gifts, not abusing God’s gifts, carefully using them in their proper place. Food is a great gift and a terrible god. Sex is a great gift and a terrible god. Kids are a great gift and a terrible god. Marriage is a great gift and a terrible god. Everything God has given to us is a great gift that points to our great God, but aren’t supposed to be worshipped themselves.

-Same with our gifts! The point of these gifts is to glorify and praise Jesus above everything else, so use your gifts to serve those around you! 

-If you want to grow as a disciple, it means becoming more like Jesus, which means serving as He served, looking to others’ interests above your own.

-The three things necessary for you to grow as a disciple: Scripture, Sunday, serving others with your gifts.

-This has to take place in the context of community. Scripture isn’t meant to be interpreted in isolation. Sunday can’t happen by yourself. You can’t use your gifts to serve yourself! 

-The key is to be actively involved in the life of church! Let Scripture affect every area of your life, prioritize gathering with God’s people, and find your gifts so you can faithfully serve others and continue growing to become more like Jesus.

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by mikethestrand on September 10, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Relationships, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on September 10, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/09/10/how-do-i-grow-as-a-disciple-sermon-manuscript/

What is a Disciple? – Sermon Manuscript

-Bob did such a good job last week! Thanks to him for being willing to try something new! I did find it funny that I’ve been here for 3 years and never once mentioned where I went to college, like a typical Wheaton alum, he only needed 1 Sunday to make sure everyone knew exactly where he went to college! I do need to offer 1 corrective too – there’s only like 3 podcasts that I listen to at 3x speed, the rest are only 2x.

-Thanks to Bob, I got next year’s sermon series planned! Mark your calendars, we’ll be spending most of the year walking through Revelation.

-One of the things my parents are absolutely terrible at is house repair, which means that if I wanted to learn how to do it, I needed to look somewhere else. Thankfully, my Senior year of high school I met a youth leader who had started his own remodeling company and needed summer help to keep up with all the work he had. 

-I learned how to paint, install toilets, drywall, use a saw, AND he made me start listening to sermons all morning and then talk about them in the afternoon. Alistair Begg, John Piper, Dave Ramsey

-For the summer, I essentially became his apprentice in the trades. He took what he had learned from his career in the trades and taught me. Since then, I’ve gotten to use those skills to do some light remodeling on all 3 of the houses I’ve owned! But I’ve also been given the tools I need to have the confidence tackle new projects that I have no previous experience with. 

-Contrast to the way I was certified in CPR. 1 afternoon class (where I rushed “Stayin Alive”) and I had a certificate that labeled me CPR certified. 

-Why do we need to keep talking about being a disciple, discipleship?

-I did a whole series on this idea last year, but I think it’s important enough for us to be regularly and repeatedly reminded of this idea because it’s the one thing that is supposed to set the church apart from every other earthly organization.

-Think about that: what other earthly organization has been tasked by God to make disciples? None! That’s must be the primary focus of the church! Out of that disciple-making purpose flows other things (care for the widow and orphan, concern for the poor and marginalized, and other societal concerns) but those cannot replace the primary focus of making disciples, those need to flow out of the disciple-making.

-Another reason we’ll keep talking about it is because of Jesus’ last words to us before He ascended to heaven. This disciple making idea is the last thing He left with His first disciples, and the reason you’re all here today is because those disciples continued making more disciples, meaning if you trace your spiritual lineage far enough back, we could all find ourselves gathered on a hill outside Jerusalem watching Jesus ascend to the clouds.

-READ/PRAY

  1. The Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40)

-If you were asked what the most important command or rule in all the Bible was, how would you do it? 

-“One rabbi quoted Proverbs 3:6 as the heart of the Law: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Another rabbi quoted Habakkuk 2:4: “The righteous shall live by his faith.””

-Today it may be John 3:16 or Matt. 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged”

-Jesus went a slightly different direction.

-If you remember back to before we studied the Psalms we were walking through Mark’s Gospel. The 2 primary Jewish leaders were the Pharisees and the Sadducees, Pharisees were the conservatives, Sadducees were the liberals, but where they were united was in their opposition to Jesus. Throughout all the Gospels we see each group posing various theological or philosophical questions to Jesus to test Him or trap Him with some question they viewed as unanswerable. They were out to prove that Jesus wasn’t the great teacher many people thought. Sadducees (who didn’t believe in the resurrection) had just asked Jesus their philosophical conundrum: if someone is married, spouse dies, and this happens 7 times, who will they be married to in the resurrection? There isn’t marriage in the resurrection! This stuns them, so the Pharisees think its’ their turn: they ask a common debate of the day: which commandments were light, and which were weighty? The law was described as held up by hundreds of nails (613), and various religious experts had proposed various solutions to the best way of summarizing.

-It’s important to note who is thrust forward to ask the question. Lit. “expert in the law” which at the time had both religious and social aspects to it. This expert had been mulling over this question, scheming about the best time to spring it on Jesus. Only 2 options: either he would argue for 1 that would be viewed as crazy, or he would have refused to answer demonstrating that Jesus didn’t have enough understanding of the law.

-Remember what I said a few minutes ago about what people viewed as the most important aspect? Acknowledge God, or live by faith. Jesus doesn’t go there, though.

-Instead, Jesus used the most used known and used verse of the day. Written on the foreheads and hands, spoken by every faithful Jew each morning and evening. Deut. 6 the Shema (hear) Heart, soul, “muchness” 

-Command to teach them diligently (indoctrinate them in your children), they should come up throughout our lives.

-Bind them on hands and frontlets between eyes: even your hands should be used to love God, and the way you view the world (like glasses) should be loving God. Not just individually: doorposts (when you leave the house), gates (marketplace should be a place of loving God)

-Look at the command we’re given, it starts with love. Why love, why not obedience?

-We are all far more driven by our emotions/desires than we will ever admit. Think of Paul in Rom. 7who is complaining that he can’t stop sinning! He knows the right thing to do, but his can’t stop pursuing the wrong thing! It’s because deep down our loves aren’t right. We love ourselves, we love our stuff, we don’t love God first. 

-Additionally, Jesus invites us into a relationship. We’re not robots or automatons built to carry out a specific function to make God’s life better (as many other religions argue). We’re designed to be in a relationship with God: we love because He first loved us.

-Notice as well the repeated “all” What’s left out? Nothing!

-Heart, soul, mind this time. Slightly different wording, same meaning behind it. We’re supposed to love God with everything we have and are! But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Almost as if He’s playing a trick on this lawyer, He goes on to show the way God’s love is demonstrated in our lives. 

-These 2 commands had never before been connected to each other. The first quote was from Deut. This second one is from Lev. 19:18 in a section that talks about the ways God’s people are to care for their neighbors. Things like: leave some of your field unharvested for the poor, pay your employees well, pursue justice in legal matters. Or you could summarize it by saying love your neighbors like your love yourself. The way we demonstrate our love of God is by loving our neighbors.

-“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love…If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfect in us.” 1 John 4:8, 11-12)

-Anti-mysticism because God actually cares how we treat other people.

-anti-selfish because we need to care about others just as much as we care about ourselves.

-anti-worldly because it requires giving up something of yourself for the sake of those around you. Instead of continually trying to get more and better things, it demands that you give away.

-This also summarizes the 10 commandments: Ex. 20: No other gods, carven images, name of the Lord in vain, Sabbath, honor parents, no murder, no adultery, no stealing, no false witness against a neighbor, no coveting what others have

-God’s law is summarized as loving God, and loving others. If you want to live a full life, be satisfied in what you have and are, it means love God first and foremost, and then demonstrate that love by loving others. How do we do that? I’m glad you asked! Jesus talks about that:

  • The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20)

-Begin with “all authority”

-Jesus is sitting on His throne whether or not we want to admit it. That means that everyone is a part of His kingdom and everyone will someday have to acknowledge that reality. Some will join with Him in furthering and working that Kingdom in heaven, and others will be forever separated from Him and will bear the just penalty for their treason against the King. This is why it’s important to understand and live according to God’s law! If you want to find success in the world He made, it means ordering your life as He says we should.

-Salvation isn’t the end goal, that’s just the starting point. That’s why He commands us to make disciples, not converts. If conversion were the end goal that would be far too easy (as Muhammad did, surround a city, threaten death if they don’t convert, and then move on).

-How do we make disciples? 

-Whose job is it, ours or Gods? Yes! Ultimately, we can’t save anyone, it’s only when the HS brings someone from death to live that the journey as a disciple begins. Not only that, but it’s us working in conjunction with the HS to continue growing as a disciple. We’re commanded to work out our own salvation, but at the same time remember that it is God who works in us.

-That doesn’t mean we’re completely passive in this whole endeavor. Even in this commission, we baptize (Trinitarian God), we teach, and we live as citizens of heaven. We don’t have the eyes to see the way God’s kingdom advances. It’s not on power or might or persuasion or intellect, it’s through the Word & our lives.

-What is a disciple? Literally: a pupil, learner, to be intentionally taught.

-As the OSB has been chatting, 3 words came to my mind: love, learn, and live. Love God and others, learn the things that Jesus taught, and live out the loving and learning that you’re doing. This is a daily occurrence, in Luke 9:23, Jesus said if anyone wants to follow after Him, they must take up their cross daily. This means bringing intentionality to your every decision. Unlike signing up for an 8 week class and getting a certificate that says now you’re a disciple, it’s instead an entire lifetime pursuit. We’ll take a look next week at the foundation of that growth. 

-But that gets us to the next step in this, which is discipleship: a few key things to point out: 

-Intentionally: You need to own this. Being a disciple doesn’t just happen, it takes a daily decision to follow Christ today. And tomorrow, it takes intentional effort to decide to get up and follow Jesus then. And you can’t do it by yourself! You need to look for ways to disciple others as you grow, otherwise you’re not obeying Jesus’ commission!

-Formally and informally: think of what we saw in the Shema, training happens when you go about your regular life. Yes, there will be and should be times where you’re intentionally growing in a certain area, or you’re training someone else in a specific area, but it should also take place as you’re shopping for groceries, or going on a walk, or playing video games. Everything you do can be used as a tool to encourage others in their walk with Jesus, even if the Holy Spirit hasn’t yet saved them.

-Cheri’s story

-1 step closer: this has become the refrain that many of the OSB and staff have latched onto as a way of summarizing this whole idea. Our aim in life is to daily take 1 step closer to Jesus (or loving God better with all our heart, soul, mind, strength), and not just ourselves, but to be looking at the interactions we have with others as an opportunity to have them take 1 step closer to Jesus. One easy way of doing this is just take time to pray with someone after a meeting! Or if someone’s sharing a need stop right there and pray for them!

-As he often does, C.S. Lewis summarizes this idea really well in The Weight of Glory

  • The Great Need (1 Tim. 4:11-16, Gal. 5:22-26)

-How do we intentionally disciple others, how do we help them, and ourselves, take 1 step closer to Jesus through our interactions? 

-Paul’s letter to the younger Timothy, and one of the verses people spoke regularly into my life when I first started here. Notice the 5-fold command Paul gives to Timothy (we focus on the first half of that verse and tend to stop there.)

-Speech, conduct, love, faith, purity. I don’t think any of those words are accidental or incidental. Speech: who tends to be slightly flippant in their speech, or speak authoritatively without experience and humility to temper it. The young! Conduct: who tends to be up too late, eat too much junk food, spend too much money? The young! Love: who tends to focus on themselves instead of others? Young! Faith: who often struggles in their faith? The young! Purity: who struggles remaining chaste and completely pure in their interactions with each other? Paul is telling Timothy to put childish ways behind, set an example that looks like Jesus to those around Him.

-Devote yourself to: public reading of Scripture (which is preaching and teaching), and use your gift!

-Be diligent (intentionally practice, don’t give up! Remain faithful in them!)

-So others will see. 2 extremes to avoid: pride and hiding. 

-Pride: insisting on your own way, judging others for your perceived lack of their gifts. Looking to be served because of your giftings. None of us is better than the other, we ALL need each other to function as God intends this body to function.

-The other extreme is hiding your gifts and growth. We feel like we’re bragging when we share about how God is using us. It’s not you, it’s Christ IN you that these things happen! We need to get better at sharing the ways we’re seeing God working.

-There’s something specific that Timothy needs to watch closely: Life and doctrine.

-Where do people fall away from God’s grace? Life or doctrine.

-We’ve all read the stories of pastors who didn’t watch their life closely and disqualified themselves from ministry (money, affairs, bullying)

-But what about failing to watch their doctrine? There’s a lot of churches who should stop using the title of “church” because they’re not preaching the faith that has can be traced back to the first 12 disciples. 

-We need to be taking steps in both our life and our doctrine on a regular basis.

-What measurement do I use to see if I’m taking 1 step closer to Jesus? Gal. 5, or use love as the metric (which is in the fruit list!)

-As you think through the life piece, think of these 9 evidences of the Spirit at work in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

-Keep in step with the spirit:

 -Ever taken dancing lessons? It’s SUPER painful if your dance partner doesn’t know the steps, or if you’re out of sync. Our job is to be following the HS’s lead.

“One of the most striking evidences of sinful human nature lies in the universal propensity for downward drift. In other words, it takes thought, resolve, energy, and effort to bring about reform. In the grace of God, sometimes human beings display such virtues. But where such virtues are absent, the drift is invariably toward compromise, comfort, indiscipline, sliding disobedience and decay that advances, sometimes at a crawl and sometimes at a gallop, across generations.

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.” Carson

-What do you want in your life? Grace-driven effort, that leads toward holiness (1 step closer), or drifting away from what God has commanded you to do and be?

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by mikethestrand on September 3, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Relationships, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on September 3, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/09/03/what-is-a-disciple-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 29 – Sermon Manuscript

Our God is an Awesome God

Psalm 29 (pg. 262)

-Luther’s “call” to ministry. In 1505, Luther had just received his master’s degree in law. He was planning to go back home to visit his family (about 55 miles away)

-He got caught in a terrible storm, so strong that he thought God had unleashed the heavens to take his life. He found a big granite rock, clung to it and prayed out to a Saint, swearing to become a Monk if he survived. Luther survived, and after getting back home gave away everything from his law school days and entered the monastery, beginning Luther’s journey that 12 years later would ignite the Protestant Reformation across Europe.

-Maybe you’ve seen a similar storm: the awesome power, the fear welling up inside of you. What’s your response when you see incredible power at work? Today’s Psalm will help give us language to worship God in the midst of these storms that we see on a regular basis!

-Sometimes the point of a passage of Scripture is just to help us think differently/more rightly about God.

-We are called to worship God with all our hearts, soul, and mind, which means we sometimes need to have our mental frameworks challenged. You won’t grow in understanding of God unless you’re sometimes stretched, just like working out

-I also want to take a minute to remind us that part of the purpose of church is reorientation. Everything in our world trains us (whether we realize it or not) that we’re the center of the world. Church is pretty much the only place left that teaches us that’s not true. So basically every week when we come to church, we’re experiencing a Copernican revolution: having us removed from center of the universe to bringing God in there. Friends, your life isn’t just about you: it’s about you bringing glory to God.

READ/PRAY (pg. 262)

  1. He Reigns In Glory (1-2)

-Last week I shared part of the difficulty in this section of Psalms is that we have no context of what was taking place – they list the author and stop. This Psalm continues that idea

-Ascribe literally translated as “give” Give what to Him?

-Recognition, awareness, mental recognition. Later on it specifically commands the worship of God, which tells us these 2 ideas are connected together. To worship God is giving Him something. The word worship came out of the idea of recognizing the value of something – worth-ship. So anytime we’re worshipping we’re giving saying that we value that specific thing. That’s why people can worship (give worth to) all sorts of things besides God! Money, kids, family, education. Everything in our world as assigned some sort of worth, we literally put price tags on things to tell us exactly how much “worth-ship” we should give it. As we’ll see as we walk through this text, that’s part of the reason it’s so important to be gathering together each week: to remind us what we should be giving all our worth-ship to.

-Begins calling on the “heavenly beings” or a more literal translation of the Hebrew is “sons of God”

-angels or other gods? Similar phrasing to Gen. 6:2, or Job 1:6 some kind of heavenly council comprised of the various spiritual beings created by God. Remember, Psalms are poetry, they bring in various elements that are open to interpretation. The primary point remains the same: the first people David called on to “give” to the Lord aren’t humans, it’s in the spiritual realm.

-That combined with (spoiler alert) vs. 10 shows us that most likely David was reflecting on the time of the great flood (only other time the specific word for “flood” is used in the OT) Not just referring that one-time flood, but also brings in the way God reigns over major weather events like a thunderstorm.

-This also points to some of the ways we can celebrate where people are looking for or seeking after the one true God. If it’s true that David stole an already written song dedicated to another God and refocused it for the worship of the one true God, shouldn’t we look for areas where God’s truth is breaking through? Some of the old hymns that many of you love started as bar songs. Where the music once celebrated drunken revelry, people like Martin Luther gave them new life when he changed the focus from sinful living to sanctified songs used to gaze our attention from ourselves to our God. Honestly, it causes me to ask myself: where am I misplacing my focus and attention and belittling something instead of taking the things that are good, right, and true and celebrating those pieces and using them as an opportunity to point to God. I, just yesterday, read 1 Cor. 13 at an OSB meeting: Love REJOICES with the truth! Do you rejoice when the truth comes out?

-This is also not the first time we’ve seen David focus on creation as a reminder to worship God. Spurgeon: “Just as the eighth Psalm is to be read by moonlight, when the stars are bright, as the nineteenth needs the rays of the rising sun to bring out its beauty, so this can be best rehearsed beneath the black wing of tempest, by the glare of the lightning, or amid that dubious dusk which heralds the war of elements. The verses march to the tune of thunderbolts. God is everywhere conspicuous, and all the earth is hushed by the majesty of his presence.”

-Why should the sons of god or heavenly beings ascribe to God? Because He has glory and strength, which leads to being worthy of glory.

-Think of the way people prepare for someone who’s in a position of power & authority to visit, like if you found out the president was stopping by the church. How would you respond? Security would increase, expectations would change.

-Or maybe that’s too big for you to imagine, instead think of what happens when a judge enters the courtroom chambers (at least from what I’ve seen on TV!). All rise until you are invited to sit down. It’s a way of showing honor to the judge. 

-It’s the same reason we stand when the Word of God is read! Every time we do that God is speaking to us. Do you realize that? God still speaks to us all we have to do to hear Him is open our Bibles.

-After commanding these heavenly beings to ascribe to God, David then changes the last term to remind us to worship (ascribe worth, dignity, honor to) because of His holiness (sacredness, set-apart-ness.)

-Holiness isn’t something we often come to terms with, especially today! We’ve so broken down any dividing walls that we don’t have anything that’s considered sacred anymore. Yet what’s crazy is the sacred still continues breaking through (saw this last week with the wicked who don’t regard God’s works as worthy of praise to Him). And when we come before God, He’s not just holy, He’s holy, holy, holy, three times. I remember hearing a message from RC Sproul a number of years ago on this idea: 3 times in the Bible means perfection, so God alone is describe as perfectly holy. We see this a couple times in the Bible: Isa. 6:3, Rev. 4:8. 

-When we worship God in His holiness, it’s describing something that is only true of God. The only reason anyone or anything else is holy is because of Him. Think of the way the moon provides light: it’s only a reflection of the sun, similarly we worship God (in holiness) as a reflection of His holiness. We don’t have any in ourselves.

-But all this is just the prelude to the main event:

  • He Reigns Over Nature (3-9)

-Have you ever been outside on the plains of the Dakotas or our West and watched a storm roll in? You can see it coming from miles away! 

-This is watching a storm front in Cheyenne, WY. I pulled over just to take the picture of the wall of clouds thundering down! The day after Cara agree to date with me, we had a tornado touch down in town!

-Which you can see in this picture! You can see some of the funnels starting to form here. Reminds me of my fear of tornados growing up, and watching my grandpa walk outside and look for them while we were on our way to the basement!

-Finally, this picture shows a storm brewing over the Rocky Mountains outside Estes Park. Notice how visibility goes from crystal clear to non-existent.

-I remember watching one of those storms with a friend who commented “Can you imagine what this would have been like as people drove their wagons through here?” How terrifying would it have been to watch a tornado off in the distance without the satellite view we enjoy today? We can see where the end of the storm is by opening a map on our phones, what if we didn’t know that the storm would end?

-I think the beginning of this Psalm shows another evidence that David is reflecting on Genesis: where does it say God is hovering at the beginning? Over the face of the waters.

-Other ANE religions (particularly Baal worship) viewed the storms, waves, water as the god themselves. What’s unique about the one true God is He’s over the waters, over the other competing gods. Whether we realize it or not, there are other spiritual forces at work in the world around us. The Bible tells us there’s an enemy, a great deceiver who views his job to cause as much destruction as possible. To lead as many people astray as he can. But he has nothing on our God. Where other religions make lower gods their ultimate focus, the one true God is enthroned far above any other ruler or power on earth (Eph. 1:21). While these other gods may seem impressive to us humans, even God’s voice thunders over them.

-Isn’t thunder impressive? It’s so loud you hear your house shake, you can feel it in your bones, if you’re outside it literally hurts your ears.

-Yet thunder has nothing on God! God’s voice is even more powerful! It’s full of majesty

-Think of all the things we see God’s voice doing in Scripture: creating everything in the beginning, calling sinners to repent throughout the whole Bible, coming down as the “Word made flesh” and living among us sinful people, forgiving sin. All God has to do is speak and it literally changes the way things operate and exist. God opens His mouth and His creation obeys. At least most of His creation obeys. Who doesn’t? Humans! 

-Think of a passage like James 4:17 “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” Do you want to know what God commands? Read His Word! This Word has spoken galaxies into existence, broken armies apart, toppled dictators, and created new people out of sinners like me. God’s voice both created the existing world, and continues in the new creation of calling people to himself.  

-There’s a specific direction to these descriptions David gives us in this Psalm. Look at the way this storm moves:

-Begins over the sea, moves inward to the forest of Lebanon where it breaks down cedars. Cedars aren’t small trees. Micah visited CA before he started here and shared some pictures with me of the redwood trees. If you haven’t seen them, they’re MASSIVE trees! And they’ve got nothing on God. God breaks them down like you or I break a toothpick, nothing can stand against Him!

-The next stop is Sirion, which is another name for Mt. Herman. Deut. 3:9 “The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion.” Not only do the cedars break at His name, the mountains run before Him. Once again, if you’ve ever felt thunder roaring, you can understand why even a mountain would shake in its’ boots! 

-The storm continues moving East as it goes out to shake the wilderness of Kadesh. There’s a number of places throughout the East that this could be referring to, but continues following the path of the storm.

-Nothing can stand in the wake of it: dear give birth, forests are stripped bare, lightning strikes as flames of fire. Think of what you’ve seen after a tornado wrecks its’ way through a city. Pastor Bruce had a tree or 2 fall down because of a tornado a couple years ago. The pure power behind those things is incredible!

-What’s the only way people can respond? Crying out to worship God! How much control do we have over the weather? We can see it coming, we can watch the clouds, can we stop the rain? Can we move a tornado? Can we even adjust a single rain drop? All we can do is stand in awe!

-Friends, don’t miss this: storms aren’t mere accidents, they don’t catch God by surprise, His rule isn’t threatened by these acts of nature, instead they are evidences of His power and glory ruling over His creation. Where some people are tempted to worship the storm, we’re called to worship the God who controls it. We view the storm as reminders of His strength and glory, and fall on our faces in worship of the God who rules over the storm!

  • He Reigns Forever (10-11)

-God is King far above any weather phenomenon. Baal can only be found in the storms, but that’s way too small for God!

-Reminiscent of the story of Elijah in 1 Kings – there had been a drought for 3 years. Who’s the god of the storms & weather? Baal. How’s he doing? Showdown on Mt. Carmel: which god shows up? The one true God.

-Not only is God enthroned above the weather, he’ll never be overthrown and He’ll always pay attention. How do we know that? The last verse:

-God strengthens and blesses His people with everlasting peace.

-It’s appropriate that this Psalm ends with the way God intends His creation to operate: shalom, everlasting peace and prosperity. Everything existing in perfect harmony with God and each other. 

-This is the direction God is taking His creation in the future, and the way He initially created the world, yet we live in this time of tension where storms scare us instead of reminding us to praise God. Someday, everything that happens will cause us to respond to God with worship.

-This Psalm has taught us that God allows everything to happen for a reason, and it’s meant to cause us to better worship God (obey, honor, and recognize Him).

-Your job with this Psalm: next time a thunderstorm rolls through: read this Psalm and give thanks to God for His rule over all creation, and ask God to allow you to bring shalom to those around you.

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by mikethestrand on August 20, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Sermon, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on August 20, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/08/20/psalm-29-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 28 – Sermon Manuscript

The Lord Strengthens His People

Psalm 28

-I grew up before everyone had a cell phone, which means there were times when I was left home alone. Anytime my parents left my, I made sure I knew exactly when they would be back.

-One time, they told me they’d be back at something like 7:45, well that time came and went, and by 7:46 I went to full on panic mode! Remember, back in the day before cell phones where every family had 1 phone that you had to endure talking to everyone’s parents for a couple awkward minutes before your friend came to the phone. Had a list of all my friend’s phone numbers. Called this friend’s parents, who said they would come sit with me until my parents came home, as we were talking I saw some headlights turn down our street, and wonder of wonders, guess who it was!

-When you go through moments of doubt or struggle, who do you call? These moments tend to be where our true selves are revealed.

-As we read through this Psalm, notice what David asks of God, as well as how he makes his requests.

READ/PRAY (pg. 262)

  1. If They Cry to Him (1-2)

-Part of the reason we do the Psalms every summer is because they don’t read like the rest of the Bible. It doesn’t even look like the rest of the Bible, even the formatting looks different! Maybe you, like me, struggled in English when you’d get to the poetry section. I always did well in English until I got to poetry because I wanted a specific meaning to the text, and poetry leaves lots of room for interpretation, doesn’t it? Just like other forms of art, there are many different ways to apply a specific text, and I don’t like that!

-In addition to that fact, many of the Psalms don’t tell us why they were written, what was happening, and we’re in the middle of a section of Psalms that only list who wrote them, and that’s it. Doesn’t it make you want to figure out what was going on and why (in this case David) was crying out to God?

-Unlike much of the prose of the rest of Scripture, the Psalms are much more emotional, sometimes seems like the author is bipolar. But think of how your emotions can change in an instant. Doing well jamming to your favorite song in the car, and then you get cut off! Or you’re innocently preparing dinner and your child starts throwing a royal fit. How do you respond? 

-By soaking our hearts and minds with the words of these bipolar authors, we start to become trained in how we should respond to our own bipolar emotions, which can change just as quickly as David’s!

-This Psalm doesn’t list a specific situation, but we can see how David begins by focusing his thoughts in a specific direction:

-“To you, O Lord, I call” What is your knee-jerk reaction to something difficult in your life? Do you blame God, ignore God, or run to God? I’ve lived through some world changing events in my life: 9/11, COVID. After 9/11 I remember reading headlines that said “Where was God?” I honestly thought we’d see something similar in response to COVID, but we didn’t. People turned to Netflix & Doordash instead of taking stock of the fragility of life.

-When the Lord takes you through a difficult season, how do you react? Blame, ignore, or run to?

-David chooses to run to God, “My rock”

-“I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages” Spurgeon. When we walk with Christ, we have nothing to fear! One of the descriptions I’ve heard of the church recently that stuck with is that we should be shock absorbers. The world winds people up (think of how the news puts everyone on edge. Good things don’t make the headlines), the church is meant to be a place where we’re not afraid, where we can absorb the stress and angst that comes from living in a broken world, and that’s only true because God is our rock.

-When it refers to God as a rock, think of the safety and security that comes from being protected on all sides. Like if you’re in the middle of a snowstorm and you’re sitting by a roaring fire sipping hot chocolate. That’s what the church should feel like! A place of safety and security from the storm around us.

-What is the alternative? If God doesn’t respond, David will be “like those who go down to the pit.” 

-Not literal death, but he will be like those who are destined for destruction, whose cries for help God will not respond to. This is similar to the wicked people we read about in Ps. 26 who would actively try to deceive others and live only for themselves. 

-Similar to crying out to God “pleas for mercy…for help” When does he ask? When he lifts up his hands to God’s holy sanctuary.

-Common practice in the ANE, even up to Jesus’ arrival when spaces and places mattered greatly. God’s manifest presence was restrained by a specific place so that the people wouldn’t be destroyed! And that remained true until Jesus came and in John 4 said that now is the time when spaces no longer matter! (hence not referring to this room as a “sanctuary,” I’d be fine just calling it the “Big Meeting Room.”) 

-Language matters, and even the way we refer to spaces shapes the way we think and engage with them. Sanctuary is the place where God dwells, and God now dwells in us, regardless of what room we’re in or what it looks like. We have brothers and sisters across the world meeting in mud huts, open fields, or hiding in basements so the police don’t kill them! It’s a wonderful privilege for us to gather together freely like we do each week, but the space in which we gather shouldn’t be given too high a priority.

-What does matter is proper worship (or the term I like to use “acceptable worship” taken from Heb. 12:28). That’s what David is talking about in this section: God hears and responds when we’re worshipping Him rightly or correctly. And that’s far more than checking the Sunday box and then living however you want Monday through Saturday. It must affect all areas of your life, meaning right living:

  • If They Live Rightly (3-5)

-While David worships God rightly, the wicked only work evil. How do you know what evil workers look like? They speak peace to their neighbors but don’t plan to treat them very neighborly.

-Who is your neighbor? Jesus was asked that one time in Luke 10, and it’s now one of the best-known stories in the world called ‘The Good Samaritan.’ The point of that story is anyone can be a neighbor, and in God’s kingdom, we’re supposed to treat any other human being as our neighbor, which those who don’t follow God refuse to do. They give off the appearance of right living, but in their hearts they despise them. Right living means we care about the places God has placed us enough to be a visible witness in our community, and care about our neighbors. 

-But it’s not just being unneighborly, the wicked live whole lives that are marked by evil. Therefore, David asks for justice toward them, which is the proper consequence to their actions.

-One of the things I’ve learned you need to teach your kids is the fact that there are consequences for their actions. Things like: if you’re rough with your toys they will break. Or if you don’t clean up after yourself you may never see your toys again! These evil people are living in such a way that they will need to face consequences that are different than those who cry out to the Lord. See all of us will someday face the consequences for how we live our lives today: which consequences will you be facing?

-After asking for God to dole out the necessary consequences, he goes right back to worship in vs. 5. 

-They don’t regard/pay attention to God’s works in people’s lives or His works in the world. Have you ever considered that refusal to acknowledge the way God is working in other people is a mark of sin? I think this actually connects back to the neighbor piece, and is something I’ve been contemplating over the past few months: God commands us to both mourn and rejoice with His people, but what that text doesn’t say is at times you’re going to be rejoicing with others while you’re internally mourning at the same time! I had a moment earlier this year where we were wrestling through a miscarriage, and that Sunday at church found out another couple was expecting another kid. It wasn’t easy to rejoice with them, but it was necessary because God had blessed them.

-Paul picks up this exact idea in Rom. 1 where he draws out this comparison on what it looks like for someone to not pay attention to the ways God works. Notice that men are tempted to “suppress the truth,” but the truth keeps popping out! Like when you’re growing up and told to clean your room, so you throw everything in your closet and slam the door on it. If you keep trying to do that, eventually it’s going to pop open and your master plan will be foiled! 

-Friends, the reality is: the heavens declare the glory of God: do you see it? I listen to podcasts on the regular, an geophysicist/philosopher named Stephen Meyer was on Joe Rogan (world’s biggest podcast). Stephen also happens to be a Christian who argues for Intelligent Design as the best explanation for the origins of the material universe, and part of the reason he argues that is the way our bodies are designed. We have access to scientific evidence that Darwin never dreamed of! At the base of everything that exists (deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA) is information. Adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). We are comprised of words that we only recently were able to understand. If the God who created everything that exists did so using information/words, don’t you think He’d also communicate to us using information/words? (ironically enough, as I was looking up something about Stephen Meyer this past week, Wikipedia lists that he argues for the pseudoscience of Intelligent Design)

-Friends, don’t miss this! God has created evidences of Himself down into the tiniest quark and onto the biggest galaxy that exists. Everything that exists is meant to point us to Him, and we’re supposed to respond by worshipping Him in every area of our lives, because if we don’t, look at what David says will happen:

-God will tear them down. Just as they belittled God in their lives, God will belittle them in the world to come. It says they will be torn down and never built up again. Unlike children playing who love and thrive on building towers and knocking them over, when God tears the wicked down, they won’t ever be rebuilt.

-Remember that David is contrasting himself with the wicked, so we’ve seen David begin this Psalm by crying out to God, then move to the need to live rightly (according to God’s standard). What then is the proper response after God responds to His people?

  • If They Thank Him (6-9)

-We praise God because He responds! Believe it or not, God answers prayer, even today! We’re called to continually cry out to Him. Be honest here, how many of you feel like God doesn’t respond to your prayers? If you’ve never experienced that before just wait! In seasons of waiting it can be difficult to persevere in prayer, but that’s exactly what Jesus commands us to do. In Luke 18:1, it says, “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” We’re actually commanded to keep bothering God with our requests, because it’s not a bother to Him. So don’t give up, God will respond and He calls us to continually cry out to Him. But it requires us to move from crying out to Him to living rightly, which is where we see David calling God his strength & shield.

-What David is saying is the very reason we exist is because of God. If we don’t trust in God we don’t have a strength that will last, nor do we have a shield to protect us. Remember, we saw this in the first section: when issues come up in our lives do we ignore God, blame God, or run to Him? Another way of saying that is “in him my heart trusts.” It’s taken 7 verses for David to get to that point, but as he continues talking to God, he can land at a place of trusting God. Which also means:

-He helps us. How does God help us, because sometimes it doesn’t feel like we’re helped, right? This connects back to what Micah reminded us of last week: we’re in a different place today than David was! Once we’re saved, we’re indwelled by the Holy Spirit, meaning we never walk through anything alone. But God has also given us a family to belong to so that we can tangibly be helped through whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, but we’ll get to that in vs. 9, David also says:

-My heart exults or praises. When we take stock of all the ways God has worked in our lives throughout the past the only proper response is praising. Think of all the stories of martyrs who have been killed as they sang praises to God:

-Overflow with thanksgiving through song (The importance of singing and giving thanks) Parable of the 10 lepers in Luke 17

-The last thing we see David focus on starting in vs. 8 is a community. Another thing God has given us is His body. It’s one thing to give thanks individually, but that’s not sufficient, we also need to give thanks communally. 

-Lord is the strength of His people, both individually and together.

-saving refuge (like the rock before, as well as the shield) One of the ways God is a saving refuge is through His body, the church! The church can become a place of refuge, a shelter in the storm. It seems like when people go through difficulties the first thing to drop off is attending the weekly gathering. What if by doing that you’re running away from the place of comfort?

-Prayer for God’s people (don’t pray just for yourself, God has called you to a body so care for it!)
-Shepherd (read Ps. 23, when we’re weak God carries us)

-One of the ways we see to give thanks to God in the Bible is by the Lord’s Supper. This is meant to be a unifying meal: a centering point where we’re reminded that we don’t exist in isolation. In fact, one of the things Jesus modeled in the first celebration of the table is the command to serve each other, and Paul picks up that idea in 1 Cor. 11 and commands us to examine ourselves and see if we have anything against another person in God’s body, and if we do we should not partake of this celebration.

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by mikethestrand on August 13, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Sermon, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on August 13, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/08/13/psalm-28-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 26 – Sermon Manuscript

-Being accused of something you didn’t do. Like if your brother or sister goes and tells your mom that you hit them, but they hit you first!

-Want justice, you want vengeance, you want the truth to come out! How do you plead your case when you come before God?

-As I was reading this week, one of the author’s shared the way people in recovery are encouraged to grow, and it comes by changing their patterns, people, and places.

-What’s funny is that’s what David talks about in today’s Psalm! But instead of being in recovery, David uses those steps to demonstrate to God his innocence

-Not necessarily in sequential order, so we’ll be jumping around a little bit!

READ/PRAY (pg. 261-2)

  1. Pattern (1-3)

-The first thing David talks about is the pattern of his life. He begins asking for God to vindicate him (say he’s innocent) And according to David, he is asking legitimately!

-It would be one thing to ask this of God and David be guilty, but in this case he’s convinced he’s in the right! He’s so convinced that he says he has walked in his own integrity (that is he continually does and pursues the right thing) Does anyone actually believe that’s true of David? Let’s think of some of the things David did: arranged to have a man killed, disobeyed God’s command to not take a census of the nation, took another man’s wife, had kids who literally led a revolt against him (not just living different than how David taught them, one of his sons literally trying to kill David!) Yet in spite of that, David is still convinced that the pattern of his life is being obedient to God’s commands. 

-How many of us actually view ourselves similarly? Think of what we read last week, where David begs God to forgive his “many” sins (emphasizing the many!) I think many people actually would argue this exact same thing to God, and it comes about by focusing on the wrong things. The temptation for all of us is to compare ourselves to someone else, and we can always find someone who’s (in our minds) worse than us. The problem is we’re using the wrong standard. Unfortunately (for our thinking) God doesn’t judge on a sliding scale. At the same time, fortunately (for us) God’s standard doesn’t change, and He also met that standard by Himself! So as David asks for God’s vindication, he’s looking forward to a time in the future when his greater Son will be able to say that He walked with integrity His whole life. Think of this description of Jesus in 1 Peter 2:22-23 “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” David is looking forward to the day when God’s people will be able to say we have walked with integrity, we are innocent of sin because it has been covered.

-This ties back to last week’s Psalm as well where David says in vs. 15 “My eyes are ever toward the Lord.” Instead of comparing ourselves to other people, the standard needs to be God! And it’s only when we look to God that everything around us can start to make sense. It’s only when we keep our eyes on Jesus that the pattern of our lives will be acceptable to God, which is where it goes next

-Even as he says he has integrity in himself, notice what it’s connected to: “I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.” Once again, can anyone here say that? When you get the news from the doctor that it’s cancer, did you trust without wavering? When you heard the news that you miscarried, did you trust without wavering? When you lost your job, did you trust without wavering? When a friend betrays you and is no longer a friend, did you trust without wavering?

-This is how we’re supposed to be living, and it can only come about by always keeping our gaze heavenward. There’s a verse in Hebrews that summarizes this idea 6:19 “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.” That’s where our hope is meant to be focused on, that’s how we can trust on this side of heaven without wavering! We have an anchor (the centering point) in heaven so whatever storms blow, we won’t waver. And this allows David to:

-Asking God to prove or test your innermost thoughts. Isn’t that a little scary? Do you ever have thoughts that come and you ask yourself “Where did that come from!?” I’ve heard one pastor say it this way: no on lies to you more than you do. I was just talking to someone this past week about the promises you make when you get a new car, how long does it last? 

-This is where we need to remember that salvation is meant to affect every aspect of our lives. It’s not just follow the rules or you’ll be condemned, it’s a transformation of every area of your life, and because of this reality, that inward change is what allows us to start to live and act differently in the world around us, which gets us to a question: 

-How do you view the world around you? We’re all the products of our families, our culture, our education, our worldview is a combination of all those pieces, which is what David is talking about in vs. 3.

-Think of glasses. I need some kind of correction in order to see properly, but think if my glasses were colored red, don’t you think that would change the way I view the world? Upside down glasses

-What if the way we viewed the world was through God’s steadfast love? Do you think it might change the way you engage with others, or the habits and patterns in your life? If we view the world around us through God’s steadfast love, then every step we take will be through God’s faithfulness.

-What life patterns do you have? Do you walk with integrity in every step of your life? Do you view the world around you through God’s steadfast love?

  • People (4-5, 9-10)

-The next focus is who David spends time with, and the focus is in the negative (who he doesn’t spend time with)

-Sitting refers to spending time with

-Think back to Ps. 1 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.” Walking to standing to sitting, referring to a way of life that gets progressively more content disobeying God.

-Who are “men of falsehood”? Another way of translating that last word is “emptiness,” as in their life leads nowhere! Think of what the world views as valuable or successful: lots of money (that generally comes by marginalizing others, not every time!) and lots of stuff (so much stuff that you don’t have time to use it all). And how does God command us to live? As stewards! Nothing we have is our own. And think who the most content people you know are. Do they have more stuff than they know what to do with? Do they always try to get more or better? No! They know it’s better to give than to get, and that’s where God’s ways only makes sense when you start to live them out. I’ve heard some conversations about evangelism recently where the person admits that they just don’t want to change anything about the way their living, and the best question to ask them is: how’s that working for you? Is it providing the satisfaction and worth you were hoping for? I would argue that most of the time the answer is no. Like think of the people our culture elevates as those who “have it all”: MJ, LeBron, Tom Brady. If you watched the new QB documentary it was fascinating seeing Kirk Cousins (Cooper’s daddy) contrasted with the other 2, because he realizes his ultimate worth doesn’t come on the field. 

-What is “consorting with hypocrites”? Lit. “Going with those who conceal themselves.” That is those who hide their true intentions in order to intentionally deceive someone. 

-Apologies to anyone who sells cars, but I immediately thought of the stereotype of a used car salesman! I hate when I have to buy a new vehicle because I don’t know enough to make always make a good decision, so I’m at someone’s mercy! That’s the kind of person David’s talking about here – someone who won’t keep his word and actively tries to deceive others.

-Then David goes on to talk about something that might strike you as odd today: David says he hates a group of people. Are we allowed to hate today? I thought Jesus commanded us to love even our enemies? 

-You may have heard the phrase “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” but what do you do when someone identifies themselves by their sin? First we need to remember that even the God of love (our God) lists things he hates: worship divorced from worshipful living (Amos 5), looking for ways to hurt other people (Zech. 8:17), evil deeds (Rev. 2:6 – not just OT). 

-We also need to remember that love isn’t acceptance of sin. If my kids are about to run in front of a car the most loving thing for me to is everything in my power to stop them, not just let them continue doing whatever they feel like!

-But that also means we need to ask the question of ourselves: do you hate your sin? Just as God hates our sin, if we’re called to be like God we need to be actively fighting against our sin, not playing with it, not leaving it alone – actively fighting against it. John Owen: “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” Sin makes a terrible master, but if you kill it you’ll be serving the most gracious and loving Master.

-Assembly is the word often used in the NT to refer to the gathering of the church. This is meant to cause us to ask which people group are we spending time with, because we become like the people we’re around. This is also where we need to be reminded that the primary assembly (group) God has now called us to is His people the, the church. So the descriptions David gives of people here should be the opposite of God’s people. And this idea is picked up again just a few verses later:

-David asks God to not sweep him away, or not let him get caught up with the sinners. This means the people he is most often with would be sinners and bloodthirsty men.

-Notice the 2 descriptions of them: evil devices, and full of bribes. Everything they do is an attempt to commit evil toward others. No care or concern for anyone else, a purely self-centered life. This is the opposite of what Christ followers are to live out! 

-Which gets us to the question: how do we live this out when we are commanded to evangelize others? That is a great question! Think of what Jesus’ brother James says in 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” How do you keep yourself unstained from the world when you live in it?

-Micah’s going to be teaching a class on this idea this Fall, but it requires you being a part of the right community, and then reaching out from there. If we have the HS in us we can’t be stained by the world! Think of what happens in the Gospels when Jesus touches an unclean person, instead of him becoming stained the other person becomes clean! That’s the same power we have working in us! 

-But it does force us to ask the question: what people do you spend time with? Would you be found in the assembly of evildoers, or the assembly of the righteous saved by grace?

  • Places (6-8, 11-12)

-The last thing we see in this Psalm is needing to live in the right places.

-First place David goes is to the altar, not just the entrance point, all the way up to the altar! He’s able to approach God because of the patterns of his life and the people he’s associated with.

-Gives thanks to God, regardless of life’s circumstances. 

–1 Thess. 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 

-But also telling all the wonderful ways God works to everyone, we must do evangelism (unbelievers) and encouragement (believers) as God works in our lives. This gets back to the people place: we can’t give thanks to God in isolation, we give thanks to God in the midst of other people! Gathering in God’s temple (where His glory dwells) is the place where David needs to go to be reminded of how God works. 

-As David does this, unlike all the evil people, David will walk in his integrity (saw that before) if God redeems and is gracious (He is)

–Ex. 34 “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

-David’s path is level 

-If you’ve ever gone to CO and hiked in the mountains you’ve seen paths that are unlevel! Easy to trip or fall. If we are living upright lives we won’t fall, there won’t be shaky ground to navigate, God will make our paths straight in front of us.

-The last place is the most important in this section: in the great assembly.

-We can’t be disconnected from the great assembly, the gathering of God’s people. We need others to encourage us, to support us, to help us when we’re weak, to celebrate when things go well. Swedish proverb: “Shared joy is double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow” In the midst of all the language around “deconstruction” today, I’ve been listening to a number of Christian musicians (some of whom have left the faith and others who came back) who have said the reason they ended up leaving was the disconnect from the local church. Friends, don’t miss this: we can’t worship God as He has called us apart from the great assembly, and that remains true even today.

-Nor can we bless the Lord alone! Intrinsic to being a human is being relational. God is relational by Himself, didn’t create us because He was lonely and needed something to do, we were created to join with him in being relational with God and with others.

-What places do you spend time? Is it in God’s assembly or in the assembly of evildoers?

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by mikethestrand on July 30, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on July 30, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/07/30/psalm-26-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 25 – Sermon Manuscript

Waiting on the Lord

Psalm 25

-Who here likes waiting? I am terrible at it! I hate waiting so much I don’t even like surprises! Cara has tried planning surprises for me multiple times, and as soon as I get a wind that something it going on I’m on a mission to bug her until she caves and tells me. Delayed gratification vs. instant gratification (marshmallow study)

-Our culture is terrible with this! Why wait for anything when everything is immediately available? I’ve even had times where I’ve gone on Amazon to order something and because it didn’t have 2 day shipping I just skipped it. Where this is dangerous is that’s not the way God works in our lives, and in many cases waiting is a spiritual development that we need to pursue.

-Slowness from The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

-No one that I know likes waiting, but what if waiting is exactly where God wants us? How many of you by rushing ahead have come to regret your decisions? I’m not saying there’s not a time and a place for quick decisions, but what if God’s ways are to work in us to transform us through waiting, and part of the reason we’re not as far along as we thought (or hoped) we’d be by now is because we’re so bad at waiting.

-In today’s Psalm, David will show us what it looks like to actively wait on the Lord. Doesn’t mean we disengage, doesn’t mean we run away, it means we push into Him and trust Him to work while we wait for Him.

READ/PRAY (pg. 261)

-This Psalm is an acrostic (using each letter of the alphabet) Hebrew poetry is VERY different from the way we write poetry today! Not rhyming, but does have a defined pattern (which you can see as you look through the book of Psalms vs. the rest of the Bible)

-Think of how much time it would have taken for David to write this? The intentionality and effort to have each phrase begin with the next letter of the alphabet (not a bad prayer template! Use the alphabet to pray to God). One of the things this reveals to us is that art and beauty come from God. Think of the beauty we see around us. I sat outside with some guys on Friday night watching the lightning storm come in. That is IMPRESSIVE! Or watching a sunset off in the distance. God didn’t need to make things beautiful, but He did, and because humans are created in His image, we derivatively create beauty (music, painting, buildings) they’re all opportunities to bring honor and glory to God, just as David does with this Psalm.

-Chiasm 

-Regular feature of Hebrew poetry, brings everything to specific focus at the center of the poem, here’s what this Psalm looks like as a chiasm: The center point is the character and forgiveness of God.

  1. Waiting for God’s Protection (1-5)

-Who else would David lift his soul to? We’re tempted to lift our souls all sorts of other places! Think of what God says in the First Commandment: no other gods before me. Aren’t we all tempted to look for our ultimate satisfaction and worth in other places? Job, parenting, house, money, recognition. 

-How often do you take stock of the idols of your heart? David’s first prayer is asking God to reveal any idols in his heart that are taking the place of God. This connects back to last week: as we approach God, we need to acknowledge and understand that He is completely holy. His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, so we need to bring acceptable worship before Him, which we have only because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

-Shame in the Bible isn’t a feeling. Honor/shame culture means if you have shame you lose all social standing and has repercussions throughout their whole life (friends abandon, business won’t let you shop there).

-Cancel culture today is a picture of this!

-If you wait for God’s guidance this won’t happen to you, instead David’s enemies are the ones who will be put to shame, but it’s only for those who are waiting and following after the Lord.

-But waiting doesn’t mean you sit back (“let go and let God”). There’s an active waiting and a passive waiting. Back when Black Friday was in person, friends and I waited overnight for flash drives. Many people brought chairs, heaters, tents. We had sleeping bags and spent the night coming up with games we could play! Others sat by themselves trying to stay warm. Similarly, waiting on God means we continue moving and living our lives.

-Pastor once told me God can’t move a parked car! So get moving!

-How do we know we’re waiting correctly? Vs. 4-5

-We ask God! David asks to know God’s ways and paths. That’s another way of saying how God’s children should carry out their lives. How do we know what that is? By planting ourselves in God’s truth, His Word. 

-I’ve often heard the Bible described as a life map. If so, it’s a terrible map, because it only leads to 1 person: Jesus! However, if we take that idea to it’s logical conclusion, then it’s a great map, because we’re supposed to become more like Him every day.

-Don’t treat the Bible like an atlas (today’s problem is gluttony so I’m going to look up those verses), treat it like a life-long workout plan (slowly becoming more of who God created you to be)

-Not enough to just set it on the side and move on, active waiting continues as we:

  • Waiting for God’s Teaching (6-11)

-Remember is more than thinking something, it’s a call to action! 2 aspects to this remembering: God needs to remember (and act) according to His character, because David’s character can’t match up to God’s! Thankfully, God is always true to who He says He will be, and acts according to who He is.

-God’s mercy and steadfast love (covenant faithfulness, which means God ALWAYS keeps His Word & promises)

-“Been from of old” there is historical precedent for David to call on God to do these things. As He prays to God, David remembers how God had moved in Israel’s history, and so should we. God isn’t disconnected from what happens here in the daily grind.

-Contrasted with God’s character is David’s character, because David needs God to forget his sinful ways. 

-As David looks back over his life, he realizes that he was a terrible sinner (similar ideas in vss. 11, 18) and asks God to not remember his previous sins or acts of rebellion.

-It’s amazing how quickly we can look back over our lives and realize how dumb we were. Bob Dettmer one time told me no one is their best self at 16 (sorry if you’re 16!) But I don’t think it stops at 16 (at least it shouldn’t!) I look back at 26 and think “if only I knew…” 

-But at the same time, the things I know I’ll never regret as I get older is the times and moments where I was obedient to God. I don’t regret the times spent reading my Bible, the times spent encouraging other Christians, the times spent with His people, the time spent reading more about who God is and how I relate to Him. The regrets come from not waiting on Him! 

-This is why we need God’s steadfast love and mercy! Think of a verse many of you have probably heard before, Lam. 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Do you ever contemplate that reality? God’s steadfast love (covenant keeping faithfulness) NEVER stops! Energizer bunny: keeps going, going, going. Or there’s no limit to his mercy: you can’t out-sin it. And all this is done because God is good, David isn’t!

-Continuing on with what God is like: good and upright. God is good, everything He does is good, and because of that He can help sinners (us) following in the correct ways of living.

-But notice what’s required of those sinners: humility. “Pride stands in the way of instruction; humility makes a person open to listening to God.” (Longman) Pride puts yourself in the place of God, and fights against vs. 1.

-You don’t know what you don’t know. I can’t tell you how many arguments I get into with my kids over stuff they’re convinced is right, but they have no clue what they’re talking about! If that’s true with our 30 year age gap, how much more true is that for us and God’s eternal age gap? That’s why we need to submit ourselves (humble ourselves) to God’s guidance in our lives so that we don’t pursue the wrong paths!

-To wrap up this idea, David summarizes: ALL the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness. If we follow God’s way, we will be like Him. But there’s again a stipulation or expectation on His people: keeping God’s covenant and testimonies (the demands of His covenant)

-This is David, once again, looking back to the historical ways God has revealed Himself. Think of how God describes Himself in Ex. 34:6-7 ““The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Do you see all those same ideas in these verses? 

-This is the center of the chiasm, the main point David wants to get across is who God is and what He’s like, exactly as God has revealed Himself. Now notice that David basically uses Ex. as a template for his prayer. All the same themes and ideas are incorporated into these verses. David uses God’s word as the inspiration for his prayer life, which is a wonderful practice!

–Praying the Bible – if you want a copy, I have about 10!

  • Waiting for God’s Provision (12-22)

-Building back out from the focus on God to David’s current state, he moves to fearing the Lord. Isn’t living in a constant state of being afraid, instead it’s giving him the honor and recognition that He alone is worthy of.

-Think of Prov. 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The beginning! Those are the people God will continue to train in how they should live (the way connects it back to vss. 9-10)

-This man will abide (live) in well-being, or prosperity, and his children (who are also following God) will inherit the land. Yet another look back to history Gen. 15:18 Abraham and his descendants would inherit the promised land. 

-Not only would David get these blessings from God, but he’d also receive friendship with God. Doesn’t that feel too close/intimate with the holy Creator of the universe? It would be if it wasn’t true! Paradox of the gospel message is the holy creator God can now live with His people.

-Only way this can happen is by continually focusing the gaze and focus of your life toward God, letting other things fade away in comparison to him. Feet out of the net is another way of referring to traps from enemies.

-David then contemplates his situation apart from God. If God won’t turn to him and be gracious, then he’ll be: lonely, afflicted, have big troubles, distresses, and his sins won’t be forgiven.

-Friends, don’t miss this: these verses are only true if our eyes only ever toward the Lord. If we look at the mess around us or spend too much time fixating on our sin we’ll miss the goodness of God in extending His mercy and lovingkindness to us. This is why we need to daily preach to ourselves because if we don’t we’re prone to forget, neglect, marginalize the good news of what Jesus’ coming means for all our lives.

-The final section brings attention back to David’s enemies who remain opposed to Him. While David has continued waiting for the Lord, so have his enemies. And the enemies are using this active waiting to mock and belittle David. He needs God’s provision in His life, because otherwise the enemies will win! They’ll put David to shame and leave him to rot.

-Notice what David asks to preserve him: integrity (right, pure living) and uprightness (conforming to the right standard, following the right path) These words are true of God, but they’re also supposed to be true of His people! David asks God to preserve and deliver him, but that doesn’t leave David off the hook! He’s responsible for living in such a way that it is reflective of God (or imaging Him)

-Ends by changing the focus of this from the individual to the nation. 

-The only way this can be true of the nation is by each individual waiting on the Lord, living as He has called and commanded us.

-This is also true of the church today! We individually need to be actively waiting on the Lord, which means living as He has called and commanded us. If we each don’t pursue that, we won’t be everything we as a church should be. So the question before all of us once again: how good are you at waiting? Not sitting back and doing nothing, but living as we need to, as God has commanded us in this time of waiting.

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by mikethestrand on July 23, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on July 23, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/07/23/psalm-25-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 24 – Sermon Manuscript

-Getting ready for prom, a wedding, a date. What does it entail? Showering, shaving, right outfit, hair just right. 

-Do we ever think about getting ready to worship God?

READ/PRAY (261)

-Before we dig in, I want us to pay attention to the overall flow of thought of this Psalm. God – humans – response. If you’ve been coming here very long, that should sound familiar to you! The best way I’ve found of summarizing the message of the gospel: God, humans, Christ, response.

-Who is God? What is he like? How does He communicate Himself to others? Think of how the NCC begins: God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. How do we know that? His Word! Think of how the Bible begins: in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

-The pinnacle of creation was humans. Humans were and are created in God’s image, meaning in some way humans reflect or mirror God. Nothing else is described that way. This also means that humans are created to be in relationship with God, and that lasts for 2 whole chapters before descending into chaos in what is known as “the fall.” This is starting to sound like terrible news, and the gospel literally means good news! And if it stopped here it would be terrible news: life sucks, oh well (naturalistic worldview: if this is all there is it’s terrible!)

-Thus far we’ve got God and humans. Calvin “true and sound wisdom consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” I think we need a recovery of this idea today: we don’t know ourselves well enough, nor do we know God well enough so we continually try to find our own way, like the blind leading the blind.

-Thankfully the gospel message goes on to Christ! Because of the fall, separation from God, there needed to be some way of fixing that broken relationship, so God came to earth in a person, in a specific time and place. This God-man lived the perfect lied and died a brutal death in place of the world. But unlike every other death, He didn’t stay dead! He rose again showing that He has power even over death! This act has cosmic implications and impacts literally all of creation! But it also demands some kind of response from us.

-How should we respond to the historical fact of this resurrection? Peter answers this question in Acts 2:38 “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” 

-This Psalm actually contains every aspect of the gospel message in it, as you’ll see when we walk through it. But that’s why I wanted us to be aware of the bigger picture of this Psalm before we get into the nitty gritty.

-This also is meant to serve as a way we structure and understand our worship of God. See, all of worship is a response to God. God works, we respond because unlike everything else in creation, we have a choice in whether or not we choose to worship. (the rocks cry out) Worship isn’t meant to be just a feeling or a genre of music or a creative expression. Worship is meant to be a life fully surrendered to the God of the universe. So if we take this big picture idea as the way we structure our worship, it has to begin with an awareness of God, which then moves to an understanding of who we are in light of who God is, and then we can respond as we’re supposed to: in obedience and surrender. 

-Need to begin with an understanding of God: call to worship. How does God describe Himself matters greatly! Think of it like this: if I told you I loved my wife SO much and then said she’s a 5’ blonde who enjoys sewing and McDonalds you would need to start questioning my commitment to my wife! It’s the same thing with God. God created us to be in relationship with Him, which means we need to know who He is, what He’s like, how He works.

-Then we need to who we are! If that’s who God is and what He’s like, how do we relate to Him? What are the practices or expectations He has for us, and what do we need to do to ensure the relationship lasts? Again, like marriage, think of love languages. In order for a marriage to last love is integral, but both parties need to express love in a way that the other can understand. Similarly with God: because of sin (at its’ core is idolatry or worshipping the wrong God) that relationship has been broken. So when we understand who God is, we must respond with confession of our sin and need of God to get back to a healthy relationship with Him. Once that relationship has been restored:

-How do we respond? With gratitude and thanksgiving for God’s provision & salvation. If you think through the way our worship services are structured, these elements must be a part of them. It helps focus our hearts and minds in the right direction, it helps us to orient our thoughts around God, and it reminds us of the truths of the gospel message we gather around!

-The gospel message must be visible explicitly and implicitly. 

-With that in mind, let’s take a look at how this Psalm teaches us to worship.

  1. The King’s Domain (1-2)

-Have you ever played “Dibs” Or seen Finding Nemo where the seagulls clam they own everything? Who truly owns the world? We have a tendency to act as if we do! We buy and sell land. We collect stuff to try to get more (or the same) stuff as the people next to us, but at some point it will either be in a landfill or belong to someone else. Everything we have is just ours to steward for the little time we have it. Do you view your relationship to “your” stuff that way?

-This is why it’s so important to begin with an understanding and awareness of who God is! AW Tozer: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” As we take stock of our lives: where we spend our time and money, do we view them as good gifts from God for us to steward while we’re here, or do we view it as “No, mine” as I hear through my house regularly! In reality, the only one who can claim “No, mine!” is God:

-Kuyper “There’s not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Lord over all, does not exclaim, ‘Mine’!” This is exactly what David is saying in this first verse. “The earth…and the fullness” Nothing is left out!

-It’s not just the land and animals, God’s oversight also includes: “Those who dwell” 

-Who’s left out of God’s oversight? No one! This means we need to care for everyone who dwells on the earth. We just heard from the Erno’s today, I had the opportunity to have lunch with them this past week and hear more about what God’s doing in China, and this is where it’s so important for us to continue to pray for and care about global missions. Whether people realize it or not, God is in charge and everyone will either bow the knee to Him willingly on this side of eternity, or be forced to on that side. Let’s look for ways and opportunities to invite people to join with God today!

-Founded and established. Complete power and control. Unlike the other “gods” people worship, the one true God created the world out of nothing. The seas are as a mere drop to Him, the rivers only course because of Him. How many of you could hold back the ocean? God can. And that’s the same God who invites us to be in a relationship with Him. It just boggles the mind.

-After reflecting on this Creator God, this causes David to ask a question:

  • The King’s People (3-6)

-That question is: who can approach this God who is in charge of everything? 

-If we truly understand God as He has revealed himself to be, it forces us to ask this question. Think of Isaiah the prophet who sees God and falls on his face (woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips!) The ones who don’t ask that question are followers of the evil one who see God and shake their fist!

-The hill of the Lord is a way of connecting back to how God has met with His people throughout history. Think back to Psalm 2:6 where God says “I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” This is the place where God rules from. The second question takes this idea a step further when it refers to “his holy place” the temple! Where people literally go to meet with the Lord! At this point, the temple hadn’t been built (that was David’s son Solomon’s job), but when it would be built it was placed at the highest point in Jerusalem, the hill people would have to climb to stand in the holy place, the spot where God’s presence dwelled among His people. The question David is asking is: who is worthy for such a task? Who dares to approach this powerful creator God? 

-Four requirements from God: 1-Clean hands

-NET: “deeds are blameless” Hamilton “innocent of hands”

-Someone who uses their hands only for good, being completely obedient to God with every action, being kind and caring toward others.

-Think of the 4-H pledge (I recited growing up) “I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living.”

-Another way of thinking about this is: does this person consider other’s interests higher than their own? But that’s not the only requirement, and the only way this description can be true of someone is by:

2-Pure heart

-NET: “motives are pure”

-What is your underlining drive and motivation for your whole life? That will determine much of what you do with your life! Think back to high school, for most people I knew in high school the primary driver was trying to be “cool.” Literally nothing else mattered! But things change. You’ll never be able to keep up with what’s trendy (and now when I show people pictures from when I was “cool” they laugh at me! Just last night I was mocked for my frosted tips) 

-A better, and more lasting way of summarizing this idea is found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism (similar to NCC that we’ve been reciting, but older) First question: what is the chief end of man? (or what is the motive for everyone) answer: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If you’re primary drive for your life remains glorifying God, you will be able to have a pure heart. These first 2 requirements are intimately connected to each other, you won’t have clean hands apart from a pure heart, and when you get those two lined up, then you can get to the third:

3-Does not lift up his soul to what is false 

-NET “who does not lie” Hamilton “Does not lift his soul to emptiness”

-Getting to the idea of speaking and believing that which is truly true. At it’s core, worshipping anyone other than God (which is idolatry) is a lie. We as Christians cannot tolerate lies of any kind. This means we need to worship God truthfully, and we need to be people who celebrate truth wherever we find it!

-Think of one of the descriptions of love in 1 Cor. 13 where Paul says “love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” As people who live according to the God of love, we must also be people of true truth.

-But notice that it also includes how we worship. Church, don’t miss this: there is a right and a wrong way to worship God! There is worship that God will accept, and worship that He won’t, and it’s not dependent on which songs you sing!

–Hebrews 12 picks up this idea and summarizes it well when it says “let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,for our God is a consuming fire.” God’s kingdom, acceptable worship means there’s unacceptable ways to worship Him, and if you don’t you won’t ascend His hill or stand in His holy place!

4-Does not swear deceitfully 

-NET “make promises with no intention of keeping them” Hamilton “does not make an oath for treachery”

-This person is not two-faced. They keep their word and promises, even if it’s at great personal cost to them! Another way of not lying.

-If someone lives out these 4 characteristics, they will receive a blessing and righteousness.

-What is a blessing? The opposite of cursing! Good gifts from a good Father who loves us and wants what’s best for us. They’ll have a full life, a joy-filled life, and be able to weather any difficulties that arise. 

-What is righteousness? Perfect standing before God, being declared innocent of any charges. This is the only way someone can stand before God is if they are righteous!

-All of this leads to/culminates in salvation. Saved from what? Death, destruction, separation from God.

-The 4 expectations (clean hands, pure heart, worshipping truly and being truthful, and reliable/keeping their word) are supposed to demonstrated, lived out by those who seek God. None of us do this perfectly, but are these descriptions overall true of your life? Would someone use these words to describe you?

-Interesting way of referring to God here. The covenant making and keeping God who ties Himself to His people. God isn’t disconnected or unconcerned about daily life. God makes covenants with a specific people, and then keeps it. Who are those people? Described above!

-Selah. This is a great time for this! Reflect on these verses and think if they’re true!

-We’ve finally arrived to the last part of this Psalm! We’ve started with the Creator God, moved to His people, and finally we see what the response should be to this King.

  • The King’s Arrival (7-10)

-What do you think the proper response should be to the king arriving somewhere? Do you lock the doors and hope pretend you didn’t see him? Do you try to casually bump into him in the street? Tell him “Well I didn’t vote for you!” 

-The proper response is to give him a royal welcome!

-As you think of these gates and doors it’s almost as if they’ve gotten tired of waiting and have begun sagging their shoulders so they need to be woken up and stand at attention! Throw wide the gates and let Him in!

-Call and response. David inviting the city to throw open the gates, the people ask: “who is this king” David answers. 

-The strong Lord, able to win any battle. If He created everything and has provided the means of salvation, surely He would also be mighty in battle.

-And that question is asked again! And this time we are reminded that He has an entire army following and serving Him! If you’re opposed to this Creator God you will face annihilation. 

-Before we take some time to contemplate this whole Psalm, we need to take some time to contemplate who this description is true of. Remember at the beginning I said all 4 parts of the gospel are seen in this Psalm, but we’ve only seen 3! Where’s Jesus? Let’s think about those 4 characteristics again:

-Clean hands: think of what Jesus did with His hands? All the healings, the blessings, the ways He cared for others.

-Pure heart: Jesus Himself said He didn’t do anything of His own desire, He only did what His Father wanted! Jesus lived out glorifying God and enjoying Him forever perfectly.

-Not lying: Jesus described Himself as THE truth! He only ever spoke the truth and only ever lived out truth.

-Not misleading: see above, but also think of all the misleading He corrected in others. “You’ve heard it said…”

-Jesus is the only person who ever lived who actively lived these descriptions out, and now because He lived that way, salvation is available to any and everyone! So when God looks at us, He no longer sees our sin, instead He sees Jesus’ perfect righteousness. So if you haven’t responded to this truth in faith and trust yet, respond today! If you have responded, today’s a great time to praise God for that salvation that He’s given you!

-Selah 

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by mikethestrand on July 16, 2023  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on July 16, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/07/16/psalm-24-sermon-manuscript/

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