The day begins with risen light,
With peace within to meet the fight
Without. Be glorified, O Lord,
In me, who in the beginning died
To self, whose will must daily die.
Look down with your benevolent eye
To bless with power, for foe and friend,
To reach with shining faith the end.
As Though By Our Own
In recent years, the world has grown aggressively antagonistic to Christianity, and yet the church’s response has been to compromise with the culture and blend in to with every secular help agency to win souls. Rather, let us hold out the treasure of the gospel and point to Jesus no matter what the cost.
I. Acts 3:5-16. Peter healed a man lame from birth and an utterly astounded crowd soon came running. Had it been the expected alms, like the silver or gold that everyone expected, then perhaps no one would have taken note. But a complete healing of the man so that he could leap and praise God stood out dramatically. Instead of blending in, God’s power was at work. The gospel also heals us completely from sin, yet the church would rather be like every other agency to keep from being noticed.
II. Hebrews 7:11-16. Peter was quick to tell the gathering crowd that it was not by their own power or piety that the man was healed. Rather, he pointed to Jesus’ authority, power, and indestructible life. Being sinful, we can do little (Romans 7:18-20), but Jesus was sinless (Hebrews 4:15). Christians have often served without thanks, but when great things happen because God worked through us, we should acknowledge Him who is able to do all things.
III. Acts 12:21-24. Peter then preaches the gospel to them (1 Corinthians 15:3-5), explaining that is faith through Jesus (John 8:24) that distinguishes us. Yet, the Lord’s church attempts to compete with the world by means of the world. We strive to have the same programs and ministries, the same facilities and advertising campaigns that the world has. In doing so, we hope we’ll stand out enough to grow in numbers while not enough to incur the world’s wrath.
Because our Savior was on a mission (Luke 19:10), we who wear His name must be as well. We must have the courage to stand out in a world that stands against us.
No finer prayer
Lord who cares,
This prayer, no finer made, is mine:
“I believe; help my unbelief.”
So many times, O God, you proved
Your power and will to change our lives,
Forgive our sins, and reconcile.
Without a shadow of a doubt,
I know you live and move and act.
But still — yes, still! — after all these years,
My faith wavers and worry moves in,
Like storm clouds rolling in from the sea.
Ah!, my God, whose glory shines —
Forgive my foolish human sight.
Remove the ifs from my trembling lips,
That thanks may flow before the fact.
Lord, I believe! In you I trust.
When darkness comes, give me faith at last.
In the Man of the Cross, amen.
Kingdoms cause turmoil
My Lord and my God,
The kingdoms of this world cause turmoil.
Man destroys everything he touches.
Corruption produces more corruption.
The poor suffer, the commoners die.
Our hope wavers not.
Our faith still shines brightly.
The power of Christ works mightily.
Save us, Lord, we plead.
We thank you for our peace of heart.
We praise you, Lord Almighty.
Your love is undiminished.
Come for your people, Lord Jesus!
We pray in the Lord. Amen!
I Want to Be a Worker
From the shade with a cold drink in one hand and a fan in the other, many who were once workers for the Lord now watch the dwindling few still sweating in the harvest field. We come up with a variety of excuses as to why we’re on our extended break: we’re too … old, tired, busy, or sore! Or, the work is too difficult or dangerous … people just aren’t receptive enough anymore to the gospel … or the world doesn’t allow us to reach out like we did years ago.
I. Luke 10:1. To be a worker for the Lord, you must want to love and trust His holy Word, just as the song says:
I want to be a worker for the Lord; I want to love and trust His holy word; I want to sing and pray, and be busy ev’ry day, In the vineyard of the Lord.
Just before Jesus sends out 72 disciples ahead of Him, He tells several that following Him requires diligent and often difficult hard work (Luke 9:57-62). The well-known servant to the poor, Mother Teresa, died at 87 still working with her last strength. can we argue that love and trust for Jesus’ Word isn’t connected to faithful action (James 1:22) when His Word tells us that if we love Him, we will obey His commands (John 14:15)? Are we not told to serve one another through love (Galatians 5:13)? And to love and forgive one another as Jesus did (John 15:13; Colossians 3:13)?
II. Luke 10:2-3a. To be a worker for the Lord, you must want to lead the erring in the way, again as the song says:
I want to be a worker every day; I want to lead the erring in the way That leads to heav’n above, where all is peace and love, In the kingdom of the Lord.
Because we’ve used Luke 10:2 to promote the need for evangelism but disconnected it from our personal responsibility, we pray often that God will send workers to His harvest field. If He hasn’t and the attendance in our assemblies shrinks, we shrug because God is in charge of the increase after all (1 Corinthians 3:6). Peering into the brightness at the shady edge of the harvest field, we lament how few are laboring in the hot sun to fill the Master’s barn with sheaves. Yet, just as the 72 were sent, so are we (Matthew 28:18-20) and also to our erring, fellow workers (Galatians 6:1-2; Matthew 18:15-17).
III. Luke 10:3. To be a worker for the Lord, you must want to trust in Jesus’ power to save, as the song tells us:
I want to be a worker strong and brave; I want to trust in Jesus’ pow’r to save; All who will truly come shall find a happy home, In the kingdom of the Lord.
He sent them out like lambs among wolves! Why would Jesus do that? It’s because we partaking in our own adventure is that important to Him. God is wild at heart and wants those made in His image to step out of our comfort zones to do the work He’s prepared for us. Out of fear we make excuses and justify why we can’t do that work, placing our limitations on the God for whom nothing is impossible. But, obedience is required from faith (Romans 1:4-5; James 2:14-17), and God, who promises to be with us, lets us wield His divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
Wanting to be a worker for the Lord begins with obedience to the gospel. You’ve got to don our work clothes (Galatians 3:26-27) and then head out into the field. If the song has changed for you, a longtime resident of the shade, to “I want to sit in pews for the Lord …” then perhaps it’s time to step out onto the soil and become a worker once more. Do you want to be a worker for the Lord?
The Battle Belongs to the Lord
If we are not engaging our whole selves while we sing, then the impact of a song’s words can often escape us. In “The Battle Belongs to the Lord,” we sing that God will fight for us in our battle, but how much we believe those words and truly trust Him to do so may not be known until we are in the midst of a difficult struggle and choose to rely on Him or on our own limited resources for help.
I. Psalm 18:1-5. After witnessing God’s power in the 10 plagues that allowed them to leave Egypt, the Israelites left freed from slavery “equipped for battle” (Exodus 13:18), idealistically ready to walk straight up to the Promised Land. As they got to the Red Sea, however, they saw Pharaoh’s army marching after them, and “they feared greatly” and “cried to the Lord” Exodus 14:10. How like them we can be as Christians until we face adversity. The first verse of the song says it like this:
In heavenly armor we’ll enter the land, The battle belongs to the Lord. No weapon that’s fashioned against us will stand, The battle belongs to the Lord.
Though we call the Lord our strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, horn of my salvation, and stronghold, it is easier to say the words than to apply them. The psalmist does have to apply them as he was encompassed, assailed, entangled, and confronted by struggles to the point of death. Would he choose to have faith or to rely on himself?
II. Psalm 18:6-19. After God had rescued them with such a mighty hand already, how could the Israelites not trust in God’s power to save? But they complain and believe that they will die (Exodus 14:11-13), the very opposite of trust. God would fight their battle, Moses told them, but their responsibility was different than the Lord’s; they had to “fear not,” “stand firm,” and “see” God’s salvation. In other words faith is a lot of work, harder work than fighting an impossible battle for ourselves and the choice not often made. Why? Probably because God can’t be made to do anything. We must submit to His will, not He to ours. The second verse says:
When the power of darkness comes in like a flood, The battle belongs to the Lord. He’s raised up a standard, the pow’r of His blood, The battle belongs to the Lord.
We have the cross and often don’t believe in Jesus’ power to save us. So, does God act on our behalf out of obligation or love? In the Psalm, the Lord literally overturns heaven and earth because He was angry at the people or circumstances distressing His child. Then we read that it is because He delights in him. Could He have the same love for us?
III. Psalm 18:20-30. How the Israelites took Moses’ words to “fear not,” “stand firm,” “see” God’s salvation, and to “be silent” is not clear (Exodus 14:13-14), but how do we wait in faith for the Lord to act in our lives when we are in distress? Repeating that God is our refuge and that we should not fear, Psalm 46:10 tells us to “be still and know that I am God.” While our backs are against the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army bears down on us in life, choosing faith and letting God fight our battle is the harder but better decision. As the third stanza says:
When your enemy presses in hard, do not fear, The battle belongs to the Lord. Take courage, my friend, your redemption is near, The battle belongs to the Lord.
According to the psalm, it is those who choose to have faith and trust in Him, being still in obedience that the Lord rescues. The one who is “haughty” by trying to fix it himself by his own resources finds God “tortuous.” It’s about the relationship the child has with his or her heavenly Father.
If God is truly your refuge, then you can truly sing the chorus when we are rescued:
And we sing glory, honor, Power and strength to the Lord. We sing glory, honor, Power and strength to the Lord.
Give Thanks
In President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863, he told us to set apart and observe “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” Though secular culture has made the day about food, family, and football, the holiday still retains the name. But, does anyone ever ask, “To whom are we giving thanks?”
I. Luke 17:11-14. On the border between Galilee and Samaria, Jesus encounters an ethnically mixed group of lepers who had enough faith to call out to Him for healing (Mark 11:22-24). Jesus tells them all–even those not part of the covenant–to go show themselves to the priests (Leviticus 13), and as testament to their faith, they all head towards Jerusalem while they still have the disease that makes them unclean and unable to mix with people.
II. Luke 17:15-19. All ten were healed, but only one turned back to thank Jesus–and that one was a foreigner to the covenant and Law. From this we can see that God wants us to give thanks. He doesn’t need our thanks, but He wants us to acknowledge His blessings to us in gratitude. The healing happened before the Samaritan returned to give thanks and so wasn’t dependent on his action, but God approves of our ‘attitude of gratitude.’ Also, Jesus remarks that it was one who didn’t have the Law, sacrifices, temple, or priesthood who gave thanks when those who had the advantage of those things just continued on their way. Alike under sin (Romans 3:9), we are all able to come to Christ through faith (Ephesians 2:12-15).
III. Colossians 3:16. God’s Word dwells in us richly when we sing with thankfulness in our hearts. That’s the simple message of the song, “Give Thanks.” Alike in sin, we are given God’s Son on the cross and at the tomb to overcome sin and give us life (John 3:16; Romans 7:24). The result in us should be thankfulness in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18) as we recognize what God has done for us (Romans 8:31-32). So, do you give thanks?
Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One,
Give thanks because He’s given, Jesus Christ, His Son.
And now let the weak say, “I am strong,” Let the poor say, “I am rich
because of what the Lord has done for us.”
Give thanks,
give thanks,
give thanks!
Ask What I Shall Give You
Is it better to “grow up in the church” or to escape the world to seek truth on your own? The first may not know the sharp edge of the world’s heartache, but often a personal faith is taken for granted and underdeveloped. The second can create an abiding faith but a lifetime of overcoming sinful habits and baggage. Inheriting the kingdom from his father, Solomon began well as someone who grew up in the church often does. But, did he seek God or let his heart be led astray?
I. 1 Kings 3:3-28. In the beginning of his reign, Solomon loved God and walked in the way of his father, King David, yet as he still worshipped at the high places, there’s a hint that his heart wasn’t fully after God’s heart like David’s was (Acts 13:22). He asks for wisdom or discernment to govern God’s people, which pleased God, and he was granted many other blessings. What can an abundance of God’s grace do in a heart, vulnerable to temptation and sin, that is not fully chasing God?
II. 2 Samuel 12:7-9. When David had yielded to sin, the prophet Nathan tells him that God had given him much and would have given him much more, but David had repaid God’s grace by despising God’s Word. This principle is carried out in the New Testament by Jesus (Matthew 25:29). We must prove faithful in what we have been entrusted, so that God can use us in even bigger ways. Sadly, Solomon did not do this, allowing his blessings, projects, and power (2 Chronicles 1:14-17) and the comfort found in sin (1 Kings 11:1-4) lead his heart astray. Clearly, the wisdom he had to warn against such falling (Proverbs 5:1-9) wasn’t enough to safeguard his heart.
III. Philippians 4:4-7. If we seek God and His Kingdom first (Matthew 6:33) and ask for wisdom (James 1:5-8), we must still apply these things to our hearts to truly live for Christ and honor Him as holy (1 Peter 3:13-16). How do we do this? We must sell all that this world has to offer (Matthew 13:44) and press on to the goal despite obstacles (Philippians 3:12-16), holding on to what we have already obtained and adding to that in increasing measure (2 Peter 1:3-11). Then God will guard our hearts.
What could Solomon have achieved if he hadn’t let his heart be led astray? How could God use you if you used what you’ve already been entrusted with to seek Him and His Kingdom?
Sons of God Through Faith
A man drowning at sea is suddenly thrown a life ring that splashes into the water next to him. Taking hold of it, he is pulled into the boat by his rescuer and lives the rest of his life eternally grateful to the one who saved his life. Like this man, we are each dying in sin. Because of His work at the cross and the tomb, Jesus is the only one able to save us through the gospel that he casts out to us. We must take hold of the gospel to be saved, but no one rescued would argue that we worked for our salvation because we believed, repented, or confessed ‘Jesus as Lord.’ No, we would adamantly claim that Jesus saved us through His gospel.
But what about the boat?
Why do so many in the denominational world ignore the boat? Why is baptism not part of obeying that gospel as well? After all, it is Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection that make the gospel possible, and it is in baptism that we die with Christ, are buried with Him, and are resurrected with Him to walk in new life (Romans 6). Baptism is the platform from which the life ring can be thrown. It is the vessel from which Jesus stands to cast the gospel out to sinners. Why is being hauled into the boat by Jesus not considered essential by some to bring us from death to life?
I. Galatians 3:23-29. Often verse 26 is taken alone to prove by those against baptism that we are all sons of God through faith, and therefore, it by ‘faith alone’ that we are saved. But the context of the passage shows that this is a contrast between the old system or covenant based on law versus the new system or covenant of faith. What had been largely ritual in the Old Testament is superseded by the New Testament of relationship made possible Jesus’ work at the cross and tomb. The passage then explains the process to come into this relationship with Christ, “As many of you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” We needed to get into the boat.
II. Titus 3:4-5. In reaction to the “Church” at the time being very works-based, the Reformation of the 1500s and 1600s swung the pendulum to the opposite extreme and declared salvation to be on “faith alone.” Baptism was seen as a work because it was something tangible, unlike belief, repentance, and confessing ‘Jesus as Lord,’ that we had to do. Romans 10:9-13 is a passage often cited by the ‘faith alone’ crowd as it excludes baptism but tells us we are saved by belief, confession, and calling upon the name of the Lord. But pressed, these same folks will insist that repentance, although not listed there, is also necessary. Obviously, this passage was not intended then to be a complete list. And, where we call upon the name of the Lord, Acts 22:16 tells us, is in baptism. What drowning man would insist that he had worked for his salvation because he submitted to his rescuer pulling him into the boat? Rather, Jesus has done the only work for salvation.
III. 2 Peter 1:3-7. Rescuing sinners is not enough for Jesus; He also gives us the chance to partake in the divine nature. After dying with Jesus, being buried with Him, and rising with Him to new life in baptism, we are “heirs according to the promise.” We must continue to walk as Jesus did to truly abide in Him (1 John 2:6). We must continue to add all of these listed qualities, one to another, in increasing measure to never fall and receive a rich welcome into the Kingdom of God.
Could Jesus save without baptism? If He wanted to … He is God in the flesh after all. But the method He chose that was to continue down through the ages from Pentecost was for us to believe, confess Him as Lord (cut to the heart), repent, and be baptized into Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:36-41) and then to continue living by faith (Romans 1:16-17) as sons of God through faith.
Give Me Grace
Give me grace, O Lord,
to bear the burden of the day.
Give me peace, O King,
to pass to sufferers in the way.
Give me light, O God,
to see the path that I must tread.
Give me life, O Father,
from him who’s risen from the dead.
Give me love, O Sovereign,
such as on earth I’ve never known.
Give me hope, O Lamb,
of righteous fruit that I have sown.
Give me faith, O Faithful,
that wavers not when I am tried.
Give me word, O Lord,
that you with me will ever abide.