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You Would Not Save Me

“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.

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And They Devoted Themselves

A wedding is an event; the marriage is an endurance race.  As parts of the bride of Christ, we should plan ahead for the time beyond the “I do” of baptism to the daily walk with our Bridegroom.  A glimpse into the lives of the 1st Century Christians can help us in the 21st Century.

I.  Acts 2:42-47.  How long would a marriage last if after the honeymoon, the bride returned to her single life and only spent an hour with her husband once a week?  There’s much we can learn from the early church’s devotion to their new life.  In western culture, we are in the habit of scheduling time with Jesus along with the other things that we do.  But, a marriage is not something we can schedule.  It is through our relationship with Christ that we live our lives.

II.  1 Timothy 2:1-6.  Just as newly married soldiers in Israel were to stay home to work on the devotion to their wives (Deuteronomy 24:5), new Christians especially need to work on their relationship with Christ through their devotion to learning from God’s Word, serving with fellow Christians, remembering Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection through the Lord’s Supper, and praying as Christ desires all to come to salvation (Acts 2:42).

III.   Ephesians 5:31-33.  And, of course, as the years go by, all couples need to maintain their marriages through such things as retreats, date nights, and good communication.  These keep their oneness from splitting back into two individuals again.  The formula that Christ and His bride use is sacrificial love and obedient respect.  This takes work as well as devotion in our spiritual walk to do the things that benefit ‘we’ and not just ‘me’ (Acts 2:43-47).

Rather than treating our Christianity as a checklist, we should seek to do those things that a good friend or spouse would do with our Bridegroom to have a loving and lasting relationship.

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He is a New Creation

As the road is wide that leads to destruction, much of mankind are caterpillars concerned with things below.  It’s when one realizes a need, turns, and obeys the gospel that he enters Christ through baptism and changes to be born a member of Christ’s body the church.  From there the butterfly … erm, Christian … walks (or flies–to keep the illustration consistent) as Jesus did upon that narrow road that leads to eternal life.

I.  Romans 5:18-21.  Sin marred the image of God that we were created in, but Christ was the perfect image of God who lived perfectly and then died so that in Him we could be restored to that perfection (Romans 6:1-14).  When we enter the chrysalis of Christ, we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

II.  Colossians 3:1-17.  God’s ways and thoughts are so much above our own (Isaiah 55:8-9), yet in Him we are united with him and change to live differently.  Our minds and hearts need to be set on things above, not on earthly things.  After all, butterflies have wings and do not have the concerns of caterpillars.

III.  Ephesians 2:4-10.  The flutter (collective noun for a group of butterflies) that make up the bride of Christ works (obedient living) for the Bridegroom, walks as the Bridegroom (1 John 2:3-6) does, watches for the Bridegroom (Luke 21:34-36), and waits for the Bridegroom (Hebrews 9:27-28).

Jesus has made us to be a new creation as we enter the chrysalis of His body, the church, and are reborn as something entirely different.  Why live as if we don’t have wings?

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With You I Am Well Pleased

A humorous series of pictures on social media shows dogs’ expressions before and after being told that they are “good dogs.”  We, too, want to hear from God one day, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” but are we willing to make it our goal to please Him and walk in obedience?

I.  John 12:42-43.  Ever donate to some cause just to get a trinket in return?  Though our motives are often selfish, we often tell ourselves that we attend church and do good deeds because we love God and others.  But, it is with ourselves mostly that we are pleased.  Fear of many things keep us from obeying God’s commands and pleasing Him.  We must be careful not to be at home in this world (2 Corinthians 5:1-5).

II.  Mark 1:9-11.  The life of Jesus is a good study in how to live to be pleasing to God.  When He was baptized, we see His Father expressing this.  We also see this at His transfiguration in Matthew 17:5.  We understand that Jesus pleased God because He was even obedient to death (Philippians 2:5-8), but the great thing is that through His obedience, He gave us the opportunity to please God (Hebrews 5:7-9).

III.  1 Corinthians 10:1-6.  God is not a soccer mom who has an over-inflated view of His child.  Nor does He lavish fake praise when He knows how separated from Him because of sin we are.  Heaven is not a participation trophy!  Instead, we are warned not to repeat the sins of those who have gone before us because God was not pleased with them.  By living by faith, we are able to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:6-10).

No, we don’t earn our way into heaven by good works, but we must be an obedient child to one day hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  That would not be possible for us to hear if Jesus had not gone before us and obeyed perfectly to the cross.

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Lessons in the Storm

A huge winter storm, dumping 18+ inches of snow on the North Country, is expected to continue through today, so we’ve cancelling our classes and worship service out of safety concerns.
My observations: shoveling snow during a storm with strong winds blowing is a great illustration of our Christian walks in the midst of a sinful world.
1. We must first prepare to begin the task by bundling up. No Christian should face the day without the armor of God!
 
2. It will be difficult and leave us exhausted. We must brace ourselves for the task, filling up with good spiritual food and trusting in God’s strength, mercy, and grace to get us through.
 
3. There often won’t be a great return for our labor. The snow may blow in the trough behind you and make you question the effort you’re putting in, but our labor for the Lord is never in vain.
 
4. God gives us fellow workers along the way. A good friend with a plow on the front of his truck, who had been plowing since 4 a.m., took a few passes on my driveway and encouraged me immensely!
 
5. Warm rest is waiting when the labor’s done! Just the thought of a cup of hot coffee by the wood stove was enough to keep me going. Heaven awaits God’s faithful servants!
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My Food is …

Many of our New Year’s resolutions have to do with food: the quantity, the quality, or the management of it in the form of exercise.  Many make resolutions as well about our spiritual food.

After all, we are what we eat, so be careful what you ingest!

I.  John 4:6-38.  Jesus starts speaking with the woman at the well in Samaria about physical water and ends up revealing to her that He is the Messiah.  As she goes away to tell her friends and neighbors, Jesus’ disciples return with food, only to find that He claims to have food that they know nothing about.  That food: doing God’s work and will!

II.  John 6:22-69.  The crowd that Jesus had fed wanted more physical food so badly they crossed the sea by boat to find Him.  Jesus calls them out on their limited diet, challenging them to seek Him the true bread from heaven.  He tells them that whoever comes to Him and believes in Him will never hunger or thirst spiritually.  Like the mother who whisks away the plate of cookies for veggies, Jesus offends many who just wanted more loaves and fishes.

III.  1 Peter 2:1-5.  In the same way that we are careful about what we take in physically, counting calories and watching sugars and carbs, we must beware of what we’re ingesting spiritually.  The internet, tabloids, and even good meaning family members and friends offer to fill our plates with junk food, but only the Lord is good.  We begin as infants on milk but must soon grow up into our salvation eating solid food.

What does your spiritual diet consist of?  Even in adulthood, I may not like the vegetables served at dinner, but I’ve come to know that they are for my good to eat them.

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Immerse Yourself in Them

There are two ways to enter a pool: cannonball or creep.  Those who creep endure a slow, inch-by-excruciating-inch torture of cold water on their feet, ankles, legs, knees, etc. and usually complain loudly at each step of the way until they finally put their heads under and exclaim, “It’s alright once you get in!”  Those who jump right in skip the torture in a split-second shock … and usually splash (and annoy) those creeping in.

This is how it is with a living out of our faith (1 Timothy 4:15-16).

I.  Revelation 3:15-16.  We’ve all been around those who have truly realized the gospel, obeyed it, and then been “on fire” for God.  If we’re ones creeping into our Christian walk, then we might have even found ourselves splashed with a little more church or Jesus than we’re acclimated to.  Paul’s advice to Timothy is immerse himself into His Christian walk.  God does not like lukewarm Christianity!

II.   James 3:1.  Even the first duty of someone seeking to be a shepherd over God’s flock is to watch himself first (Acts 20:28-31).  That is Paul’s next piece of advice to the young evangelist, but it is not just for ourselves that we pay careful attention to how we walk.  We also are to be careful of what we teach to make sure that whether in word or deed we do all according to God’s Word (Colossians 3:17).

III.  James 1:2-12.  Anyone can do right as an event (even a stopped clock is right twice a day), but it takes someone truly committed to walking as Jesus did (1 John 2:6) to persist in living out God’s Word.  If we persevere, Paul tells Timothy that he will save both himself and his hearers.

This doesn’t happen by those inching their way into their Christian walk.  It’s time to cannonball in!

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Put Our Hope in the Living God

Most work hard for a paycheck, but if the company can no longer give us money for our work, we no longer show up.  We have a certain amount of loyalty but largely are not intrinsically invested in our jobs.  This is just the opposite of our walk with Christ–and good thing!  We must obey God, but heaven is not given to us because of our obedience.  We cannot work for our salvation; it is a gift.  In some ways, this seeming disconnect makes it harder for Christians to persevere and be faithful unto death if we must rely on grace through Jesus’ work on the cross that has nothing to do with us.

This is why we are left with one of the three big gifts (1 Corinthians 13:8-13)–hope!

I. Hebrews 6:17-20.  Hope is our motivator.  God, who never lies, confirmed eternity for us with an oath, so we might flee our old life of sin and selfishness and take hold of the only thing that can save us–His unchangeable promise of heaven!  It was this hope or the “joy set before him” that got Jesus through the cross to motivate us to throw off hindrances and sin and not grow weary in the Christian walk (Hebrews 12:1-3).

II. 1 Timothy 4:7-10.  We labor and strive because of hope in the living God.  When asked if he wanted to leave Him too, Peter replied that there was no one else to turn to (John 6:66-69).  Before the Sanhedrin, he declared that salvation was found in no one else (Acts 4:8-12).  But, the very nature of hope is that it is always just out of reach, and it is so hard to wait (Romans 8:23-25).  Yes, it is!

III. Mark 14:66-72.  There was a time when Peter had let go of hope.  It was Thursday through his talk with the resurrected Christ while eating some fish (John 21:15-19).  Having denied Jesus, the very thing he swore he would not do, Peter slunk back to huddle with those who had deserted their Master while Jesus was crucified and buried.  On the resurrection Sunday, the omniscient God calls him out when He, through the angel, tells the women at the tomb to tell “his disciples and Peter” (Mark 16:7).

When we sin, we let go of the hope that we have taken hold of to return to that which we have fled from.  We become like Peter, even pretending to fit in with His disciples today at church.  We must repent and re-grasp this great gift of hope, letting it be our motivator to walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6).

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Unable to Trap Him

Satan lays all kinds of traps for us, preying on our weaknesses and sinful natures.  Sometimes, he comes to us in what seems an impossible situation–like David found himself in facing Goliath!  But, the secret is to know who is the real giant!

I. Luke 20:1-19.  Satan talks big (Luke 4:5-7), but because of Jesus’ work on the cross, He’s the true one in authority (Matthew 28:18).  The Goliaths of Jesus’ day roared their challenges to Him, but His stones easily knocked them down.  Jesus knew that those who believed themselves in power were afraid of the people.

II. Luke 20:20-40.  Like a cat pouncing on a red laser dot, those who believed themselves in power tried futilely to trap Jesus.  They did not realize that He was the Word made flesh (John 1:1-14) or that the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom or weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength (1 Corinthians 1:25).  The result of this mismatched battle was that all fell silent and did not dare to challenge Him further.

III.  1 John 5:3-5.  Those who believed they were in power in Jesus’ day were like Goliath in David’s.  So today, the world, for all of its bluster and threats, is not really the true giant when it comes up against those who are in Christ Jesus and have overcome the world through our faith.  In Jesus, we stand before the intimidating champion of the Philistines armed with God’s wisdom and strength.

… if we could only realize it!

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More Will Be Given

Most only know that Zacchaeus was a “wee little man” who climbed a tree to see Jesus as He passed by, but this account is about great grace given because of this chief tax collector’s realization of his great wickedness and his reaction of great repentance.

I. Luke 19:1-10.  Though short in height, Zacchaeus had risen in earthly stature through ill-gotten gain.  So, he naturally believed the way to see this great teacher that some perhaps were secretly murmuring was the Messiah was to climb a tree.  When he saw the true riches that Jesus offered, he realized that the way up with God was to fall to His knees and he repented (Ezekiel 18:21-24).

II. Luke 19:11-26.  The parable that Jesus tells next challenges us to examine our relationship with Him.  How we act with God’s blessings and gifts He’s entrusted to us reveals our true motivation.  We don’t want to be found as the wicked servant who hid what he was given lest it be taken away and given to those who are using their talents for God and His Kingdom.

III.  Matthew 6:19-21.  Where we store our treasure reveals where our heart truly is–whether in heaven or on earth.  Storing treasure in heaven is hard work and requires spiritual training (Hebrews 12:7-11).  It means giving to others how we want to receive from God (Luke 6:37-38) and a conscious understanding of what we are sowing to know what we will reap (Galatians 6:7-10).

Squirrels are often busy, well … squirreling away their treasure of acorns for the winter, but this is a selfish model of what we shouldn’t do.  They won’t share what they’ve been given with other squirrels in other trees.  This is how Zacchaeus was before he climbed down from the tree and hosted Jesus in his home.  What great grace could be yours with your great repentance?