The good news of Christ
The world is awash in lies and deception.
Guide us in your truth, O Lord.
Greet us with your eternal love.
Faithful is your every promise.
Keep us from the father of lies.
Our humble hearts would hear your word.
Make us faithful servants of Christ,
Giving our lives for heavenly homes.
Father of lights, let peace settle
Upon our souls with gentle signs.
We sing your praise for full salvation,
For growing hope in cleansing blood.
As we brought our first child home from the hospital, we wished newborns came with instruction manuals. To live our lives, we have one–it is written by God and is full of His perfect teaching!
I. Judges 13:1-12. When the angel explained the rules to govern Samson’s life as a Nazirite, his father was wise enough to ask God in prayer to teach them what they were to do. Before the age of synagogues, what would a man of the fields know about the Lord’s instruction except that many years before, a covenant with God had been made on Mt. Sinai that God’s people had agreed to obey (Exodus 19:5-8)? Yet, this father-to-be, faced with a great challenge, knew not to trust in his own understanding.
II. John 16:12-13. Since Eden, we have understood the world through learning (Genesis 3:22), and so the first covenant God made with His people came by instruction (Exodus 24:12), and promises that God would teach us for a second covenant were made (Jeremiah 31:31-34). God’s Son came as a master teacher (Mark 10:1) and just before the cross promised that God’s Spirit would lead his followers into all truth. Indeed, the Thessalonians were told that they were taught by God to love one another (1 Thessalonians 4:9).
III. Proverbs 3:5-7. The big question is–will we submit to God’s teaching or lean on our own understanding? Like the man who assembles something from a box without consulting the instructions, if we do this with our lives, we’ll end up with a pocketful of extra parts and a product that doesn’t work well or at all. Instead, we need to delight in God’s teaching (Psalm 1:2) and not be a fool who despises it (Proverbs 1:2-7). We must say with the Psalmist, “Teach me” (Psalm 25:4-10).
We are surrounded by sources of teaching that would have us living our lives in many different ways, some that even sound wise, but the only instruction for life and godliness comes from God.
© 2019 J. Randal Matheny
O God, transform my mind,
Give power to leave behind
All worldly ways and timid days,
Be to your will aligned.
Create your life in me,
The Spirit’s full degree
With joy untamed and hope ordained —
Of earthly suffering free.
Perfection my desire,
Your holiness my fire —
The Savior’s zeal my close ideal
To move me higher and higher.
“In God We Trust” is printed right on our money, yet do we trust Him or the money itself? Most of us would exclaim that we trust God, but in reality trust in others, circumstances, or ourselves. We trust that the money we’ve paid into Social Security will be there to fund our retirement; we insist that we do certain jobs because “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself; and Grandma always believed this, so it’s good enough to get me into heaven.
If we truly examine our motives, we might be surprised what we truly trust in!
I. Judges 12:1-7. A gentle word is supposed to turn away wrath (Proverbs 15:1), but Jephthah learned with first the Ammonites and then the Ephraimites that that doesn’t always work. He had tried to put his trust in his fellow Israelites to save him from a foreign invader, and they didn’t like him putting his trust in God when they refused his request. You may experience friends’ or relatives’ pressure for you to follow their advice or examples, but often their ways run counter to God’s Word. Adam and Eve experienced this in Genesis 3:1-6. As a Christian, we must always follow God’s way.
II. 1 Samuel 13:8-12. We can misplace our trust by putting it in others, circumstances, or ourselves. When Samuel was later than he said he would arrive and King Saul was watching his army grumble and disperse, he justified in his own mind that offering the sacrifice, a job only for the Levites, was okay for him to do. God ripped the kingdom away from him because of his disobedience. Sin is not trusting in a good God to follow His perfect plan in His perfect way in His perfect timing for you. Worry is trusting only in ourselves (Matthew 6:25-33) as is having little faith (Matthew 14:28-31).
III. Psalm 20:4-7. A Christian will firmly place his trust in God, knowing that His ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8) and that God never forsakes those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 9:10). Indeed, for that which is most important–salvation–Jesus Himself tells us to put our trust in Him (John 14:1-3).
We might examine ourselves in light of Scripture and ask if we are placing our trust in God and He is just using the people and circumstances around us as tools for His plan or if we are trusting in those people, circumstances–even ourselves–to save us.
Our Father who abides in and reigns from heaven,
These things we ask and pledge in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Lord, thank you for relief
From suffering, pain, and grief,
From mental anguish, harm,
And sharp emotion’s alarm.
Thank you, God, for rest
From labor and cares; for blest
Eternal hope — I give
All praise to you, to live
And move and deeply breathe —
O Father, I believe!
The Christian Walk has been described as one beggar showing another beggar where to find food. This illustrates wonderfully how one of our primary missions on this earth is to instruct others in the way of salvation.
I. Matthew 28:18-20. Animals know how to live by instinct, but human beings need to be taught (Genesis 3:5-22). God has given us the Bible to instruct us in the way of salvation (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and displayed His power in creation to know that He is God (Romans 1:18-22). So, it is no wonder that Jesus seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10) today by equipping us to make disciples through teaching others the gospel.
II. Ephesians 4:11-16. But, the teaching does not stop there. After making disciples, we are to teach them to obey all of Jesus’ commands. To do that, Jesus established His church (Matthew 16:18) as a center of learning, where the lost can hear the gospel, yes, but where the church, speaking the truth in love, can build itself up in love. Our teaching should not be confined within the walls of buildings, however, but the church, attaining unity and maturity in Jesus, should go forth and teach.
III. John 13:13-34. We glimpse Jesus’ great love that motivated Him to live a number of years in the flesh to instruct us in the way of salvation before going to the cross for us in love. In Matthew 23:37, He laments that Jerusalem persisted in sin while so many prophets had come to teach the city and the nation throughout the centuries. That same love is our motivation as we take up Jesus’ mission to teach others by word and by deed, by our very lives, the way back to God.
By learning do we now understand our world, and so God, in His infinite wisdom, taught us who He is and how to return to Him. Then, having come to know Him, we are, in turn, told to teach others.