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The Solution for a Stressed Soul

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The Solution for a Stressed Soul

Matthew 11:28-30

Dr. Jim Denison

Rogers Cadenhead is one stressed individual. The Florida resident and technology author registered www.benedictXVI.com shortly before the new pope took that name. Now he’s heard offers from all kinds of businesses which want to purchase the site. He promises not to sell it to pornographers or others who would use it improperly, and in fact is trying to arrange its sale to the Vatican.

He says he’d like “one of those big papal hats, and maybe three days/two nights at the Vatican hotel they built for the conclave.” His site received 1,000 hits a minute after the election. But he promises not to anger 1.1 billion Catholics: “Even though I’m a lapsed Catholic, I’m not lapsed that far.” He’s a wise man.

Mr. Cadenhead is not the only person under stress today. The Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology reports that during exams, students are less likely to control their behaviors. They eat more junk food, exercise less, and leave more dishes in the sink. They also neglect to shave, brush their teeth, wash their hair, change their clothes, and do laundry. Sounds like a normal day for me in college.

Workplace stress continues to grow, sparked by demands for increased productivity and longer hours; the need to gather and synthesize growing amounts of information; job insecurity; and the need to balance obligations between work and family as women enter the workforce worldwide.

Twenty five to 40 percent of U.S. workers say they deal with burnout caused by stress. Depression caused by stress is predicted to be the leading occupational disease of the 21st century. $300 billion is spent annually in the U.S. on stress-related issues.

Women who work full-time and have children under the age of 13 report the greatest stress worldwide. More than 20 percent of all executives and professionals say they are “super-stressed.”

The six leading causes of death in America are heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide. Each is linked directly to stress.

Some of us are experiencing acute stress today, dealing with short-term issues which cause anxiety and pressure. Some of us are victims of “episodic acute stress,” living in a constant state of acute stress.

But many of us are dealing with chronic stress, defined by one physician as “the grinding stress that wears people away day after day, year after year.” It results from situations which have no solution, unrelenting demands and pressures, a sense that things will never get better.

Whether you’re stressed today or you will be tomorrow, there is only one solution guaranteed to work. Only one way to find a deep sense of satisfaction and purpose which transcends the struggles of the moment. Only one way to get ready for acute stress, and to get rid of chronic stress.

I need this week’s study as much as you do. Let’s find help together.

Read your invitation

“Come to me,” our text begins. Jesus constantly invited people to come to himself. The fishermen and tax collectors who became his disciples, the lepers and prostitutes who became his followers–always he was inviting others to follow him.

“Come” means “come on.” It is both an invitation and an encouragement. “Hither to me”–hurry on to me, now.

Who?

“All the ones laboring.” This is in the active tense–those who are wearing themselves out today with work, what we would call “acute stress,” the stress and burden of the moment. Jesus knows that we all face such stress. If his invitation applies to you, you have met every requirement to come to him.

And those “having been burdened.” The tense expresses a state of weariness, the kind of chronic stress that others place on us. The immediate context is likely the Jewish law, 613 daily requirements the people must follow. For instance, a woman could not look at herself in a mirror on the Sabbath, lest she see a gray hair and be tempted to pull it–which would be “work,” a violation of the law. There were 612 other laws like that. More generally, his words apply to all of us who are living under the constant grind of demands placed on us.

Whether your stress is acute or chronic, self-imposed or caused by the world around you, you’re invited to Jesus’ promise. Stress is the only requirement.

What happens when we come to him? “I will rest you.” “I” is emphatic, implying that only Jesus can do this. The syntax is similar to a doctor’s promise, “I will heal you.” “Rest” means to refresh or reinvigorate. It is the picture of a weary, tired person being refreshed by water and rest. Something like a sideline rest for a player, or a pit stop for a race car.

How?

“Take my yoke on you.” The yoke was used by the master to control the animal, usually a donkey or ox. As each animal’s shoulders and neck were different, a good yoke was fitted specifically and personally. The yoke then told the animal where to go, when to go, and how fast and how far to go. Everything the ox needs to know, the yoke tells him.

“My” yoke shows that we are to choose his alone. There are many yokes you can wear–the one you design for yourself, your own plans and ambitions; or the yoke made for you by your employer or colleagues, or friends or culture, or religion or family. Jesus says to wear his yoke, his plan, his direction only.

“Learn from me,” sometimes translated “enroll in my school.” The rabbis of Jesus’ day typically had schools of disciples. Here is Jesus’ invitation to enroll in his school of life. We may not be able to go to Harvard or Stanford, but we are all accepted into the university of the God of the universe.

Why? “Because,” for this reason. He is “gentle.” The Greek is praus, which means to do always the right thing and never the wrong thing. His will and purpose are always best and right for us.

He is “humble in heart,” the One who is humbled before his Father and his plan. Jesus wants only that which honors and glorifies his Father. He wants our good and God’s glory.

We will “find rest for your souls.” This is the second time he has made this promise. Anything repeated twice by a Holy God is guaranteed!

His yoke is “easy.” The word means that it fits properly and well, like a tailor-made suit or dress. It is perfect for us.

And his “burden is light,” for it is made exactly for us. When I carry luggage through an airport, if the strap fits my back the burden is much lighter than when it cuts off my circulation or slips from my shoulder.

Now, what does this invitation mean to us today? Four facts are clear.

Answer your Lord

God has a yoke for you. The gods of the ancient world were mean and capricious. In the movie Troy, for instance, the gods afflict people with plague and disaster. Or they are weak and irrelevant, as the sun god which Achilles beheads with his sword. The gods are more powerful than us, but just as sinful.

The god of the modern world is a clockmaker who created the world but no longer interferes with its operations. No miracles, no intervention, no relevance, a grandfather watching his children play.

The god of the postmodern world is personal, individual, subjective. Your truth, your faith, not mine. Spirituality = sincerity + tolerance.

The God Jesus represents is personal, individual, and relevant. He knows the hairs on your head, and sees tomorrow from today. He has a yoke which he has made specifically for you, a plan and purpose for every day of your life.

God’s yoke is best for you. It fits perfectly and makes your load light.

His yoke is his plan “to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). His will is “good, pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Because he made you, he knows what yoke fits you best. He knows what purpose will most fulfill his glory and your good.

God has prepared you for your purpose. Such is true of every person used greatly by the Lord in all of Scripture. Moses was “educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:22). Josephus states that he was “educated with great care. So the Hebrews depended on him, and were of good hopes that great things would be done by him; but the Egyptians were suspicious of what would follow his education” (Antiquities 2.9.7). He was prepared for his purpose.

When Saul of Tarsus was learning the larger Roman culture, he had no idea he would use such knowledge to win intellectuals to faith in Christ on Mars Hill (Acts 17) or serve as God’s apostle to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:7-8). When he learned to master the Hebrew Scriptures, he did not know he would quote them across the Roman Empire. Matthew did not know that the stenographic skills he perfected in tax collecting would one day enable him to record the Sermon on the Mount. God has prepared you for your purpose. His yoke fits best.

You must choose to wear his yoke.. Unlike an ox or donkey, you have a choice in the matter. You can make your own yoke, or wear someone else’s. But you can wear only one at a time. You’re wearing one now–the only question is whose.

The key to purpose is humility, choosing to serve God rather than yourself. It is the decision every single day that you will serve God’s glory and not your own, that you will submit to his authority and not your own, that you will pay any personal price to be faithful to his will. That you will go where he leads you and let the chips fall. You cannot wear his yoke and your own. And only you can make the right choice.

You wear his yoke by surrendering to his Spirit. Now we come to the topic of the spring–being committed daily to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. As we’ve seen in recent weeks, every Christian among us is commanded to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), to be yielded every day to the Spirit’s leading and direction. When last did you make that decision? When next will you make it?

Conclusion

My first pastor was a great storyteller. My favorite of all his stories is one I’ve repeated often since. It concerns F. B. Meyer, one of the greatest preachers of his generation, and the young minister he had preach for him one Sunday. The man spoke with a power Dr. Meyer had never before encountered, so he asked the man his secret. He said, “I don’t have any secret. It’s just that I’ve given all the keys of my life to the Lord.” That night Dr. Meyer had a dream in which an angel came to ask for his keys. He gave all but one, and the angel said, “All or none.” Finally he gave that last key, and his ministry and life were never the same.

Dr. Meyer later made a statement I discovered this week: “the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is present in all true Christians. He is prominent in some, and he is pre-eminent, alas, in only a few.” Meyer spent the rest of his life and work trying to convince people to make Jesus pre-eminent in their lives.

Would those who know you best say that the Spirit is present in your life? Prominent? Pre-eminent?

Whose yoke are you wearing today?

The Stars Of Christmas

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The Stars of Christmas

Matthew 2:1-2

Dr. Jim Denison

Have you heard of Honus Wagner? If you find one of his baseball cards, you’ll be glad to know what you’re about to learn: only seven remain in existence, and are worth half a million dollars apiece. All that for a piece of cardboard.

A Philadelphia man bought a painting at a local flea market for $4. When he examined it at home, he found at its back a copy of the Declaration of Independence, printed on July 4, 1776. It was estimated to be worth more than $1 million. People had passed it by all day long, but none recognized its value.

Franklin Roosevelt and one of his friends were talking late into the night at the White House. At last the president suggested that they go out into the Rose Garden and look at the stars before going to bed. They stared for several minutes into the nebulae with its thousands of stars. Then the president said, “All right, I think we feel small enough now to go in and go to sleep.”

From time immemorial, the stars have drawn us toward heaven, but never more effectively than when a single star led a group of men to worship a Child twenty centuries ago. Unfortunately, most of the world passed it by, even as much of the world still passes by the Child whose birth it announced.

On this Christmas Eve, we’ll think together about the Christmas star in the sky, and the even brighter Christmas star in the stable. And we’ll learn to be Wise Men who follow the first to the second today.

What do we know?

First, let’s understand the setting. The “Magi” were a group of ancient star-gazers or astrologers, probably working for the king of their nation. They were “wise men,” spiritual and philosophical advisers, basing their wisdom on their reading of the skies. This story of their coming to worship a new king based on a star is entirely plausible–they did this sort of thing frequently.

Now, what does God’s word tell us about the object of their star-gazing exploration?

First, the account is told in historic fashion. Nothing here suggests that the star is a myth or poem. From the earliest times, the church has taken this text as the description of an event in history.

Second, the star rose en anatole, “in the east.” This was the ancient term for an “acronical” rising, when an object rises at sunset and is visible all night.

Third, this event was not so spectacular as to elicit wide attention. Herod and his court advisers missed it, as did other ancient historians and records.

Fourth, there is no indication in the text that the star actually led the Magi to Jerusalem. When they saw it, they knew somehow that the star meant the birth of a king, and that they should go to Jerusalem to find him. But nothing in Matthew’s account says that the star actually led the Wise Men to King Herod.

Until now the star of Christmas would be interesting, but explainable in normal terms–a star rises on the horizon, somehow indicating to ancient star-gazers the birth of a new king in Israel. But now the star goes from natural to supernatural: “the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him” (vs. 9-11).

A star appears in the eastern sky, telling a group of Magi that a King of the Jews has been born. It then reappears and guides them to his house and worship. These are the facts as we have them in Scripture.

What can we guess?

Now, what could this star have been? Every plausible explanation has been advanced, all of them interesting but none so compelling as to end the debate. Let’s look briefly at some of the more popular options.

A comet has long been a popular candidate. But there are none recorded around the time of Jesus’ birth. Halley’s Comet would be the closest, appearing in 12 B.C., but that is years before Christmas. And comets were considered to be ominous in the ancient world, never the herald of good news.

Meteors and fireballs are sometimes suggested. But Herod and his court would certainly have noticed such a brilliant phenomenon.

A natural star could account for the first appearance, but not the second. If a star got so close to our planet as to point out a particular house in the town of Bethlehem, it would burn us all up. Imagine our sun getting so close to us.

Some suggest a combination of planets. On September 11 in 3 B.C., Jupiter (the royal planet) came into conjunction with Regulus (the royal star) in Leo (the constellation of kings). The sun was in the constellation of Virgo (symbolic of the virgin), together with the new moon (symbolic of a new birth). And September 11 was the beginning of the Jewish New Year as well. Interesting, but not even a planet could single out an individual house with precision.

What does it mean?

The only explanation which fits the facts is that this was a one-time, miraculous phenomenon. God used a star to alert the Wise Men to the birth of a new king in Israel. Somehow he used that same star to guide them to the Child’s home. And when they found him, they gave him their hearts and gifts in worship. And found the hope, peace, joy, and love he alone can give. The star in the sky led them to the Star on earth.

Now, what if none of it were true? Several years ago, a group of historians asked themselves some interesting questions. What if Lee had not lost at Gettysburg? What if Booth had missed Lincoln? What if Napoleon had escaped to America? And so on. They wrote a book about their discussion titled, If: History Rewritten. Let’s ask their question tonight. What if there were no star in the heavens because there were no star on earth?

What if none of it had happened?

We could not know God. Before Christmas, our pictures of God were finite and fallen. Zeus throwing thunderbolts, or a clockmaker watching the world run down, or some impersonal life force pervading the universe. But then God became a baby and grew up to be a healer, lover, teacher, and sacrifice. If Christmas had not come, we could not know God.

We would live in separation from God. This is the basic problem in all human experience: we are estranged from our Creator. Pascal was right: there is a God-shaped emptiness inside each of us. Our sins have separated us from God. If his Son had not left heaven for earth, we could never leave earth for heaven.

We would spend eternity apart from God. Our last sin would be enough to keep us out of his perfect paradise forever. If his star had not come to light our world with his love, we could never find our way home.

Have you been wise enough to follow the star in the sky to the star in the stable? To make him your personal Savior and Lord? To share his light with your dark world? Well?

Conclusion

An anonymous author was as wise as the Magi. He wrote:

More than 1900 years ago there was Man born contrary to the laws of life. This Man lived in poverty and was reared in obscurity. Only once did he cross the boundary of the country in which he lived, during his exile in childhood. In infancy he frightened a king; in childhood he amazed the scholars; in manhood he ruled the course of Nature, walking upon the billows as if on pavement, and hushed the sea to sleep.

He never wrote a book, and yet all the libraries of the country could not hold the books that have been written about him. He never wrote a song, and yet he has furnished the theme for more songs than all the song writers combined. He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students.

The names of the past statesmen of Greece and Rome have come and gone. The names of the past scientists, philosophers and theologians have come and gone. But the name of this Man abounds more and more.

Though time has spread many years between the people of this generation and the scene of his crucifixion, yet he still lives. Herod could not destroy him, and the grave could not hold him. He stands forth upon the highest pinnacle of heavenly glory, proclaimed of God, worshiped by angels, adored by saints, our only source of joy: the living Christ, our Lord, our Savior, and our King.

Are you this wise? Don’t miss the true Christmas star this year. You’ll find him waiting in the stable of your heart.

The Story of Jim the Farmer

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The Story of Jim the Farmer

Mark 4:1-20

Dr. Jim Denison

Every day in America 108,000 people move; the government issues 50 more pages of regulations; 40 Americans turn 100; we purchase 45,000 new cars and trucks and wreck 87,000; 20,000 people write letters to the president; dogs bit 11,000 citizens, including 20 mail carriers; we eat 75 acres of pizza, 53 million hot dogs, 167 million eggs, 3 million gallons of ice cream, and 3,000 tons of candy. We then jog 17 million miles to get rid of it all. We are busy people.

As a result, time is our most valued currency today. In every survey I’ve seen, people would trade money for more time, every time. Wouldn’t you?

If someone could show me the best way to use the little time I have, I’d listen. When this new year is over, I want to have spent it in the best way possible. I want the joy of knowing that my life this year has been worthwhile. Don’t you?

So, what will bring us our greatest sense of joyful satisfaction and significance? I’d like to answer that question with a parable today.

My parable

A young man and his wife moved to rural Mansfield, outside Fort Worth, to become pastor of New Hope Baptist Church. Someone suggested that they do some landscaping around the parsonage and plant a garden. It looked easy, and they were foolish, so they gave it a try. And they failed abysmally.

One year the pastor scattered grass seed around his back yard, but some got on the concrete porch. Before he could sweep it back into the bag the birds found it and ate it all. And he learned that the ground must be broken up before the seed can sprout.

The next year they planted where the old driveway had been. Even though it was grown over and they raked and weeded and watered, the limestone just under the surface was their undoing. The plants shot up quickly, but couldn’t get rooted and died. And he learned that the ground must be plowed down before the seed can grow.

The next year their garden started well. But they hadn’t pulled all the grass burrs and weeds out of the soil, figuring they wouldn’t hurt things. They were wrong. That year while others harvested their gardens, this couple mowed theirs. And he learned that the weeds must be pulled before the seed can survive.

Sometimes the birds eat the seed; sometimes the plant dies for lack of roots, or because of weeds. And sometimes the seed bears a great harvest, even a hundredfold. In each case the seed is the same. When the ground is broken and plowed and weeded, it can grow.

But in no case can the seed grow without a farmer. And that’s the point of Jesus’ parable, and of my horticultural failures as well. The seed needs a farmer. So does the gospel.

It is clear that the seed in Jesus’ parable is the gospel; cf. v. 14, “The farmer sows the word.” Matthew’s version calls it “the message about the kingdom” (Matthew 13.19). The farmer shares his faith, explaining the gospel to others. This is your job and mine.

If you have seed, you must sow it. It’s no good in the bag, or in your hand. It only makes a crop when it’s in the ground. If you’re a Christian—if you have the seed of the gospel in your heart and life—you must sow it. So must I.

What joy!

But we know all this. We know we should share our faith.

We’ve all heard the Great Commission: “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” We know that Jesus’ last words to the church were, “You will be my witnesses.” We know we are supposed to take Christ to our city and world. But if you’re at all like me, the thought of evangelizing others is not always a pleasant one.

Let’s be honest about it—if we liked witnessing, we’d do more of it. But the facts are clear. Scholars in evangelism estimate that ½ of 1% of Southern Baptists share their faith regularly in any given year. One percent of the Christian church’s growth is by conversions from outside the congregation. And you know that Park Cities can only document twenty-two adult conversions in 1997, though we are one of the most mission-minded and mission-giving churches in America.

If you’d known this was going to be a sermon about witnessing, how would you have felt about it? Guilty? Bored? Uninterested?

Here’s the surprise: the Bible consistently connects witnessing with joy. Not boredom, or guilt, but joy. Hebrews 12.2 says that Jesus saw his saving mission this way: “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising its shame.”

In Jesus’ three famous parables about lost things we find the same reaction. When the shepherd finds his lost sheep he rejoiced (Luke 15.5); when the woman finds her lost coin she rejoices and throws a party (v. 9); when the father finds his lost son he is thrilled (v. 24).

Here’s how the angels feel when someone responds to our witness by becoming a Christian: “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (v. 7).

Here’s how Paul felt about the preaching of the gospel: “Because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice” (Philippians 1.18).

Even when they were punished for witnessing, the early Christians rejoiced in the privilege of sharing their faith: “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 5.41-42).

Now, what did these early Christians know that we don’t?

Why joy?

First, they knew that the seed is good news. The “seed” in the parable is the “word” (v. 14); Matthew’s version calls it “the message about the kingdom” (Matthew 13.19).

Unfortunately, we’ve made the gospel into bad news: you’re a sinner, and you’re going to hell. Some preach on hell as though they liked it.

But the simple fact is, “gospel” means “good news.” This is the definition of the word. This is amazingly good news: you can be forgiven for every mistake you’ve ever made. God loves you and has an incredible plan for your life. You can accept his love, receive his forgiveness, and gain eternal life and significance right now!

This is good news, and we always like sharing good news. The staff has heard Leroy Summers tell us that his grandson has moved to Dallas, until we feel like he’s our grandson, too. The boys love it when I come in from church on Sundays, and the Cowboys are winning and they get to tell me. A doctor loves to tell a waiting family that the surgery was a success.

We hate to tell bad news, but we love to tell good news. How do you see the gospel?

Second, they knew that sowing is a process. We think we don’t “succeed” in witnessing unless the person becomes a Christian then and there. Because this seldom happens, we think we’re not good at it. The apostles knew better. They learned from Jesus that sowing and spiritual conversion is a process

If you’re like me, when you witness you feel as though you’re on trial, and the person you’re talking with is the prosecutor. You just hope you’ll not fail. But in fact, Jesus is on trial and the person is the jury. The Holy Spirit is the defense attorney, Satan is the prosecutor, and you’re simply called to the witness stand.

Your job is to tell what you know when the Spirit calls. You may be the first witness on the stand, and never hear the verdict; you may be the last, and hear the jury’s decision. Either way, you and I are simply witnesses. We’re not the one on trial—Jesus is.

Sowing is a process. Don’t think you have to see the verdict rendered, the harvest grown. Just do what you can as God leads you. And relax—he’s in charge, not you. Success is faithfulness. And when we’re faithful to God, we find his joy.

Third, they knew that the crop is eternal. Unlike my garden, which lasted until the fire ants took possession, this crop bears eternal fruit.

It’s wonderful when cancer goes into remission or the surgery is successful, but we will still die one day if the Lord tarries. However, human souls are eternal. They live forever, somewhere. The Bible says they will be in the bliss of heaven or the torment of hell, for all time and beyond time.

This is why taking part in someone’s eternal salvation is more important than curing them of cancer or even the world of cancer; more important than feeding a hungry man or even ending all starvation; more important than winning a war or even abolishing all war. Helping eternal souls go to heaven is the greatest work of all, and thus the most joyful.

In weeks to come you’ll hear a great deal about The Seed Initiative. All I’ll say today is that this is the most comprehensive strategy I’ve ever seen for helping a local church find the joy of sharing. It’s not just another program, but a God-given opportunity for us to discover the greatest joy the human heart can know: the privilege of sowing the seed of God’s love and seeing it bear harvest for all eternity.

Conclusion

For today, I simply ask you to agree with this fact: seed needs a farmer. Have you received the seed of the gospel into the soil of your heart yet? Or have you been concrete, limestone, or grass burrs?

If you’ve received the seed, would you decide today that you want to share it more fully than you ever have before? That you want the joy God can only give those who sow his seed? That you’ll be a farmer with me in this new year?

Roger Simms walked slowly along the highway. He was tired, and the suitcase he carried grew heavier by the minute. He was anxious to get out of his army uniform and see his parents and girlfriend again.

A car came into view, and Roger stuck his thumb in the air. To his surprise, the sleek, black Cadillac pulled over for him. “Thank you!” he said to the stranger inside. “Glad to help,” the man said. And they began to talk The driver’s name was Mr. Hanover, and he owned a business in Chicago.As they drove along, the Holy Spirit began to prompt Roger to witness to Mr. Hanover. But he couldn’t, he told God. He couldn’t talk to this distinguished looking businessman about spiritual things.

Finally the Spirit’s urging became so strong Roger couldn’t ignore it. “Mr. Hanover,” he said, “I would like to talk to you about something very important. I want to talk to you about your soul.” Steel gray eyes pierced Roger’s, but the man made no reply. For the next few minutes Roger poured out his soul as he explained the gospel to the man. Finally he asked him if he would like to receive Christ as his Savior.

To Roger’s astonishment, the man abruptly pulled the car to the side of the road. The businessman bowed his head over the steering wheel and began to weep. Through his tears, he prayed and received the salvation only Jesus can give.

A few minutes later he dropped Roger in front of his home. “Thank you,” he said. “This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.” He gave Roger his business card and said, “This is where you can find me if you are ever in Chicago.”

Nothing could contain Roger’s joy, that he had helped this man come to Christ and receive eternal salvation for his soul. This was more important than anything else in the world to him.

In a few months Roger and his girlfriend Beth were married. Two years later a little boy was born to them. Roger began his own business, and it began to prosper.

Then he had to make a trip to Chicago. As he was packing his socks, he found Mr. Hanover’s business card, given to him years earlier. He decided he’d look the man up, just to see how he was getting along.

It was a Tuesday morning when Roger stepped inside the impressive doors of the Hanover Enterprises. A receptionist sat at a desk in the plush room before him. “I am Roger Simms,” he said. “I would like very much to see Mr. Hanover.” A strange look came over the woman’s face. “That is not possible, Mr. Simms. Would you like to talk with Mrs. Hanover?”

Roger was puzzled, but consented. Almost immediately he found himself face to face with a woman, in her mid-fifties, who extended her hand. “You knew my husband?” Roger said, “Yes, he picked me up when I was on my way home from the war.” “Can you tell me just when that was? I mean, what day?” Roger was sure: “It was five years ago in the spring, May seventh.

Mrs. Hanover was visibly nervous. “What did you talk about that day?” Roger hesitated, then said, “Mrs. Hanover, we talked about spiritual things.” She was incredulous, as he went on, “I talked with him about his soul.”

Her lips began to tremble. “And what was his response?” “Mrs. Hanover, he pulled over the side of the road, and gave his life to Christ that day.”

The woman began to weep—sobs from deep within her soul. Roger was confused and upset: “What is going on?” Finally she answered him: “I had prayed for my husband’s salvation for years.” “And where is your husband, Mrs. Hanover?” “He is dead,” she said. “He was in a car crash after he let you out of the car. He never got home.”

But he did, and all of heaven rejoiced. All because Roger sowed his seed. Now, who will be your Mr. Hanover this year?

The Summer Of Your Soul

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The Summer of Your Soul

Matthew 24:30-35

Dr. Jim Denison

Summer is my favorite season of the year. The stress of life lifts somewhat. Schedules are less demanding. More time off is taken. Families get together more. 29.3 million people traveled at least 50 miles for the Memorial Day weekend. But all is not idyllic. The number of cars and trucks traveling on America’s highways has tripled in the last thirty years. You saw most of them last week.

These are relaxed days, and that’s good. But not necessarily for our souls. Church attendance understandably slows during the summer. But soul attendance must not.

How can we make this the best summer your soul has ever known?

Live this summer as if it were your last

First, let me show you the most important single key to spiritual health. It’s a key the first Christians used every single day of their lives, but a truth we unfortunately neglect or even refuse to use today. Without this key, it’s very hard to start the ignition of your spiritual life each day. Here it is: you might meet God today. So you’d better be ready.

How many of you considered this morning the fact that Jesus could return today? Or the fact that you could die and stand before him before this day is done? The first Christians did. Jesus told them to.

It is a biblical and theological fact that Jesus Christ could return to this planet, today. Before this sermon is done, or this service is finished. Or my next sentence.

One day “the Son of Man will appear in the sky” (v. 30a). Jesus himself will come back. “All the nations of the earth” will “see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory” (v. 30b).

He will gather his followers “from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (v. 31).

When will his return come?

James 5:8: “Be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

Revelation 3:11 quotes the Lord Jesus: “I am coming soon.” Revelation 22:20 adds: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.'”

So we must be ready today. Jesus warned us: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36); “You must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Luke 12:40); “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2).

Yes, someone will say, but it hasn’t happened yet. Twenty centuries, and still no return. Why?

For this reason: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

But here’s the next verse in God’s word: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare” (v. 10).

And here’s the consequence: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (vs. 11-12).

The simple truth is that that we’re one day closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ than anyone has been in all of human history. Today. It is a fact that God could come to us today.

And it is a fact that we could go to him today.

We all know more fatalities occurred on American roads during the Memorial Day weekend than usual. Fourteen died in a barge accident in Oklahoma. And terrorist threats continue to dominate the news daily. The anniversary of September 11 comes in just three months.

On this first Sunday in June a year ago, how many of us expected the events of three months later? For the 3,200 victims who died that day, last summer was their last summer. It could be so for you and me.

Jesus could come to us, or we could go to him, this morning. You could meet God in ten minutes. You need to be ready for him now.

Keep your soul close to God

Now, why does this fact matter to your spiritual health this summer?

The fact that we could meet God today is not intended by our Lord to frighten us, but to encourage us. To motivate us to spiritual development, to soul health, to a closer fellowship with our Father in heaven.

How?

This way of life keeps us obedient to God. The most frightening sound I’ve ever heard was Janet’s car driving into the driveway on a Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. when I was expecting her to return from her out of town trip at 5:00 p.m. I had just resolved to start the three hours of cleaning it would take to be ready for her return. Most husbands know my terror. We don’t want that with God. We want to be found faithful to him, doing his will when he returns.

This way of life keeps us close to God. A man whose prayer life was unusually strong was asked his secret. He said, “When I see the Lord I want him to know me by the sound of my name.” We want to please him, to be in a loving relationship with him when we see him again.

This way of life keeps us from sin. I know of a businessman who carries a picture of his wife with him whenever he travels. He sets it up in his hotel room first thing, and it keeps him from sin. In the same way, when we resolve to do nothing we would not want to be caught doing at the return of Jesus Christ, we will live holy lives.

The enemy knows that it is so.

To update an old parable, Satan is holding a convention in hell. The subject: how to keep people from God. One demon proposes: tell them there is no heaven. Satan sends him forth, and some believe him. Some today believe that heaven is what you make of earth, you die and that’s it, heaven is a medieval legend.

Another demon suggests: tell them there is no hell. Satan sends him forth, and some believe him. A loving God would never send anyone to hell. Hell fire is an outdated Puritan threat.

Then a third proposes: tell them there is no hurry. And to the rest of the demons of hell Satan says, “Go and say it’s so.” And they have. Some are here today. If you’re thinking right now that this sermon is not for you, that your future is sure, tomorrow guaranteed, no rush to be right in your soul with God, guess why.

So adopt this mindset: I will live for God as though I were to meet him today. Because I might. The greatest Christians have lived with such daily urgency. Oswald Chambers’ life motto was simple: “My utmost for his highest.” Every day. William Borden said it well: “No reserve, no retreat, no regrets.” Annie Dillard is right: how we spend our days is how we spend our lives.

How will you spend your days this summer? What can you do to grow closer to God in these days? To develop your soul? To live ready for God? Several fundamental spiritual disciplines are easier to begin or reinforce during the summer than any other time of the year.

Let’s begin with some benchmarks. Every Christian should meet God every day for Bible study and prayer. Even fifteen minutes in the morning is a good start. Decide to read through a book of the Bible this summer, perhaps the gospel of John. Read for ten minutes. Write down practical lessons in a notebook. Jot down some specific prayer requests, and pray over them for a moment. Begin feeding your soul every day.

With a daily time for Bible study and prayer in place, expand next to a daily worship experience. Follow the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Begin your time with God in praise. Read a Psalm to him. Sing or read a Christian song or hymn. Then confess your sins specifically to God. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you anything wrong between you and your Father, and he will. Repent of them before God. Then thank him specifically for the good in your life today. And make supplication before him. Keep a prayer list so you can watch God answer your prayers. Such a daily time of worship is crucial to the growing soul.

Now incorporate spiritual reading into your week. I am always reading something by Henri Nouwen, for example, with great profit. Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, A. W. Tozer or R. A. Torrey would be very helpful to your soul.

As your next step, dedicate an hour a week to solitude and meditation. Meet God in nature, or in his word. Focus upon some part of his creation or revelation—a leaf or a single verse of scripture. Analyze it; bring all your senses to it; ask God to reveal truth to you through it. Spend an hour observing his revelation, listening to his Spirit. Mother Teresa said that early on she spent 90% of her prayer time talking to God; at the end of her life, she was spending 90% of her time listening to him. When did you last listen to God?

Consider a spiritual retreat this summer. Take several days to be alone with God. In addition, some will sense God’s call to the discipline of fasting—give up something physical for the sake of the spiritual. Fast from food for a meal or a day and spend the time instead in Bible study. Fast from television or movies or the stereo and spend the time with God in nature. Abstain from the physical for the sake of your soul.

Conclusion

When the summer of 2002 is at its end, will you be closer to God than you are right now? More in love with Jesus? More thrilled with your Savior? More ready to meet God? If he were to return this morning, would you be ready? If not, decide to do some soul work. You’ll keep Jesus’ first commandment, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Matthew 22:37). Your Savior is worthy of such love, such passion, such commitment. And so is your soul.

For years you’ve heard the story behind “It Is Well With My Soul.” Horatio Spafford wrote its words from his ship as it sailed directly over the place in the Atlantic where his four daughters had previously drowned. I know the hymn and its origin well. But a few days ago, as I heard it sung, a whole new meaning emerged for me.

You remember the first stanza: “When peace like a river, attendeth my way; when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.” I’d always thought of a peaceful river, a tranquil sea, on which I could say “It is well with my soul.”

But that’s not Spafford’s meaning at all. He means a roaring river, a billowing and stormy sea. Listen to the next stanza: “Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control ….” During the buffeting times, the trials of life, the hardest places, it is still possible to say, “It is well with my soul.”

The choice is yours.

The Super Bowl of the Soul

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The Super Bowl of the Soul

Galatians 3.26-4.7

Dr. Jim Denison

Last year’s Super Bowl was watched by 127.5 million people, and the game the year before by 130,754,000. The ten most watched programs of all time are nine Super Bowls and the women’s skating final of the 1994 Winter Olympics, oddly enough. Companies will pay $2.3 million per ad for this weekend’s game.

Now, answer quickly: who won last year’s Super Bowl? Who lost? By how much?

Can you name the last ten Super Bowl Most Valuable Players? Did you know that Ottis Anderson, Mark Rypien, Larry Brown, and Desmond Howard are on the list?

Which do you remember more, the players or the commercials? If I never hear “Whassup?” again it will be too soon.

Super Bowl fame is fleeting, indeed. Our worth is not our work, no matter how visible and famous it is.

We’re exploring personal issues in light of God’s great commandments and great commission, his priorities and purpose for our lives. We began by discussing self-esteem problems and praying Jabez’s prayer of audacious blessing. Let’s continue by tackling the whole issue of worth vs. work, of finding our identity in our performance, our vocations, our work.

Today God wants to convince you that you are not what you do. Let’s see why, and why that fact matters so much to our lives.

Legalism then

In every great movement, there comes a crisis point—a fork in the road, a crisis which determines what the future will be, a “Super Bowl” which decides everything. In the recent presidential election, it was Florida. In Texas history, it was the Alamo and San Jacinto. In World War II, it was Normandy.

Always, there is this crisis point which determines the future.

The Christian “Super Bowl” came early in our faith history, but the game is still being played today.

The problem is known to scholars as the Judaizers. In brief, the question was, how are we to reconcile Christianity and Judaism?

So long as only Jews were becoming Christians, there was no problem. But when Paul began preaching the gospel to the hated Gentiles, they came to Christ without first becoming Jews. And this was a big problem. This seemed a denial of the very heritage of the Jewish faith, and of all that is holy and right.

So the “Judaizers” proposed this simple solution: Gentiles can become Christians, if they will first become Jews.

A Gentile would become a Jewish proselyte and be circumcised as proof of his conversion. Then he would receive Christian baptism. In this way he would keep the Jewish law as a precondition to receiving Christian salvation.

As a result, they argued, Gentiles around the world would affirm the historic achievements and heritage of Judaism and build a bridge to its followers. What could be wrong with this?

It was this very idea which had now taken hold in the churches of Galatia. Paul founded churches in modern-day mainland Turkey, on his first missionary journey. There were now Gentile converts in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and other towns all over this part of the world.

And the Judaizers followed Paul into these churches and said, “It’s wonderful that you have become Christians. But you’ve left out the necessary first step. You must become Jews, then you can become Christians. You must be circumcised and keep the law, then you can come to Jesus by grace.”

What if they had won the day?

Christianity would have become just another branch of Judaism, like Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox today. We would be keeping Jewish rituals today, not practicing Christian worship.

And even more important, the whole idea of salvation by grace through faith would be lost. The gospel is clear: “whosoever believes in Jesus shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16); “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

If we must do the works of Judaism to be saved, we lose our free salvation in Jesus. If we must do religious works, we no longer have a religion of grace. We are saved by what we do, not by what Jesus has done. We become what we do. And as Paul says, then “Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21).

But the Galatian Christians had fallen for this heresy. Nothing less than the future of the Christian idea and movement was at stake. This was the “Super Bowl” of ancient Christianity. Thus our vivid, tempestuous letter to the churches of Galatia—probably the first New Testament letter ever to be written. And with it came God’s solution to work-based worth, a solution which still works today.

Legalism now

Could I suggest to you that we need that solution still? That we are plagued by an identity of works, of self-sufficiency and self-justification, a way of life which says that we are what we do, our worth is our work?

Let’s see if this is so for us today.

The Minirth-Meier clinic calls drivenness to perform “the most prominent emotional illness of the 1990s.” Their book, We Are Driven, defines the problem this way: “Drivenness is an insatiable drive to do more and be more. It’s a drive that may be masked by charitable and positive motives, but in reality originates in deep, perhaps even unconscious, feelings of inadequacy and shame” (p. 6). Their picture for such drivenness is telling: riding a bike without a chain.

Do any of these words describe you: uptight, stressed, anxious, achieving, driven, perfectionistic, performance-centered? They’ve all described me in the past. I know the feeling.

Dr. David Seamands, a Methodist missionary and counselor, has spent his life ministering to performance-driven people. He has identified typical symptoms. See if any of this sounds familiar: a continuous sense of guilt, condemnation, and the judgment and disapproval of God; a sense of worthlessness, with feelings of low self-esteem and recurring inward assaults of self-belittling and even self-despising; a sense of phoniness and unreality, a feeling of being an empty fake; negative emotions, especially anxiety and anger, which result in irrational fears, smoldering resentments, outbursts of rage, excessive mood swings and depression; and difficulties with interpersonal relationships, especially where intimacy is involved (Freedom from the Performance Trap, 16-9).

Why are we driven to such work-based worth?

We are driven to it by a low self-image which nearly always leads to work-based worth as our compensation for our sense of inadequacy. See how last week’s study is linked to this week’s issue?

We are driven by a culture which values self-reliance, individualism, and activism. Is your salary tied to your worth as an individual or your performance on the job? Is your societal value determined by your internal character or your external achievement?

And we are driven by churches which preach the gospel of success, self-reliance, and legalistic spirituality.

John Claypool is one of my favorite preachers, and a very perceptive observer as well. He describes his seminary as “a community of grades rather than a community of grace” (The Preaching Event, 67). We’ve all been to that institution, haven’t we?

How does one get recognized in a Baptist church? Does the regularity of your worship attendance, your willingness to teach or at least attend Sunday school, your financial contributions, or your service in committees and other ministries have anything to do with it? Everything to do with it?

Who doesn’t battle Christian legalism today?

But it’s never enough, is it? We cannot do enough to ever be done with doing.

I remember reading the Texas Monthly article on the Cowboys’ Super Bowl victory in 1992. What especially struck me was Troy Aikman’s response. He sat in front of his locker for hours, long after the other players had left for victory parties. And he asked himself over and over, “Is this all there is?”

Gratefully, it’s not.

Legalism solved

So, what’s the solution? There’s only one remedy to work-based identity: the grace found in Jesus Christ.

Look at the truth of Scripture: we are “all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (v. 26). All of us, each of us. No matter our vocation, our success, our performance.

We have been “baptized into Christ” (v. 27), so we have no need to baptized first into Judaism. Faith in Christ is the only prerequisite.

Now the text is even clearer. The Jewish male’s prayer every morning was, “You have not made me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.” But in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. We are all “Abraham’s seed” and his heir. This is not something to earn—we have already received it. Every Christian—no exceptions.

How have we received this right?

Jesus has already redeemed us (4:5) by paying for our sins. He has given us “the full rights of sons.” Not slaves, sons. A slave must perform constantly to be part of the family; a son is born into the family, and is forever part of it. No matter what they do, my sons will always be my sons. No matter what I do, I will always be the child of God.

The Holy Spirit guarantees it. He now lives in us, making us God’s children (v. 6). He keeps us in the family of God.

As a result, we can refer to God the same way Jesus did: “Abba,” “Daddy” (in Aramaic). We are no longer slaves but sons, and heirs of God (v. 7). Every one of us.

Who are you? You are not what you do, but the child of God. What difference does this make?

Now we are free to work hard out of gratitude for God’s love, not to earn it.

Now we are free to worship God in church and across the week because we love God, not so he will love us.

Now we are free to give of our time, money, and abilities to the cause of Christ so that others can know his grace, not so we can earn that grace for ourselves.

Now we are free to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves, because we love ourselves as God loves us.

Conclusion

This issue is the Super Bowl of the soul. If we don’t win this, we don’t win anything that matters ultimately. I call you today to this conscious decision: we will choose not to base our worth on our works, our performance, our social standing or professional status. We will choose to see ourselves as God does: as his children, loved absolutely and unconditionally. No other choice will set you free from work-based worth and its drivenness, frustration, and unhappiness.

Make this decision today, then make it again tomorrow and every day this week.

A wealthy man who died without a will, so his estate went to auction. At the end of the day the auctioneer raised a framed photograph, a picture of the family’s only child, a son who had died years earlier in a drowning accident. No one bid on it.

When the auction was over, a maid who had worked at the estate for many years and loved that son asked if she might buy his picture for a dollar, all she had with her at the time. The auctioneer made the deal. She took the picture home, set it beside her bed, and noticed for the first time a bulge in the back. She opened the picture to discover the wealthy man’s single-sentence will: “I give my entire estate to the person who loves my son enough to value his picture.”

Do you love God’s Son?

The Surprising Path to True Success

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Topical Scripture: Matthew 5:1-3

Israel has been the hinge of history for forty centuries. From the time of Abraham to today, superpowers to the south and the north have fought on its narrow plains. One city, Megiddo, was destroyed and rebuilt twenty-seven times. Jerusalem has been besieged fifty times and destroyed ten times.

Across the country’s remarkable history, with all the armies and generals and conquerors and pharaohs that have marched on its lands, it is shocking that the most important figure of all was an itinerant Galilean rabbi. And that the most important sermon ever preached was preached on a hillside by him.

This summer, we will explore that sermon and its surprising path to true success. Each week, we’ll discover another principle that flies in the face of our culture and illumines the way to the life God wants for us.

We begin with background for the Sermon on the Mount. Then we’ll discuss its first verse as foundational to all the rest and to true success today.

Sermons before the Sermon

Matthew’s Gospel reports that after Jesus’ baptism and wilderness temptations, he left Nazareth and “lived in Capernaum by the sea” (Matthew 4:13). Capernaum was one of the most significant business centers in the Galilee. It stood on one of the main branches of the Via Maris, the main intercontinental highway in the region, bringing trade from across the world.

It was a major agricultural center, feeding thousands with its produce. It was the leading fishing center in Israel, supplying salted fish to the nation. And it stood on a major political border crossing, bringing taxes and revenue to the Roman Empire.

It was here that Jesus based his public ministry. It was here that he “began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'” (v. 17). It was here that he called his first disciples along the shore of the Sea of Galilee (vv. 18–22). It was here that “great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (v. 25).

And it was here that, “seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him (Matthew 5:1). This verse makes it clear that the Sermon on the Mount is intended for disciples of Jesus. While the crowds heard it, its focus was on his followers. It tells us not how to become Christians but how to live as Christians.

And it offers us divine wisdom for every soul and need. “He opened his mouth and taught them” translates a Greek phrase that described a divine oracle delivered to humans. These are not suggestions or ideals but commands and principles from God to us.

At every turn, they turn upside down the conventional wisdom of his day—and ours.

What it means to be “blessed”

The most famous sermon in human history begins simply: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (v. 3). Every word is worthy of our study and application.

“Blessed” points to a sense of wellbeing that transcends our circumstances. The culture seeks happiness, but that is based on happenings. Jesus offers us something much higher and deeper, a joy and peace that the world cannot give or take.

The religions of his day were built on transactions. Jews brought their sacrifices to their temple and sought to obey their 613 laws. Romans made their sacrifices to their gods as well and sought to placate them with their service.

Neither could make their followers “blessed.” Neither could offer forgiveness and security of salvation. Neither could offer true peace with God, others, or ourselves. Like all religions, they sought to climb up to God. But no stairs on earth can reach into heaven.

What it means to be “poor in spirit”

By contrast, Jesus tells us, “blessed are the poor in spirit.” Right now, this moment. Not just in heaven, but on earth as well.

Note the definite article: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” They and they alone qualify. So, what does it mean to be “poor in spirit”?

Greek is a fascinating language. Its vocabulary is considered the richest in the world, with more than five million words. (By contrast, the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains entries for 171,476 words).

For example, Greek has two very different words that are translated into English as “poor.” One is penes, which describes a person who has nothing to spare. This is the family living hand to mouth, surviving paycheck to paycheck. But this is not the word in our text.

Our text employs a different Greek word: ptochos, which describes a person who has nothing at all. This is the family that is starving to death, who has no idea where their next meal is coming from.

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are starving to death spiritually.” The Message puts it: “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.” The New English Bible says, “Blessed are those who know their need of God.”

This is the exact opposite of how Jesus’ culture and ours measure success. Jews believed that material prosperity was a direct sign of divine blessing. Romans believed the same. Both wanted as much financial means as they could possess, seeking to be as wealthy and healthy as possible.

None would say that a person who was starving spiritually was blessed. But that’s exactly Jesus’ claim.

Why we must be dependent to be blessed

Why? “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This concept is referenced more than thirty times in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus gave us its most succinct definition when he taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). God’s kingdom comes when his will is done. His kingdom comes when he is King.

Why must we be “poor in spirit” to do the will of God and make him our King?

Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that the “will to power” is the basic drive in human nature. In his view, everything we do is motivated by a quest for more power over the world, others, and ourselves.

Nietzsche was right. The essential temptation in human experience is the first temptation in human experience: “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Each of us wants to be our own God. We want to be king of our kingdom, ruler of our world.

It is only when we recognize how broken we are and how desperately we need God that we turn from ourselves to him. Only when we are spiritually starved will we get off the throne of our hearts and elevate him there. Only when we are desperate will we become dependent.

And when we are dependent, we position ourselves to receive all that our Father wants for his children. When we are dependent, we will follow his leading into his “good and acceptable and perfect” will (Romans 12:2). When we are dependent, we will yield to his Spirit’s power and direction (Ephesians 5:18).

When we are dependent, we are blessed.

Three steps to true success

This verse is foundational to all that follow. If we will not admit our need of God, we will not obey the words that his Son gave us. We will not heed his principles and live out his truths. And we cannot be “blessed.”

So, let’s summarize the first beatitude with three steps to true success.

First: Measure success by spirituality. Unlike Jesus’ culture and ours, our Lord knows that material success is fleeting but spiritual success is eternal. He knows that our souls outlive our bodies; that eternity is longer than today; that heaven is more important than earth. He calls us to measure success by his definitions, not ours.

Second: Measure spirituality by dependence on God. The more we are “poor in spirit,” the more we admit our desperation for God’s wisdom, direction, healing, forgiveness, and grace, the more we will have what we need.

Third: Measure dependence by obedience. When we are truly “poor in spirit,” we will do the will of God at any cost. Then we will advance the kingdom of God and make Christ our King.

Conclusion

Of all the beatitudes, this one is not only the most foundational—it is also the most surprising and countercultural, then and today.

So, here’s my question: Are you “poor in spirit”? Do you know how much you need Jesus? Or are you separating Sunday from Monday, the spiritual from the secular, religion from the “real world”? Are you confining the Lord of the universe to part of your life, or are you seeking his will and word for every dimension of your life?

We can get there in one of two ways: through our problems, or through our potential.

We can let our challenges drive us to God, getting so far down we have nowhere to go but up. Or we can envision what our lives could be like if we were truly dependent on our King. If his omniscience led us and his omnipotence empowered us.

Think of the difference we could make in our culture if the God of the universe were in complete control of us. Think of the souls that would be saved, the lives that would be changed, the ways God would be glorified if we were “poor in spirit.”

C. S. Lewis: “It would seem that 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.”

Are you?

The Touch of a Father’s Hand

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The touch of a Father’s hand

Matthew 9:18-26

Dr. Jim Denison

Fathers deserve a day.

A father came home from work to find his little girl brushing the dog’s teeth with his toothbrush. He was horrified, and asked her what she was doing. She said, “Oh, don’t worry, daddy, I’ll put it back like I always do.”

Today is Father’s Day–the Christmas of tie makers. How many neckties would you guess will be given to fathers today? 12,600 miles. That’s enough ties tied end-to-end to cross the country six times, with enough left over for 800,000 men to wear to church today.

Fathers need encouragement, for ours is the most important privilege and job there is. It is altogether appropriate that Father’s Day be observed each year on a Sunday. What does our Father say to fathers like me today?

A story to know

Jesus and his disciples are in Capernaum, a booming fishing city on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. As our story opens, “A ruler cam and knelt before him and said, ‘My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live'” (v. 18). This was a synagogue ruler, the most significant religious authority in the city. Luke’s Gospel tells us that his name was Jairus and that his daughter was 12 years old.

Hearing this, “Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples” (v. 19). He had been seated while he taught the people, as was customary in their day. He then adjourned his message and left with the synagogue ruler.

He came to Jairus’ home, where he saw “the flute players and the noisy crowd” (v. 23). Excavations in Capernaum have uncovered a large home adjacent to the synagogue; this was probably Jairus’ home.

When a family member died, Jews were required to hire at least two flute players and one woman to mourn their dead; this was something like hiring a mortuary service to care for the deceased today.

Jesus told them, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” They laughed and mocked him (v. 24), but he put them outside, took the girl by the hand, and raised her back to life (v. 25). This was a miracle as great as the raising of Lazarus and his own resurrection.

Principles to practice

What does our miracle teach us today? First, it shows us that the best gift a father can give his family is to bring them to Jesus.

This father, the pastor of the largest synagogue in Galilee, “knelt” before this itinerant Galilean rabbi and trusted his daughter to his care. The best thing I can do for my wife and sons is to bring them to Christ.

What does your family need today? Financial help? Encouragement? Healing? Guidance? Give them to Jesus. Pray for them, today and every day.

What does your father need this morning? Bring him to Jesus. And know that your Father’s strength will sustain your father today.

Second, we learn to give our family the sacrifice which love requires.

This ruler risked the scorn of the people and rejection of the religious authorities. He could have lost his job and status in the community. But he put his daughter ahead of himself, making the sacrifice which love requires.

A priest surveyed the children in his parish, asking them which they would choose: time with television or with their father. 92% chose time with their fathers.

A little boy asked his hard-working father how much he made per hour. His father was tired, and upset with his son’s question. Finally he said, “I make $20 an hour.” The boy then asked, “Then could I borrow $9?” His irritated father gave him the money. The excited boy said, “Daddy, I have $20 now. Can you play with me for an hour?”

Third, we learn to model what we teach. As the ruler worshiped Jesus personally, his family had his example to follow.

It’s been said, “Until a boy is fifteen he does what his father says; after that he does what his father does.” One child development expert said it well: “No child will think more of God than he thinks of his own father.”

I cannot lead children further than I am spiritually. My sons will become what I am more than what I say, and I speak for a living.

So, model consistent integrity for them. I once heard a youth camp speaker say, “Refuse to do in private what you fear to do in public.” If your children had exactly your personal integrity, would that be a good thing?

There is a story about a frontier preacher and his two sons found a stray dog and decided to keep it. The dog was coal black except for three white hairs on his tail. One day they saw an ad in the local paper for a lost dog which fit their stray perfectly, including those three white hairs. With the help of his boys, the preacher carefully pulled out the three white hairs.

A few days later the owner heard that the preacher had a dog like his and came by. But he couldn’t find the three white hairs, so he had to give him up. Later the preacher wrote, “I kept the dog, but I lost my boys.” Their names were Frank and Jesse James.

Conclusion

Do you have a father who is close to God? Have you thanked God, and thanked him? Do you have a father who needs to be closer to God? Have you prayed for him?

Are you blessed with the privilege of fatherhood? Never sell short the influence of your life on the eternal souls of your children. This is life’s greatest responsibility, and privilege. Ask God to help you be the father he wants you to be.

A group of botanists hiking in the Alps found a very rare flower. It was growing on a ledge of rock which could be reached only at great peril and with a lifeline. None were experienced climbers, so they found a local shepherd boy and offered him several gold coins to climb down the rope and retrieve the flower.

The boy wanted the money, but feared that the job was too dangerous. He would have to trust strangers to hold his lifeline. Suddenly he had an idea. He left the group, and returned a moment later holding the hand of a much older man. He ran with excitement to the edge of the cliff and said to the botanists, “You can tie the rope under my arms now. I’ll go into the canyon, as long as you let my father hold the rope.”

Whose rope is in your hand today?

The Tyranny of the Urgent

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The Tyranny of the Urgent

Mark 1:35-39

Dr. Jim Denison

The Dallas Morning News recently carried a story on the growth of the Christmas lights installation profession in our city. This business has quadrupled in six years, with costs ranging from $100 to $7,500 per home. Why do people now pay to put Christmas lights on their homes? The number one reason: it saves them time. We understand the appeal, don’t we?

We are working on average 20% more hours per week than we were in 1973. But the quality of our lives is not improving; in fact, it is suffering.

Recent studies report that 60% of successful professionals suffer from chronic stress and depression. 48% of top corporate executives report that their lives are empty and meaningless.

For the past 25 years the American Index of Social Health has tracked the well-being of Americans. While the gross domestic product has risen continually for the past 25 years, the social health index is 52% lower than it was in 1973. We have more, but enjoy life far less.

Recently I reread a little booklet entitled The Tyranny of the Urgent, by Charles Hummel. Its central point is simple: there is a great distinction between the urgent and the important. The urgent demands our time, but usually wastes it; the important redeems it, gives it eternal significance. Doing urgent things takes from us our energy, peace, and joy; doing important things gives us fulfillment, significance, peace, joy.

How much time do you spend doing the urgent? How much time do you spend doing something important? You and I can trade the urgent for the important in this new year. I’ve brought proof today.

Choose a model

Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes, or sandals, actually. You begin your Sabbath day by preaching and leading worship in the Jewish synagogue in Capernaum, your ministry base in Galilee. This is the first of the day’s three services, beginning at 9 a.m. And the people hang onto your every word; never have they heard such authority before. The One who inspired the word by his Spirit, now teaching it to his people.

Then you cast a demon out of a man sitting right there in the synagogue, amazing everyone present. Not a boring morning at church, wouldn’t you agree?

From the synagogue service you go to Peter and Andrew’s home for lunch. Taking the preacher out to lunch apparently has very old roots. But there’s a problem—Peter’s mother-in-law, the one who was going to cook the meal, is in bed with fever. And so you take her hand and heal her.

You spend the afternoon at her home, teaching your disciples. Then comes the sunset, when the Jewish Sabbath ends. But your reputation has spread far and wide, so “the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door” (Mark 1:32-33). And so you end your day by healing the sick and driving out demons from across the entire community.

What will you do tomorrow? Jesus preached in church, healed a demoniac, healed Peter’s mother-in-law, taught his disciples, and healed the sick and demon-possessed from across the entire town. Just one day in the life of our Lord. And yet he went through this day with remarkable calm, peace, and purpose.

Imagine that your purpose in life is literally to save the world, to bring eternal salvation to all of humanity. Can you feel the stress, the unbelievable pressure of it all? And yet the One who was given this life purpose went through that life with the greatest peace, joy, and fulfillment of any man who has ever lived. He was never hurried, hassled, or burned out. He experienced serenity in the midst of life’s greatest stress.

He will teach us how, if we want him to. If you want him to.

Years ago someone gave me some excellent leadership advice: choose the best mentor you can find. Get a model, an example, someone whose life you can emulate. Choose a mentor, well.

Athletes know they cannot improve unless they compete against people better than themselves. Business professionals know they must hire “tens,” because “tens” hire “eights,” “eights” hire “sixes” and “sixes” hire “fours.” Teddy Roosevelt said the secret to his success was that he surrounded himself with men better than himself.

Choose the best mentor you can find. I nominate Jesus.

Define your purpose

With him as your model, you can escape the urgent for the important. But you must do what he did. First and most important, you must define your life purpose, your reason for being.

You see, life is best lived on purpose.

Aristotle defined excellence as “expressing your highest talent to its fullest measure.” What is your “highest talent”?

Winston Churchill, standing before the House of Commons in June of 1941, said, “I have only one purpose, the destruction of Hitler; and my life is much simplified thereby.” What is your “one purpose”?

The psychologist Maslow concluded, after many years as a therapist, that an artist must paint, a poet must write, a musician must make music, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What did God make you to do?

Will Rogers was more plain but no less profound: “If you want to be successful, know what you are doing, love what you are doing, and believe in what you are doing.” Do you “know what you are doing”?

Jesus did. “Very early the next morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (v. 35). In Mark’s original Greek it is clear that Jesus got up around 3 a.m. to do this. He “left the house and went off to a solitary place”—the Greek shows that he purposefully, deliberately found a place where he could be alone with his Father. And he spent the entire morning in prayer.

Why? This was the very beginning of his public ministry. Already our Lord has defeated Satan in the wilderness, called his first disciples, preached to the crowds, taught the people, healed and exorcized demons, and drawn gigantic crowds from all over Galilee. Now what? What is next? Where should his work go?

Would he stay in Capernaum and build a megachurch for the crowds who would come to him? Would he stay there and wait for the people to come to him?

No. After his morning alone with his Father he knows his ministry purpose, more clearly than ever before: “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come” (v. 38). He would go to the people, and not wait for them to find him. This is why he has come.

And so this is what he did: “He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons” (v. 39). He found his “true north,” his purpose in life, and he never left it.

Have you found yours? Have you defined a life purpose which will lead you out of the urgent and into the important? Could I recommend Jesus’ life purpose to you?

He does: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” he claims (Matthew 28:18). If he has all authority, we have none.

And his life purpose for us is clear: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” A disciple is a follower, someone who obeys another as his or her master. We are in business, as a church and as Christians, to “make disciples.” This is what we were created by God to do. This is our purpose in life. We are to invest our lives in helping people follow Jesus. God’s word is just that simple.

I know you’d like to hear something more exciting, something more cutting-edge and glamorous. But Jesus made you, and he knows your heart and soul. He knows what purpose will give your life its greatest significance, peace, and joy. And he wants you to spend your life helping people follow him.

He promises in turn that you will discover the “abundant life” he has for you (John 10:10). You will find your life filled with meaning, significance, importance. You’ll trade the urgent for the important.

Meet with your Father

Now, I know what you must be thinking. You have a job to do, and a heavy schedule to meet. I said just a few minutes ago that the typical American is working 20% more hours per week than he used to. You have a family to raise, or school and activities to accomplish, and more demands than you know what to do with. Am I asking you to add something else to your life? Is Jesus?

Yes, and no.

Jesus says that we exist to help people follow him. What does this life purpose mean for your life, in the most practical ways possible? What are you to do about this? In many ways you’re where Jesus was in Capernaum—people and priorities crowding in from all sides, and you wonder what you’re supposed to do next. What does it all mean for you, today?

For the next number of weeks, we’ll look for ways to deal with this issue. We’ll discuss our most common problems and pressures in light of the model and life purpose of Jesus. Our series, entitled “Living On Purpose,” will deal with everything from time pressures to finances to spirituality and self esteem. I’m going to show you how Jesus will help us trade the urgent for the important, every day.

But you can start right now. You can do exactly what Jesus did. In fact, you must.

Facing the pressures of enormous time and people problems, Jesus got alone with his Father. He got up well before sunrise, and made a time and a place where he could be in solitude with his God. He spoke with his Father about his life, his purpose, his future. And then he knew what he was to do next, and how to do it.

I do not know what you are to do next to help people follow Jesus, to define and fulfill your life’s purpose. But your Father does. And he is waiting to help you, to speak with you, to guide you. However, every conversation requires two people. You must get alone with him, and listen to him. You must make time in your life and your soul for him. Only then can he lead you in the direction he created you to go.

So your Father is asking a very simple thing of you today, as you begin a new year. This is so simple that I’ve struggled with making it the practical point of the entire message, but I feel I must, that this is God’s will and word for every one of us.

God simply wants you to make half an hour to be alone with him, every morning this week. Half an hour to talk about your life’s direction in this new year, to think about your purpose and priorities, to know what steps you are to take next in helping people follow Jesus. Half an hour for a week, 3.5 hours out of your life, invested for the sake of a year spent well and a life lived well. Not much to ask, is it?

Will you give this to him?

Conclusion

God simply wants you to want to fulfill his purpose for your life. Start there, with him. And that will be enough.

There is a prayer I urge you to take with you and pray each morning as you begin your half-hour with your Father. It is by Thomas Merton, and means much to me. It is available at the doors for you to take home with you. Let’s close our study today with its words:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen.

The United Nations And The United States

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The United Nations and the United States

Matthew 6:19-24

Dr. Jim Denison

Why is the United Nations at odds with the United States?

We were instrumental in founding the UN. The term “United Nations” was first coined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The organization was created under American leadership, and is headquartered in New York City.

Other permanent members of the UN Security Council include Britain, France, the Russian Federation, and China, each of whom we aided during World War II at the cost of over 400,000 American lives.

Yet most members of the UN have continued to criticize the American position on disarming Iraq. Why?

It’s over purpose.

Europe is committed to socialism, America to capitalism. But there’s more.

Europe affirms secularism passionately, while America is the most religious democracy on earth. Europeans in the main reject moral absolutes and judgments, and find President Bush’s description of an “axis of evil” to be contemptible.

Europe is committed to a collective identity through the UN. Two nationalism-based World Wars have caused Europeans to conclude that national identities lead to war. America believes as strongly in our distinct national identity as Europe does in its collective existence.

And Europe is committed to pacifism, another result of the World Wars fought on its soil. America believes that confrontation is sometimes tragically necessary.

World events are being dictated by purposes. They always are.

What is true of nations is true of their people. Today we will watch as two life purposes go to war with each other. And we will choose our side. Choose well.

You will keep only what you give to God (19-20)

One-fifth of the Sermon on the Mount deals directly with money. This week’s lesson begins, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth” (v. 19). In the Greek, “do not treasure for yourselves treasure on earth.” Rather, “treasure for yourselves treasure in heaven.”

Here’s the conflict: treasure on earth vs. treasure in heaven. As you decide which side to choose, consider two facts. First: you will keep only what you give to God.

Jesus deals directly with the three great sources of wealth in his world: garment, grain, and gold.

Clothing styles didn’t change in the ancient world, so people kept their garments as an investment. But moths do what styles did not. You find your treasure in your garments, but they’re soon gone. And they still are today. How many clothes do you still wear from five years ago?

The ancients built giant granaries and thought they were wealthy when they were full. But “rust” destroys—the Greek word means “that which eats,” referring to mice, worms, and rats. You find your treasure in your grain, but it’s soon gone. It’s still true today: it takes a year to build a house, and a week to destroy it; a car is demolished in a moment. Possessions are soon gone.

And the world has always valued its gold. Most didn’t have banks, so they buried their gold in the ground near the wall of their house. But their walls were thin, made of mud bricks and adobe. Thieves could easily “break in and steal.” And no insurance companies existed to help. You find your treasure in your gold, but it’s soon gone. Stock market investors know it’s still true.

Only in heaven are our possessions safe: “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (v. 20). Our treasure is safe only with its Creator.

If money on earth could last, the Egyptian pyramids would have kept it. But within a generation, thieves broke into the most elaborate safes ever constructed.

Jacob Hammer was wealthy from birth because of a large inheritance. His investors stored his money in salt domes along the Caspian Sea. But a freak typhoon swept it all away, and Jacob went from tycoon to pauper in one afternoon.

The Titanic carried John Jacob Astor, George B. Widener, John B. Thayer, and Benjamin Guggenheim to their deaths. Their wealth could not buy another moment of life.

Alexander the Great left instructions that he was to be buried with his hands outside his casket, to show the world that its conqueror’s hands were empty. The Spanish have a proverb: a burial shroud has no pockets. A mortician puts nothing into the pockets of those he buries. There are never U-Hauls attached to hearses.

A man gave several thousand dollars to help build a church. Then came the 1929 Great Depression, and he lost everything. A friend said to him, “If you had the money you gave to start that church, you would have had enough to set yourself up in business again.” He replied, “I would have lost that money in the crash as well. As it is, it is the only money I saved. It is now in the bank of heaven yielding interest which will accumulate until eternity. Hundreds have come to Christ through the church it helped build.”

Why give God your tithe, offering, and benevolence? Because he can do more with it than we can. We will lose all we own. He will keep all we give. That’s a fact.

We cannot serve both God and money (21-24)

Here’s the other fact: you and I cannot serve both God and money. We must choose which will be our master, for one always is. And that one will shape our life purpose and mold our soul.

How we use our money reveals our true values: “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v. 21). But money also creates our values. How we spend our money shows and shapes who we are.

We will live either for the Creator or his creation. We will define success either by pleasing him or pleasing the world; accumulating reward in heaven or possessions on earth; acclaim in eternity or popularity today. We cannot have both.

But some try, as Jesus makes clear. He calls the eye the “lamp of the body.” He says it must be “good,” translating the word for “single.” If your eye gives your body a single image, you are “full of light”—you can see where you’re going.

But if your eye is “bad,” meaning diseased or unhealthy, it gives your body blurred or double vision. Then you are “full of darkness”—you cannot see where you’re going.

You can only have one life purpose. To live for two is to have spiritual double vision, a blurred soul. It cannot be done.

Jesus is blunt: “No man can serve two masters.” “Serve” translates “slave.” You are owned by one or the other. Either God or Money. You must choose. You cannot serve them both.

There is an Oriental saying: “No man can carry two melons in his hand.”

Plato was right: “To prize wealth, and at the same time acquire wisdom, is impossible; for a man necessarily disregards the one or the other.”

Do you cheat your competition for earthly wealth, or honor them for heavenly reward? Do you lie and gain the account, or tell the truth and gain heaven’s blessing? Do I exaggerate in this sermon to impress you, or speak only the truth to impress God? Every day, in every way, we must decide.

Peter Marshall said the measure of life is not its duration but its donation. Do you agree?

Billy Graham said, “Our lives should resemble a channel, not a reservoir. A reservoir stores up water. A channel is constantly flowing. God wants us to be a channel of blessing to others. When we are, it is we who receive the greatest blessing of all.”

Conclusion

Benjamin Disraeli: “The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” What is yours? The Creator or his creation? Treasure on earth or in heaven? Will you trust God with your tithe, your offerings, your benevolence, your resources? Or will you not?

William Cowper: “The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.” The Lord’s Table shows us God’s. He gave his best, his only Son, to purchase our eternal life, our soul’s salvation. Now he asks us to trust him with the money he has entrusted to our care. He finances his Kingdom on earth through the faithful sacrifice of his people. And he blesses such sacrifice with an even greater reward. But we must trust him. We must trust the One who loved us enough to die for us.

H & R Block recently offered walk-in customers a chance to win a $1 million drawing. Glen and Gloria Sims of Sewell, New Jersey, won the drawing. But they refused to believe it when a Block representative called them with the good news. After several more contacts by both mail and phone, the Simses still thought it was all just a scam, and hung up the phone or trashed the mail notices.

Some weeks later, the company called one more time to let the Simses know the deadline for accepting their million-dollar prize was nearing and that the story about their refusal to accept the prize would appear soon on NBC’s “Today” show. At that point, Glen Sims decided to investigate. A few days later he appeared on “Today” to tell America that he and his wife had finally claimed their million dollars.

The greatest gift in all the universe awaits those who will choose the Creation over his creation. The decision is yours.

The Untold Story of Christmas

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The Untold Story of Christmas

Luke 2.8-14

Dr. Jim Denison

Over the years that I have been a preacher, I have presented many messages as monologues. I have been Joseph, Mary’s husband; a shepherd at Christmas; I’ve been the thief on the cross; Samuel of the Old Testament; the innkeeper in Bethlehem; even a Wise Man. But I’ve never strained the borders of incredulity more than today, for this day I wish to speak to you as an angel. Not a fallen angel (more appropriate type casting, many would say), but one of God’s heavenly host.

I’d like us to view Christmas through the eyes of an angel who first announced the birth of the Messiah. I want us to see this event, its history, and its significance as one of those heavenly messengers might have seen it all. Let’s listen to his story, and see what it says to ours.

The ministry of angels

Good morning. My name is Malkiah. I am one of God’s angels, sent today as his messenger to you. I can see that you are surprised. Don’t be. This is what we angels do, more often than you might imagine. I’m sure you’ve met some of my colleagues before—you just didn’t know it at the time. But more of that in a moment.

For those of you who are not familiar with angels, perhaps a little introduction is in order.

“Angel” means “messenger,” for this is our ministry. The Holy God created us to worship him and to lead others to worship him. To proclaim his love, justice, and grace to his creation, across all time and eternity.

We are much more common than you might think—we’re mentioned 108 times in your Old Testament, and 165 in your New Testament. David wrote in your Psalm 68 that we number “tens of thousands” (v. 17); John’s Revelation numbered us as 10,000 times 10,000; our Creator said that we are as many as the stars in his heavens (Job 38:7).

We were present at the creation of the universe (Job 38:7). We talked with Abraham, and delivered Lot and his family from Sodom (Genesis 18-19); we appeared to Jacob (Genesis 28:12); we called Moses to deliver the Jews from Egypt (Exodux 3:2,10) and led Israel through the wilderness (Exodus 14:19; 23:20). We led judges such as Gideon and Manoah, protected Daniel from the lions, and appeared often to the prophets.

In your New Testament we freed the apostles from prison (Acts 5:19), directed Philip to Samaria (8:26) and Cornelius to Peter (10:1-7), delivered Peter from prison (12:5-11), and encouraged Paul at sea (27:23-25). We are present all through John’s Revelation, in worship and proclamation.

And most important of all, we worked with the Lord Jesus all through his ministry on earth. We announced his birth to Mary, and led Joseph to make her his wife and raise Jesus as his son. We led Joseph to save Mary from Herod, and to settle in Galilee.

We ministered to the Lord in his temptations by the enemy, and protected and empowered him all through his ministry. We strengthened him in Gethsemane. We rolled away the stone at his resurrection, and announced his return to life. We were present at his ascension back to the Father, and promised his Second Coming to your planet.

And we will come back with him when he returns (Matthew 25:31); we will gather together his people and judge all mankind (Matthew 13:41-42); we will defeat Satan once and for all (Revelation 12:7-9); and we will spend eternity in the worship of Jehovah God.

The grace of angels

All through eternity, our purpose has been one of grace. We exist to help you do what you cannot do without us. To guide you, guard you, empower you, lead you to God and to the abundant life he wants for you. God created us to bring you his grace.

And the single greatest mistake I have watched you humans make all through your history is to reject that grace. To live your lives as though there were no God; to be independent, self-reliant, self-determined. To do life in your own way, and expect God to bless it. To choose works, while God chooses grace.

It was so in the beginning, with Adam and Eve. They knew God’s will, but chose to ignore it. They chose their own power, their own ambitions, their own desires. They chose to become their own gods, rejecting the grace of their Creator. And our God had to send us to drive them from Eden and bar their way to the tree of life. Even this was an act of grace—to keep them from living forever in their fallen state. They chose works, but God chose grace.

Abraham chose to sire a son by Hagar rather than waiting on God’s grace through Sarah. We were sent to offer grace to Hagar, comforting her and saving the life of her son Ishmael. To this day there is conflict in that region of the world between the two sons of Abraham. All because they chose works, while God chose grace.

In your New Testament the Sadducees arrested the apostles for preaching the truth, making themselves to be their judges and gods, choosing the works of legalism. We freed those preachers and sent them back into the temple courts to preach the grace of God (Acts 5:17-21). The religious leaders chose works, while God chose grace.

Still later King Herod jailed Peter, intending to execute that servant of God to please the religious authorities. But we freed Peter to preach his message of forgiveness and grace to the world, and brought just condemnation upon the King who refused the grace of God (Acts 12:1-19, 23). The king chose works, while God chose grace.

The grace of Christmas

But we never brought the message of God’s grace more powerfully to earth than on that night 2006 years ago in Bethlehem. Our Lord had been planning since the creation of the world for this great day.

We watched in amazement as he announced in the Garden of Eden that the “woman’s seed” would destroy Satan (Genesis 3:15); as he predicted that the Savior would be born from Abraham through the lines of Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, and David; as he promised that the virgin would bear a son (Isaiah 7:14) in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).

Our excitement grew as we watched him prepare the world through the Roman Empire: a universal language for the gospel, universal roads and peace for the first missionaries, a universal hunger for truth and salvation.

Then the day finally came when he summoned us and sent us to tell the world that his Son had come. To whom would we go? The High Priest and his court? The religious leaders and spiritual authorities? The Caesar? The king? No—to shepherds. Unbelievably, to shepherds.

Understand our shock.

The Jewish rabbis listed several despised occupations, and shepherds were at the top of their list of sinners. They led their flocks for months on end without supervision, giving them both temptation and opportunity to steal from their masters and graze on lands which were not theirs. Ancient people could not buy wool, milk, or lambs from shepherds, for they were assumed to be stolen. Shepherds could not testify in court as witnesses, for they were assumed to be liars. They could not worship in the Temple or synagogue, for they were spiritually unclean.

Imagine that you read in today’s newspaper that a group of thieves had broken into your houses and cars last night, stolen from you, gotten together to count up all they had taken, and suddenly one of us appeared to them and said, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy!” How shocked would you be?

We were that surprised, and more.

But this was the Father’s will. And so we traveled from heaven to earth, from the throne room of glory to the camp of despised field hands. We revealed to them the glory of the Lord. No wonder they “feared a great fear,” as Luke’s Greek says (2:9).

But I announced to them a “great joy” to replace their great fear: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” “Great joy,” “mega joy,” for “all the people.” No matter their sins, their failures, their mistakes and problems. No matter how far they have been from God—God now comes near to them. Great joy for all people, including you here today.

For at Christmas “a Savior has been born to you” (v. 10). Not just born—born “to you.” For you. He has come for you.

And with him comes “peace to men on whom his favor rests” (v. 14). To all who will receive this grace, his favor rests today. And with it, his peace.

Grace to you

Now I have come to bring you the same offer of grace I extended to those shepherds on that first Christmas night. If Jesus would come for shepherds, he has come for you. If he would forgive their sins and receive their worship, he will forgive your sins and receive your worship today. But you must do what those shepherds did. You must leave your flocks, your possessions and abilities, your self-sufficiency, and go to Bethlehem. You must leave behind your works, and choose his grace.

We angels see Christians today trapped by a kind of dualism: working as hard as you can to get ahead in this fallen, materialistic world, all the while trying to follow Jesus as well.

We watch you live your lives: 40 to 80 hour work weeks, congested time schedules, running your children to more events and practices and parties than you ever dreamed of when you were their ages; trying to make more money so you can have more success and happiness.

All the while, you want to follow Jesus as best you can. For most of you, this means a few minutes in the morning and an hour or two at church. Truth be told, some of you want God to bless you, to meet your needs, to help you out, more than you want to be with him because you love him. A kind of spiritual resource to help you be successful, happy, and fulfilled.

Getting ahead with your jobs, with your economic security, with your children’s lives and success, and Jesus, too. Choosing your works instead of his grace.

Do you have a friendship with Jesus? Did you know that he wants to be your friend? that he loves you as you are, and accepts you as you are, right now?

Jesus knows your worst sin and shame. He knows the stories you’ve hidden from everyone but yourself. He knows your every failure and mistake—and he loves you anyway. He likes you anyway. Think of it—the God of the universe likes you. He will forgive every sin you’ll confess to him, every sin of which you’ll repent. He loves you and likes you. Christmas proves it.

If Jesus would choose peasants for parents, and a feed trough for a crib, and sheep herders for worshippers, he chooses you to be his friend and follower. He chooses you because he loves you.

Would you leave behind your flocks and herds and come to Christmas? Would you base your self-esteem, your personal worth on his grace, not your works? Would you work hard out of gratitude for God’s love, not to earn it? Would you put your family’s spiritual health ahead of their material wealth? Would you spend time every day with Jesus because you love him, not to earn his favor and blessing? Would you accept the fact that God has forgiven every sin you’ve confessed to him? Would you accept the new life, the fresh start, the “great joy” he offers you today?

Conclusion

I have come today to announce what I first told the shepherds: you are loved. God is real, and he loves you. He proved his love at Christmas, when he came for shepherds and every other sinner as well. He has come for you, now. Would you come to him?

Your Father has sent me with this message for you: You are his beloved, on whom his favor rests. He has called you by name from the very beginning. You are his, and he is yours. He molded and crafted you in your mother’s womb, and formed you in the hollow of his hand. He shelters you in the shadow of his embrace. He looks upon you with infinite love, and cares for you with a compassion greater than even a mother’s intimate love. He has numbered every hair on your head, with joy.

Wherever you go, he goes; when you rest, he keeps watch. He will give you food to satisfy all your hunger, and drink to quench all your thirst. He will not hide his face from you, for you are his beloved, in whom he is well pleased (adapted from Henri Nouwen’s poem, I Am the Beloved).

Will you live by his grace? Will you make every day your Christmas day?