All posts by mikethestrand

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)

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.

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, ⁷keeping 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.

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/

Psalm 23 – Sermon Manuscript

-One of the most well-known and memorized chapters in the whole Bible! The image of God as a shepherd has been beloved throughout history. Charles Spurgeon called it “The pearl of Psalms.”

-And this Psalm also takes on new meaning for us living on this side of Jesus’ life, because He then picks up the imagery from this and describes Himself in John 10 as the “Good shepherd.” So while David was thinking of his relationship with God, when we view it through the lens of Christ it takes on much fuller and deeper meaning for us today!

READ/PRAY (pg. 261)

Abundant Life (1-3)

-What does it mean to describe God as a shepherd? As we talk about pretty much every Christmas, being a shepherd wasn’t a lofty position. Wasn’t something people laid awake at night dreaming of pursuing! It was a coincidence that David, the youngest of all his brothers, was the shepherd. He drew the short straw because he was the youngest. No one wanted to be a shepherd! It was tedious work, monotonous work (no wonder he had so much time to write a bunch of songs!)

-But God being described as a shepherd elevates that position to a whole new level, doesn’t it? A good way of summarizing the role of a shepherd is with 2 Ps: protection and provision. First, protection. The shepherd has to look after the sheep because there’s always dangers to be aware of, and sheep aren’t great at defending themselves. In Israel David had to watch out for lions! When I was growing up and my uncle had me help him with his sheep he introduced me to his llama who protected that herd from wolves (and sometimes my uncle, much to his dismay!) Second, provision, which we’ll get to as we walk through this section! But the shepherd had to ensure the sheep had everything they needed to eat and drink, they weren’t good scavenging for food. When David describes God as a shepherd, he’s saying that God ensures we will be protected and have provision.

-A helpful way we are reminded of this idea regularly is when we use the term “pastor.” So often when we use words we don’t take enough time to understand what we actually mean, or dig into the history of that word. The word “pastor” is taken from the Latin word (pastor) which means “shepherd” and taken from the verb “pascere” meaning “to lead to pasture, set to grazing, cause to eat.” So when we talk about a pastor, we’re talking about a shepherd who provides for sheep. Therefore, “pastoring” is derivative of what God does in all our lives, and gives a slightly different perspective on a passage like 1 Pet. 5:1-2 “I exhort the elders: shepherd the flock of God that is among you” Why? Because the Chief Shepherd is coming! Because God is our shepherd, and not anyone else, it leads us to not wanting.

-Can you say you don’t have any wants? Let’s stop for a second and think about the way you pray. Do you thank God for his abundant provision in your life, or do you jump straight to the needs you think you have? I think of the way my kids pray (which I know they picked up from their parents) “Hey Lord, thanks for a good day, and I hope…”

-But the language David uses here actually points back to the time of Israel’s wilderness wanderings (basically walking in circles for 40 years before they arrived in the place God told them to go). The book of Deut. Is Moses’ last sermon to the people where he recounts what had happened to lead them out of slavery in Egypt to where they were at the precipice of entering the Promised Land. At the beginning and at the end this idea of not lacking comes up:

–Deut. 2:7 “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”

-But then, as Moses goes on to warn the people to be obedient to God’s law, look at how he describes the consequences of not following Him:

–Deut. 28:47-48 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.”

-The fact that David has no wants signifies that he is living according to God’s law. This is one of the aspects of Christianity that I’m trying to emphasize for my kids that I didn’t feel was emphasized enough growing up. That is that we obey God not just because He told us to, but because obedience is what leads to full and complete flourishing as a human. Even sociology supports what the Bible teaches! I was reminded this week about that fact, listened to a podcast that referred to a sociological study that said the best way for a child to succeed is to have them grow up in a home with their biological father and mother. Where have I heard that before? Oh right! These rules aren’t in place to ruin our lives, they’re here to help us succeed in the world God created! So what else does God, as a good shepherd, provide?

-He makes me lie down in green pastures.

-At the end of a day, how much does someone need to force you to lie down? I love my bed! We’ve got a great thing going on together, spend a solid 8 hours a night together! But it’s a little different for sheep.

-Sheep are social animals, need literally nothing nearby (predators, flies) for them to feel comfortable laying down. Even lying down for sheep can be an alarming task! Did you know that they if they roll over they have no way of righting themselves, and would be stuck upside down, have gasses build up in their intestines, and die! Once again, this is another way God provides for his people: even throughout the night He watches out to ensure they’re not stuck upside down!

-Not only is this nightly provision, it also signifies provision of food. The shepherd regularly has to move the sheep so they don’t kill the place they’re living. Sheep aren’t smart. If they could, they would eat so much they’d kill themselves! But God cares enough to ensure they have everything they need, eating the best grasses available. So good is provided as is:

-He leads me beside still waters. Once again, notice who’s in charge here. God! God is going before us to ensure we have everything we need.

-Contrast still waters with white water rafting. One of these you have to sign your life away to participate in, the other you let your children play in. Definitely a time and a place for those rapids! But think of the safety that comes from still waters.

-A more literal translation: “Waters of resting places” This is, once again, David reminding himself of some of the ways God has provided for His people in the past.

–Gen. 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and caused him to rest in Eden.”

–Deut. 12:9 “you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.”

-This is both a look back and a look forward to the ways God provides for His people.

-But God doesn’t just care about physical provision, He also provides spiritually. He restores my soul.

-Ever had a big project that you needed to finish? Last summer I replaced the flooring in my house, which involved removing hard wood to get to the subfloor. Many late nights trying to knock that thing out! But you work your hardest and then at the end you get a huge glass of water that is the best tasting water you’ve ever had. That’s what this restoration looks like. Think of how Jesus describes obedience to Him in Matt. 11 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gently and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

-Friends, stop trying to earn God’s favor, stop trying to be good enough. You can’t! That’s why a passage like this is so important for us to soak our minds in! We can’t restores ourselves, we need Jesus to do that for us! That’s why Augustine said “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.” And then, when are hearts are fully satisfied in God:

-Leads me in paths of righteousness (the right paths)

-Not coercive or manipulative, he leads we willingly follow

–Eph. 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

-God knew each step of your life, each breath you would take, each beat of your heart before you were born. God knew the sinful tendencies you would have, the struggles you would walk through, the ways you would insult Him, yet He still walks with you (or in front of you in this case) each step of the way.

-Did you know that you can’t out-sin God’s grace? Every sin you’ve committed came millennia afterJesus died and rose again, yet Jesus’ one-time sacrifice was enough to cover all our sins!

-All of this abundance has led to the last part of vs. 3 “for his name’s sake”

-We are blessed by God so that we can bless others. God loves all and wants everyone to come to repentance in Him. So as Pastor Bruce LOVES to remind us: we are meant to be His ambassadors. What do ambassadors do? They serve as representatives of a different nation. The reason we exist on earth right now is to represent God, to join with Him in His mission to seek and save the lost. We are here to invite others to be a part of this new kingdom that we represent

-David is thanking God that He gets to represent God to others

Blessed Life (4)

-It’s one thing to be praising God and saying “I shall not want” when things are going well like in those first 3 verses, but what about when difficulties come?

-Carson, “The truth of the matter is that all we have to do is live long enough, and we will suffer.”

–Job 1:21 “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed by the name of the Lord.”

-Valleys are places where fear comes. Shadows are cast that can either by an enemy out to destroy or the branch of a tree.

-If you’ve been in an empty church building at night you know that feeling! Every shadow causes your mind to race, every noise could be a footstep from someone you don’t know. Your nerves are on edge and you just wait for someone or something to jump out at you. But even in these situations, there’s nothing to fear.

-Doesn’t say death, it’s the shadow of death: where you’re on death’s doorstep. Even when you’re given every opportunity to doubt, to struggle, to question, what does David remind us of?

-He’s recounted God’s promises and provision up until this point, why would a series of questions or doubts throw David off? Even when it feels like life is falling apart, did you know that God is still there?

-“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” CS Lewis The Problem of Pain

-Pain doesn’t meant God’s out to get you, pain doesn’t mean you’re paying penance for wrongs you’ve done, God allows you to walk through pain to grow closer to Him. God allows difficulties and suffering so that you can work out your faith muscles and become stronger in who He’s called you to be.

-This is the center of this whole Psalm, everything previous builds up to it and everything after points back to it: God is with us.

-God’s presence is the reason Job can say blessed by God’s name; God’s presence is the reason the disciples believe in Jesus after the resurrection. God’s presence is always with us, even when we’re walking at the precipice of death’s door, God is with us.

-Rod and staff: protection, correction, and guidance.

-Sheep are not smart. As I’ve shared, they can get stuck upside down and literally die! They can eat until they explode, they can wander off and get lost in a moment’s notice! So the shepherd needed some way of keeping the sheep in line. The rod was used to defend against predators, and the staff was used to correct wayward sheep!

-Do you view God’s discipline as a kindness and a blessing? How can discipline bring comfort? Because it means you know whose family you’re in

–Heb. 12:6 “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…If you are let without discipline…then you are illegitimate children.”

–Rom. 2:4 “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.”

-When you live a life of repentance, God will bring you comfort. Martin Luther, when he posted his thesis to the door in 1517 began his list of 95 reforms needed by saying “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said “Repent,” he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.”

-God’s presence leads us to repentance, which finally lands us:

Comforted Life (5-6)

-A table in the presence of my enemies

-Back to physical provision. Even when enemies surround me, even after surviving the shadow of death, God continues taking care of me. Think of how helpful a meal is after you’ve weathered a difficult season.

-Just a few months ago when we were initially told that one of our babies wouldn’t survive Erin Rivenburg that night brought us a meal and gave Cara a hug. That was a moment of relief in the storm that was wrecking our hearts. And that’s just 1 example!

-But this is also meant to contrast the provision of David vs. his enemies. Enemies won’t last, David will. Don’t miss this, friends: all suffering has an expiration date! We’ll be able to feast either on this side of eternity, or in the life to come! But the fight isn’t fair. We have God on our side!

-Anointing

-Ceremonial or provision. Oil helped with dry skin on sheep, and served as a layer of protection from insects. But oil was also used to signify someone as God’s chosen person, so when David was anointed King, it was with oil. Either way, it’s another picture of God’s abundant provision of His people!

-As if that wasn’t enough, his cup overflows. Never reaches the bottom, that’s how deep God’s provision goes! Like if you’ve ever gone to Chili’s and gotten their “bottomless” chips and salsa, trust me, there’s a bottom! Can’t just eat forever, and they will eventually kick you out! But not so with God. God’s provision is more than we could ever ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20)

-Because of God’s presence, goodness and mercy follow forever

-David uses a weird word here that’s better translated as pursue, as if goodness and mercy are relentlessly chasing after him! It’s most often used to refer to enemies who are doggedly pursuing someone. But what if it’s not an enemy who keeps chasing, but instead it’s goodness and mercy? David is so blessed, his enemies have been dealt with, and now his only pursuers are goodness and mercy. That’s how blessed his life is!

-And where does David end up? In the house of the Lord forever, in God’s presence.

-Remember, the hinge point of this Psalm is God’s presence! First we saw God as a Shepherd, protecting and providing for his people, then God’s presence was with His people in their darkest moments, and now the dwelling place of God’s people is in God’s house. Once again, this is a reality that points to the future of all time.

-Rev. 21:3 “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

-Because God is a good shepherd, we have a life that is: abundant, blessed, and comforted.

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by mikethestrand on July 9, 2023 • Permalink

Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on July 9, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/07/09/psalm-23-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 21 – Sermon Manuscript

-Annual reminder: book of PsalmS, each one is a PsalM

-Why do we do Psalms in the summer?

1 -Everything is inspired. Can’t pick and choose which parts of the Bible we want to like, read study. We’re told ALL Scripture is God breathed and useful for: teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. All of it, down to the genealogies (God’s provision throughout generations)

2 -The songbook of Jesus. Jews throughout history have used the Psalms as to give voice to their praise of God. Remember what we saw in Mark last week where the city used Ps. 118 in their praise of Jesus arrival, using the same Psalm they recited each year but giving new focus and meaning to it.

3 -Gives voice to human emotion and experience. Addresses difficult things like: losing a child, betrayal by your best friend, losing a job, questioning God’s call on your life, wayward children, gratitude for God’s blessings, and how to praise God in the midst of life’s circumstances!

4 -is the only inerrant and inspired hymnal (notice the top of this week’s Psalm “to the choirmaster”) Because it’s God’s Word, this is the only completely perfect hymnal we have, and I think it’s intentional that it didn’t come with musical notation (praising God through music can’t be contained by any genre or style of music, use them ALL!)

5 -Forces us to slow down and meditate on these words God has given us. We are inundated with information today! What’s not happening is meditation on the right information. God’s Word is meant to transform us from the inside out, if we’re not soaking and suturing ourselves in God’s Word we won’t be conformed into the image of Jesus!

-Explain vs. 0

READ/PRAY

-Today’s Psalm connects back to Psalm 20 to demonstrate both how to ask God’s provision, as well as how to give thanks for God’s provision.

-Overview of Psalm 20:

-Centered around the king, who is meant to serve as both God’s representative on earth, and the people’s representative to God.

-The nation uses this Psalm to cry out to God for protection, abundant provision, and salvation of the king. In ANE, wars were viewed as fights between the gods, so if a nation was defeated, their god was viewed as inferior.

-What makes Israel unique is not their size, wealth, status, it’s the uniqueness of their God and their relationship to Him. (vs. 7).

-Ends pleading to God to save the king when the people cry out, which sets us up perfectly for Psalm 21, where the people give thanks for God’s provision.

The King Trusts the Lord (1-7)

-Let’s do some remedial English work: anyone remember what a pronoun is? The way we faithfully interpret this Psalm is by paying careful attention to the pronouns. Look at how frequently “you” and “your” is used in this first section.

-Any honor, acclaim, or recognition the king gets is derivative. Even the king, who is meant to be closest to God and demonstrate God to the rest of the world is completely dependent on God!

–1 Cor. 4:7 “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (I got Cara’s money after we got married, she got my student loans)

-Yet how often do we act as if we’re the center of the world, celebrating in MY gifts, in MY talents instead of using and stewarding those gifts for the good of other people and the glory of God?

-Look now at how David responds to God’s good gifts: the king rejoices, exults, receives his heart’s desire, his prayers are answered

-In short: David responds by giving thanks to God and praising Him, remembering all the ways God has provided for him. (keep that in mind as we continue working through this)

-Remembering is a key through the Bible: Gen. 8:1 “God remembered Noah” Gen. 19:29 “God remembered Abraham and Lot” during the destruction of Sodom. Ex. 2:24 “God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham.” Ex. 20:8 “remember the sabbath day” Throughout Num. and Deut. “remember what God did.”

-Does anyone in this room ever feel like they have short term memory loss when it comes to God’s provision in your life?

-“Here I raise my ebenezer” (stone of remembrance). We are such forgetful people! We would do well to remember, share, and exhort each other to continue remembering what God has done! Cara and I had the privilege of going to the EFCA national conference this past week and part of the reason it’s important to go is to remember what God has done in and through fellow ministers of the gospel. This feels like more of a family reunion than going to my family reunion! We’re a part of something bigger than ourselves, we’re caught up in a story with cosmic implications but we so frequently forget about that and instead focus on whatever current issues we have.

-One interesting note Micah brought up to me regarding the heart’s desire. We so often view this as more “stuff” (David and Solomon were rich, so should I!)

-Yet as we are sanctified (define!), our desires become more and more of what God would want, which is Himself (vs. 6). Think of Psalm 73:25-26 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Asaph says there’s NOTHING that I want on earth besides God! Can you say that?

-Friends, this should even affect the way we view eternity! I’ve been contemplating some of these ideas recently, as I shared, we had 2 miscarriages this past year, and that makes you long for heaven in a unique way. I’ll finally get to hold the 2 children that were taken from us! But I need to check my priorities with that, because the real treasure, and our real pursuit MUST be Jesus above all else. If we just view heaven as the place where we’ll get all the “stuff” we want, we need to check our hearts! The real joy and treasure of heaven is being as we were truly intended to be: in perfect relationship with God and others.

-Selah

-Some kind of musical notation, most likely an extended instrumental. Each time they appear in the Psalms, I use them as an opportunity for us to pause and reflect on the truths of what was just shared, so take a couple minutes and meditate on these first 2 verses.

-What does David go on to thank God for? There’s some specific things that he refers to:

-(3) Rich blessings and a crown of fine gold.

-The true king vs. any alternative “kings” We talked about that last week when we saw how Jesus’ arrival was predicted during David’s reign as the reign was given to Solomon.

-(4) Life and length of days

-Davidic promise and covenant with God (2 Sam. 7:12-13 “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

-Couldn’t be David or Solomon (or any earthly king! Last I checked every human still has a 100% mortality rate)

-(5) Glory, salvation, splendor and majesty

-All descriptions of God! Also true for the king as God’s representative, and also true (because of salvation) for us!

-Been studying the doctrine of salvation in my SS class: regeneration and adoption are 2 beautiful doctrines!

-(6) How are we to be blessed and glad? God’s presence!

-God’s presence is everywhere, sometimes we are more aware of it than others. (camping in the Rockies, seeing a herd of elk run across the mountain every night, singing songs with other pastors)

-God’s presence brings comfort, joy. Think of Psalm 139:7 “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” Heaven, sheol, morning, sea, darkness, light.

-Story in Ex. 33, God gives the people what they think they want, but won’t go with them. Moses has the gall to go toe to toe and debate with God! Surely we can work up enough courage to ask God to be present among us!

-I think the crux of this Psalm is vs. 7, one author said it’s a summary of the whole book: God’s steadfast love, the king trust.

-Israel was a unique country in that when it was founded, they didn’t have a king. They were a theocracy (define). But God knew that at some point the people would want to be like all the other nations and ask for a king, so God told them what they should be looking for in a king: someone who commits themselves wholeheartedly to studying and obeying the law of God. In fact, in Deut. 17, the king’s first job is to write down the whole law of the Lord (first 5 books), get that approved by the Priest, then study and meditate on it day after day. No account of a king ever doing that. But look at how else it describes what should be true of the king: not many horses (a way of summarizing building an army), not have many wives (hearts will be turned away from the worship of God, intimate connection between sexual sin and idolatry), not amass silver and gold (temptation to rely on riches instead of trusting the provision of God). What’s heartbreaking is these descriptions here in Deut. Could also be summarized in Ps. 21:7, but unfortunately were not true of David or his lineage.

-The word David uses here of trust has different connotations than the way we tend to use it today. According to TWOT, it “expresses that sense of well-being and security which results from having something or someone in whom to place confidence.” When they were translating the OT into Greek, they translated this word as “Hope in” instead of “believe in” in the way we would use it. It has more of a sense of assurance or the feeling of being safe and secure. Like think of driving through a snowstorm in the middle of the night, you see all sorts of cars in the ditch and the snow isn’t letting up! The moment you finally pull into your driveway and walk into your warm house and can finally breathe again is the sense communicated by this word. One note said it’s someone who is “unconcerned.” Can you imagine living as someone who is “unconcerned”? Yet that’s exactly what living as God’s child allows us to do. Think of Jesus’ words: if Jesus clothes the lilies and cares for the birds, why would we worry? We can live life as the unconcerned.

–The other word is Chesed in Psalm 136. Eddie (grew up in the Caribbean) it takes 10, 12, 15 times of saying something before you can actually start meditating on the truths that you’re saying!

-This should cause us to take a minute to reflect on whether or not we give thanks to God for good things.

-a good job, a healthy salary, appreciation of good co-workers. Do you thank God for those things?

The Enemies are Destroyed (8-12)

-God’s presence also has a different meaning for those who are not following God:

-Think of some songs we sing: “Open up the heavens, we want to see you” “show us your glory.” The only reason we can boldly say that is because of the atoning work of Jesus! If it weren’t for Him being our substitute, we would be condemned! Think of all the stories in the Bible of people seeing God, fall on their face and realize their sinful state – until Jesus.

-All sorts of descriptions of how God handles His enemies, but the short summary is: they can’t stand against Him.

–Rev. 19 has a fascinating account of the last battle of all time. The enemies of the Lord assemble together, draw up battle lines, and then the war is done because Jesus wins just like that. It says everyone is slain by the sword that came from the mouth of the rider on the horse (His word). Just as God can create with a word, God can move mountains (or defeat armies) with a word. We saw that last week in Mark!

-Paul picks up this same idea in 2 Thess. 1:7-9 “⁷and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ⁸in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, ¹⁰when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”

-To be opposed to God merits His destruction, it is the just penalty for disobedience towards Him. It is pretty trendy today to question and doubt eternal conscious punishment, but we need to acknowledge that’s how the Bible (God’s revelation of truth) speaks of the punishment of those who are opposed to Him. We have a misunderstanding of love (acceptance) and judgment. Honestly, I wish I could believe in annihilationism! But I am bound by what Scripture says, not what I wish to be true. If you want more information on that, feel free to email me, I don’t have time to dig into that issue today!

-But that’s not where David ends this Psalm:

God’s People Praise Him (13)

-What is a proper response to the way God mercifully saves His people?

-Singing and praising! Singing is FAR more than just music. Singing changes us, and we so often don’t even realize it! Singing brought down the walls of a jail for Paul!

-At times the only thing we have are the words we’ve sung. I can’t tell you how many times in my life in times of crisis, music has been the balm to my soul to remind me the truths of what I proclaim up here week after week. And often it comes through the mouth of a brother or sister. Think of Eph. 5:19 “addressing one another” through our singing:

– “But God has put this Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.” Bonhoeffer, Life Together

-Do you speak God’s Word to others?

-Church, this is why we need to gather together, our faith isn’t meant to exist in isolation! God has called us into a family that He has brought together. God saves us a His people, and in response we must praise Him!

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by mikethestrand on June 25, 2023 • Permalink

Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on June 25, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/06/25/psalm-21-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 11:1-25 – Sermon Manuscript

-Ever seen a parade?

-Parades aren’t new inventions, been around for a while! Kids love them, adults go for the kids. Celebrating holidays, major events, victories

-Romans would have parades to celebrate victories on a regular basis. (including a slave who would whisper in the ear of a commander “remember you are mortal”) The Roman audience who was hearing this from Mark would have understand what was taken place by Jesus’ humble parade, but there were some weird things about it that we’ll see as we walk through it!

READ/PRAY (pg. 494)

A Humble Entrance (1-11)

-Let’s think about where all this is taking place.

-Over the past few weeks, we’ve been slowly approaching Jerusalem, we finally get there today! Perea, last week was Jericho, you can see the road traveled to get to Jerusalem, which looks like THIS

-Jesus sends 2 disciples nearby to grab a colt.

-A donkey seems like a weird choice and Mark tells us has never been ridden before.

-At this point of the journey, you’d have to think the disciples were wondering why he needed a donkey. They’re within sight of Jerusalem, only a few more steps and they’ll be at their final destination, if Jesus has gotten tired, just let Him take a quick break! Thankfully, the disciples have learned not to question Jesus, so they respond with obedience

-Now, notice that Jesus gives them basically a password in order to take this donkey away. You know like “open sesame,” but in this case the code is “the Lord has need of it.” And that’s exactly what happens!

-Mark’s trying to make a point here. Notice who’s in charge here: Jesus. At times we view Jesus as the victim in this story (innocent man killed on the cross, some even go so far to describe it as “divine child abuse” which would be true only if Jesus hadn’t been a part of the planning). None of it caught Jesus by surprise! This was His eternal plan from before the earth was even created, and He continues demonstrating that plan through each step of this process.

-But there’s far more going on here than Jesus needing a ride. This act is done to fulfill a prophecy from Zech. 9:9

-Original context tells us: The king who comes is righteous, has salvation, and is humble. Jesus is fulfilling this prophecy of God’s deliverance from their enemies.

-But this isn’t the only ideas Jesus comes to fulfill from the OT: and to understand that picture, we need to know about a king named David.

-If you’ve ever heard of David, it’s most likely in relation to a giant named Goliath. David was the pinnacle of kings for Israel. He became the golden standard by which all future kings would be judged (like MJ in bball)

-As David comes to the end of his life, some of his deficiencies as a father start to reveal themselves. He had appointed his son Solomon to be the next king, but another one of his sons, Adonijah wants the throne, and plan to usurp that role. In secret, Adonijah brings his followers together and throws a private coronation party for himself. David hears about it from Bathsheba and decides to throw a realcoronation party for the true king: Solomon. And guess what David gives him to ride on? That’s right: a royal donkey! Solomon rides into Jerusalem to demonstrate that Adonijah and all his followers aren’t telling the truth, that the true king is coming to rule.

-Solomon’s reign ended very poorly. He allowed idol worship, he took too many wives, and started down the path toward being carried off into exile. But Jesus comes in purity to establish His rule that will never end, that will never be overthrown, and that will never be abolished. The prophecy to David that his descendants would sit on the throne forever is coming true!

-The Disciples obey Jesus’ command, and then use cloaks to create a saddle for Jesus. But the disciples aren’t the only ones who are getting excited about Jesus finally revealing Himself as the Messiah, as word travels about Jesus coming, the crowd joins in on the celebration.

-Part of this is most likely due to Jesus raising one of his best friends: Lazarus. Remember Bethany is only a couple miles away? That’s where he lived with his sisters Mary and Martha. Not much a stretch to imagine that people in “the big city” had heard about this resurrection!

-Because the crowd is excited about this coming king, they realize He can’t just walk on the plain old ground, so they use their cloaks, and if don’t have any cloaks they use branches, pulling out the red carpet for the arriving king! This would be typical of a kingly processional. There’s an account in 2 Kings 9, and the book of Maccabees where palm branches and cloaks are thrown on the ground for the king’s processional.

-Do you see what the crowd is reciting to Jesus? They’re quoting Psalm 118.

-This Psalm is one of the what is called “Psalms of Ascent” which were recited as the pilgrims would make their way to Jerusalem. Hosanna (Aramaic meaning save now) name of the Lord (Messianic title) Blessed be (thanking Yahweh for military victory)

-There’s a big difference between Mark & Matthew’s account here, and I think it’s connected to the different intentions behind each author. Where Matthew was primarily writing to a Jewish audience, Mark is writing to a Gentile audience, so Matthew includes more details about how the city of Jerusalem responded.

-Mark jumps straight to Jesus alone with the 12. Just as quickly as the crowd had convened, they leave Jesus by Himself. He goes straight to the temple, looks around, and because it was getting late in the day, he goes back to Bethany.

A Haughty Façade (12-25)

-Why are people tempted to put on a front? I remember hearing a pastor talk about this during college: we’re all tempted to compare our strengths to someone else’s weaknesses. He is a professor at a university, and was sitting in a meeting hearing someone share a new insight he hadn’t thought of and he thought “I bet you couldn’t guard me in basketball.” Then later that afternoon was playing pickup, got burned on the court and thought “I bet you haven’t read a book this week!” (so then I burned him in basketball and told him that I’d also read a book that week)

-We have a tendency to try to portray something we’re not instead of being content with who God has made us! And it’s true even in our faith, as we’ll see demonstrated in this section:

A Fig Tree (12-14)

-The first thing we see about Jesus in this section is His hunger. This is a normal human endeavor, IDK about you, generally after a night of sleeping (not eating) one is hungry when they wake up (another evidence that Jesus is truly a human). But another aspect to hunger is how one responds when they’re hungry.

-For me, it’s a little bit like my morning coffee. If I don’t get my coffee I’m not a happy camper!

-Or maybe food is what you need in the morning, and if you don’t get your food you become hangry (that is someone who gets angry when they’re hungry) If that’s you, don’t worry you’re in good company, so does Jesus!

-Because Jesus is hungry, he becomes a man on a mission, and He sees a fig tree with leaves. Leaves are the marker for a fig tree having figs on it, or at least the starting of figs, but it’s supposed to mean you’ll be able to find food on it (despite it not being the season for figs).

-So how does Jesus respond? He curses the tree! I read a description this week that said Jesus’ final miracle is one of destruction and death! There’s even a philosopher who has used this passage to explain why he isn’t a Christian, accusing Jesus of “vindictive fury.” Which would make sense if that was all that was said about it! But we need to go on:

A Temple (15-19)

-After riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, and stirring up the town, Jesus turns His attention to the temple and comes to cleanse/purify the temple

-Drove out all who sold and bought: a necessary occupation. People would travel from all over the country to come to Jerusalem for the Passover, they needed some way of getting a sacrifice, it didn’t make sense to bring an animal, much less a spotless animal!

-Money-changers: who were necessary too pay the temple tax in the correct currency (Torah said it had to be a half a shekel) But also had a wide assortment of moneys being used at the time, so essentially a currency converter.

-pigeons: particularly focused on the sacrifices of the poor.

-Text doesn’t say these people were stealing, could be implied by Jesus’ response, or else the mere fact that they were in the temple was missing the purpose.

-The temple was divided into different areas by level of holiness for where people were able to go, the closer you got to the Holy of Holies, the fewer people could go. Court of the Gentiles (we’ve talked about before), The Court of the Women, and then only purified Jewish men could go closer. These salesmen set up shop in the Court of the Gentiles, leaving them nowhere to worship the one true God.

-Once these people are cleared out, what does Jesus do? He teaches, once again. And this time we have some of the contents of his sermon: Jesus quotes 2 different OT texts to make his point.

–Isa. 56:7 “house of prayer for all the nations” ethnic implications

–Jer. 7:11 – Jeremiah calling out Israel for indulging in sin, then treat the temple as a talisman to cover the sins.

-Do you live this way? Only certain people are allowed to church, if they don’t look, think, and act like us we don’t have room for them! Or do you not connect your Sunday worship to your Saturday living? Walking into a church doesn’t save you, just like walking into a garage doesn’t make you a car! What we do here is meant to transform us from the inside out (thinking God’s thoughts after Him, dripping down into hearts, then living it out through our hands)

-(18) Now the higher ups are getting upset! They heard the teachings, and realized that Jesus was upsetting the apple cart! They want to destroy Jesus, the one who came to purify everything! Instead they see the people following Him and His teachings as a competition with what they had been teaching.

-They’re more worried with the external form of what they think worship is supposed to look like than they are worried about whether or not they’re actually pleasing the Lord they’re supposed to be worshipping.

-They’re trying to force God to fit into their preconceived ideas and boxes instead of approaching Him as the sovereign ruler of the universe!

-Think of some of what we’ve been seeing throughout Mark’s Gospel about how Jesus subverts everyone’s expectations.

-His disciples eat on the Sabbath, He heals on the Sabbath pushing against the traditionalism of the Pharisees. He’s accused of being on cohoots with the devil. He continues teaching people about what it means to live in the kingdom of God, and what it means to actually be defiled (it doesn’t come by eating or drinking or certain thing, it comes by being transformed from the inside out)

-Think of all the times the disciples continue to miss what He’s telling them! We just wrapped up a section where He explicitly tells them 3 different times that He was going to Jerusalem to die, and they take that as an opportunity to fight about who’s the best. Everyone is expecting and wanting a political ruler, but what they got instead was the King of kings.

-Honestly, when you think about it: has anything changed in the past 2,000 years? How many people continue looking to politics as the ultimate solution to the world’s problems? (if you don’t vote for this person, the world will be over!) Dear church, don’t miss that second word: we are the church! At the end of the day your savior isn’t going to come riding in on an elephant or a donkey (at least the second time), He’s coming in a white horse: meaning He’s coming to win! Which is exactly what gets demonstrated in the last verses of this chapter:

The Meaning of It All (20-25)

-Took a whole day for the fig tree to whither. Who notices it?

-One of the pieces of evidences that leads people to believe that Mark wrote down Peter’s story, and then compiled it together to give us this Gospel.

-Peter brings attention to Jesus’ cursing coming true. This is an intentional act. Remember: all the miracles are meant to be living parables, living examples of a bigger point Jesus is making.

-In this case, the way Mark has structured this story is supposed to tell us something about the cleansing of the temple. It’s the classic Markan sandwich! The fig tree is meant to serve as an illustration of what’s going to happen to the temple: destroyed down to its’ roots. Just like the fig tree, the busyness (and business) that was taking place was just a façade that didn’t give rise to lasting fruit. How do we know this? The connection is prayer.

-See, just as the temple was mean to serve as a “house of prayer for the nations” so God’s people are supposed to be marked by a life of prayer and faith.

-Faith is the first step: demonstrating trust, hope, and confidence in God. But then the ongoing steps are prayer. Think of Paul’s command to “pray without ceasing.”

-Need to again warn against prosperity theology! This isn’t name it and claim it (I prayed for a Rolls Royce and got it), it’s praying according to God’s will.

-I was meeting with someone this week who asked about this idea and I pointed them to Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” If you are truly following the first part of that verse, your desires will slowly over time will become more and more of what God would want for you.

-But there’s a third part to this that we see: so faith, prayer and forgive.

-Think of what we prayed in the Lord’s prayer last week: “forgive us our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE THOSE who trespass against us.” God’s forgiveness toward us is directly correlated to our forgiveness of others. Are you a forgiving person, or do you tend to hold grudges against others?

-If we live these truths out, God will answer prayers and move mountains in our lives. Think of the fact that you’re saved! God literally had to bring you back from the dead (spiritually speaking) in order to do that! Do you know how miraculous that is?

-So what: what does your life look like? Are you bearing fruit, or just giving off the appearance of fruit?

–Matt. 3:8 J the B “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” It’s easy (at first) to give off the appearance of fruit, but over time it will start to wear on you. If you have faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will work in you to actually make it possible to bear fruit, because apart from that fruit we’re dead! Vs. 10 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

-How often is that true in our lives too? We do our best to act all “put together” when we come to church (despite yelling at our kids on the way out the door, cussing out the person who cut you off) then as soon as we walk in the doors we put on a smile and act like everything’s ok. It’s no wonder people give up on church when they see that kind of hypocrisy! Instead, we need to ensure that we’re ACTUALLY bearing fruit in our lives, not just the illusion of it.

-That is what is means to be a true disciple of Jesus. It’s not pursuing worldly aim, it’s not building yourself up, it’s submitting yourself to the Lordship of Jesus through faith, demonstrated by your prayers, and filled out in the way you forgive others.

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by mikethestrand on June 18, 2023 • Permalink

Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Relationships, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on June 18, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/06/18/mark-111-25-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 10:32-52 – Sermon Manuscript

-Don’t remember many Sunday School classes growing up, but 1 has stood with me (probably because of the family story)

-Trying to communicate to 5 year olds the importance of serving. Each person was given a turn wearing an apron and “serving” the rest of the class donuts. Apparently I refused to give up my serving role (which was obviously relayed to my parents after about how much of a servant I was, and much I cared about getting donuts for everyone else)

-I liked wearing the apron! And then at the end I got to take a whole box of donuts home!

READ/PRAY (pg. 494)

Comes Through His Death (32-34)

-Continuing their journey to Jerusalem. This is the middle section of Mark’s Gospel (began with the recognition from Peter in 8, ends at the end of this section when they get to Jerusalem in 11)

-This middle section could be considered Jesus on the way to Jerusalem (remember I mentioned that in Luke hinges on 9:51 “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”) The other emphasis in the middle section is the way it can be broken down into 3 predictions of Jesus’ death (look at the title given in your Bible, mine says: “Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time”)

-All follow the same pattern: Jesus tells what’s coming, launches into a talk about discipleship, then the disciples miss the point and revert back to the world’s ways of organizing and living.

-As I said, this section is marked by Jesus 3 times predicting his betrayal, death, and resurrection. Look at how Jesus repeatedly describes it!

-Let’s think through everything we’ve seen in the midst of these 3 predictions:

-After the first one, Peter rebukes Jesus, who in turn is rebuked by Jesus, then Jesus explains the cost of discipleship (take up your cross and follow)

-Then Peter, James, and John see Jesus transfigured before them and hanging with Moses and Elijah, then coming down from the mountain the disciples are shown to not yet be able to everything Jesus can with the boy suffering from (what sounds similar to) epilepsy. This leads Jesus to remind the disciples to live a life of prayer (like surrendered to a dependent on Him)

-Jesus then offers his second prediction in 9:31, and the disciples go on to argue about which one of them is the greatest. Jesus uses this as a teaching opportunity to say that if you want to follow Him, you need to look for the poor and marginalized (as demonstrated by a child). You can’t follow the world’s ways and expect to also live in Jesus’ kingdom. It also involves mortification (subduing bodily/sinful desires). Jesus says to cut off your: hand, leg, eyes if they cause you to sin. Yet again, not the way the world operates! This includes how Jesus’ followers live in marriage (not divorce), how they welcome children in (care for them! Our kids ministry should never struggle to find volunteers!), and how they view their earthly possessions (if you give them up you’ll get more in return).

-Then we land at today’s passage, where Jesus will once again move from a passion prediction to the cost of discipleship, and then conduct a living parable by healing blind Bartimaeus.

-We’ve spent a lot of time on the second half of this section, but there’s a couple things to note about the introduction to this section. Up until this point, Jesus had been walking with them, suddenly now He’s by Himself. People following are describes as amazed and afraid. The leader they’d been following was moving in some new ways, and they weren’t wanting to be quite as close to Him.

-Why were people amazed and afraid?

-Jerusalem is where the insurrection would happen. It’s time for war! Jesus had been building His following, teaching them what it means to follow Him, now it’s time to bring about His kingdom. But how did the people think it would happen?

-By force. Throughout this whole section, how had Jesus been describing the way of entering His kingdom? Childlike, aka needy and with nothing. Literally the opposite of force! Yet power and persuasion is exactly the way we as humans view the world.

-Lots of conversation today about power, about victimhood, and about privilege. The heartbreaking thing is Jesus repeatedly commands His followers to not focus on those things, yet throughout history we can see God’s people repeatedly coming back to those very issues.

-Dear friends, it’s not a coincidence that Jesus came as an infant. It’s not weakness that Paul describes the gospel message as not coming by human power or persuasion, but by God’s power.

-No, power isn’t the issue! It’s what those in power do that can become an issue. But the only way the world can operate is through power dynamics, we’ll get to some more of this in the next section, as Jesus explicitly talks about the differences between authority in the world and authority in the church.

-So far, we’ve seen that what’s necessary for Jesus is His death. His followers think that means through a political uprising and overthrowing of the Romans, but Jesus knows and keeps trying to tell them that’s not the way! But 2 disciples want to make sure Jesus knows how valuable they are (using the world’s ideas)

-We see following Jesus:

Is Demonstrated By Serving (35-45)

-Just as the first time comes about by Peter trying to put himself first, this time it’s the rest of the “inner 3” who approach Jesus. (Jesus had crowds of people following Him, from those He spent more focused time on the 12, from that 12 He spent more focused time with 3: Peter, James, and John)

-Begin innocently enough, but Jesus doesn’t commit to anything. I’m sure they’ve been working on trying to find the best time to bring this request to Jesus! Think of the way kids work at trying to figure out which parent will give them what they want. Recently, Cara confronted Calvin about why he asked me if he could watch DP in the morning instead of her “because I knew daddy would say yes!”

-As we saw in the last section, they think Jesus is going to Jerusalem to begin His reign, so they’re hoping that once the insurrection is complete, they have the highest positions. They’re 2 of the inner 3, who’s left out? Peter! This would make sense, right, you’ve got 2 hands there’s no room for a 3^rd person in there.

-On the one hand, their request makes sense! Someone needs to sit by Jesus and help Him reign (at least in their minds, doesn’t enter that Jesus may be sitting to someone else’s right hand)

-Jesus begins with a gentle rebuke and a reminder that they don’t know what’s happening.

-Drink refers to suffering/persecution that was coming. Throughout the OT there’s repeated references to a cup being poured out as wrath upon sinful people. Even on Jesus’ last night with His disciples, He prays that the Lord would remove this cup of suffering from Him (Mark 14:36)

-Baptism similarly refers to intense tribulation that would be brought upon them, and Paul even picks up this idea in Rom. 6 that baptism serves as a reminder that we have died with Jesus, so Jesus is telling these brothers that both suffering and death are on His horizon. Do they think they can handle all that?

-They (once again) miss it! “Of course we can!” They’re not called the sons of thunder for nothing!

-Once again, their minds are most likely going to the political war that is coming up. They could even be interpreting Jesus’ comments as referring to that event, so Jesus is going to be a martyr for the cause, and if He can do that, so can they!

-Not dissimilar from what Peter will pledge just a few chapters later: “Even though they all fall away, I will not. If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” (14:29, 31).

-Jesus promises them suffering and persecution, but he can’t promise anything else. Jesus, in everything, submits to the will of His Father. Someone will sit there, but it won’t those that try to get it, it will be those that the world wouldn’t recognize.

-Think of all the children Jesus had been interacting with recently. Think of all the marginalized people who had been ostracized that He’s healed (bleeding woman, demon possessed). Those who are the greatest in God’s kingdom are described in Heb. 11 as people “of whom the world was not worthy.” But even the lowest in God’s kingdom is greater than the person Jesus describes as the most significant human to ever live (Matt. 11:11)

-This is done by obeying Jesus, not by building yourself up.

-How do you think everyone else would have felt once they heard about it? Definitely would have led to a fight! But here’s the thing: the reason they were fighting is because the rest didn’t think about it first! They were upset that James and John beat them to the punch!

-Think of what we saw Peter do during the transfiguration: he offered to build houses for Moses and Elijah on the mountain so they could rule with them. They’re continually fighting about who gets the positions of power and recognition (remember, just recently we read about them arguing about who was the greatest) You could read this section as just a continuation of that previous conversation! Jesus’ repeated refrain that they need to serve has fallen on deaf ears.

-And this continues to happen today in the church! How big is your church? How many books have you published? How many conferences have you spoken at? Does your church have the “right” ministry? We’re always comparing, but we’re comparing to the wrong standard! See, if we continually compare ourselves to others we’ll always find ways we’re superior. What Jesus is commanding us to do is compare ourselves Him, who is the perfect standard. In that case, we’ll always be falling short, which is the point of the gospel message.

-Picture the group of disciples having a heated debate about this very topic, until Jesus gets in the middle of them and changes the direction of the conversation

-Once again becomes a teaching moment! Jesus’ way of leadership is the opposite of the world. Look at how he describes the world’s ways: “lord it over” and “exercise authority.” That’s not the Jesus way! Jesus says “It shall not be so!”

-Do you want to lead? Serve! Example of music team asking people to run slides for 6 months before they get on the stage. What are you willing to do to serve those who are sitting nearby you? Music is a great opportunity for that, and I think one of the best ways to model this service!

-“If the gathering is about building up and encouraging the church, then a song I don’t like presents an opportunity to love and encourage others whose tastes differ from mine.” (Mike Cosper, Rhythms of Grace, 88)

-Jesus isn’t calling for anything He isn’t willing to do. He’s demonstrated to them in multiple ways what it means to serve, not be served.

– “The brothers hope to honor Jesus while honoring themselves. How easily worship and discipleship are blended with self-interest; or worse, self-interest is masked as worship and discipleship.” (James Edwards)

-How often do you equate God’s way with your way? Or you take your desires and assume they’re the way God wants you to live? What’s even worse is when you take those desires and then force others to live that same way! That’s called legalism, and there’s a whole host of issues with that!

-Text I got when we had to shut our doors during COVID (this was an incredibly hard season! No one knew exactly what to do, it’s easy to look back now and see the mistakes, but not in the middle of it): “I was going to use this as an opportunity to demonstrate my faith in God!” I wanted to text back “If you’ve been waiting for a global pandemic to demonstrate your faith, then you don’t have those faith muscles built up to start practicing them now.” Jesus here is saying you need to start practicing service in the small things so that as you grow in ability and responsibility you can continue being faithful. The problem is when people are elevated beyond their character. We’ve seen that repeatedly in the church the past couple years, and it comes about because people forget that Jesus called us to serve, not be served. As soon as you get to the point that you think it’s time for others to start serving or accommodating your needs, preferences, and desires, you need to step back for a season!

-So far: following Jesus comes through His death, is demonstrated by whether or not we serve others, and it:

Requires Faith In Him (46-52)

-20 miles away from Jerusalem, slightly off the main road, 1 way to get in and out. Those who had been following were continuing toward Jerusalem, ready for the revolt!

-Only named person healed in this Gospel: Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus (name means: “Son of Honor”) Let’s compare Bartimaeus to the 2 brothers who asked for the positions of honor: they were most likely wealthy (Father had a fishing business), Barty had to beg to eat. They were getting recognition and fame from following Jesus (such that they knew to ask for even more fame) Barty was (apart from being in here) forgotten and marginalized.

-No social welfare, begging was the only way to survive.

-Jesus of Nazareth to delineate this Jesus from all the others (like the name “John” or “Michael” thanks a lot mom & dad)

-Instead of asking for power and prestige, what does Barty ask for? Mercy. He wouldn’t even care if his name was mentioned in this text: he just wants a full life.

-What’s the response of the crowd? Barty doesn’t deserve the see Jesus! Jesus is too busy and on a different social standing. How does he respond? Cries all the more! He’s desperate! Which is something we (and the disciples) could learn! (parable of the persistent widow Luke 18:1-8 “because this widow keeps bothering me”)

-Jesus stopped. Has a whole crowd around Him and he stops for 1 blind beggar.

-Invites Barty near. 3 verbs: take heart, get up, calling you.

-Throws off all his worldly possessions (his cloak, both protection from heat and pillow at night), jumps up as quick as possible and runs to Jesus.

-Jesus asks the same question he’d asked James and John: “Whereas the Sons of Thunder asked for extraordinary glory, Bartimaeus asks only for ordinary health.” (James Edwards)

-Refers to Jesus as a higher form of Rabbi (used primarily of God). Those on the inside continue to remain blind, while those on the outside see who God is. He has 1 request: let me see!

-Why is this man healed? Faith. How strong did his faith need to be? As strong as a mustard seed, but in the right person.

-Example of ice from Keller.

-Became a follower of Jesus. Tradition says he’s named because he became a prominent leader in the early church.

-What are you willing to give up to get Jesus? Are you truly following Him, or is Jesus a convenient excuse to try to force your way, agenda, ideas onto others? Do you come to serve or to BE served?

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by mikethestrand on June 11, 2023 • Permalink

Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Relationships, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on June 11, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/06/11/mark-1032-52-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 10:1-31 – Sermon Manuscript

-I have been attending church since 9 months before I entered the world! Some of the best theology I learned by attending Sunday School:

A.W. Tozer: what is the deepest theological truth you’ve learned:

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so

Or another favorite: Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world

-What does that mean?

READ/PRAY (pg. 493)

In Marriage (1-12)

-Jesus’ ministry area is moving (Many scholars believe he ends up in Perea)

-What is Jesus’ custom? Teaching! Don’t miss this! Jesus comes to teach us a new way to live, a new way to think, a new way to operate.

-Who continues serving as the bad guys to Jesus’ ministry and story? The Pharisees! Those tasked with helping people understand and apply God’s law to their everyday lives.

-Have you ever thought about the Bible in that way? How to apply God’s law to your life. At the end of the day, that’s why we gather as the church! To know, understand, and live out the truths God has given to us in His Word. Not a bad pursuit that this Pharisees are pursuing! The problem is the way they use God’s Word to build up themselves and their own pursuit of power instead of using it in service of others.

-What question do they have this time? What is their motivation?

-Just as today, marriage, divorce, and remarriage were hotly debated topics!

-2 schools of thought in the Pharisees: Shammai only allowed divorce due to adultery, Hillel allows divorce for almost any reason (like burning a meal)

-This is most likely where the location of this confrontation matters. Perea was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. Does anyone remember that name? He’s the one who had John the Baptist beheaded! Does anyone remember why Herod (and Herodias) were upset with John? John said they were committing adultery by their relationship. Do you think maybe the Pharisees were hoping Herod would take care of their Jesus problem?

-What does Jesus appeal to as His authority? The Bible! Friends, don’t miss this! We can appeal to other truths, ideas to get to the truth, but understand that our ultimate, highest source of truth must be the Bible, otherwise we’re cutting ourselves down, and dismissing how Jesus commanded us to live.

-Notice the language shift here: command vs. allowed. They’re referring to Deut. 24:1. It’s a good start for them, as they’re at least appealing to the same authority as Jesus. And notice that Jesus redirects from what God permits to what God commands.

-But then Jesus goes on from there and gives us a lesson in biblical interpretation: Jesus corrects their interpretation, beginning with His own authority! Doesn’t appeal to a specific text right away, but gives some more background to why Moses allowed divorce. Because why? Hardness of heart. We’ve seen that a few times in this Gospel, and it appears repeatedly throughout the OT, and it refers to resistance to God. All of us have areas in our lives where we are hard hearted and not living as God would want us to live.

-This is part of the reason we need to be in community with other believers, as well as connect other believers throughout history and in other cultures, because all of us have areas of blindness that we need others to point out in our lives. Does anyone remember the time you realized there was something slightly weird about your nuclear family? Remember hearing an old story about a ham that a family made. Each year for Christmas, the sides of the ham were cut off, losing almost 1/3 of the meat. One year, the husband finally decided to ask his wife why she didn’t just get a small cut of ham, which led to “this is how my mom taught me to cook ham.” They called her mom who said that’s how her mom taught her to cook ham, so they went to grandma. Turns out grandma cut the ends off so the ham would fit in the roaster she had, meaning for years the rest of the family had been throwing pounds of delicious ham away!

-I remember going to school and realizing that it was weird that my parents were still married. Or getting married and realizing that your spouse’s family ate different foods than you did growing up. We all come to this realization at some point, the question is: what do you do when you realize it? When we realize our lives are out of line with what Jesus wants for us, are you going to change, or do you try to change what Jesus is saying?

-We saw this last week too, with Jesus’ command to fight against your indwelling sin (cut off your hand, foot, or eye)

-Where does Jesus then take the conversation? To God’s original design for human relationships.

-God’s intention was for male and female to be united in marriage, growing up together and becoming one flesh (sharing everything, including sexual intimacy). There are a whole host of directions we can take this and apply it to contemporary issues, but before your mind jumps there, let’s finish the rest of these verses to get the rest of the context of what Jesus is saying. Where the Pharisees jump right to the last of Moses’ books, Jesus goes back even further to Genesis 1 and 2, that is: life before sin entered the world. This one flesh idea is significant because it means it can’t be dissolved! On top of that, marriage is done before God (God joins them together). If God has joined something together, how could humans tear it apart?

-Then Jesus gives a pretty strong statement that went even further than the most conservative Pharisee was willing to go! No one expected that answer! Which is why the disciples ask Jesus about it.

-Jesus becomes even more explicit: divorce should not happen from either person, and if it does it is adultery. Jesus elevates the status of women here. In the 1^st cent. Only men were allowed to issue certificates of divorce, here Jesus is aware that women can pursue divorce too, which is also wrong.

-What do we do with this text?

-We recognize that God designed marriage to be a permanent, lifelong bond that at some point will be completed (no marriage in heaven)

-At the same time, we recognize that sin has affected every relationship on earth, including marriage relationships. We also need to ensure we bring all the relevant passages to this topic before we make a statement on what should take place. For example, Jesus in Matt. 5:32 says “Everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immortality.” So there are situations where divorce and remarriage is permittable, according to Jesus. This leads to the question: what situations are there were divorce or divorce and remarriage are acceptable? Paul gives desertion as another option in 1 Cor. 7, which I would argues includes spousal abuse (more to come in Sermon Scraps tomorrow)

-Divorce isn’t something to use a threat. Divorce isn’t something to joke about. Divorce shouldn’t even be the second, third, fourth, or hundredth option for a marriage. That being said, there are legitimate times where all other options have been exhausted because we live in a broken world where divorce will happen. Run to the Jesus in the midst of that. Run to the church in the midst of that. For a while, divorce was seen as the unforgiveable sin in the church, thankfully that’s not true!

-One other note to this: common to say that Jesus didn’t ever talk about same sex marriage or transgender ideas, which is only true in a very narrow sense of that idea. Those ideas weren’t debated in the first century! And Jesus appeals to God’s original design, not what life looks like on this side of the fall (which is what we as Christians are meant to be aiming for: new life here and now!)

-One of the primary things that is meant to set Christians apart is their marriages! Tertullian (155-220 AD): “We do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives.”

-Friends, if you’re married prioritize your marriage so our marriages can serve as the picture of Jesus and the church that they’re supposed to be.

In Trust (13-27)

-Picks up a theme from last week where Jesus used a child as an example of who His followers should receive. Apparently the disciples didn’t take it to heart (remaining hard hearted). Remember, little children weren’t worthy of any attention.

-Mark describes Jesus as indignant, as angry toward them! Mark seems to communicate Jesus’ emotions more than the other Gospels. But notice what it is that makes Him angry: lack of concern for “the least of these” (Matt. 25:45)

-Brings up the point: when can someone trust in Jesus as their Savior? He says His kingdom belongs to children! One of the things I pray for my kids is that they have a “boring” testimony. That they can’t imagine a day where they didn’t know, love, trust, and follow Jesus. My kids have shared with some of you that they trust Jesus, and I hope that’s true!

-What does it mean to receive the kingdom of God “like a child”? What can children do on their own? Nothing! Similarly, unless we come to God with nothing, we won’t receive His kingdom.

-Significance of Jesus laying hands on, and blessing children, where we have dedication.

-A picture of how someone needs to be childlike to enter the kingdom comes about from a rich young ruler. Notice how he approaches Jesus: running, kneeling, almost as if he’s desperate to get his question answered. Even acknowledges Jesus as “Good teacher.”

-Jesus (as always) redirects the conversation: why do you call me good?

-This isn’t a humble brag! This is Jesus reminding the man who He is: not just a teacher, but God who is worth giving everything up to follow.

-Jesus brings attention to the second half of the 10 commandments (first 4 are geared toward relationship with Him, last 6 are geared toward relationship with others)

-The man has been obedient since he would be held liable (13). Jesus doesn’t correct him or rebuke him, instead it says Jesus looks and loves.

-Loving enough to not leave the man in his independent state. If you love someone you will want what’s best for them, not letting them continue on in sin.

-This man had put his trust in material wealth. He had “great possessions,” which is why Jesus points out this deficiency in his life. This isn’t a command for all believers at all times (we see throughout the book of Acts that people in the early church share willingly with each other, but it was willingly, and no one gave up all their earthly possessions) Therefore, we don’t believe in poverty theology or prosperity theology

-This becomes another teaching opportunity for His disciples, as He tells them that unlike the children He had welcomed before, those who are wealthy struggle to put their whole trust and confidence in Jesus.

-Disciples were amazed for the same reason we would be: there’s a tendency to view material wealth as being blessed by God. Or to view money as the solution to all our problems. However, The Notorious BIG said it correctly when he said “Mo money mo problems.” It is more difficult for someone who has wealth on this side of heaven to realize that as we sing “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” Jonathan Edwards: “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” Do you realize that? Nothing! You need to come like a child!

-How easy is this? Not! It’s easier to thread a camel through a needle. How easy would that be? Camels were the biggest animal in this area of the world, needle was the smallest hole available. CS Lewis summarized this absurdity well:

-This blew the disciples minds even more! If even those that they viewed as blessed by God couldn’t be saved, who can?

-Yet another reminder that we are needy people! We are all dependent on God’s grace, we need His mercy extended to us day by day (which is why it’s a miracle that his mercies are new every morning). If it were only up to us, no one could be saved! Thankfully, God isn’t limited like we are, so because of God at work in us, there’s hope for us to be saved!

Sacrificially (28-31)

-But this causes the disciples to think about their situation. They’d left boats, jobs, families (as Peter says “everything”) in order to follow Jesus. Can they be saved?

-Not only will they be saved, but they’ll get back even before heaven 100x what they gave up! And they’ll also get persecutions. But how will this come about? By being brought into a new family!

-This gets us to a promise God made to Abraham in Gen. 15 where God said Abraham’s decedents would outnumber the stars. That promise comes true in the church today! As does the blessing of being brought into this new family where we have houses all over the world (story I was told last week of someone in their 20s going to South Korea), we have a new family, we aren’t stuck in 1 place.

-On top of the blessings here and now comes eternal life. Connects back to last week: what are willing to live without now to be blessed forever in heaven. When you do the math it literally makes no sense to put all your hope and confidence in the here and now when you can’t take it with you! But there are some things that will be with you in heaven: friendships, love, Jesus, rewards for faithful service, rewards for generous living. Why would you give up rewards in eternity (will never end) for 80 years of pleasure now? Compare 80 to eternity, not worth it!

-God’s kingdom is the upside down kingdom compared to worldly desires. We are called to live differently than the world does. We’re supposed to spend our money differently. We’re supposed to be citizens differently. We’re supposed to have different marriages. We’re supposed to have different priorities in our lives (like gathering together on Sunday instead of sleeping in!). We’re supposed to live supernatural lives that are radically different than the world around us wants us to live. We’re supposed to be like Jesus to those we come into contact with!

-Because “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells us so” we can trust in Him, we can be obedient to Him, and we can know that He is working in us to draw us to Himself.

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by mikethestrand on June 4, 2023 • Permalink

Posted in Bible, Church, Sermon, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on June 4, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/06/04/mark-101-31-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 9:14-50 – Sermon Manuscript

A Desperate Father (14-29)

-Coming off the “high” of the transfiguration, very quickly brought down “low” by a scandal brewing.

-Last week, we took some time to pray for those who will be going to serve at camp this summer, and if any of you went to a camp growing up, you understand the high of camp vs. the reality of coming back home. The high lasts for a little while, but at some point it seems that shine wears off, and people generally go back to how they were before camp.

-The other 9 disciples have gotten into a bit of a showdown with the scribes. Remember who they are? The experts of the law, think of them as lawyers! From first glance it appears to be an unfair fight: think of a high school graduate vs. a lawyer. From the outside perspective it’s an unfair fight (I would love to have a battle of the wits, but you appear to be unarmed)

-Not just scribes & disciples, a crowd is watching. But the crowd only wants Jesus, the disciples are second class (as will be explicitly demonstrated in a bit)

-What were they arguing about? Enter a desperate father.

-Looking for healing for his son: a demon that manifests symptoms like epilepsy. We’ve seen people coming to Jesus for healing throughout this whole book, and this man is no exception. People have seen and heard the good news about the healing Jesus brings and are flocking to Him for help. Unfortunately for the father, Jesus was a little busy hanging out with Moses & Elijah!

-So he asked Jesus’ remaining disciples to perform an exorcism, but they were unable

-Disciples represent their teacher. Jesus had sent out His disciples before in Mark 6. And listen to the way this was described back then: “So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.” This should have been old hat for the disciples! They’d done it before, and apparently very successfully because Mark says “MANY demons.”

-Because the disciples represent their teacher, the scribes would have jumped at an opportunity to throw doubt on Jesus’ rising fame! Suddenly the fight between the scribes and the disciples is crystal clear: the scribes are doubting the validity of Jesus’ ability to heal, meaning He’s not worth following. If the disciples heard that, the natural response would be to fight back, wouldn’t it?

-But Jesus isn’t worried about the same things as the people nearby. We’ve seen that repeatedly! Jesus keeps trying to teach His disciples, but they continually miss it (as do the crowds, and the scribes) I think we do too! I’ve been really struck by our study so far how quickly Jesus brings things back to teaching (either the 12, the crowds, or individuals). Jesus based everything on His teaching, His words (which weren’t just His words, but His Father’s words). Why do we think Jesus’ words aren’t effective today?

-We see an interesting response from Jesus. A faithless generation. There’s the real problem! They don’t believe who Jesus is (including the disciples). I love the way the CSB translated the second question: “How long must I put up with you?” I think we’ve seen examples of this before, but in those cases Mark just said “Jesus sighed.” Healing the blind/mute man and being asked to give a sign. Instead of just saying that Jesus sighed, in this case Mark lists what He sighed. Who is Jesus thinking of with these questions? Disciples? Scribes? Crowds? Father?

-All of the above! William Lane: “The rhetorical questions … express the loneliness and the anguish of the one authentic believer in a world which expresses only unbelief” They’re expressing belief, but it’s aimed in the wrong direction: toward themselves!

-Because of that, just like the prophets of the OT, Jesus implores them: how long will you not get it? God to Moses in Num. 14:27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me.”

-Take heart here, church! Disbelief has been a marker of God’s people from the beginning! Even when God answered prayer after prayer, need after need, dealt with problem after problem they continued to not believe. Walking across a dry seabed, manna and quail coming every day (just enough!). And how often do we do the same today? In the bad/difficult seasons we blame God, ask Him what’s going on, only to be brought through every difficulty and go right back to living as if we don’t need Him anymore. We can manage things in our own strength.

-This has been hard for me the past month! I feel like the past month of sermons has been me preaching to myself: do you believe that God will provide what you need? Do you trust Me? Do you believe that God will provide for you for the next day, just like He provided for you yesterday? Tuesday, I was praying for our ultrasound and asked God for some good news, when it hit me: I’ve already gotten it. George Herbert: “Death used to be an executioner, but the gospel has made him just a gardener.” Dear church, we can rejoice in the midst of suffering, even death, because we know everything will be made right again, even if it’s not on this side of heaven! Keller: “All death can now do to Christians is to make their lives infinitely better.”

-But in this case, Jesus decides to show what that healing will look like here and now: and He reaches out to the boy

-spirit tries to distract and destroy the child again, and what’s the trigger? Seeing Jesus. There’s no wonder that some people get very angry when confronted with the realities of Jesus, because following Him means you’ve got 2 options: either die to yourself, or die to Him, but there’s no alternative. We’re in a cosmic battle that is fought not with swords or drones, but with prayer and holiness.

-Jesus addresses the father again, invites the man to share some of his story. Once again, we see Jesus treating people as people! He’s never too busy, never too distracted, never too good. Everything He does is geared towards glorifying His Father and helping other take 1 step closer to Himself.

-But notice where the father lands with his story: in desperation. IF you can do anything, have compassion and help! Multiple times Jesus has been moved with compassion (both feedings of thousands) why would this time be any different? But this father doesn’t know that! It’s the job of others to tell him! The disciples, instead of fighting to defend Jesus’ honor, should have been looking for opportunities to proclaim the realties of who Jesus is, they just realized it in the last chapter, but unfortunately, they remain blind

-Jesus responds: IF!? What’s this “if”? You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means! God can do anything for someone who believes in Him! In God’s economy, there’s no “if.” There’s a “when,” but there’s no room for doubt when someone believes in Jesus! And the father sees this and learns far quicker than the disciples have!

-He responds with what should be our prayer everyday: I believe! Help my unbelief! How much belief does it take for Jesus to work? Matt. 17:20 faith as small as a mustard seed.

-The point isn’t the strength of the faith, it’s the object of the faith. You can have the biggest faith imaginable in pixie dust (like Peter Pan) you’re not going to be able to fly! But you can have faith as small as a mustard seed in Jesus, and it’s enough to transform your entire life, and not just your life, every life around you and all the rest of creation.

-Jesus, looking at the crowd, heals the boy, but not before one last attack, and the boy looks dead.

-Lit. “Jesus raised him, and he was resurrected.” Jesus has just been teaching the disciples about His upcoming death, and then modeled it on this boy!

-Finally withdrew with the disciples to “the house” (potentially Peter’s house again, homebase of operations) Didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of the whole crowd, so then they ask what happened!

-Did Jesus pray before He healed the boy? No!

-What does prayer signify? Complete dependence on God. Keller: “Pray is both conversation andencounter with God.” We answered that question today: “Prayer is pouring out our hearts to God in praise, petition, confession of sin, and thanksgiving.” AKA communing with God. Not some mystical “mmmmm” where we sing kumbaya, but being in a relationship with the Creator of the universe.

-An outworking of 1 Thess. 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.” Were the disciples not living this way? To answer that we need the next section

Desperate Disciples (30-41)

-Most of Jesus’ ministry has been centered in Galilee, but now they’re moving on. Trying to stay hidden because He needs to focus on training His disciples before His death. What’s the teaching centered on? His upcoming death, burial and resurrection.

-Why do you think they were afraid?

-Didn’t want to be embarrassed, had just been accused of being faithless, Jesus had questioned their hard heartedness before, yet they continue on in their misunderstanding. As we’ve seen before, this is a theme of God’s people throughout the whole Bible! And remains a theme for us today!

-What the disciples are forgetting or unaware of is: questions aren’t an issue or problem, we’ve seen that with the Father, I do believe, but help my unbelief! The problem is staying stuck in your unbelief! I’ve had conversations with people (the Bible is anti-science, we don’t know what the Bible actuallyshould say) There’s answers to the questions, but not if you don’t ask them!

-When they arrive, the underlying issue comes out: they used the time to fight about which one was the best.

-Would have been a normal conversation in the 1^st cent. Remember, I’ve shared the humility was a vice and pride was a virtue! Even Jewish writers frequently discussed what the seating order would be in Paradise! There was a prescribed order for sitting around the dinner table (where Jesus eating with “sinners” was so shocking)

-Another teaching moment for the disciples. Greatness isn’t measured the same in God’s kingdom! Jesus’ ordering flips everything upside down.

-First must be last, servant of ALL. I was told when I finally gave in to a call to ministry: that means you need to be ready to clean toilets! Friends: no gifting in Christ’s church is better than the other. In fact, those who deserve the most recognition probably won’t get it until heaven, but that’s what we should be looking for in the church! It takes all of us working together, using our gifts, not comparing ourselves to others, not worrying about who gets the recognition, but day after day striving to glorify God and encourage each other.

-The gospel message that Jesus brings completely frees us! We’re far worse than we could ever imagine, but we’re far more loved than we ever dreamed. Because of that, who cares what others think about us, we have a Father who loves us unconditionally!

-To demonstrate this reality, Jesus uses on object lesson. Children weren’t viewed like we view them today (little innocent cherubs whose cheeks we want to squeeze) Children were to be neither seen nor heard! The lowest rung of the totem pole in society.

-Doesn’t say to be like a child, says to receive (don’t like that word, prefer welcome) This is the same as saying “whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” Jesus calls us to be really weird in our relationships. Instead of viewing people as a means to an end, or a way to climb a social ladder, or a way to improve our own status in life, we’re supposed to go out of our way to serve others, to look for those who can’t return the favor and invest in them!

-But poor John this time doesn’t get it. Look the pronouns he uses: YOUR name, WE tried, not following US.

-Where John expects commendation, Jesus condemns. Don’t stop him! If people know about Jesus and what He brings, why does it matter what team they’re on? Another example of serving the least of these is like serving Christ.

-Now we see why the disciples couldn’t heal: they thought they could do it on their own. We have the secret key/code, we can do the same things Jesus does. Nope! Without Jesus they’re nothing! They need to continue relying and trusting in Him (which is demonstrated by prayer!) Prayer forces us to admit we’re needy, prayer forces us to face our sins, prayer forces us to acknowledge who we reallyare, it opens blind eyes, and deaf ears and allows us to rightly understand who God is.

-How often are you the same as the disciples? You know the right words to use, you share issues but only the superficial ones with others, you tithe regularly, you serve regularly, but it doesn’t impact or influence the way you’re living the rest of your life? Jesus isn’t looking for more recognition, Jesus doesn’t need you, but He wants you completely because anything less than that isn’t worth your time! He wants to radically reorder your life! He wants you to live the best life possible: but there’s a catch: it only comes about through service, through dying, through weakness. Keller: true humility is not thinking less about yourself, it’s thinking about yourself less. “If you met a truly humble person, you wouldn’t think him/her humble, but only that they were happy and incredibly interested in you.” Are you interested in other people, or are you only interested in yourself?

A Desperate Messiah (42-50)

-Who are “these little ones”? The poor & marginalized who are following Jesus. Uses graphic language to communicate how they should be treated! Robert Murry Mc’Cheyne “The greatest need of my people is my own holiness.” For decades we’ve only been looking to gifted people to push into leadership of our churches, to our detriment. We’ve seen the falling out of that with the #ChurchToo movement, the abuses of pastors, the covering up of horribly graphic sin in Christ’s church!

-This is why it matters so much how you live. This is why one of the most important ministries in the church is kid’s and student ministry. This is why it’s a blight on the church when abuse is revealed: because Jesus Himself says it’s not to happen! Now: this doesn’t mean that just because someone claims abuse means that’s true, but this is why it’s so important to ensure that people’s giftings don’t outpace their spiritual development.

-But it’s not just causing someone else to sin, what about the sin you have in you?

-John Owen “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” What do you do to pursue holiness in your life? Easy to run to hyperbole (Jesus didn’t mean this literally, obviously) but it’s graphic language to make a point.

-If social media causes you to lust after people or things, disable your socials. If your TV causes you to become lazy, move it to a different place in the house or get rid of it all together! If food is a temptation for you, find ways to limit food in the house. If you use your phone too much or have become addicted to it, get a flip phone or a nothing phone. This is hard and at times inconvenient! But dear saints: it’s worth it! It’s FAR better to limit yourself here and come to Jesus unburdened in heaven than to have what you want here but lack in heaven. I’ve heard a pastor say that this is either the closest to hell or the closest to heaven you’ll live. Which way are you aiming and pursuing?

-Then Jesus starts talking about the need to be salty (not angry)

-What is salt used for? Seasoning, fertilizer, preservative. Everyone salted with fire: preserved, put through fire as either test or eternally.

-Salt is one of the most stable compounds we know! VERY hard to get it to break apart, how would it lose its’ saltiness? True, genuine salt can’t lose it’s saltiness, just like true faith can’t be lost if it’s in Jesus.

-We, as Christians, are called to serve a preserving function in our society, meaning that the communities around us flourish because we’re here. But Jesus doesn’t just leave it up to us to try to figure out what that means, He says it: “be at peace with one another.” Don’t be argumentative, keep short accounts, and live as peaceful people. Remember, Jesus also said that the way we get along is meant to demonstrate whether or not we’re believers. The world should see a difference in us! Do they?

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by mikethestrand on May 28, 2023 • Permalink

Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on May 28, 2023

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2023/05/28/mark-914-50-sermon-manuscript/

Mark 8:22-33 – Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever accidentally run into someone famous, but you weren’t sure it was them? Airport, coffee shop, dropping your kid of at preschool.

-A few months ago, I was tasked with bringing Calvin to his preschool. Bunch of moms and me waiting in line to check our kids in.

-Didn’t recognize someone, but thought I had seen him before

-Disciples are finally at the point today where they say Jesus’ nametag, as it were. They recognize who He is, but not completely.

READ/PRAY (pg. 492)

-Everything in this Gospel has been building up to this week’s text!

Seeing But Not Seeing (22-26)

-Bethsaida – moving North from where we were last week. Last week, most likely somewhere near Magdala. As they were sailing they had the conversation about leaven, so then they apparently were aiming for Bethsaida on the northernmost side of the lake. Remember: most of Jesus ministry so far has been focused on the Galilean territory. He’s done some traveling to other areas nearby, but He’s about to shift His focus.

-In Luke’s account of this story, he states that after many of the events we just read about, Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)

-All the Gospel’s can be summarized as “extended passion narratives” They all spend a significant amount of time on the last week of Jesus’ life, everything else just serves to demonstrate who Jesus is.

-Once again, people find Him, can’t get away. Seems the only time He gets with His disciples is when He’s in the boat!

-Makes sense: His fame is spreading, we’ve already read a story of Herod (ruler of Galilee) hearing about Jesus and wanting to meet Him, the news has been traveling about what to expect from Jesus: healings!

-If any of you have watched The Chosen, there’s 1 episode from season 2 that stood out to me, titled “Matthew 4:24” which says “²⁴So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. ²⁵And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” Think about what the significance of that would be! And this is describing the beginning of Jesus’ ministry! It says people brought ALL the sick! It was a fascinating look at what a day of ministry in the life of Jesus would look like. The disciples took shifts managing the line, helping people stay organized, and Jesus got no breaks. He came into camp at the end of the day and collapsed into His tent. No downtime, no breaks, just continually serving those in need. No wonder we have a story of Jesus falling asleep in a boat in the middle of a storm!

-Just as Jesus has healed many people, as His fame and notoriety has continued to spread, the people Bethsaida knew exactly what they needed to do.

-“Some people” can reasonably guess that this is describing the blind man’s friends. The friends begged Jesus to touch this blind man. Generally it’s the person with the issue who approaches Jesus begging, but in this case the blind man has friends. (The importance of having and being a friend)

-Why touching? Just a couple weeks ago we read a story of a Gentile woman who was healed by Jesus merely speaking. Touching is generally viewed as the way healings happen! It takes a lot more faith to believe God can heal by speaking (as Jesus has demonstrated He can do!)

-Jesus brings the man out of the village by themselves (most likely with his friends and the disciples still watching)

-Why the secrecy? Yet another issue that has come up repeatedly in this book so far! 2 weeks ago we studied the healing of a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and just as read about here, that man was taken away privately. Don’t forget: the healings aren’t the primary ministry! Teaching is! The healings merely serve as demonstrations that what Jesus is saying is true, the kingdom of God is at hand and everything that has been broken is starting to be fixed again.

-It’s also a reminder that Jesus saves people individually. This fits in really well with our common ideas and perspectives as 21^st cent. Americans: every single one of us needs to be saved! We can’t rely on the faith of our parents, can’t rely on the faith of our neighbor, can’t rely on the faith of our spouse! Every single one of us needs to believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world in order to be saved. What’s amazing about that is as soon as we believe in Jesus, we’re brought into a family called the Church! (which is what 21^st cent. Americans don’t like at admit) Before that we’re alone, living in isolation, separated from God and others, but as soon as you believe in Jesus that all changes. Think of the way Peter (same Peter who we read about today) describes us in a later letter: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that together we can proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light! Jesus looks for and reaches out to have relationship with individuals, but then through His work on the cross He brings them into His family. Praise God for salvation!

-Jesus’ method of healing seems odd, and it’s the second time we’ve seen it, Jesus also used spit in his healing of the deaf & speech impediment man. Believe it or not, this was a common healing practice in the 1^stcent.

-Pliny the Elder (published Natural History in 77 AD) where he extolled the virtues of spitting! They would spit on someone suffering from epilepsy, spit to ward off bad luck, spit in their right shoe before putting it on for good luck. Who knew the healing virtues of saliva? Jesus is demonstrating that healing will be coming, because it wasn’t just spitting taking place, it also says Jesus laid His hands on the man.

-First time Jesus asked if he was healed, couldn’t be for uncertainty since He knows everything. Why do you think He asked?

-We’ve seen throughout the healing accounts that healing is connected to faith, do you think maybe Jesus is inviting the man to acknowledge Jesus’ provision in His life?

-At first glance, it seems like a healing didn’t work.

-He can see, but not clearly. Spider-Man 1 (OG Toby Maguire) glasses to non glasses

-He can see, but He can’t really see. He can see shapes and figures nearby him, which could be because this man was once able to see, so he knows what trees are, or it could just be that people have described trees to him and he’d felt them, regardless, things aren’t quite in focus. He’s starting to be able to see, but not completely. Things are blurry and out of focus.

-Jesus touches him a second time, then Mark bends over backwards to communicate the healing: opened, restored, clearly.

-Notice that Jesus doesn’t spit this time – it’s all Jesus! Spit just served to signify what Jesus was going to do, it wasn’t the cure, it wasn’t needed, because Jesus is enough.

-Is this descriptive of real life? You’ll have to ask Dr. Keith Carlson about the validity of this, but I’ve read stories of those who have had surgery whose eyes take a while to be able to recover or focus. This time it took no time! Hate to break it to Keith, but Jesus is even better with eyes than you are!

-We’re so close to Jesus revealing himself, but it’s still not time for His identity to be revealed. This man is encouraged to go home, don’t go to the village, don’t spread the word, live your life.

-One of the things I mentioned a number of weeks ago when I preached on Mark 5 was the idea that miracles are meant to serve as living parables: living examples of something more significant

-Example to the disciples of their lack of being able to focus. They can see, but they can’t really see. If you’ve ever seen someone start squinting to try to see what they’re staring at that’s what the disciples are like. Jesus is right in front of them, they see the miracles, they’ve watched the healings, they’ve heard the teaching, a shape is starting to form in their minds, but it hasn’t fully developed yet.

-Timely, because this is exactly what happens to the disciples in the next section!

Knowing But Not Knowing (27-30)

-Moved about 20 miles north to the villages/area of Caesarea Philippi. On the way made small talk: what’s the latest news about me? What are you hearing?

-This is the theme of the book: remember how it begins: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” No question in Marks’ mind about who Jesus is! Then there’s the recognition of the Father after Jesus’ baptism in 11, and a plethora of demons who know exactly who He is. Even after calming a storming sea, the disciples ask “Who is this, that the wind and sea obey him!” They’ve been dancing around this idea for a while now, and they’ve heard what others have said!

-John the Baptist. Same as Herod thought! Can’t keep a good man down! The prophet has come back from the dead to begin judging others.

-Elijah. Prophecy from Malachi 4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Elijah by the 1^st cent. Became associated with God’s final judgment. If Jesus is Elijah coming back, it means the end of time has come!

-And others wouldn’t put Jesus quite as high as Elijah, He’s just one of the prophets. God is speaking once again (after centuries of waiting), and it’s true that Jesus spoke on behalf of God, but He’s far more than JUST a prophet.

-None of these are even close! It’s also surprising that no one anticipates that Jesus is the Messiah! Peter is intentionally supposed to be the first one to recognize this reality.

-That’s all well and good, but what do YOU think? They’ve been following, living, sleeping, eating with Him but do they know who He is?

-Peter speaks on behalf of the whole group: The Christ – Messiah, The Anointed One. Someone who has been set apart for service of God. Remember, Christ isn’t Jesus’ last name: it’s a title!

-1^st cent. Expectations of the Messiah who would come, summarized well by a pseudepigraphal (not written by him) 1^st cent. BC book called the Psalms of Solomon. This was what everyone expected the Messiah to look like! A political savior who would overthrow the terrible Romans and place Israel back in her place of prominence on the global stage! After all, they were God’s chosen people! But that wasn’t God’s plan.

-Peter passed this test with flying colors! Way to go Peter! But if you start to think He’s got everything figured out, let’s just keep going:

Hearing But Not Hearing (31-33)

-Now that they have confessed who Jesus really is, Jesus needs to teach them what that means. Right now they’re seeing, but they can’t really see it, so they need to listen to what Jesus teaches. But what does He teach?

-Son of Man: what is that title? Jesus’ favorite description of Himself, fulfills a prophecy from Dan. 7:25-27. At this point, they’re sure they’ve got it right! If Jesus is the Son of Man, look at what his kingdom will look like!

-But that’s not what Jesus says, He says He MUST: suffer, be rejected, killed, rise again. That doesn’t fit into all the ideas the disciples have about the Messiah!

-Plainly: no parable, no allegory, no story, just explicitly stating what needed to happen. This REALLY isn’t fitting in with what God’s Messiah is SUPPOSED to look like!

-Peter, who passed his first test, decides he’s tired of being on the honor role, and decides to rebuke Jesus.

-First of all, REALLY bad idea to rebuke Jesus. Once again, speaking on behalf of all the disciples.

-I know we have a tendency to laugh at Peter, but what if Peter thinks Jesus is questioning His calling? All of us have gone through seasons questioning what we’re supposed to be doing with our lives! Maybe Peter’s trying to give him a pep talk: “Come on man, you can do it! You know that’s not what it means to be the Messiah. We totally believe in you! Nothing can get in our way! Let’s take over the world!” Unfortunately for Peter, that’s EXACTLY what it means.

-Jesus needs to correct all the disciples’ misconceptions about what the Messiah is supposed to be like.

-The disciples had sacrificed everything to be with Jesus. Given up their jobs, their families, Peter left his wife, all to become apprentices to Jesus, their hopeful Messiah. They’d studied the Torah, they’d been taught by the Rabbis, they knew what the Messiah would look like, or did they?

-From Expositors Commentary: “Jesus cannot be pressed…into a

predetermined spiritual box.” Pictures of cats fitting in weird places, Jesus starts by doing that, but then breaks the box. Our human minds can’t contain what Jesus is supposed to be! If Jesus ONLY came to free the nation of Israel, that wouldn’t be enough to deal with all the broken relationships from the fall (God, self, others, rest of creation). Jesus needed to deal with sin, which is WAY harder to take care of! An insurrection wouldn’t have dealt with enough, a political savior is far too small.

-Just like the blind man in the previous story, the disciples saw who Jesus was, but they didn’t really see. They viewed Jesus purely from a human lens instead of seeing what it would take to begin a true and lasting insurrection in the spiritual realm. The shapes were in place, they were starting to make some connections, but to say Jesus just came to bring political change is like calling people walking trees!

-Jesus rebukes all the disciples (Peter just saying what everyone else was thinking). Where Peter thinks Jesus is being tempted by Satan, Peter is the one speaking on behalf of Satan.

-What does it mean to set your mind on the things of man?

-Power, recognition, prestige.

-Connects to story from This American Life of the Jews who saw God as a bigger dad

-Calvin: “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” Peter, and the disciples, followed Jesus as a way to get their human needs met, but Jesus came to fill their spiritual needs, and only when our spiritual needs are met can we have hope of getting our spiritual needs met. In order to truly know ourselves, we need to know the God who created us, who sustains us, and who continues upholding all of creation with His mighty hand.

Pastor Mike's Musings

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