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My Hardest Sermon to Preach

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My Hardest Sermon to Preach

Galatians 5:22

Dr. Jim Denison

During the Korean War, two American soldiers were stationed a long distance from the conflict, and were allowed to rent an apartment off base. They hired a local Korean boy to do their housekeeping, and were immediately impressed with his positive, joyful spirit. So they began playing pranks on him. They nailed his shoes to the floor, put water buckets over doorways, smeared grease on stove knobs. And the boy would smile and pull out the nails, dry himself off, clean off the stove, with never a word of complaint.

Finally they became ashamed of themselves and told him they would stop their pranks. He said, “You mean, no more nail shoes to floor?” “No more.” “No more water over door? No more grease on stove?” “No more.” He smiled again and said, “Okay, then, me no more spit in soup.”

We all have problems in our relationships from time to time. This morning I want to talk to every person who has a problem in a relationship today, and every person who might have one in the future; in other words, each of us.

The thesis of God’s word this morning is simple: we should be as patient and kind with each other as God has been with us. But that’s hard. I hate waiting in lines, and I take red lights personally. Several of our staff think it’s really humorous that I have to preach on patience today. This is my hardest subject personally. But I’ve found hope even for me this week, and for us all.

How God treats us

Let’s begin with some definitions.

“Patience” translates makrothumia, which literally means to be “long or large-tempered.” In other words, to be longsuffering, patiently enduring under injuries inflicted by others.”

“Kindness” translates chrestos, which means “goodness, kindness, generosity toward all people, no matter what they have done to us.”

And the two need each other. I can be patient but not kind, waiting in line but not happy about it. I can be kind but not patient, kind only until the person makes the same mistake again. The two need each other, just as two wings of the same airplane, as water requires both hydrogen and oxygen.

Now, listen to what the Scriptures teach about the long-suffering of God toward us.

“God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God is patient with all people, even those who are rejecting his love, wanting every person to come to eternal life.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8). Four other times the Old Testament says this about God.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:15-16). God was patient even with Paul, the murderer of his people. He is therefore patient with you, no matter what you’ve done.

And listen to what the Scriptures teach about the kindness of God toward us.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever” (Psalm 106:1). Three other times the psalms say this about God.

“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7). He is kind to us even when life is not.

“When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:4-5; cf. Ephesians 2:7).

I remember as if it were yesterday the Sunday morning in Midland, Texas I was preaching on the sermon title, “Is God Fair?” I had written a sermon defending the fairness of God, when one of our Sunday school volunteers saw the title and said, “Aren’t you glad he’s not?” I had to go back to my office and rewrite the sermon. Aren’t you glad he’s not fair, but patient and kind with us today?

Why should we be patient and kind?

But that’s God. Are we expected to be as patient and kind as he is? Apparently so.

“As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13-14).

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).

“We urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else” (1 Thessalonians 5:14-15).

Why are we commanded to be patient and kind with others? There are at least three reasons. First, this is our best witness. Paul said, “As servants of God we commend ourselves . . . in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love” (2 Corinthians 6:4,6; cf. 2 Timothy 3:10). If Paul could learn to be patient and kind, anyone could.

Think about those people who have had the most lasting impact on your life. Why? For me, it has always been their personal kindness and patience. Dr. John Newport, the most brilliant man I’ve ever known, preaching a revival at New Hope Baptist Church and eating lunch with our people, being so kind to us.

My sixth grade teacher who went each afternoon after class to an impoverished part of Houston to teach reading skills, and took me along a few times. A high school arts teacher who sponsored our boys club and gave evenings and weekends each year to us. My biology teacher who sponsored our Christian Student Union and met us weekly at 7:15 a.m. for prayer. My college Old Testament professor who played tennis with me each week and came for my ordination and wedding. I’ll never forget their patience and their kindness.

A second reason: patience and kindness toward others is necessary for our own souls. Jesus told us not to bring our gift to God until we had made things right with our brother (Matthew 5:23-24). More long-term stress is generated by unforgiveness and impatience than perhaps any other single factor.

Frederick Buechner is one of my favorite writers. Remember his definition of anger: “Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you” (Wishful Thinking 2).

Third, success seldom comes quickly. The National Sales Executives Association has discovered that 48% of all sales persons make one call, then give up on the prospect; 25% quit after the second call; 12% call three times, then quit; 10% keep calling until they succeed, for 80% of all new sales are made after the fifth call to the same prospect.

Success seldom comes quickly with God’s people, either. Abraham was 75 when God first promised him an offspring (Genesis 12:4,7), and 100 when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). Moses was a shepherd for 40 years, and wandered in the wilderness for 40 more, until coming to the edge of the Promised Land.

We must be patient and kind, trusting in God’s will and in God’s time.

How to be patient and kind

Make this your goal. We have heard God’s word command us to be patient and kind. Longsuffering and undeserved kindness are a choice, never deserved or natural.

It’s far easier to respond to anger with anger, to criticism with criticism. Lloyd Ogilvie says, “Tell me what ticks you off and I’ll tell you what makes you tick.” Decide you don’t want to be a problem person, and that you want to be more patient and kind with the problem people in your life.

Let God be the judge in your relationships.

Scripture is clear: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:17-19; cf. Deuteronomy 32:35).

I once heard Chuck Swindoll tell a pastor’s conference how to deal with critics and opponents in the church: “Tell God on them.” And leave them with him.

Lewis Smedes’ excellent book, Forgive and Forget, explains what forgiveness is and what it is not. Forgiveness is not excusing, or forgetting, or explaining away. To forgive is to pardon—to refuse to punish, even though you could, as a governor pardons a convicted criminal. To release the person from the punishment they deserve.

Let God be the judge, while you offer longsuffering kindness. But you can’t do this alone.

So, ask the Spirit to help you.

Paul prayed for the Colossians to be “strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). The Spirit can empower us to be longsuffering and kind.

Scripture teaches that “[God’s] love is patient, love is kind. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. . . . It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5, 7).

Patience and kindness are the “fruit” or result of the Spirit’s work in our lives. Ask God to help you make them your goal in your relationships, to love through you, to be longsuffering and kind through you, by his Spirit. And he will.

Conclusion

Now, where is the problem relationship in your life? With whom? Over what issue? Very specifically, would you choose longsuffering kindness, let God be judge, and seek the Spirit’s power and help? Believe it or not, God can work a miracle. Let me prove it.

Corrie ten Boom, the famous Holocaust survivor and marvelous Christian, once experienced this very miracle. Here’s how she told the story:

“It was at a church service in Munich, Germany, that I saw him, the former S. S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, my sister’s pain-blanched face.

“As the church was emptying, he came up to me. ‘How grateful I am for your message, fraulein. To think that, as you say, [God] has washed my sins away!’

“His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

“Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? ‘Lord Jesus,’ I prayed, ‘forgive me, and help me to forgive him.’

“I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer: ‘Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.’

“As I took the man’s hand, the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

“And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on God’s. When God tells us to love our enemies, he gives, along with the command, the love itself.”

Will you receive his gift today? Will you give it away?

Nevertheless

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Nevertheless

Isaiah 9:1-7

Dr. Jim Denison

A friend sent me these actual airplane in-flight announcements.

On one flight with a “senior” flight attendant crew, the pilot said: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants.”

One attendant said, “Your seat cushions can be used for flotation; and, in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments.”

After a hard landing, the attendant said, “Ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Capt. Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we’ll open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.”

And my favorite: After a very hard landing, the pilot was standing at the door while the passengers exited the aircraft. An elderly lady with a cane made her way up the aisle, stopped, and said, “Young man, do you mind if I ask you a question?” “No, ma’am,” said the pilot, “what is it?” The lady said, “Did we land, or were we shot down?”

We’ve all wondered the same thing. Nevertheless, we fly anyway.

So much of life turns on that single word, “nevertheless.” People perish in car crashes every day in Dallas; nevertheless, I will drive home after church. Marriages often end in divorce in our culture; nevertheless, Janet and I got married. Children so often break their parents’ hearts; nevertheless, we prayed for children and rejoiced when they were born. God so often disappoints me, permitting or even causing pain and heartache in my life; nevertheless, I will trust in him.

Joy is tranquility transcending circumstances. Not the happiness which results from happenings. If someone can take your joy, it wasn’t joy. If someone can give you joy, it isn’t joy. Joy is that inner serenity and tranquility which nothing in life can give or steal.

Who of us doesn’t need such joy? Life is hectic for us all during these holidays. Some of us remember those not with us for this Christmas. Some of us are lonely and alone. Some of us are facing an uncertain new year. We all need joy. But there’s only one way to find it: in the word “nevertheless.” Let me explain.

Christ gives nevertheless joy

“Nevertheless” is a common word in the Bible.

Psalm 73:21-23: “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Nevertheless [NIV: “Yet”] I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.”

Psalm 106:43-45: “Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin. Nevertheless, he took note of their distress when he heard their cry; for their sake he remembered his covenant….”

Luke 22:42: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but yours be done.”

Isaiah 8 finds Israel in gloom and distress: “Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness” (vs. 21-22).

And things will only get worse for the people. In coming years their cities will be ransacked, their Temple reduced to rubble, their people enslaved by pagan Babylon.

But Isaiah can proclaim, “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress” (9.1). Instead, “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder” (v. 3).

Why? How can they have such tranquility transcending their circumstances? Because of verse 6: “to us a child is born, to us a son is given.”

Before we go to him for our joy, let’s consider the alternatives.

Thomas Aquinas said, “Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.But do they work? A century ago, the average lifespan was 41 years; now it is 77; plagues such as polio, smallpox, and measles have been defeated. Our real income, adjusted for inflation, has more than doubled in the last 50 years.

However, the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as “happy” has not budged since the 1950s, despite doubling our income.

“Unipolar” depression, a condition in which a person always feels depressed, is today ten times as prevalent as it was half a century ago.

Gregg Easterbrook’s new book is titled The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse. In it he describes our society’s shift from “material want” to “meaning want,” in which our lives lack purpose no matter our prosperity. His conclusion is simple: we are more prosperous, but less happy.

How to have nevertheless joy

So let’s consider nevertheless joy. This is seeking our tranquility in Christ and not circumstances. In eternity and not events. In God and not people. How do we find it?

Trust his purpose. The Christ of Christmas is our Wonderful Counselor. “Wonderful” in the Hebrew means “so full of wonder as to be miraculous.” “Counselor” points to a person of such wisdom that he can advise kings, the wisest man in the land. The two together can be translated, “He who plans wonderful things.”

The world cannot give us such purpose, or steal it. Paul was as much an apostle to the Gentiles when he wrote letters from a Roman prison cell as he was preaching in a Roman marketplace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was as great a theologian when in a Nazi prison as in a seminary classroom. The way your life purpose is fulfilled can change, but the purpose will not.

Where do you need direction and counsel? Will you seek his will, live by his word, surrender to his purpose? Will you make him your Wonderful Counselor, no matter what your world says, despite all appearances, nevertheless? Then you’ll have his joy.

Seek his power. The baby in the manger is also the Mighty God, translated literally, “the God who possesses might.” No circumstance could steal his power. Frederick Buechner is right: for all his enormous power, Herod the Great knew there was somebody in diapers more powerful still. G. K. Chesterton said of Christmas, “The Child that played with moon and sun is playing with a little hay.”

And no circumstance can take his power from his people. John was as empowered to receive the Revelation on Patmos as he was at Ephesus. Peter could walk on stormy seas and face murderous officials, in this power.

So can you. Where do you need strength beyond your circumstances and ability? Courage to face the future, resolve to refuse temptation and do what is right? Will you seek his power and strength? Will you make him your Mighty God, no matter what your world says, despite all appearances, nevertheless? Then you’ll have his joy.

Live in his presence. The Christ of Christmas is additionally our Everlasting Father. In the Hebrew, a “Father forever,” one who is always a Father to us, one who forever loves us as only a father can.

No circumstance can change his love. He is a Father, not an employer, general, or owner. And a father is obligated to love his children, simply because they are his children.

Where have you failed, fallen, sinned? Where do you carry secret shame in your soul? Will you seek his forgiveness and cleansing grace? Will you make him your Everlasting Father, no matter what your world says, despite all appearances, nevertheless? Then you’ll have his joy.

Claim his peace. Last, the baby of Bethlehem is the Prince of Peace. In the Hebrew, the Prince who gives peace.

No circumstance can change the fact that he brings peace, or that we need that peace. President Bush repeated again this week the fact that we are a nation at war. And the war has no end in sight. We need peace our circumstances cannot give.

Where do you need such peace, harmony with righteousness? Where do you need to be right with God, with someone else, with yourself? Will you ask him for your peace? Will you make him your Prince of Peace, no matter what your world says, despite all appearances, nevertheless? Then you’ll have his joy.

Conclusion

The bearded figure most Americans are thinking about this week isn’t Santa Claus. For the first time I can remember, Time and Newsweek feature exactly the same image on their covers, and you can guess who. We rejoice in last week’s capture of Saddam Hussein, but grieve that the next day six Iraqi officers were killed and 20 wounded by continued terrorist activity in the land. We need the purpose of God, the power of God, the presence of God, the peace of God.

Don’t settle for less. Don’t settle for happiness based on happenings. C. S. Lewis was right: “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Make the baby of Bethlehem your Wonderful Counselor, your Mighty God, your Everlasting Father, your Prince of Peace. Do it no matter what your world says, despite all appearances, nevertheless. And you’ll have his joy.

This is the promise of God.

No Doubts About It

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No Doubts About It

Matthew 7:21-23

Dr. Jim Denison

Sometimes God must wonder about the human race, and for good reason. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Compaq computer company is considering changing the command “press any key” to “press return key” because of the flood of calls asking where the “any” key is located. A Dell customer called to say his computer would not fax anything. Turns out the man was holding a piece of paper in front of the monitor and hitting the “send” key. A confused caller to IBM reported that his computer could not “find” the printer, even though he turned the monitor to face it. And a person called technical support for help with fixing the computer’s “cup holder.” The caller put a cup on the CD-ROM drive drawer and broke it off.

God wonders about us, and we wonder about him. The most common question I have been asked across my pastoral ministry is “How can I know that I am a Christian?” In recent weeks, very serious and urgent church members have come to me with this very issue. I struggled with assurance of salvation for more than a year after my own conversion. How can you know that you know? How can you help those who have their own doubts?

Don’t trust in religion

First, don’t trust in religion. That sounds strange in a religious service, I know. But it’s exactly the warning Jesus gives us today: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (v. 21).

These are the right words; “Jesus is Lord” is the first and central affirmation of the Christian faith. We find it written in Greek on catacomb walls in ancient Rome. Those who are baptized in our church say first, “Jesus is my Lord.”

Many will say the right words, calling Jesus their “Lord.” They will have the right urgency, repeating their affirmation of faith.

And they will have the right works:They will “prophesy” or preach “in your name,” representing Jesus, claiming to speak his words and carry his message.They will “drive out demons and perform many miracles.” Religious works of the highest magnitude and worth.

We can say the right words and do the right works, and still hear the most terrible statement in all of eternity: “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (v. 23).

“Knew” means personal, intimate knowledge, a personal relationship, not just a performed religion. As we will see shortly, this is the only basis for admittance to heaven, for assurance of eternal life. God must know us.

It’s not enough that we know about God. If Cowboys coach Bill Parcells were to walk into the sanctuary this morning, you’d know him. But would he know you?

Jesus makes clear the fact that performance is not the basis for assurance. Saying the right words and doing the right works are the essence of religion. And yet they are not enough to know that you will be in heaven, to be sure of your faith and eternity.

I once read of a 90-year-old preacher who became a Christian.

A new pastor drove by his church one evening to see a crowd assembling. He stopped and asked someone what was happening. The man said, “They’re meeting to pray for the conversion of their new pastor.” The man went to the meeting, and came to saving faith in Jesus.

No seminary degree can give assurance of salvation. No words preached or works performed are enough. Don’t trust in religion—it will fail your soul.

Trust in relationship

How can you be absolutely assured that you will “enter the kingdom of heaven?” Only in one way: “only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (v. 21). So it is imperative that we ask, what is this will?

“My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).

“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29).

“This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” (1 John 3:23).

Then our words and works will reflect our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We will bear the “fruit of the Spirit” as a natural result of branches connected with the vine. We will walk on the road to abundant life, and our words and actions will witness to that life. We will serve Jesus with sacrificial commitment, repentant hearts, and transformed souls. And one day, instead of hearing “I never knew you,” we will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21), the most blessed words in all of eternity.

So let us be sure that we know Jesus in this intimate, personal way. For many years I wasn’t sure. I thought God had a scale, with the good at one end and the bad at the other. I hoped I was good enough for the scale to tip in my favor. Millions of Americans still think the same way: I’m good and believe in God, so hopefully that will be enough.

Bruce Wilkinson, in his new book The Life God Rewards, explains salvation this way. Draw a line in your mind. Write “totally evil” on the left end, and “totally good” on the right. Put an X to mark how close to “totally good” a person would have to be to get into heaven. Where did you put your mark?

Let’s say you put the X at 70%. What if God requires 71%? You’d be lost. Where does he put the X? At 100%. His heaven is perfect, and can only stay that way if only perfect people are admitted. The pack of gum I stole at the age of five was enough to keep me out. Romans 3:23 includes every one of us: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All.

So what are we to do? Nothing. Our salvation depends not on what we can do, but on what God has done. His perfect Son came to earth and died in our place. His death did not pay off the debt of his own sin, for he was sinless. Rather, it paid off the debt you owed this perfect God. Now when you ask God to forgive your sins, he can. He can place you at the “totally good” end of the line. You can be in his perfect paradise. When you ask Jesus to forgive your failures, repent of them, and ask him to be your Lord, he answers your prayer. And he “knows” you, personally and eternally.

When he “knows” you, he will never forget you. You can be absolutely certain of your salvation. Not because of your words or works, but because of his.

Jesus promised: “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). From the moment you “believed in him,” you received eternal life. You have it right now. You will never perish. When you breathe your last here, you breathe your first there. Jesus said, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26).

Now Jesus says of you, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28).

God’s word states, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). You are a new creation, the child of God. It is not possible for you to return to where you were before you met Christ.

You are his child, and will always be his child, just as my sons will always be my sons. No matter how they feel, or what they say or do, they cannot go back and not be my sons, because they were born as my sons. You were “born again” as the child of God, and will be his child forever.

But we have questions.

Someone will say this morning, “I don’t feel close to God.” The Bible replies: nowhere does God’s word say how it feels to be a Christian. Our feelings depend on the pizza we had for dinner last night, or any of a thousand other circumstances. I didn’t feel anything when I first asked Christ to be my Savior, and thus doubted my salvation for many months. I heard wonderful stories about burdens lifted, great joy flooding hearts, but none of that happened for me. It was a great relief to discover that it didn’t have to. Feelings are the caboose, at the end of faith—not its engine.

Someone else will ask, What about free will? If we choose to trust Christ, can we later choose not to? No more than a child can later choose not to be born. If a person claims he once knew Christ but now rejects him, I would say he never knew him. And I would do all I could to help him meet Jesus personally.

And someone else will ask, What about my sins? I have failed the Lord. I have fallen so short of the person he wants me to be. The Bible replies: so did Paul. So did Peter, who denied Christ three times. So did the other apostles, who fled at the cross. So have I. So have we all. If your assurance were based on religious performance, you’d be in trouble. Praise God, our assurance is not based on our words or works, but his. He says we are his children. His Son died to pay off our spiritual debt so we could join his eternal family. This is the word of the Lord.

Conclusion

Are you sure that you’re sure? Are doubts plaguing your soul this morning? If so, there can be only two reasons.

One: you have trusted Christ as your Savior, but Satan wants to paralyze your spiritual growth and ministry. He knows that if you’re not sure about your faith, you’ll be hard-pressed to share it with anyone else. It will be a struggle to pray, to read God’s word, to worship, to minister, if you keep coming back to this most essential of all questions.

So settle this issue with me, right now. Remember the time you asked Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and become your Savior. Realize that it takes as much faith today to believe he saved you as it did to trust him then. Drive a stake into the ground. And the next time doubts knock at your door, answer them with this fact: you are the child of God. And will be his child eternally.

Now you can dedicate your life to giving this gift to others. Make your work your mission field. Pray for your lost friends by name. Seize every opportunity to give what God has given to you. They will be grateful for all of eternity.

The other reason for doubts this morning may be that you’re not sure you have ever met Jesus personally. You’re good and believe in God, but you don’t remember ever asking Christ to forgive your sins and save your soul. You have no assurance of salvation, because you have not received it as God’s gift. You can receive it with me, this morning.

If you’re far from the blessed assurance of faith, come home. You can, right now.

An English minister named Robert Robinson was a gifted preacher, poet, and hymn writer. After many years in the ministry, he began to drift in his spiritual life. He left the ministry, traveled to France, sank further into sin, and lost his assurance.

One night he was riding in a carriage with a Paris socialite who had recently become a believer. She was reading some poetry to him and asked, “And what do you think of this one?”

Come thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing thy grace.

Streams of mercy never failing

Call for hymns of loudest praise.

When she looked over at him she saw him cry. “What do I think of it?” he asked in a broken voice. “I wrote it; but now I’ve drifted away from him and can’t find my way back.”

“But don’t you see?” said the woman quietly. “The way back is written right here in the third line of your poem: ‘Streams of mercy never ceasing.’ Those streams are flowing even here in Paris tonight.”

Robinson recommitted his life to Christ and regained his blessed assurance. That stream of mercy now flows in Dallas, to your soul today. This is the promise of God.

Nothing to Fear

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Nothing to Fear

Romans 8:12-17

James C. Denison

On June 6 of last year, a 21-year-old man named Ben Carpenter had a day he’ll never forget. Ben has muscular dystrophy. On this day he was driving his electric-powered wheelchair down the sidewalk in Paw Paw, Michigan. He then crossed the street at the corner of Red Arrow Highway at Hazen Street, in front of a semi truck waiting at the stop light.

The light turned green. The driver somehow did not see Ben in his wheelchair. The engine roared to life and the truck started ahead. It struck Ben’s wheelchair, turning it forward with the handles stuck in the truck’s grill. The wheelchair kept rolling, Ben held in his chair by his seatbelt. The driver continued down the road, oblivious to Ben pinned to his truck.

The truck reached 50 mph. People who saw what was happening called 911 and waved their arms to get the driver’s attention. Two off-duty policemen began to pursue the truck. Still the driver was oblivious. Finally, after two miles, he pulled into a truck company parking lot, clueless that Ben Carpenter was pinned to the front of his truck. Fortunately, Ben was unharmed after the ride of his life.

I’ll bet you know something of the feeling–being pushed by forces more powerful than yourself in a direction you cannot control. You know the name of that truck this morning. The good news is that God has a word for us, whatever fears we’re facing.

No matter the powers against us, the power for us is greater: “You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship” (Romans 8:15). That is the solution to every fear you’re facing today. Today it is my privilege to show you why.

Are you a slave to fear?

Let’s begin by understanding the bad news, so we can appreciate the good news. Psychologists say that our society deals with fear on a level unprecedented in history.

We live in a nuclear age. The United States and Russia together have the power to destroy the human race 47 times. North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon. Pakistan may be the most unstable country in the Middle East, and is a nuclear power. Most observers believe that the president of Iran wants such a weapon.

For the first time in American history we are dealing with an enemy who has attacked us on our soil. Except for the Civil War, all our battles have been fought in other lands. Now our enemies have come to our streets and cities, and threaten to continue to do so. In a letter to America composed in 2002, Osama bin Laden warns us, “Leave us alone, or else expect us in New York and Washington.”

News about the economy has not been good this week, as retail and housing continue to decline. The bird flu scare in Southeast Asia continues to make the news. The death of actor Heath Ledger has been ruled an accident, the result of combining six kinds of painkillers and sedatives, illustrating the depression which continues to rage at unprecedented levels today.

But our issues with fear go even deeper than the news and the circumstances of our world. Our Western culture has produced a mindset, a worldview which has made insecurity an epidemic.

Our society judges us for what we do, how we look, how many people we impress, what we own. And none of these things are permanent. After I preach this message today I have to start tomorrow on next week’s sermon. I’m only as good as my last message. Our possessions can be taken from us in an economic downturn; popularity and appearance are fleeting; health is uncertain.

No one loves us unconditionally. As much as my family loves me, there are things I could do this morning to fracture our relationship. As kind as you have been to me and my family over these 10 years, there are things I could say right now which would end my ministry here and forever.

We continue to search for stability, predictability, assurance. But there’s only one place to find the security our souls crave. Only one.

Are you the child of God?

Here’s the question which makes Romans 8 relevant to you or not: are you the child of God? Have you asked Jesus Christ to forgive your mistakes and failures and made him the Lord of your life? If you have, verse one says that there is no condemnation for you. Verse 3 says that sin is condemned in you. Verse 6 says that you can live in the Spirit and experience “life and peace.” Verse 10 says that “your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Verse 11 promises that you will live forever when his Spirit gives life to your mortal body.

As a result, you have no “obligation” or debt to the sinful nature. Now there is no sin you must commit (v. 12). Rather, “by the Spirit” you can “put to death the misdeeds of the body” (v. 13). When you bring your temptations to God’s Spirit and ask for his help, you have it. God’s Spirit wants to lead you as a shepherd leads his sheep, because you are God’s child and God loves you (v. 14).

Now comes the point, the key, one of the most significant statements in all the word of God: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’ (v. 15).

You are no longer a slave to fear. There is literally nothing in this world of which you need to be afraid. You don’t need to fear death, for it is the gateway to paradise. You don’t need to fear Satan and his demons, for they are defeated foes. You don’t need to fear people, for their worst cannot compare with God’s best.

The incredible news is that “you received the Spirit of sonship.” “Sonship” translates the Greek word hiothesias, meaning “to be adopted.” You are now the adopted child of God. There is no greater honor, no greater security in all the universe than this.

Why? Here’s the background.

In Roman society, the father had absolute authority over his children from their birth to their death. This was called patria potestas, the “power of the father.” The father could command the mother to abandon the newborn child to death, and she must comply.

We have a letter written from a Roman soldier to his pregnant wife with these instructions: “If it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, throw it out.” The father could order his biological children to be killed, or sold as slaves, or disinherited. If you were working for a despotic boss who might fire you or even take back your wages at any moment, for any reason, you’d have a sense of life under Roman fathers.

Unless you were adopted. In that situation, everything changed. An adopted child could never be disinherited or harmed. An adopted child must be given all the rights and privileges due to an heir, no matter what he did. Once you were adopted, you must be the child of the father forever.

At that moment, your old life was gone. You might have been a slave before–now you are free. You might have owed enormous debts, but you owe them no longer. You might have committed all sorts of crimes, but your record is clean now. You have started over as the child of your new father. It’s as if you have been born again.

The Jewish people had no practice such as this. They sometimes accepted slaves or servants into the family, but they never treated them as equal with their biological children. Adoption with the full rights of heirs was a Greek and Roman custom. And it served to illustrate precisely what God has done for us.

God had to adopt us because we broke our “biological” or spiritual relationship with our Father when he sinned against us.

Thus Israel became the first to be adopted by God: “Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises” (Romans 9:4).

Then when we made their Messiah our Lord, we joined their family: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29).

Now “the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (v. 16). The adoption ceremony was carried out in the presence of seven witnesses, so that any questions in the future could be resolved by their testimony. The fact that the Spirit lives in you is proof that you are the child of God.

Now we have the incredible privilege of calling God, “Abba, Father.”

“Abba” was the Aramaic word for “Daddy.” It was never used by a Jew to refer to God before it was used in this way by Jesus. Now we can come to the Lord of the universe in the same way: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:4-7).

Because he is our Abba, we are his heirs: “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (v. 17a). We inherit all that Jesus inherited: “if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” “If” should be translated “since.” Jesus warned us: “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20). We inherit opposition to our faith: 200,000 Christians died for Christ last year, 45 million in the 20th century. If people slandered Jesus, they’ll slander us. If they rejected his faith, they’ll reject ours.

But we also “share in his glory.” We live forever in God’s perfect paradise, where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4). We will receive eternal crowds of reward for our faith and faithfulness. We are the children of God now, and will be for all time.

Conclusion

Here’s what it all means for you and me today: God loves us absolutely, unconditionally, and always will. Because we are his adopted children, we will be his children always. No matter what happens to you this week, you need never wonder if God loves you. You need never wonder if God has abandoned you. You need never wonder if God sees your problem and cares about your pain; if God is listening to your prayers and giving you whatever is best. You need never wonder if you are alone or if you are loved. You are loved by the God of the universe right now, and you always will be.

Return to the adoption metaphor for proof. Not all biological children are wanted, expected, or planned. But no one adopts a child by accident. No one becomes an adoptive parent by random chance. All adopted children were wanted by the parents who adopted them.

Here’s an example. The Kibbys are one of my favorite families in our church. They teach Sunday school here; Rob is chairman of our finance committee; they have raised three wonderful daughters. Then several years ago, the Lord laid on their heart the desire to adopt a Russian infant.

This week I asked Leslie for some facts about their experience in adopting Joshua. Here is what I learned. The process took 14 months, with an additional 12 months of legal proceedings in America. They stood before a judge in Russia, speaking Russian, and a judge in America. They completed enough documents to fill two three-inch binders completely; one of them was 18 pages long and took six days to complete. They took two trips to Russia, the first lasting nine days and the second lasting five days. I didn’t even ask about the financial costs of their process.

There will never be a day when Joshua will need to wonder if he was wanted by Rob and Leslie Kibby. There will never be a moment when he will need to wonder if they love him and want him to be their child for the rest of his life. Because they chose him and adopted him, he is theirs and they are his for all time.

That’s how your Father in heaven feels about you today. This is the word, and the promise, of God.

Of Mustard and Men

Written by

Of Mustard and Men

Matthew 13:31-32

James C. Denison

Why are you paying $4 for gas? Blame Deng Xiaoping and a speech he gave in December of 1978. I just finished Fareed Zakaria’s eye-opening new book, The Post-American World. He tells the story: at a gathering of the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the General Secretary urged that the regime focus on economic development and modernization.

The result? The Chinese economy has doubled every eight years for three decades. In 1978, China made 200 air conditioners; in 2005, it made 48 million.

The 20 fastest-growing cities in the world are all in China. They have the world’s largest air terminal; by 2010, Starbucks will have more cafes in China than in America. China is the world’s largest country, the fastest-growing major economy, the largest manufacturer, the second-largest consumer, the largest saver, and the second-largest military spender. Their economic rise has been the fastest in history.

Along with India and other new superpowers, they are consuming oil at unprecedented levels and driving up the price around the globe. And it all started with a speech.

From tiny seeds come giant trees. That’s the point of this week’s parable, especially relevant for every one of us on this Father’s Day. It is my privilege to show you why.

The parable

The best-known of all Jesus’ short parables begins: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field” (v. 31). There were two kinds of mustard seeds in Jesus’ day; Sinapis nigra was the garden variety, producing a shrub, while Salvadora persica produced the mustard tree.

Both were “the smallest of all your seeds.” There’s been much discussion of that statement over the years.

The cypress tree or wild orchid actually produce smaller seeds. But Jesus was talking about “garden plants.” “Seed” in the New Testament always refers to agricultural plants, those grown for food.

And the mustard seed is by far the smallest of these, so much so that it served as a proverb in the day. The rabbis could speak of a drop of blood or a transgression against the law as being the size of a mustard seed. Roman writers used the same proverb.

Jesus’ point was made by contrast: “yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree.” The mustard seed could grow into a ten-foot-tall plant in a single season, and could reach heights of 15 feet around the Sea of Galilee. Jesus might have been pointing to just such a tree when he said these words.

Then “the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” Birds love the tiny black seeds produced by the mustard tree, and flock to it from all over. They “perch” or dwell there, living in the tree for a period of time. The point is clear: no one would look at a tiny mustard seed and imagine that it would produce such a tall and vibrant tree, filled with birds from all over Galilee.

So it is with the Kingdom of God, all across the word of God.

A lonely, ridiculed man building a boat saves the human race. A childless Bedouin named Abram becomes the father of three faiths. A renegade shepherd faces down the most powerful man on earth and brings his band of slaves to freedom and destiny. Another shepherd boy kills the mightiest warrior in the land and leads his people to their greatest days of glory. His son, the product of an adulterous relationship, becomes the wisest man in human history. All grew from mustard seeds to men of eternal renown.

Then the day would come when a baby was born in a cow stall and placed in a feed trough. He grew up in a town so insignificant it is mentioned not a single time in the Old Testament and was the butt of jokes in the New Testament. None of his disciples came from the leadership of the nation. They grew to 120 by the time of Pentecost, a small church by any standards today. Mustard seeds, all, but the birds of the air flock in their branches today, more than two billion strong.

Who would have seen this itinerant Galilean carpenter teaching his band of peasant followers and imagined that we would be studying his words in Dallas, Texas 20 centuries later? That this mustard-seed movement would one day topple the mighty Roman Empire and spread the Kingdom of God to the four corners of the earth? That it would become the largest, most significant spiritual movement in human history?

We enter the Kingdom when we make God our King. We extend the Kingdom when we help others make God their King. When we do this, when we plant the seed of the gospel, it will grow. We are not responsible for growing, but for planting. The seed contains within itself all it needs to become a tall tree. But only when it is planted. That’s our job. Are you doing yours?

Life lessons

What does Jesus’ parable say to us on this Father’s Day? Jesus’ point is simple: influencing souls for the King bears a harvest all out of proportion to its cost. What we do to serve God and to help other people serve God lives long after we are done, and produces far more than we could produce.

Some of you are not fathers or mothers, but there are other souls you can influence. Family members, colleagues, friends, neighbors, clients, patients. Every word you speak for God, every note of encouragement, every act of compassion, every stand for the King you take–all of it plants seeds you may not be able to see and may never watch grow. But they are growing nonetheless.

Some of you have been given the inestimable privilege of fatherhood. Your culture defines your success in a variety of ways. You are a good father to the degree that you provide for your family’s financial and material needs; to the degree that you spend time with your children; to the degree that they succeed in academics, sports, and popularity. We’re all grateful for fathers willing to love and serve their children in these ways.

But this parable tells us that planting and nurturing the seed of the gospel in the souls of your children is the most significant, eternal thing you can do as a father. Scripture is clear: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

“Exasperate” means to discourage or provoke. Said positively, this command is, “Parents, encourage your children.” How? “Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” How do we do this?

Model the Christian life for them. No child will think more of his Heavenly Father than he does of his earthly parents. We cannot lead our children farther than we are willing to travel. Show them Christ consistently by your words and actions. Be the same person when you talk on the phone as when you hang up; the same person in the car driving to church as you are at church. Show them Jesus.

Teach the Christian life to them. Tragically, gone is the day in most homes when parents pray with their children daily and teach God’s word to them. It’s never too late to begin. And it’s never been more urgent. Make time every day to pray together. Keep a prayer list so you can watch God answer your prayers. Spend time studying the Bible together every day. Worship God together with your faith family every week. You would not think of going a day without feeding your children physically. Take the same responsibility for feeding them spiritually.

Your church has your school-age children one percent of their time, their school 16 percent of their time. You have them 83 percent of their time. And the first responsibility for their souls.

It is never too soon to begin. Prayers for your unborn children will be answered in years to come. Words spoken when they are babies will be felt long before they are understood. Every action for the King will be planted in their eternal souls.

And it is never too late to begin. No matter your age or that of your children, the gospel does its work wherever it is planted. You may never have prayed with your kids–if you pray with them today, they’ll never forget your humility and courage. You may never have read Scripture with them or discussed the things of God with them–if you start now, they’ll remember your commitment for the rest of their lives. And God will honor it forever.

You may not see much result of your spiritual planting. But seeds do not grow so as we can witness their progress. It takes time for seeds to become trees. Yours may just be starting from the ground, or beginning to bear their first leaves, or growing to your waist in height. But the seed is doing its work, always.

So never give up. Godly fathers, be encouraged. As you pray for your children and model the faith for them and seek to help them follow Jesus, your seeds will never be lost. Fathers who want to be godly, be encouraged. Everything you do to help your children make God their King, you do forever.

Conclusion

Is the seed of the gospel planted in your soul today? Have you come to that most significant of all decisions, asking Jesus to forgive your sins and become your Lord? Is that seed growing in your soul this morning? Are you watering it, feeding it, tending it, sheltering it, nourishing it? If so, it is growing and nothing on earth can stop it. Nothing on earth is more important than its growth and harvest. Nothing.

I know that our culture does not agree.

I am evaluated in the same ways as you. If the church grows, if my sermons are appreciated, if my work is valued, so am I. We are what we do and how well we do it. Most men I know are performers like me–seeing ourselves as others see us, measuring success by what we do and have.

We know that all of this will one day be gone and that the spiritual is eternal. We’ve heard the poem, “Only one life–will soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” But it’s hard to value the mustard seed of the gospel above the forest of oaks and redwoods which surround us and clamor for our attention and judge our lives and work. It’s hard to measure success by our children’s souls more than their achievements.

Let me ask you to agree with the Lord of the universe that the best gift you can give your children or anyone you influence is to help them follow Jesus. Let me encourage you to know that they will be grateful long after you are done and gone.

I experienced the truth of that claim this week in a very personal way. On Thursday morning, as I was working on this message, I received an email with the news that Julian Unger was on his deathbed in Houston.

Mr. Unger was a successful businessman in Houston, with a gift for automotive mechanics as well. He heard about a new idea called “bus ministry,” just becoming popular in those days. Churches were buying buses and using them to bring neighborhood kids to Sunday school and worship.

His church had just been through a rough time and didn’t have the money to do such a thing, so Mr. Unger bought an old school bus, repaired it with his own money and time, and used it to begin a bus ministry in our community. He led the effort to knock on doors and find children willing to ride that bus to church.

In August of 1973 he knocked on my door. My brother and I rode his bus to his church, where we heard the gospel of his Savior and soon trusted his Christ as our Lord. When I heard that Mr. Unger was near death, I had to go.

Janet and I drove down to Houston on Friday so I could thank him for the fact that I would be in heaven because of him and the seed he planted in my soul. When I arrived, I learned that I was not alone, that Mr. Unger had “kids” all over the world who came to Christ because of his bus ministry and mission work.

I suspect there may be a special place in heaven reserved for “Mr. Unger’s kids,” and I will be only too honored to be among them.

Who will be in heaven because of you?

on A Sling And A Prayer

Written by

On a Sling and a Prayer

1 Samuel 17:41-50

Dr. Jim Denison

A shipwrecked sailor spent three years on a deserted island. You can imagine his joy to see a ship drop anchor in the bay. A small boat came ashore, and an officer handed the man a bunch of newspapers. The survivor was confused. The sailor explained, “The captain suggests that you read what’s going on in the world and then let us know if you want to be rescued.”

Anyone here choose the island?

Psychologists say that 60 percent of us are going through some crisis right now. Six out of every ten persons on your pew is going through some crisis right now. Six out of ten would probably rather be on that island than in this church service right now. Do you?

Do you ever feel like a young boy with no training, no background, no credentials, sent to fight a warrior who stands over nine feet tall? Ever feel like David against Goliath?

You’re not alone. Moses had his Pharaoh, his Red Sea, and two million complaining Jews. Peter had his Herod seeking his life. Paul had his Nero. Jesus had the devil himself. You’re not alone.

Who is your Goliath? Where are you at war? Does the giant live in your home? Your health? Your finances? Your stress? Here’s the one point today: you can fight the giant in your strength, or in God’s. But not in both.

Fighting in your strength

We find ourselves part of the best-known story in the life of David, perhaps in all the Old Testament. We are standing in the Valley of Elah, 17 miles west-southwest of Jerusalem. We’re at war with the Philistines, a sea people who have settled in the area known today as the Gaza Strip. Their expertise with making iron weapons has given them military advantage over Israel, and they will remain a thorn in the nation’s side for another 500 years.

As we stand with King Saul and his soldiers, we watch the largest man we’ve ever seen stride into the valley between the two armies. His name is “Goliath,” and he is identified as their “champion” (v. 4), literally “a man who stands between the camps.” He did not fight with the rest of the soldiers, for he was an army unto himself.

We stare in disbelief. Samuel provides the most detailed physical description to be found anywhere in the Bible, recording what stands before us. Goliath is “six cubits and a span,” thus over nine feet tall. Such height is not impossible even today, as proven by one Robert Pershing Wadlow, a man 8’11” tall at the time of his death on July 15, 1940 at the age of 22.

Goliath’s armor is made of several hundred small bronze plates resembling fish scales, weighing 125 pounds. His spear’s point, shaped like a flame, weighs over 30 pounds. Its shaft is “like a weaver’s rod” (v. 7), meaning that it is wrapped with cords so it can spin through the air and thus be thrown with greater distance and accuracy.

Goliath marches out for hand-to-hand combat with his shield bearer before him to give added protection. He looks, and feels, invincible.

In contrast, Saul and his army have no iron weapons. They have no giant champion, except Saul, and he is cowering at the rear of the lines in fear. None will fight this man. And so Goliath will win by default, and his Philistines will continue to enslave Israel.

It is at this crucial point that a young shepherd boy enters biblical history. Saul scoffs at him: “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you (emphatic) are only a boy, and he (emphatic) has been a fighting man from his youth” (v. 33). Saul and his army know only one way to fight: in human strength. With human weapons. Using human resources. And they don’t have enough. We never do.

A fascinating book is in the news these days: The Transformation of American Religion, by Boston College professor Alan Wolfe. The thesis is simple: religion in America is no longer about God—it is about us. It’s all about us.

Regarding worship services: “When they worship, Americans revere a God who is anything but distant, inscrutable, or angry. They are more likely to honor a God to whom they can pray in their own, self-chosen way” (pp. 9-10). Popular worship today is “as much designed to make people feel comfortable as it is to fill them with the majesty of God” (p. 16).

One-third of Americans subscribe to the proposition that “people have God within them, so churches aren’t necessary” (p. 38). The day of denominational loyalty is largely over. Now people join a church that meets their needs—whatever they are, whatever the church is.

Here’s an example. Gwinnett County, in suburban Atlanta, was for many years the fastest-growing county in the United States. In 1929, a town in that county named Dacula was 65.8 percent Baptist and 31 percent Methodist. Now its denominations include Christian and Missionary Alliance, Anglican, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, Christian Science, Episcopal, Nazarene, Presbyterian, independent Full Gospel fellowships, Southern and Independent Baptist, United Methodist, and African Methodist Episcopal. Not to mention the Eastern Orthodox, Unitarian, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Hindu residents of the town, nor parts of a Wiccan coven or feminist spirituality groups (p. 112).

A group of church members were surveyed regarding the purpose of the church; 90 percent of the members said the purpose of the church is to meet members’ needs—10 percent said it is to fulfill the Great Commission. Only 25 percent of self-described evangelicals knew the Great Commission (p. 205).

We want to meet the needs of our members and community, of course. Jesus always started with felt need and moved to spiritual need. The woman at the well came for water, so Jesus started there and led her to spiritual water.

The problem comes when our faith becomes more about us than our Lord. When we ask God to help us solve our problems in our strength. When we want him to bless our decisions and our actions. When he becomes a means to our end, serving us. When we go to battle with our weapons and strategy, our strength and soldiers, and ask him to help us succeed. He is God and we are not.

Fighting in God’s strength

So how do we fight Goliath in God’s strength and not our own? Let’s ask young David. First he tells us: don’t listen to your critics.

When this youngest of Jesse’s eight sons volunteered to fight the giant, his brothers laughed him to scorn (v. 28). So did Joseph’s, as you recall, and Jesus’.

Then Saul would ridicule him (v. 33), as did Goliath; but so did the crowds while Noah built his ark. The children of Israel slandered Moses before the Read Sea; the crowds accused Peter of being drunk at Pentecost; the Romans thought Paul insane when he stood before their governors; the thieves made fun of Jesus on the cross. There will always be doubters.

To fight in the power of God, don’t listen to his enemies or yours.

Second, believe what God has done, he can still do.

David has killed a lion and a bear, so he knows he can kill a man (vs. 33-37). He knows what God has done in his life, so he knows what God can do.

In South America there is an Indian tribe which looks at life in exactly the opposite way from our worldview. We picture the past behind us and the future before us. They picture the past before them and the future behind them. They look at the past they can see for guidance in facing the future they cannot see. So did David. So should we.

Where has God been faithful to you in the past? Where have you seen his healing power, his forgiving grace, his mercy in your circumstances? Remember the lions and bears you’ve killed before with his help. What God has done, he can do.

Third, trust what God has given you.

Saul wants David to wear his armor (v. 38). The ancients saw this as a way of giving David some of his strength, and also gaining some of the glory for the victory David would win. Saul wants to defeat Goliath using the weapons of Goliath.

So David, a boy of 12 or 13, tries the armor of the tallest man in Israel, but it doesn’t fit (v. 39). We can imitate others, but we cannot wear their armor.

God has given you all you need to win the battles he has called you to fight. In this case the weapons are simple (v. 40): five smooth stones, typically two to three inches in diameter. The sling shot is two long cords with a pocket in the center in which the stone is placed; the slinger grasps the ends of the cords, whirls the stone, and shoots it by releasing one of the cords. The weapons aren’t much, but they are his. They are the abilities and gifts God has given to him. And they are enough.

When God called me to preach he called me, not Billy Graham. When he called you, he called you. With your faith, your talents and abilities, your problems and shortcomings. Moses stuttered, Daniel was a foreigner in a strange land, Peter and James were just fishermen, Paul was a murderer. Yet because of them the world will never be the same.

He called you. Find your weapons right now, and use them.

Fourth, fight in the power of God.

Goliath taunts David: “Come here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” (v. 44). To which this young shepherd boy replies, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the god of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied…All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give all of you into our hands” (vs. 45, 47).

To fight in the “name of the Lord Almighty” is to fight in his presence and power, with his strength and Spirit. Give the battle to him, and trust him for the victory he alone can give. Pray first, then step by faith into the future which is his.

When you refuse to listen to your critics, believing that God’s power in the past is his power for today, trusting all he has given you, fighting in the power he gives to those who surrender the battle to him in prayer, Goliath cannot win. Your sling will be true, the stone will find its mark, the giant will fall, the enemy will fail, the victory is sure.

Conclusion

Emily Dickenson’s experience with fighting Goliath is all too often ours:

I took my power in my hand

And went against the world;

‘T was not so much as David had,

But I was twice as bold.

I aimed my pebble, by myself

Was all the one that fell.

Was it Goliath was too large,

Or only I too small?

But it doesn’t have to be so. On Easter Sunday I quoted Dr. S. M. Lockridge’s description of the risen Christ. So many of you have asked me for those words that I thought I’d read his longer prayer from which they were taken. Today, as you face your Goliath, make this God yours:

He is unparalleled and unprecedented; he is the centerpiece of civilization.

He is the superlative of all excellence; he is the sum of human greatness.

He is the source of divine grace.

His name is the only one able to save, and His blood the only power able to cleanse.

His ear is open to the sinner’s call, his hand is quick to lift the fallen soul.

He is the eternal love of us all, every one, and you can trust him.

He supplies mercy for the struggling soul, and sustains the tempted and the tried.

He strengthens the weak and the weary; he guards and guides the wanderer.

He heals the sick and cleanses the leper.

He delivers the captive, defends the helpless, and binds up the broken-hearted.

He’s for you—and you can trust him.

Jesus is the key to all knowledge, and the wellspring of wisdom.

He’s the doorway of deliverance, and the pathway of peace.

He’s the roadway of righteousness, and the highway of holiness.

He’s the gateway to glory, and yes, you can trust him.

Jesus is enough—he’s the all-sufficient King.

He’s the King of the Jews, he’s the King of Israel.

He’s the King of Righteousness, and he’s the King of the Ages.

He’s the King of Heaven, and the King of glory.

He’s the King of kings and he’s the Lord of Lords.

And yes, you can trust Him.

There is no gauge to measure his limitless love.

There is no barrier to block his blessings outpoured.

He is enduringly strong, and he is entirely sincere.

He is ee’s the King ternally steadfast, and he is immortally faithful.

He is imperially powerful and he is impartially merciful.

He is indescribable, incomprehensible, invincible, and irresistible.

You can’t outlive him and you can’t live without him.

The Pharisees couldn’t stand him, but they found they couldn’t stop him.

Pilate couldn’t fault him, and Herod couldn’t kill him.

Death couldn’t conquer him, and the grave couldn’t hold him.

He’s the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.

He’s the God of the future and the God of the past.

He is for us—and we can trust him!

Now who’s bigger—Goliath or God?

On the Treadmill

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On the Treadmill

Matthew 4:5-7

Dr. Jim Denison

Tiger Woods is now being called the greatest golfer in history, and with good reason. I’m not surprised—I got to watch him as he won his first major championship. It was an incredible day.

One of the great privileges of being pastor of Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta was the fact that one of the state’s former governors is a member of the church. And so I made him my friend quickly. And he let me use his Masters badges each year.

Augusta National is perhaps the most magical place I’ve ever seen. It’s like watching golf in church, or in a museum. Everyone talks in hushed tones. There is not a leaf on the ground, a weed in the grass, an azalea out of place. Janet and I watched Tiger as he destroyed the field on his way to his first major victory. What an incredible experience.

But do you know, before the day was done, it wasn’t enough. I wanted to come back the next day, and the next year, and every year. Not just as a guest, but as a member. Not just to watch, but to play. Not just to play, but to play in the tournament, and then to win the tournament. Not just to win, but to beat Tiger. Every year. Maybe that would be enough.

What is it inside us that always wants to do more and be more? Nothing ever seems good enough for very long. Cars, houses, schools, degrees, jobs, friends, status. Why is it never enough?

Last week we watched Satan tempt Jesus with performance. Today we’ll examine the issue of perfectionist popularity, because it tempts us all.

The temptation Jesus faced

Our text says, “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple” (v. 5). From the lonely wilderness to the crowded city. And to the most crowded building in it, thousands milling about every day.

This is literally the “wing of the temple,” the highest place of the building in all the nation.

The Jewish Temple was built on the top of Mount Zion. The top of this mountain was leveled out into a plateau where the Temple complex stood. At the corner where Solomon’s Porch and the Royal Porch met there was a sheer drop of 450 feet into the Kedron valley below.

Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, described that spot this way: “this cloister deserves to be mentioned better than any other under the sun; for while the valley was very deep, and its bottom could not be seen, if you looked from above into the depth, this further vastly high elevation of the cloister stood upon that height, insomuch that if any one looked down from the top of the battlements, or down both these altitudes, he would be dizzy, while his sight could not reach to such an immense depth” (Antiquities XV.xi.5).

This was the closest building to a skyscraper in ancient Israel, standing some forty-five stories high. This is nearly the height of Reunion Tower in Dallas.

It is here, as our Lord and our enemy were standing together, that Satan said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.”

He proceeds to quote from Psalm 91: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (vs. 11, 12).

This was a promise made to the Messiah which the angels did in fact keep: they protected him from Herod as a child, and would celebrate his resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday morning.

But not here. The enemy did not tempt Jesus on a wilderness mountain but on the Temple mount, where thousands would see and be impressed. In this public setting the temptation was not to depend upon the angels for help—it was to perform for the crowds. To show them Jesus’ divine abilities; to be that perfect Messiah they had been longing to see.

Show them your power, Satan says. Do what no one has ever done or would ever do again. All will see, and be impressed. Validate your ministry, your Messiahship, your personal worth. Be that amazing, perfect Messiah everyone longs for. Build your identity on perfectionist popularity.

What a temptation it was for Jesus. And for us.

The appeal of perfectionism

A few years ago, on the heels of a Dallas minister’s very public moral failure, Texas Monthly ran an article on the subject. The author concluded that clergy moral problems are only symptomatic of the larger pressures of living in north Dallas. The writer argued that there is no more stressed, pressured, high intensity culture in the world than North Dallas. Here, the more perfect we are, dress, look, and act, the more popular we are, and the more valuable we feel.

Where does such pressure to perfectionism and popularity come from?

The universe began perfectly. Our perfect God created a perfect world with perfect humans made in his perfect image. But when we sinned in the Garden of Eden, everything changed. Because of our sin, the universe fell. We are now sinful by nature. Perfection is now impossible. Paradise is lost.

Here’s where perfectionism originates.

Now I sin because that’s my nature. I am a fallen person. And soon I come to believe that I am a failure.

And so I create what psychologists call a “false self” to compensate. An idealized, perfect self, the person I want you to think I am. A perfect person to cover over my failures. A perfect mask, to cover up the imperfect person inside.

Then I try very hard to live up to this perfect self. To convince you that this is who I really am. To persuade you that I’m not really a failure, that I really am a person of worth and value. I wear the mask and try to convince you that it’s the real thing.

We all do this to one degree or another. We play to the crowd. We are what we think they think we are. It’s basic human nature.

Perfectionism becomes a game we play, and the game affects every part of our lives.

Some of us play the game of perfectionism against other people. We must prove that we are better than others and therefore have value.

Others do it to please people. We must be accepted by everyone all the time. We have an excessive need to belong and be loved.

Still others play the game above people. We’re self-sufficient, invulnerable, aloof, not needing anyone.

And nearly all of us play the game against ourselves. We live by an unachievable standard of personal performance. The result is a constant sense of insufficiency and failure, and a daily fear that we’ll be found out—that people will see behind the mask, see us the way we really are, and know that we are failures.

Of course, perfectionism popularity is a game nobody can win. It cannot be done.

You cannot be better than everyone at everything. You cannot please everyone. You cannot live without other people. And you can never achieve perfection personally. It simply cannot be done.

But we try. And our failures drive us to try harder, to work more, to be better. The result is a self-perpetuating cycle of frustration, anger, competition, stress, and failure.

John Claypool is one of my favorite preachers and pastors. In his classic work, The Preaching Event, he makes this very honest disclosure about himself:

“At an exceedingly early age … the overwhelming drive of my life became ‘to make it,’ ‘to get ahead,’ ‘to out-achieve all others’ so as to do something about that awful emptiness I sensed at the bottom of my being. This way of living affected me at every level…. People used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I was shrewd enough to fashion my answer according to what I thought they wanted to hear…. However, in my own heart of hearts, I had my own private fantasy that I never dared to share with anyone. Do you know what it was? I am telling you the gospel truth: I wanted to be president of the world! I envisioned the whole human race as a giant pyramid with one place of preeminence at the top. I dreamed of climbing over everybody’s back until at last I got there. Then I knew exactly what I would do. I would look down and say, ‘Now! Now, do I amount to something? Have I at last become a somebody out of my nobodyness?'” (The Preaching Event, 63-4, emphasis his).

The solution for perfectionism

The real tragedy is that we Christians think all this perfectionism actually pleases God—that this is what he wants us to do. Jumping off temples to please the crowds and to please the Christ. It’s a temptation from the devil himself.

And the answer to it comes from the word of God.

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test,” Jesus says, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16.

In the larger context Moses is warning the people that when they come into their Promised Land, “a land with large flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (vs. 10-12).

In other words, do not base your worth and identity on what you have, how you perform, how perfect your land and lives are, how popular you are with each other—build your worth and identity on my love, my grace, my provision. Do not use God to make you perfect or popular—do not test his grace or manipulate his love.

Instead, live by the single greatest advice I’ve ever received: “Remember the source of your personal worth.” You are a person of worth because God loves you, and accepts you unconditionally and absolutely. Not because you can ever be perfect, for you cannot this side of glory. Not because you are popular with others, for the ways of God and the ways of the world are often at war.

Simply because he chose to make you, and he knows you, and he accepts and likes and loves you. Remember the source of your personal worth.

Conclusion

What temples are you tempted to jump off today? The result is simple and predictable: you’ll get hurt. Perfectionist popularity never lasts. And it never will.

The largest statue ever carved from a single piece of stone weighed over 1,000 tons (two million pounds). It was a statue of Ramses I, who died in 1317 B.C. Ramses decreed that his statue would forever remind the people of his greatness. When the Children of Israel left Egypt, they passed by this enormous statue to achievement, status, popularity, perfection.

Who in Egypt thought that the real power of the universe left with them? With this rag-tag bunch of slaves, following a crazy man out into the desert? They had no army, no map, no plan, no future. Or so it seemed.

Today Ramses’ statue lies broken in the sands of Egypt, the image of his perfectionist popularity reduced to rubble. But we have come today to worship one of the sons of Israel as our Lord and God.

This week you will have two motives for all you do: to jump off temples, seeking perfectionist popularity; or to jump into the grace-filled arms of your loving Father. To remember the source of your personal worth.

Choose well.

Once Every 365, 250 Days

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Once Every 365,250 Days

Acts 16:6-15

Dr. Jim Denison

Days like yesterday don’t come along very often. In fact, it has been 365,250 days since the world last stepped into a new millennium. And a few things have changed since then.

Restaurants now have entire dining rooms for cell-phone users. The military has developed miniature robots, and will be modifying them for commercial use soon. A car connected to the Internet will be available this year, as will wristwatches which check e-mail verbally and work as cell phones. Soon cars will be able to guide themselves with radar-aided satellite cruise controls.

And in the next few years everything we own will be connected through the Internet. Clothes will monitor our health and report problems to our doctor electronically; appliances will monitor themselves and report repair problems before they occur; refrigerators will order food to be delivered; scanners will measure our bodies and order our clothing; we will touch the television screen and order the clothing the actor is wearing. Entire college degrees will be earned from our homes.

But while the future fascinates us, it frightens us as well.

Seattle cancelled its Millennium celebration due to terrorist threats. Security has been heightened the world over.

Millions of people stockpiled food and money for the Y2K problem.

A new word has been coined: “atmosfear.” This is the fear and uncertainty of everything around us—the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, fear of hospitals and viruses, fear of banks, the government, everything.

What about the future most worries you this morning? Your children? The society they’re growing up in? Your finances and job? Health? Marriage? Significance and purpose for your life?

How does God want us to face such an uncertain future? His word will help us, no matter what our fears might be.

A trip into the future

Paul’s future was in Macedonia. And he had no clue. Here’s how he found his future.

He is traveling through Phrygia and Galatia, because the Spirit would not let him preach in Asia. On a map of modern-day Turkey, this region would be in the center, where the capital city Ankara is today. I’ve been through the area, and was fascinated by it. A very ancient culture, dating back for thousands of years—in fact, I picked up a piece of clay pot which was dated at 3,000 BC. Ruins today, everywhere you look, waiting to be excavated.

This is where Paul had built churches during his first missionary journey. But now, for reasons completely unclear to him at the time, the Spirit will not allow him to continue his ministry here.

So they travel to Mysia, to the northwest, and try to go to Bithynia, further to the north, but “the Spirit of Jesus” (the only time this phrase is found in the New Testament) would not allow them to. Later, other Christians would plant churches in these areas. But not Paul.

Thus they arrive at Troas, a port city on the western coast of ancient Asia, modern-day Turkey. And here the future became the present.

For here, Paul heard the seven words which literally changed the world: “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” This was modern-day Greece, Europe, the West. Paul had never been here. So far as we know, no Christian had. He had no contacts, no place to start, and no plans to make this his future.

If he had turned back to the East, perhaps the gospel would never have come to Europe and the Chinese would be evangelizing us instead of the other way around. Some historians believe that the whole course of Western civilization and culture turned on this vision, this extraordinary and breathtakingly courageous decision by Paul to go to Macedonia.

Now Paul and Luke (note the “we” passages here), with the rest of their group, sail to the island of Samothrace, and on to the port of Neapolis (the modern city of Kavalla).

Then they hike ten miles along one of the most famous roads in history, the Via Ignatia, arriving at Philippi, “the leading city of Macedonia.” This road still exists today—I’ve seen the ruts in the marble made by Roman chariots.

Philippi had been so named by Philip of Macedon, for himself. It was a strategic military outpost, and the site of one of the most famous battles in history. Here Octavius and Marc Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius and Octavius became Augustus, the Roman Emperor.

The city was a “colony,” meaning that it was a little Rome. The people spoke the Roman language, ate Roman food, wore Roman clothes; most were retired Roman soldiers and their families.

Paul could not have chosen a more strategic first place for the gospel in Europe.

But their church begins in a most unusual and memorable way.

They go outside of town to the Zygaktis river, where they meet some women gathered to pray. Not at a synagogue, or with the leading men of the city, as in other places—this church begins by a river, with the women.

I’ve been to the river, and can tell you it’s a beautiful place to begin the first church in the West. Perhaps five to ten feet across, two or three feet deep at this spot, shaded by trees and foliage. The Greek Orthodox church maintains a concrete baptistry and church there today.

Here Lydia becomes the first European convert to Jesus.

She was apparently a Macedonia agent for a Thyatira clothing manufacturer, specializing in purple clothing. This was the most expensive clothing of the day, made from the glands of the murex shellfish (8,000 made one gram of dye) or the roots of the madder plant. Only kings and the wealthiest people wore this. So Lydia would know the chief influencers in the entire city. Small wonder that God led Paul to her, by this river, in this way.

She had already been worshipping God, seeking him. Never underestimate what God is already doing in the people you know—fully three-fourths of unchurched Americans say they would go to church if brought by a friend.

Paul tells Lydia the gospel, and God opens her heart. This is how the ministry partnership works—we do what we can, and God does what only he can do. We are responsible for telling the truth; God alone can save the soul.

And here, by this river, the first convert helps plant the first church. She is baptized publicly, then invites Paul, Luke, Silas, and their companions to her home. From this base Paul will heal a demon-possessed girl, and lead the jailer to Christ after God miraculously shatters his prison bars. To this church he would later write my favorite letter of the New Testament, Philippians.

All starting at the side of a river Paul had no idea he would ever see. Now, will God lead us as God led him? If so, how? What would Paul say to us about our future today?

How God leads us

Let God have your future.

The first principle Paul would articulate to us is very simple, and very profound: let God have your future. You may think you’re supposed to go to Phrygia and Galatia when you’re supposed to go to Philippi. Not one of us knows our future, or what’s best for us. If we close God in, limit his will, decide for him what’s best, we will miss his best. I like the saying, “God always gives the best to those who leave the choice with him.”

I was sure we were not supposed to move to Dallas. We loved Park Cities, but were not finished in Atlanta. But the day I finally let God have our future, no strings attached, was the day he spoke to my heart and to Janet’s and moved us here. This morning I am truly grateful to be by this Philippian river with you.

Does God have your future? Can he lead you anywhere he wants to?

Listen daily for his voice.

A second principle Paul would teach us: listen daily for God’s voice. God’s will is no blueprint, revealed a year in advance. Paul didn’t know until he was in Phrygia that he was to go to Mysia, and only in Mysia did he know to go to Troas, and only in Troas did he receive the call to Macedonia. Even in Philippi, he didn’t know about Lydia for several days, on the very day he led her to Christ.

God’s will is a present-tense issue. Have you recently made time for his Spirit to speak to you, to guide you? Sometimes he leads through open and closed doors, as he apparently did with Paul. Sometimes through the counsel of others, sometimes through the Scriptures, sometimes through an intuitive sense, sometimes through a very direct word, like a vision. But God will speak to us. None of us will stand before him at the judgment and plead ignorance.

There are radio waves in this room. But the radio must be on to receive them. Is your spiritual radio on? When did you last spend time listening to God?

Obey the last word you heard from God.

Finally, Paul would challenge us to obey the last word we heard from God. Keep doing what God told you to do, until he tells you to do something else. Then obey his new direction, immediately and boldly.

At the end of AD 2000, you will have successes and failures to remember, good days and bad. Your best days will be those you gave to God, the days you obeyed his will as you understood it. The martyred missionary Jim Elliott was right: he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

When we give God our future, listen daily for his voice, and obey what we hear, then God leads us into a future far greater than any we could choose for ourselves. Your best plans and highest dreams pale by comparison with his for you. And he will use make your life eternally significant, no matter what the world says about you.

Consider William Borden, heir to the family dairy fortune. He gave it all up to follow God to the mission field in China. Tragically, he died of spinal meningitis in Egypt, before ever reaching his intended destination. The world branded him a failure.

But not God. Borden left behind a scrap of paper, with the words of his life motto: “No Reserve! No Retreat! No Regrets!” And thousands of young people, inspired by his motto and his example, have followed him onto the global mission field, leading far more people to Christ than Borden could ever have reached himself.

Each year I make some phrase my motto for the year. I’ve adopted Borden’s. Will you join me?

Conclusion

I want to close this morning in a very different way. Not with a story or recap of the message, but by summarizing the most powerful single essay I have ever read. It is by C. S. Lewis, and it deals with the very heart of the Christian life. Listen closely—I think you’ll find it’s worth the effort.

Before we become Christians, we each take as our starting point our ordinary self with its various desires and interests. When we become followers of Christ, we know that we shall have to give up some of these desires and interests, and add others in their place. We shall have to go to church, read our Bibles, pray, give, serve, and so on.

But we are hoping all the time that when all the demands of our religion have been met, we will still have some chance to get on with our own lives and do as we like. We are like an honest man who pays his taxes, but certainly hopes there will be money left over for him to spend as he wishes. We want to be Christians and go to heaven, but we also want to have some time left to live our own lives. Isn’t that true?

But this is not the way of Christ at all. To quote Lewis: “Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself; my own will shall become yours.'”

This way is far harder, and far easier. It is so hard to hand over our entire lives to Jesus—all our time, our money, our abilities, our ambitions. Not just part of them so we can live as we like—all of them. And yet it is easier as well.

Take, as an example, two boys given a proposition in geometry to do. The lazy boy will memorize the formula because that’s easier for the moment. The other will learn the principle, even though that’s harder at the time. But when the test comes the lazy boy is working much harder over things the other boy understands and enjoys.

It’s like that here. The almost impossible thing is to hand over your whole self to Jesus. But it is far easier than what we are trying to do instead. We are trying to remain what we call “ourselves,” to keep our personal happiness as our great aim in life, yet at the same time be good Christians. This is exactly what Jesus warned us we could not do. As he said, a thorn bush cannot produce figs. Grass cannot make wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and resown. My whole life must belong to God.

Lewis says that this is why the real problem of Christianity comes where we do not usually look for it: at the very moment we wake up in the morning. All our wishes and hopes for the day rush at us like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back—in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting the other larger, stronger, quieter life of Jesus come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all our natural hopes and desires—coming in out of the wind—listening to Jesus.

We can only do it for moments at first. But from these moments a new life begins to spread through our system. Now we are letting Jesus work at our souls. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain, which soaks right through.

Jesus never talked in vague, idealistic terms. When he said “Be perfect,” he meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are trying to make is harder—in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird; it would be even harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. You must be hatched or go bad.

Then Lewis concludes: “This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else” (excerpted from Mere Christianity, 166-9).

What will your egg become this year?

One and One Makes Three

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Topical Scripture: Genesis 2:18–25 / Ephesians 5:21–33

A friend shared with me these “reasons to be a man”:

  • Phone conversations are over in thirty seconds flat.
  • You know stuff about tanks.
  • A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
  • You can leave the motel bed unmade.
  • You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
  • Wedding plans take care of themselves.
  • Your underwear is $10.00 for a three-pack.
  • Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
  • If another guy shows up at the party in the same outfit, you might become lifelong friends.
  • You are not expected to know the names of more than five colors.
  • You can “do” your nails with a pocketknife.
  • Christmas shopping can be accomplished for twenty-five relatives, on December 24th, in forty-five minutes.
  • It’s all true.

We’re learning how to live in ways God can bless. Last week we talked about God; today we’re going to talk about men and women. Last week was vertical; this week is horizontal. To live a life blessed by God, we must live in daily commitment to Jesus as Lord, and in daily covenant with each other.

Clearly, our marriages need encouragement today. In America in the year 2012, there was one divorce every thirty-six seconds, nearly 2,400 a day, 16,800 per week, 876,000 per year. Half of all American children will witness the breakup of their parents’ marriage.

By contrast, a “covenant” relationship can revolutionize your marriage, your dating relationships, your friendships, and your own sense of identity, purpose, and joy. As we continue our walk through Genesis, let’s learn how to experience covenant relationships today.

Relationship as contract

Nearly every relationship in our culture today is contractual in nature. The simplest dictionary definition of a contract is “a promise enforceable by law.” The contract requires the mutual assent of two or more persons. If one of the parties fails to keep the promise, the other is entitled to legal recourse.

Our children’s teachers have a contractual obligation to be qualified in the subjects they teach, and to teach those subjects. Our political leaders have a contractual obligation to fulfill the responsibilities they have assumed. The people painting your house have a contractual obligation to do what you are paying them to do. If they don’t want to complete the job, or you don’t want them to, you have contractual recourse and steps to consider. The relationship can be ended at any time by mutual consent or through legal process.

This is the view our society has taken of marriage as well. Our culture is convinced that marriage, like all other relationships in our society, is negotiable, subjective, and arbitrary. It’s a contract which can be ended at any time by either partner.

Relationship as covenant

This contractual view of marriage and relationships is completely contrary to God’s word and will. In the beginning of human history, God had made Adam, but not Eve. Then our Maker said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18).

“Helper suitable for him” points to a superior who helps an inferior, a stronger person helping a weaker person. Man needs woman, and woman needs man. We are each other’s “helpers” in life. We are each made differently; we need each other.

Man’s need was so urgent that God performed a special, miraculous creative act to meet it (vv. 21–22). Adam certainly approved of the result: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (v. 23).

With this result: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (v. 24). Even in that perfect, pre-fallen Garden of Eden, life was not complete alone. So, God gave man his soul mate, the person who completed him, the one who made his life complete, fulfilled, and joyous. He still does.

And he intends the man and woman to live in covenant with each other. A contract is conditional; a covenant is unconditional. A contract can be ended by either party for just cause; the covenant is unending and eternal. A contract is based on human expectations and performance; a covenant is based on God’s will and kept by his power. And that is the relationship he intends for a husband and a wife.

How to live in covenant

So, how do we live in covenant relationships? Ephesians 5 provides the guidelines we need.

The text begins: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). “Submit” translates the word for a voluntary decision to serve. It is in the middle voice in Greek: “choose to place yourself in submission.”

Not the submission of an inferior to a superior, but the choice to support and serve on the part of an equal. It is an ongoing, present-tense commitment, made not just for the wedding but for all the years of the marriage. And it is a commandment, not an option. How do we fulfill it?

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord” (v. 22). Your husband’s greatest need is encouraging support, to know that he is respected. You are the person whose respect he needs most. When you submit to him, encourage him, and support him, you meet his heart’s cry and fulfill your God-given role in his life and heart.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church” (v. 25). Your wife’s greatest need is loving security, to know that she is cherished and wanted. You are the person whose love and admiration she needs most. When you love her, finding ways to express your attraction, gratitude, and commitment to her, you meet her heart’s cry and fulfill your God-given role in her life and heart.

What does every marriage need? One expert summarizes: “Men are motivated and empowered when they feel needed. Women are motivated and empowered when they feel cherished.” Every marriage needs encouraging support and loving security.

This is God’s intended covenant for your marriage, and for your other relationships as well. The men you know need your respect before they need anything else. The women you know need your appreciation and security before they need anything else.

Jesus stands ready to love them through you, if you will stay in his Spirit and power. If you will live in constant communion with him. If you will surrender your marriage and relationships to him, he will fulfill his covenant in and through your life.

Are there circumstances by which this covenant can be broken biblically? There are three. This is the subject of another message, but we’ll survey them briefly here.

First, if an unbeliever abandons a believer: “If the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances” (1 Corinthians 7:15). If you are married to a non-Christian who refuses to stay in the marriage, you are not obligated to that person.

Second, if one of the partners commits adultery, sex outside of marriage. Jesus said, “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9).

I believe a third biblical condition to be abuse, whether emotional or physical, which threatens life and future. The sixth commandment is plain: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). James 2:11 adds: “He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”

Life comes first. Sometimes we must choose between commandments. When Corrie ten Boom and her family were harboring Jews, and the Nazis came looking for them, the ten Booms had to choose between lying and murder. If we must choose between a destructive, threatening, abusive marriage and life, we choose life.

Sometimes divorce is the lesser of two terrible options. But even when there is abandonment, adultery, or abuse, divorce is the last resort, to be considered only after there has been every effort made to restore the relationship. Only when one partner refuses to continue the process toward healing.

I am convinced that God can heal every marriage whose partners want their marriage to be healed. And he will give you not a better marriage but a new marriage. Not a better home but a new home. A home built on the covenant commitment which he will empower by his grace.

Jesus told us about a foolish man who built his house on sand, and a wise man who built his house on rock. The same storms came against them both. The first fell; the second stood firm (Matthew 7:24–27). The difference was not their materials, architect, or builder, but their foundation. If your home and relationships are built on any foundation other than the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you have built on sand. And the storms are coming.

Conclusion

When Jesus is Lord of your covenant relationship, one and one makes three. A man, a woman, and the Lord; two people and their God. That’s the way to hope, help, and joy.

So, which is your marriage: a contract between two people or a covenant with God? What about your friendships at school, or relationships at work? What practical steps can you take to move from contract to covenant this week?

First, commit to the marriage or relationship.

Decide that divorce is not an option. There will be times when that commitment to your covenant is all that gets you through a hard place and time. But it will.

Second, determine to meet the needs of your spouse or friend.

It’s not about you. Your husband needs encouraging respect and support; your wife needs nurturing love and security. Look for ways to provide it. Refuse to undermine it.

Make an inventory of anything that could harm your relationship. Ask a friend to pray with you and hold you accountable in areas where you struggle. Seek professional help if necessary.

And be proactive in meeting the other’s needs. John Gottman of the University of Washington says, “In couples that stay together, there are about five times more positive things said to and about one another as negative ones. But in couples that divorce, there are about one and a half times more negative things said than positive.” Look for ways to meet the other’s needs.

Third, verbally commit to your covenant together.

Pray together that God would protect you and strengthen you from any attack of Satan. He hates everything God has created, including your marriage and family. He will do all he can to attack and undermine your commitment to each other.

Marquis Clarke, a Christian mother and blogger, made this simple but powerful vow: “I want my life and my marriage to look less like the world and more like Christ.” Do you?

One Fish Can Change the World

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One Fish Can Change the World

Matthew 4:18-22

Dr. Jim Denison

Edward Kimball was determined to win his Sunday school class to Jesus. A teenager named Dwight Moody tended to fall asleep on Sundays, but Kimball, undeterred, went to see him at his shoe store. Kimball tried to lead Moody to Christ, but thought he failed. He did not. And in time Moody became the most famous evangelist in America.

In 1873 Moody went to Liverpool, England for a series of crusades. His preaching greatly affected F. B. Meyer, a scholarly Baptist pastor there. Meyer in turn toured America with Moody. At Northfield Bible Conference, he challenged the crowds, saying, “If you are not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?” This remark changed the life of a struggling young minister named J. Wilber Chapman.

Chapman became a powerful traveling evangelist in the early 1900s, and he recruited a newly converted baseball player named Billy Sunday. Sunday became one of the most spectacular evangelists in American history. His campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina produced a large number of converts. These converts continued praying for revival to come to their city, and in 1934 they invited Mordecai Ham to preach there. Ham left discouraged with the results. Just one convert, a Central High School student named Billy Graham. As you know, Billy Graham has preached the gospel to more people than anyone in human history.

One person can change the world. And Edward Kimball thought he had failed.

We have established these facts: our life’s purpose is to help people follow Jesus, thus fulfilling the Great Commission for every Christian and every Christian church. We must be equipped for the job through personal discipleship and spiritual growth. Now we must be engaged in ministry. Every member a minister.

I have only two questions today: why? And how?

Why fish for men?

Jesus called his disciples to be “fishers of men.” Why? Why do we need to give other people the gospel? Why tell them about Jesus? There are several very honest questions wrapped up in this issue.

First, aren’t the fish fine where they are? Why do they need our boat? Our lake? Our religion?Our postmodern society believes that the individual is the sole arbiter of truth, the only one with the right to say what is right and wrong. We have no right to impose our reality, our values on others, we’re told.

Besides, do we really believe that the good people we know, who don’t happen to be born-again Christians, are going to hell? That your neighbor down the street who works hard, loves his kids, and lives a moral life needs to accept your religion to go to heaven? That your friend at work who believes in God and lives a good life needs more than that?

God says they do. Jesus was clear: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6a). There is absolute truth. To deny this is to make an absolute statement. As C. S. Lewis put it, the man who denies the sunrise doesn’t insult the sun, just himself.

And there is a heaven and a hell. Jesus continued, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6b). This is the only way into the “Lamb’s Book of Life.” And Revelation 20:15 warns us, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

People need us to find them. You are not imposing your own subjective values on them. Their eternal souls are at stake.

Second, isn’t this a job for professionals? Many of us enjoy fishing, but we’d never survive if it were our living. That’s why God calls professional “ministers,” right?

Actually, he doesn’t. If this were true, Jesus would have called rabbis and scholars to be fishermen, but he didn’t. We’ve established the fact that every Christian is to help people follow Jesus. You can reach people who would never talk to me. There are no “professionals” in fishing for men. We’re all called to this work.

Third, don’t we have all the fish we need? Our boat has plenty of fish on board, doesn’t it? We have a bigger boat than nearly anyone else, and the fish seem happy. Don’t we have all we need?

The fact is, 85% of church growth today is from transfers from church to church, swapping fish from boat to boat. Less than 1% of today’s churches are growing primarily by conversions. This is why there are 100,000 lost people within three miles of this “boat.” Not until every person has a realistic opportunity to be saved, churched, and discipled, can we quit fishing.

So Jesus is walking beside our “sea” today. Most of us already believe in him, as these four did (cf. John 1:35-42). Now he calls us to follow him, to be his disciples. We can only give what we possess. And to help others follow him—to be fishers of men. He will “make” us fishers, equipping us and helping us. His will never leads where his grace does not sustain. But he expects us to do what they did: “At once they left their nets and followed him.”

How?

How do we catch them?

A few weeks ago I went with some friends up to Lake Texoma to go striper fishing. Two of them brought their daughters. Three boats of fishermen set out that day. The two girls caught more than the rest of their boats combined. Clearly we men had something to learn about fishing. See if these lessons are relevant to us and our church.

Go where the fish are. Our guide used extremely expensive sonar to find the fish. In fact, this was the most expensive piece of equipment on his boat. He talked on his cell phone to the other guides constantly, as they looked for fish. And he went to the fish. He would never think of dropping anchor where he wanted to be and waiting for the fish to come find him. He knew the lake and their feeding patterns, depending on the weather and time of day. He went to the fish, always.

Our text continues: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). He was an excellent fisherman.

Use bait which works. In Jesus’ day, fishermen used three methods: they fished by line, as we did; they used a drag net, lowered from a boat or two boats and pulled through the water to catch the fish; and they used a casting net, a circular net as much as nine feet across weighted on the edges. It was thrown into the water, then drawn up. This is the kind of net Jesus’ disciples were using in our text. The point is that they used the method, the “bait” which would work.

So with our fishing guide. He went out the night before to catch the small fish which were our bait. This took hours. He told me it is usually the hardest part of the job. And he was very careful with it. He didn’t use bait which was too large or too small. And as soon as it stopped working, he changed it.

Paul said, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). He would have made an excellent fisherman.

Pay the price of success. A fisherman must have patience. If he is restless and quick to move he will never catch many fish. He must have perseverance. If he quits, he never catches fish. He must have courage. As the old Greek said when praying for protection, “My boat is so small and the sea is so large.” The fisherman must be ready to risk the storms and waves of his life. There is always a danger in telling people the truth.

He must have humility.

The fisherman must keep himself out of sight. If the fish see him, he will never see them. With John the Baptist we say, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” He must be willing to sacrifice. When he is fishing he can do little else. This must be his whole passion. So with the disciples, who sacrificed family businesses built over a lifetime, and eventually their lives as well.

Cooperate with other fishermen. They told each other where the fish were, and even their exact depth. They gave each other bait. They tied their boats together so they could stay where the fish were. There was no competition between them—they knew there was plenty of fish for every boat and more.

Define success by the fish caught. The boats we used were dirty and utilitarian. They were essentially fishing poles with motors. The guide’s clothes were not very attractive, either. Dirty tennis shoes and jeans. His sole purpose was to catch as many fish as possible. He gave no thought to impressing the other fishermen, but only the fish. His boat wasn’t built for the fishermen, but for the fish.

Our guide had a passion for catching fish. If we let a fish bite without setting the hook and reeling it in, he would fuss at us, jump over to the pole, and set the hook for us. He couldn’t stand to see us miss a fish. He defined success by fish, nothing less.

Does any of this apply to us?

Conclusion

Our church has stated that we will engage the servants in ministry which is:

Kingdom-centered, cooperating with believers to make disciples of all nations.

Relational, taking the gospel to our community through personal interaction.

Need-based, discovering and responding to ministry opportunities.

Compelling, enabling believers to utilize their gifts and ministry calling as the Spirit leads.

But just because we’ve said it doesn’t make it so. Ultimately the question is personal. Are you in the boat? Using bait which works? Paying the price of success? Working with other fishermen? Passionate about catching fish?

Just one can change the world.

Mr. Fleming was but a poor Scottish farmer. One day while working in the fields he heard a cry for help from a nearby bog. There he found a terrified boy, waist deep in black muck, screaming and trying to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the boy from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s sparse house. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Fleming had saved. “I want to repay you,” he said. “You saved my son’s life.” But Fleming refused.

At that moment the farmer’s own son came to the door of their house. “Is that your son?” the nobleman asked. “Yes,” Fleming said. “I’ll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he’ll grow to be a man you can be proud of.” And indeed he did.

Farmer Fleming’s son graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, and became known throughout the world as Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. Years later, the nobleman’s son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son’s name? Sir Winston Churchill.

What happens when you care about someone? You change the world forever.