On Avoiding Too Much Confusion

May the reader please note that this article has not been publically preached, however it has been presented to My Friend's House Shelter residents, during the month of April, 2012. I guess it has been a while since I have written in this venue. So some catching up might be in order in the near future. Look for it! On Avoiding Too Much Confusion Not too long ago I experienced a dream. Now I dream, probably, every night but only occasionally wake to vivid remembrance. Some dreams that I remember are fuzzy and often the “punch line” is unclear. But this one was vivid and I think the message was clear as well. There is a kind of a building within a building, except the smaller inside structure does not have a roof or ceiling and one can somehow look down and see the people walking around inside. Another aspect is that one can be inside the enclosure and experience interesting phenomena. Entry is through a small crawl space or a very low door with some mirrors at different angles kind of like a fun-house at the carnival. Once inside, the exit is obscured. There is a kind of narrow shelf about waist high running the length of the walls. As one looks at the walls and the shelf, the patterns seem to change, like a kaleidoscope changes patterns as it is moved around. These changing patterns obscure the corners and, of course the doorway out. The object is obvious: find the way out. But this seems impossible since the patterns keep changing so as to obscure the corners and the door. So, one is in a constantly changing maize. Frustrating. Others are also in the room, trying to figure it out as well. Now, I get the message in my mind to close my eyes and use my hand to feel along the shelf. With the outside influences shut out, I now find the corners and the door. Obvious, how simple! Was this some kind of spiritual message from on high, maybe the result of prayer or just a result of some analytical thinking. I don’t know about you, but I like to think it was the prayer. When confusion begins to get the best of us, why not just shut down for a bit, eyes closed, mind in neutral, eliminate the noise of all those incoming signals and messages and influences and listen for that “still small voice” that He has promised lives inside. Soon the answer will be obvious. Pondering these things, there is yet another insight. Once driving in high country we decided to go on up the small mountain for the view. However, there was a weather disturbance in the area and driving up the narrow mountain road visibility became less and less and very quickly we were surrounded with cloud and could see neither to the right or left or ahead and even the road was quickly disappearing. I became increasingly uneasy and found a turnoff in the road and we wisely decided to turn around and forgo the sightseeing trip. Disorientation was beginning to take over my senses. As I think about this phenomenon along with the dream scenario described above, one point comes forth for me: a lack of reference. A judgment made out of thin air, pardon the pun, without any stable reference point may well be flawed. In the dream room with the constantly changing images, there was not a way, not a reference point. I could not understand where I was and therefore could not make any progress. But with eyes closed, and using my tactile sense, now there was a constant reference, the feel of the shelf to my hand and so I could make progress toward discovering the exit. On the mountain, the road was my reference, but was quickly fading and so we could have easily just driven over the side if the road disappeared from my vision and I went by feelings. Aircraft pilots and passengers have lost their lives when the horizon is obscured by clouds and the pilot compares what he thinks the attitude of his ship is with what he feels is straight and level, instruments not withstanding. In the aircraft the turn and bank indicator is referencing to the earth’s horizon, so it becomes the reference and shows the true attitude of the airplane, even if the earth’s horizon is obscured by clouds and not visible out the windshield. So, failure to trust this true reference may well lead to one’s destruction. Again, decisions made without a true, stable reference point with which to compare possible actions most likely will result in not reaching the desired goal and may well have other undesired consequences. The argument has been made, and continues in some circles to this day, that there really are no absolutes. In other words, there are no wrong answers so that whatever I come to believe is true for me. Truth in this case becomes relative to one’s cultural, religious or societal mindset and what is true and important for one may or may not be for another. So, the bottom line for this kind of reasoning is that my reference point is really myself and my own feelings, my own observations and ultimately my own conclusions. This is kind of like in my dream, the patterns keep changing, ever different, so my reference is fluid-like and my path of travel is back and forth, never arriving at the sought after exit. Oh, the exit may come albeit in the form of disaster instead of victory. Individuals with differing ideas, form groups and organizations and political entities and ideas tend to crystallize so as to become consensus dictating those behaviors that are acceptable and those that are unacceptable to the group, organization or political entity. If the root of these collective ideas is not a ground, something solid and unchanging, a set of principles firmly ingrained, then the reference will be fluid and ever changing to the whims of the strongest which will eventually become normal thought and behavior of the masses. At that point some very interesting things will eventually occur. I say interesting, but maybe different would be a better descriptor, depending on one’s length of experience within the culture. This may explain the youth/elderly dichotomy that seems to always exist in any culture. Differences tend to exist, not only between the old and the young, but between those who favor the status quo and those who want to see revolution. But even here, the kind of ground that serves as the foundation for these conflicting ideas becomes, I believe, the main determinant for how an individual sees himself/herself, whether liberal or conservative, whether wanting revolutionary outcomes or keeping change to a minimum. It then becomes obvious that the idea of there being no absolute right or wrong, no absolute “truth” that can always be relied on, no solid ground upon which to stand no matter the direction or intensity of the winds of human will and no ultimate authority, is fraught with pitfalls. There is ground. It has been there all along. We have revelation at our fingertips, and with today’s technology, just a keystroke away. We have the word of our creator. We have truth, absolute truth. It has been preserved down through the ages not only by a laborious process of hand copying and today electronically available, searchable by word or topic, but somehow, I believe, by the invisible hand of God. But to the modern mind the story of creation by infinite mind through a process of speaking things which were not into existence and of right (righteousness) and of wrong (sin) and of a savior and a cross and blood shed as payment somehow for the sins of mankind is preposterous. So, the 21st Century human being, having been brought up to have faith in empirical science, shies away from anything remotely spiritual and otherworldly—with perhaps the exception of playful ghosts and goblins at Halloween. And thus takes the word of God at arm’s length, picking and choosing if any acceptance at all, in other words, not seriously. And his defense is that everything is really about self and feelings and “there ain’t no heaven and there ain’t no hell” if I remember the line from a popular song from the seventies. These now prevailing attitudes in our world today have contributed among other things to a disintegration of traditional marriage, the weakening of the institution of the home and the secularization of the institution of the church. Today, concepts such as honesty and integrity are fading into the dim past. Sexual purity has become less and less important with terms like the “baby-daddy” and “live-in” and same-sex-marriage with a great divide in our world as to the propriety of negating the consequences of sexual activity by just aborting the natural result. Not that these behaviors haven’t always existed, but now they are commonplace and openly accepted, where once, at least, there was a certain amount of shame and social stigma attached to the behavior. So, if there is no real god and therefore no real hell and when we die, we die and that’s it. Or, if there is an afterlife, everybody gets a pass and there is no such thing as judgment. So, why worry about morals? Why put such restrictions on people? Just preach generalities and feel-good stuff. Steer carefully around those warnings of the prophets of old. Situationalize the teachings of Jesus, after all he lived back there in the dark ages long ago and we are now the enlightened ones. So if there are not really any actual and absolute prohibitions and restraints to human behavior, except those things we collectively decide to enforce, then the ultimate end will be anarchy resulting in the destruction of civilization. We can hire more police, field bigger and more powerful armies and build more prisons, but in the end even our agencies and institutions will collapse in upon themselves. I am convinced more and more that the driver of our present divide in our individual mindsets, in our religious attitudes and practices and even in our deadlocked government is this understanding of who we are, of whether it all just happened or is there something else, some force, some cosmic entity directing. Basically, does God exist, but does God not only exist, but does God really mean for us to adhere to the injunctions in His book that has been passed down to us through the ages? Or, further, must we take Him seriously as He says to Moses, “I am, that I am.” That must mean that there is none other but Jehovah God or Yahweh, depending on your translation. Jesus called Him Father and indicated that His followers might in fact, be spiritually born into the Father’s spiritual family. Wow, what a concept! However, if we are to believe in Him, and believe that He means what He says and expects us to succumb or be damned to hell forever and we don’t believe, then the word calls us sinners, and lawless, and disobedient and eternally lost. So it’s His way or the highway to destruction. Pretty narrow outlook! But it gets narrower. Jesus states that He is the way, the truth and the life and that He is the only way to the Father. Thus this eliminates Mohamed, Buda, Zoroaster and any number of other religious leaders and ideologies and religious beliefs. Looks to me like its Jesus, if one wants life. Of course the alternative would be what the word of God calls eternal death or hell. The word is pretty clear on that. Trouble is, folks don’t want to believe it. To believe is to surrender, to give up self and relinquish control. To believe is to allow the creator to make one into a new creature, a new creation, as the potter molds and shapes a lump of moist clay. To believe is to make Jesus Lord of one’s life. To believe is to give up selfishness and self-centeredness and find others more important. To believe is to learn to love like the Father loves, no matter what. To believe is to take up one’s cross and follow Him to Calvary to die to self and try to be like the apostle’s testimony, “not I that live, but Christ who lives in me.” And there is the ground, the reference point that never moves. It is that solid rock which is Jesus the Christ. And therein is the comfort and the peace and the glory of the Father God and the assurance of life, abundant and everlasting. © 2012, David R. Snow

It has been a long time since we've talked

It has been a long time since we've talked, however, I do intend to come back soon. drs

In the fullness of time, God sent His Son.

This Sermon was preached in a Marshall church in December of 2006.
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Isaiah 42: 1-9
1 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!

I have put My Spirit upon Him;

He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He will not break,

And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
4 He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”
5 Thus says God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “ I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the Gentiles,
7 To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
I am the LORD, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.
Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

NEW TESTAMENT READING Matthew 1: 18-24

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,”[d] which is translated, “God with us.”
24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son.[e] And he called His name JESUS.

THE SERMON

In Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia, there is a statement that I think is appropriate for our topic this morning. In chapter 4, verse 4, he says
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

That whole chapter is very interesting and we might, at some future date explore it further, however, at this time I want to concentrate on just this one idea in this verse, that idea being: “. . . when the fullness of the time had come . . .”

Paul indicates that when time passed, and a precise mix of world events took place--certain nations rose to power and others fell into oblivion and rulers gained power and rulers lost power. Political ideologies and philosophical viewpoints shaped leader’s thoughts and ambitions. Infrastructure was designed and built. Language changed. Armies and military might conquer and then maintained the status quo—all of this and then the time was right. The time was full. In the fullness of time—God stepped upon the stage of the world He created and intervened in the affairs of mankind.

God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born a little human baby, born a Jew, at a time when the Law of Moses was in effect, when the temple sacrifices and the Judaic law were still binding on the Jews…God sent His son, to redeem those who were under the law, so that now, we might receive the adoption as sons. When world events were at just a certain point, God sent his son, so that God could be the Father, and we, as believers, could become family members.

The actual point in history, as we now count time was some where between four and one BC, which may be confusing to some since the designation BC refers to a moment in time, before Christ. However, since Gregory made a miscalculation in the forth Century, we can conclude that the Christ was born before the time that Gregory had determined for the event. The actual time--figured by those who spend their days figuring such on such things--is determined by the actual date of the death of Herod the Great, remember he’s the guy who talked to the wise men and had all the male babies in Bethlehem, two years and under killed in a fearful and desperate attempt to snuff out the threat of this new king on the scene.

Anyway, God determined that the fullness of time had come at that point, the point of Jesus’ birth into the physical realm.

It may help our understanding of this idea if we go back a bit in history. We are probably all familiar with the Hebrew history to this point, Abraham, the promise that all nations would be blessed through his lineage, the twelve tribes, the 430 years in Egypt, Moses and the 40 years in the wilderness, Joshua and the conquering of the promised land, the formation and growth of a great nation known as Israel, the kings, the rent of the kingdom with 10 going north and Judah and Benjamin becoming Judea, thus, the Jews and Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the captivity of 70 years in Babylonia, the return and the rebuilding of the temple and then about 400 years of time we call the inter-testament period where there were writings not considered canonical. During this time, Judea was acquired by Rome and ruled by a puppet King, Herod, whom we have already mentioned.

The Roman Empire had been in existence for 500 years and had, by the time of Jesus’ birth, gained control of most of the known world. Much of this expansion had been accomplished by a man by the name of Octavian a nephew of Julius Caesar.

Forty years before the birth of Christ, Julius Caesar had been given the title of perpetual dictator of the empire. However, things were going bad and there was a lot of infighting and scrambling for power—a lot like today.

Thanks to an English playwright named Shakespeare, you all know the story of the assassination of Julius Caesar and about Mark Anthony and Brutus. So, by the time the body of Julius with nineteen stab wounds was put on display at his funeral, his will was read. He had appointed his nephew Octavian, as his successor, as well as posthumously adopted him as his son, giving him the title of Caesar.

This, of course, did not sit well with some of the higher ups, but after several years and lots of blood being shed, Octavious as Caesar Augustus was in charge of the empire. He had already annexed Egypt and a lot of other territory so that the Roman government controlled most of the known world at that time.

Thus by the time of Jesus’ birth, Rome ruled the earth. Caesar Augustus was very ambitions and not only had he conquered lands, countries and territories, but he had built roads to everywhere and had his soldiers garrisoned in every place. Greek was the official language of the empire, so communication world wide was possible.

Looking at the map in four BC, Rome ruled from northern Africa, Egypt, all of what we call the mid-east today, up to Greece and into what is now known as the Balkans and Italy and up into the European continent, and Spain.

So, there was a vast territory, there was an available a police force and military for keeping things peaceful. Every body was familiar with the Greek language, even if some spoke in their own regional dialects, business was conducted in Greek. Travel was relatively safe with the military presence and good roads.

If we think about it, never in the history of the world had these conditions existed. If we think about it, that particular phenomenon has not existed since either.
Add to all this, in almost the center of this Roman Empire was the little nation of Judea, ruled by Herod the Great, a puppet for Rome.

Part of Caesar’s plan was to determine just how many citizens he had to deal with, for taxing purposes. The Gospel of Luke’s second chapter begins: “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife,[a] who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

This was the fullness of time. The time for the event of all time to take place. The precise moment in history when all the elements were in place for the entrance of the Son of God into the world, the precise moment for the introduction of the Good News, the Savior is here! God Loves! God is merciful. God’s great grace is abundant Shout the message of the Gospel, “go ye unto all the world and preach this good news!”

Now, let’s look for a moment at our Old Testament scripture for today. 700 years before the birth of the promised Christ, Isaiah, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives us these words from the mouth of God, himself: “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights!”

I think God must be talking about Jesus here. He goes on: “I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.”

Note that the reference to the “Gentiles” is a reference to folks who are not Jews, it’s a reference to the “all nations” who would be blessed in the promise to Abraham in Genesis fifteen. I believe that’s us!

Let’s us move on down to verse five: “Thus says God the LORD” It would be pretty hard to misunderstand this statement. Here are the words of God, himself. And He goes on to further identify himself as the ONE WHO: “…created the heavens and stretched them out, …spread forth the earth and that which comes from it . . . .gives breath to the people on it. . . .And (who also gives) spirit to those who walk on it”

Is there a possibility that you and I could be included somehow in this, being people who breathe air and walk on the earth?

Next, God speaks to Jesus. He states that He has called Jesus in righteousness. This righteousness is in contrast to the sinful folks who breathe and walk upon the earth, those Gentiles.

Next He says that He is going to “. .. . hold the hand (of Jesus) and He is going to “give (Jesus) as a covenant to the people (who breathe air and walk upon the earth).”
The next verses, to paraphrase: the covenant will be as a light to the Gentiles, and it will open their (our?) blind eyes and release them (us?) from prison, captivity, bondage of sin and death. I read somewhere, that if the Christ sets us free, we will be free indeed! Jesus is going to be able to turn on the light and free those in bondage. And then, in verse nine, God is telling us these new things, even before they occur--seven hundred years before they occur! There is a lot more to that passage, however, we must press on.

In the New Testament, only the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke give us any information about the birth of Jesus.

Matthew tells us that Joseph and Mary were engaged and Mary became with child by the power of the Holy Spirit and the baby was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Somehow a star led some wise men, or magi from somewhere in the east to seek for a king. They stopped by to see the local King (Herod) to find out just where this King might be born. After some research in the scriptures, they were directed to the city of Bethlehem.

They gave some expensive gifts to the new king, who was in a house, in Bethlehem, being by now, a small child, as opposed to an infant. We can see this since after Herod was not told where Jesus was by the magi, I can imagine he went into a rage and ordered all male children two years old and under, who lived in and near Bethlehem, slain, the two years old statement being significant in this argument.

The new family was advised by angelic messengers to seek safety in Egypt. Remember that Caesar Augustus had annexed Egypt earlier, so it was not like they went to a foreign country, and it was just down the road from Bethlehem. They came back up that way after Herod had died, but decided to go on to Nazareth.

Luke gives us some more details. Luke was written somewhat later and if we look at tradition as to where these different people finally settled, Luke, a companion of Paul could very well have had contact with Mary, the mother of Jesus and could have gotten much of his detail from her. Anyway, the words came by divine inspiration, so however God saw fit to inform Luke for his gospel, so be it.

Luke establishes the relationship between the families of John the Baptist and Jesus, tells of the census ordered by the emperor, Caesar Augustus, bringing the family down from Nazareth to Bethlehem, giving us the no-room-in-the-inn story and the shepherds-watching-their-flocks story.

So, if we put the two accounts together, we get them coming from their original home in Nazareth, going to Bethlehem to be counted, staying in a manger, the baby being born, shepherds coming by, moving into a house, going to the temple on the twelfth day, staying in Bethlehem for some time, the magi coming by, fleeing to Egypt and then returning to Nazareth some two years later.

I know it is a nitpicking thing, but most nativity scenes put those wise men and the shepherds and the cows and sheep and the manger all in the barn at the very same time. And we all know that it really did not happen that way. But, I guess it doesn’t really make that much difference. We like our nativity scenes.

As we have said before, not a lot of emphasis is placed on the birth of the Lord in the scriptures. However, I believe it is important to know that he was born a human being, just like any other baby that has ever come into this world. He was fully human. However it is also important to know that his conception was not normal.

Somehow, the Holy Spirit caused the baby to be formed in the womb without the benefit of the normal human process. The result was a child born into the world, but a child born without the Adamic sin attached, a child born in pure righteousness with no sin whatsoever. I admit to you that I do not understand it, or how it happened, but I believe it did happen. And that’s enough.

When the fullness of time had come, God sent His son into the earth, born of woman, sinless, perfect and fully human.

I like to think about that the angelic choir, singing to the shepherds watching over their flocks by night, probably all the angels in heaven singing “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Those angels were singing about heaven’s joy, as if the deed was already done, the ministry, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension and the King of Kings with work accomplished, sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven. They were singing that the deed was done, and all they really had at that moment was a tiny baby in a manger. But, know this. When God speaks, worlds move, things change and what He says, He will, in fact, do.

It is kind of like that time when Elijah was praying for it to rain and he asked his servant if he saw any clouds and the servant said, he saw a small cloud, as big a man’s hand. And Elijah said, “That’s big enough!” and it rained and rained that day.

They had a tiny new-born boy wrapped in swaddling clothes, but that was enough, the fullness of time had come and that day they had a regime change.

And from that day on, the Devil, Satan, that old serpent . . . never had a chance.

Christmas Story according to John

This sermon was given in a church in Marshall, Texas in December, 2006

OLD TESTAMENT READING Isaiah 9: 6-7
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

NEW TESTAMENT READING John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.”

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.



THE SERMON

There was once a man who did not believe in either the virgin birth of Christ nor the spiritual meaning behind it, and was skeptical even about God. He and his family lived in a farm community. His wife was a devout believer and diligently raised her children in the faith. He sometimes gave her a hard time about her belief and mocked her religious observances.

"It's all nonsense -- why would God lower himself and become a human like us? It's such a ridiculous story," he said.

One snowy day, she and the children left for church while he stayed home. After they had departed, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.

Then he heard a loud thump, something hitting against the window... And, still another thump. He looked outside but could not see anything. So he ventured outside for a better view. In the field near his house he saw, of all the strangest things, a flock of geese. They were apparently flying to look for a warmer area down south, but they had been caught in the snowstorm. The storm had become too blinding and violent for the geese to fly or see their way. They were stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter, unable to do more than flutter their wings and fly in aimless circles. He had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He thought to himself, the barn would be a great place for them to stay. It is warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he opened the barn doors for them.

He waited, watching them, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. Nevertheless, they did not notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. He moved closer toward them to get their attention, but they just moved away from him out of fear.

He went into the house and came back with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread trail to the barn. They still did not catch on.

Starting to get frustrated, he went over and tried to shoo them toward the barn. They panicked and scattered into every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where there was warmth, safety, and shelter. Feeling totally frustrated, he exclaimed, "Why don't they follow me? Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm? How can I possibly get them into the one place to save them?"

He thought for a moment and realized that they just would not follow a human. He said to himself, "How can I possibly save them? The only way would be for me to become like those geese. If only I could become like one of them. Then I could save them. They would follow me and I would lead them to safety."

At that moment, he stopped and considered what he had said. The words reverberated in his mind: If only I could become like one of them, then I could save them. Then, at last, he understood God's heart towards mankind... and he fell on his knees in the snow.

Prayer for guidance and understanding

Our Old Testament reading this morning is one of over 300 Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah fulfilled as Jesus was born into the world.

These predictions included:
1) the time of His birth being before the Jewish people lost their sovereign power to first Century Rome when Archelaus (Herod the Great’s son) took the throne in Israel;
2) Bethlehem, a small insignificant town, being the place of His birth;
3) and that He would be born of a virgin.

All of these prophecies show up in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint versions of the Jewish scriptures, which have been established by secular sources as predating Jesus Christ by between 100 and 250 years. It is amazing to note that when Israel's religious elite cried, "Woe to us, for the scepter has been removed and the Messiah has not come!" (as quoted in the Babylon Talmud, Sanhedrin), Jesus had already been born and He was growing as a young boy in Galilee.

It was also predicted in these prophesies that this Messiah would perform miracles (Isaiah 35:5,6), that he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9), would die a dreadful, yet substitutionary death (Isaiah 53) by crucifixion (Psalm 22:14-17), a form of death not even known at the time of the psalm's composition, and that he would be raised from the dead (Psalm 16:9f). And, of course many passages in our New Testament, as well as secular historians of the period are indicative that these events did, in fact, occur.

There is no room for doubt that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah (in Hebrew), the Christ (in Greek), Jesus the Anointed One, the Son of God, or as he preferred to call himself, the Son of Man, was born in Bethlehem, of Judea sometime in the years of 4 BC to 1 BC. Early writings in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Church Fathers give dates of May, April, March and even January for the month of the birth of Jesus. There is little agreement as to the actual date, or even the year. Aside from the passage we are reading today in John and about four chapters in Matthew and Luke there is little evidence that the 1st century church was concerned with his birth enough to celebrate it.

Some time during the 4th century, we can see evidences that there begins to be celebrations designated as celebrations of the birth date, which came to be December 25th.

After that, lots of practices and festive kinds of things, like hanging evergreens, the story of St. Nicolas, which evolved into the idea of Santa Claus, and the use of mistletoe and holly branches along with the encouragement to give gifts by mass merchandisers and even Hollywood movie plots, got all mixed up in it, and here we are today, on countdown for December 25th.

So be it. Praise God. I thank the Lord for arranging to be born and living on this earth and dying on that cross, so that we may have a way out, so that we may have hope, so that we can chose life, instead of death.

As I promised in the sermon title today, we are going to take a look at how the Apostle John in his gospel, handles the Christmas Story. John, according to those who study such things, wrote his gospel last, probably as late as 90 AD. He had been preaching his gospel for over 50 years. John was one of the twelve, and one of the inner circle as well. So, he knew intimate details of the earth-walk of Jesus because he lived through it. He was an eyewitness! Also he must have had conversations with the other eyewitnesses from time to time, comparing notes. In addition to his gospel, he wrote several letters to the churches and one rather lengthy report about a vision he had. This was when he was exiled by the Roman government, because of his religious views on an island called Patmos. He says in that work that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and told him to write it down. We call the book, The Revelation letter.

John’s emphasis in his gospel is the deity of Jesus. He paints a God-inspired picture, of Jesus as the incarnated Son of God. John’s gospel begins by giving us a glimpse of activities in Heaven, who was there and what did they do. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And he goes on to say that this Logos, the Greek term, here translated “word” literally the “Word of the Father” or we could think of like this: the “Word” as a personage with a message, with a revelation about things in Heaven, about the Father of all, and about life as opposed to death and about light, as opposed to darkness.

John further declares that this Word was the creator the earth, the universe and all things big and small. John’s words: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Sounds to me like This Logos had a major part in creation, all of it. In fact, it sounds like this Logos, is who the Jews called Yahweh, or in some translations, Jehovah. Most translations just use the term the LORD. So, the LORD gave Abraham a promise that ALL nations would some day be blessed, and actually cut a covenant with himself. You can read about it in Genesis the fifteenth chapter, beginning with verse six.

John says that this Word, became flesh, or human. So, evidently, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, manifest himself in the earth and was born in a human body. His mother was Mary and his Father, the Holy Spirit. He was born without sin, in a perfect body and there was something different about him from the beginning. He is the only human being ever begotten by God, thus the title, the “only begotten” son. And his name was called Jesus.

We can get more details about those events in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which we will look at next Sunday.

John says then, that God, was born into the world, became a human being by the name of Jesus and walked among the folks, his chosen people and they did not know it, they would not believe it and he finally allowed them to kill him and become the substitute sacrifice for all mankind once and for all, thus fulfilling his prophesy to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through the seed of Abraham. And even though Abraham was old and Sarah was old, a child, Isaac was born to them in their old age, who begat Jacob, who begat the twelve tribes called Israel. And the tribe which was Jesus’ linage was Judah, from which we get the term Jews. King David was in that line 800 years before, and his city was Bethlehem, where the child was born. No wonder Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that salvation was of the Jews!

John, the Apostle, the gospel writer, introduces a relative of Jesus, you can find out about that in Luks’s account. This relative, a cousin, was John the Baptist, a kind of a prophet, who after the manner of Elijah, preached repentance and baptized folks in the river Jordan. The gospel writer thus introduces Jesus by telling how John recognized the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Luke says that Jesus was about 30 years old when this event happened.

So, John dispenses with a lot of details about the birth of Jesus and focuses on his preexistence, just giving a line or two to the actual entry into the earth by birth, by saying that the Logos became flesh, or human. As I said before, the early church did not dwell too much on the birth, but were more concerned with the cross and the resurrection.

Let’s summarize. God made all things, including man. Man messed up. God wanted a way to bring man back to him. God made a covenant with himself, and as well as a promise to a man named Abraham, who is known as the father of the Jews. God entered the earth as a human baby named Jesus. That baby grew up and preached in Galliee and Jerusalem where God allowed himself to be slain on a Roman cross as a one-time sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

It may be an umpopular, politically incorrect statement to make these days, but I believe the evidence in scripture, prayfully examined will state unequivocally that Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and that there is only one way to life, to light, to heaven where God lives. John summed it up: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The only way is by believing and trusting our very existence to this Jesus, who’s birthday we are going to celebrate in a few days.

The Word of God, what, or who, is it?

I preached this sermon in October, 2005 in a church in Marshall, TX

OLD TESTAMENT READING

Joshua 8: 30-35
30 Now Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal, 31 as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.”[a] And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.

NEW TESTAMENT READING

Hebrews 4:12-16
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
John 6:37-40

Matthew 13
18 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

The Sermon

As our topic listed in your order of service implies, we are going to attempt to find out something about the Word of God this morning. What is the Word of God? Where can we find the Word of God? How do we know when it is the Word of God, or something else? Maybe we can get to all these questions in our allotted time.

In our Old Testament reading this morning there is a picture of a new nation, gathering for a big joint worship service, to dedicate a monument, a place of remembrance of the things God was doing for them at the time. They had not been long from the wilderness wanderings, eating manna every day. Now, they were growing as a nation and Joshua, notice how similar the name Joshua and Jesus, was there leader, appointed by Moses before he died. There is some similarity between Joshua and Jesus, both are deliverers. Joshua had led them successfully through two big battles already and now was a time to regroup and remember the statutes. Now was time to hear read the Word of the Lord. Note that the words that were read to the people were the words of Moses, and if you look back in the book of Genesis you will find that God, Himself had dictated these words to Moses. So, what Joshua was reading to the people was truly the Word of God.

We had two scriptures in our New Testament readings, one in Hebrews four and one in Matthew 13, the interpretation of the parable or story or illustration of the sower sowing seed on different kinds of soil. In the sower story, there is a whole sermon, but we will just look at it briefly today. As Jesus explains the story to his disciples, he lets us in on some information about His Kingdom, which is not of this world, but is spiritual and is spiritually discerned. A sower, a preacher, an individual witnessing to another individual, sows, teaches, reads, to his or her audience. The thing taught or sown Jesus calls the Word. This word as it gets internalized in an individual’s mind, becomes something of a reality, a belief, something to be embraced and lived out in a life, begins to be the catalyst for, for lack of a better term, spiritual warfare. So, in this case, the Word of God must be more than a passage of scripture, it must somehow have some power, power to change one’s life.

As we look at the battle field, we see that there are several things that appear to be in opposition to the individual being able to understand and act on the received message. There is a spiritual actor that comes into the play, called by name, Satan, or the Evil One. Cares of the world, persecution, tribulation and deceitfulness of trusting in money and riches are all part of the Devil’s kit of tricks to get the new convert derailed before they get started. Thus, once one gets a hold of this Word, this gospel, this good news, this idea of salivation and trusting God, it may well become difficult to continue, unless one has on the proper armor. Remember in Ephesians six, about the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit and the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel? There is a lot more here, but lets press on to the Hebrews passage.

If you get curious, you might chew on about a chapter and a half before the quote to try to see what that “rest” the writer is talking about has to do with the Word of God, but I will leave that for another day. The Word of God is living. It is not a dead letter! When you get this point, you will find yourself reading along and all of a sudden, a line or a few words, or a whole concept just jumps right off the page in into your mind and you stop and say wow!, I didn’t know that. I choose to believe that when this happens, the Holy Spirit is doing His best work, teaching, pointing out, helping me to understand.

The word of God is powerful. The Greek word is similar to our word “energy”, it is dynamic not static, it is able to move things, like the heart, like habits, behaviors, it can be a change agent. The word of God causes things to move, to change for the better.

The Word is the sword of the spirit, remember? Not only is it a sword, but it is a two edged sword, can cut both ways and is sharper than the most sophisticated surgical knife in existence today, because it can cut right through our thoughts!

The word of God works like an x-ray machine, with His Word, God can see all! We can have no secrets with Him. We might be able to hide from each other, but not from God.

Thus, it looks like the Word of God is more than a printed page. It is the information represented by the printed words, it is the concepts behind and described by the words. The words are merely the vehicle that God’s precepts and ideas and principles ride in.

So, what exactly is the Word of God?

We hold up this imitation leather-bound book, a compilation of two distinct sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament, 66 books in all. We are not really sure who wrote some of the books, or exactly when. But, we believe, because of the book’s antiquity and the fact that it has survived the test of time and because of archeological discoveries and the discovery of ancient parchments and text fragments, that what we have here is a faithful record of writings, some over 4,000 years old that tell of a God who created this universe and this earth and every thing on it, including us humans, writings that tell the story of a people and of a Savior and of a mighty church, the called-out body of God’s Christ, His Anointed One, a church without spot or blemish a church of the redeemed!

So, many of the words in this book are, in fact, words spoken in time past by God and are thus the Words of God. We have read some of these words this morning. So, the Bible contains the words of God, the story of God and the stories of God’s people. When we read from this book, we usually ask for God to bless, or to make effective the reading of His Word. So, we refer to this Bible as the Word of God, and it is. We believe that God somehow caused the writers to write the things He wants us to know by what we call inspiration—Divine Inspiration.

We believe this because the Bible tells us that “ . . . .all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3: 16-17). So, looking at all the evidence, I am convinced in my heart of hearts that the words contained in this book are very words of God. So, when I want to know something about God, when I want to know how to act, how to live, how to have that kind of peace of mind that is beyond human understanding—I go to the Word.

All this being said, I submit to you this morning that the Word of the Lord cannot be contained between these imitation leather-bound pages of 9-point type. For our God is alive, He is dynamic, He is present right here in this room right now. God is real. God dearly wants to be a Father to us today. God wants to be close to you this morning. The Father has sent His Son to redeem you and me. He sent His Son to light the way.

And in these leather-bound pages we find words that give meaning to life, words that reveal what the Apostle Paul calls a mystery, the mystery that was hidden for ages and is now revealed. The glorious good news what we call the gospel, is that God loves us and has made a way for us to be holy and redeemed and made righteous, not from within our own selves and our own efforts, but from the fact that Jesus, God’s Christ, His Anointed One went to a Roman cross and poured out His precious blood, his actual, real red blood.

John was there and he recorded it, describing how the soldier thrust the spear into Jesus’ side and out flowed both blood and water, right out on the ground. The Bible says that “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.” The life is in the blood. Paul, says in Hebrews nine that Jesus actually took His shed blood, as our High Priest up to the real Holy of Holies in Heaven and there offered it, sprinkled it as a sacrifice, once and for all, for all of mankind, all those who lived before and those who lived then and all those who lived ever after, right down to our own age, in 2006.

And the Bible says--the Word of God says--that if we believe that Jesus was truly a human being, who really died on that cross and really got up after three days in that tomb and really talked to His disciples and really went up to Heaven with his sacrificial blood—if we can get our prideful human intellect around that concept—understanding that we are without God, outside the fold, walking in absolute darkness mired in sin and disobedience, with no hope whatsoever--until we fall on our face and acknowledge that we are, like Isaiah of old, Unclean and in desperate need of a savior, and then looking up to Jesus, say yes Lord, I believe!.....come be the Lord of my life.

What, exactly, is the Word of God? Maybe it is impossible to exactly define the term, because the word of God is an individual thing. God speaks to each of us in our own language, according to our own experiences and mindset. He knows us that well. But there are some common threads that come down to all of us. We can be a cohesive group, we can be members of the Family of God, the Church of God, the Church of the Christ, the Anointed One which is described also as the Bride of Christ. We can all have the same spiritual Father and all drink living water from that same spiritual rock, that rock is Christ.

The Apostle John says that in the beginning the Word was, and that Word became flesh and that Word was Jesus. Jesus, the name that is above every name, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. The Son of God. There is no other name whereby we can have salvation. Like Paul said in the first chapter of first Corinthians, I preach Christ, and him crucified. That is the gospel, that’s the power of God unto salvation, that’s the Word of God.

Did you happen to notice as we read our text this morning, the very next verses in that Hebrews passage? Verse 14 says “…Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The Greek word translated confession, and it may be translated profession in your Bible, has to do with what we believe and what we say we believe, subsequently influencing how we act, or behave. So, Paul is admonishing us to hold on to our belief, to watch our behavior, to be careful what we say, to live our lives in such a way, so that we can come right on up to our Father when we need help, mercy and grace, when we are tempted, when we find ourselves weak, KNOW that Jesus is there, know that he wants us to succeed, know that he loves us, and gave his very life for us, know that Jesus understands what its like to live on this earth, know that he has himself experienced temptations and persecutions and all sorts of opposition. He knows how hard it can be.
You know, I had been in the church for years. I have even preached and led music in the church from my youth, but I did not get this message until later in life.

There are a lot of things that we don’t understand when we start out. We grow, and sometimes just get knocked right off our horse, like Paul did, on the road to Damascus. At that point, it’s time to do something about it.

I do not know what goes on in your head, only God knows that. But if you need to get some things straight in your life, now would be a good time to do it, today is the day of salvation. I am declaring the alter open, and we are going to sing a hymn to give the invitation to come and lay your burdens on Him. He said his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and he has promised to never leave you or forsake you, no matter what.

Let’s pray.
Father, send now your Holy Spirit upon this place, upon these hearts, speak to us now, let us know that You are God, that Your love for us is great, that you want to take us in your loving arms and shield us and keep us and protect us and give us strength, and health and see us as righteous, because of Jesus and his work on the cross.
These things I ask in the powerful and the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

Congregations spring up for various reasons, live for awhile and either grow or die

I preached the following sermon in September, 2004. The setting was in a church in rural Harrison County, Texas. This message could fit any number of small rural congregations with aging demographics.

We can all agree that life itself is cyclical, is up for awhile and down for awhile. For a time, times will be good and then the bottom will fall out. The money is good, it’s not so good. Our health is good, but problems come along, then things get better. Our job is fine, and then we hit a bump, but get over it. So we go on—because as we get older and wiser we know that things are not going to stay the way they are because we just know things have a way of changing and going off in directions that we would not have imagined. Probably the most constant in our lives is that things change.

Any student of history can attest that civilizations rise and civilizations fall only to rise again in another form. Nations come and go and come back with a new name.

Psychologists and Sociologists have observed that we are born and grow and go through stages of development on a progression from birth to death. Families, by the same token, form at marriage, produce children that grow up and leave the parent family to form new families. The parent family goes on for a while then finally dies. The stages of development of the family can be cataloged by observing the ages of the children as they develop, are in the home and leave, leaving the two parents who started it, alone with just each other once again to go on to old age together. At least that is the model—baring any unforeseen circumstances like a death, or a divorce, or some other traumatic occurrence that tends to derail the model.

Institutions such as companies, schools and, O yes, churches--tend to follow the same pattern. The pattern calls for formation, development, a rise, a fall, then finally a decline and subsequently a ceasing of operations. Death.

However, as far as a church is concerned—and here I am using the term church to mean a congregation in a certain place, city, town, street and so on, not the church, universal, that church that we are all a part of because of our faith in Jesus its Head, the church that He is building which will stand throughout eternity—(as far as a church, a local congregation of people is concerned) this decline leading to death can be halted, or at best, delayed by rebirth, by the people experiencing revival, by folk seeking renewal, by the rekindling of the flame of the Holy Spirit of God among the flock. In short, this decline, this death can be avoided by an influx of life within the membership. The death of a church can be forestalled by the people having a desire for God’s Word and by the congregation exhibiting a longing to be changed and renewed by a fresh in-filling of the Holy Spirit.

Let us look for a moment at something that is not pleasant, perhaps, but nevertheless, is an idea we must inevitably face. This church has been around for, what, 150 years? It may not be around for another 150 years. At some point, it will cease to exist. The church will die and we will see the doors boarded up, the grass and weeds and the briars growing high and the fire ants and the termites taking over.

In Luke the twelfth chapter, Jesus cautioned us about being able to look at the sky and know it was going to rain, but not being able to see what was going on around us. There are some signs that are becoming obvious if we have eyes to see. There are some indicators beginning to occur now and even have been occurring for quite some time that may very well tell us that the end may be nearer than we want to think.

Several have described to me from time to time that this church was once full of folk and kids and attendance was much more than it is today. As to the details and how long ago and how much and why, I do not know and it is not important. But what is important, is that this phenomenon has occurred and is currently in process. A decline in interest, in membership, in budget, in attendance has occurred and is, as we speak continuing to occur. Of course, in the history of the congregation, this may not be the first decline—but it is the one we have observed in recent history and we can continue to observe its process, if we have eyes to see.

Very recently we have seen the occurrence of a long-time faithful family, experience aging, and with it subsequent health difficulties that led to a decision to move to be closer to immediate family—to move away from the area, away from the county and away from this church.
Winds of change indicate that this same scenario may soon repeat itself again--and quite possibly, again.

Also, it is a fact of life that when people begin to experience aging, more frequently occurring health issues and just general physical decline, church attendance, church involvement—serving on committees, taking an active part in church activities slows way down so that ultimately we observe the cessation of church activities other than perhaps infrequent attendance and perhaps some continuing financial support.

Please note that how quickly these kinds of issues begin to become a factor in one’s involvement in the corporate activity of the church is directly proportional to one’s dedication to serving the Lord and one’s mindset as to what that service entails. But the strength of that dedication or its direction, guided by the individual’s mindset can not necessarily be measured but its effects can be observed in behaviors, those kinds of behaviors that we have defined, in practice, as church activities.

Therefore, if, just on the strength of these two reasons for decline in attendance and participation—that on the one hand, members move away and on the other hand, they get older, get health issues and become less active--we can predict a definite decline in church attendance and participation as the average age of the congregation gets higher. But this is true only if there are not some additions to take the place of those who left or of those who are slowing down.

But these additions, in order to change the equation, must be just as enthusiastic, just as well versed in scripture, just as dedicated to the Lord’s work as those who have left or slowed down and who had been very active in the recent past. It would help also, if these additions had a mindset that believes that the work going on at this church is, in fact, the Lord’s work. All of this will take some time and some effort just as those who went before, no doubt, grew in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord, but surely not overnight.

So we can then see that as the older ones leave and the younger ones come in, there is, of necessity, a time-lag before the replacements get up to speed. And, let’s face it, some never do. Some of those who come in are already loaded down with a young and demanding family, one or two jobs and are already burning the proverbial candle at both ends—all of which leaves little time or energy for church-related activities other than occasional attendance and minimal participation.

In the face of all this, how can we change the trend? How can we overcome? How can we choose life instead of death?

“With God all things are possible . . . If God be for us, who can be against us . . . He that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world.”

One way we have traditionally built churches—some denominations have this idea down to perfection—is to start with a strong Sunday School program for all ages, but especially the children and youth. If the kids are involved in kid-related activities and are getting some fun, fellowship and a little Bible along, the parents will not be far behind, especially, if the children are allowed to perform in the regular service from time to time. Parents, grandparents, godparents and relatives will be there. It’s a tried and true method of evangelism. Another factor, is that if the kids are getting their needs met, they tend to bring other kids—more evangelism.

In fact, if the adults are getting their needs met, they will stay with it, participate, give money, time and energy—and even boldly try to recruit their friends and acquaintances—more evangelism.

Speaking of needs met, this may well be a key factor in building any organization, as well as a church. As we have said, people will tend to attend, to support, to participate in any organization that can meet their real or perceived needs. However, a word of caution here might be in order as we consider the process of building a church. If we just have a group of folk who come together from time to time, and we call it a church. Our result may not be what Jesus had in mind when He said, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” Perhaps our attention should be focused more upon fulfilling the spiritual needs of the people, at least as an end goal.

But back to my original point: look at the signs. Look at the record. See what is happening to us. This church will die and the doors will be boarded up and the grass and weeds and the briars will grow high and the salamanders, the fire ants and the termites will have their day. But, whether that day will be far into the future, or right around the corner, is up to you and you and you, and, O yes, the preacher, whoever he or she might be, has some responsibility too.
I submit to you this morning, that unless there is constantly new life, renewal, enthusiasm for the Word, hunger for spiritual growth and excitement of the membership over the gospel of Christ, our demise as a church is not too far in the future!

Let me make something clear. There is a difference between the church--the “ecclesia” the “called out body” consisting of all those who have accepted Jesus as Lord of their lives from long ago to right now and into the future until He comes again--and this particular congregation.
We are two things in one. We are a part of the physical corporate body, with charters, names on our doors, membership rolls and denominational affiliation. We are also and at the same time, a part of His body, and each individual—who has made Jesus Lord of his or her life—is a part of the body of Christ.

There is the spiritual, the real, body of Christ—the bride anxiously awaiting the wedding day—and the physical congregations of folk with various names like First Church, Community Church, Central Church and so on, who are a part of the whole.
The physical counterparts, the denominations, the congregations, serve to provide a framework upon which to hang our spiritual hats. And, if one congregation dies out, the people left will migrate to another church if they have any interest in doing the Lord’s will. Most will, however, leave before the fact.

This church will die and the doors will be boarded up and the grass and weeds and the briars will grow high and the salamanders, the fire ants and the termites will have their day. And whether that day will be far into the future, or next year, or within the next 10 or 20 years, is up to you.

Unless there is constantly new life, renewal, enthusiasm for the Word, hunger for spiritual growth and excitement exhibited by the membership of this church. Unless there is enthusiasm for the glorious and wonderful gospel, the good news of Jesus the Christ with a burning desire to tell others to share the good news—the death of this church is just around the corner.

The death of this church can be avoided if we continue to cultivate an appetite and a desire for God’s Word and if we make a deliberate and conscious decision to be changed and renewed by a fresh in-filling of the Holy Spirit.

The Name of Evil

The Name of Evil
I preached the following sermon in September, 2006. The setting was in a church in Marshall, Texas.
Hear the Word of the Lord
THE OLD TESTAMENT READING
Job 1:1-12 (King James Version)
1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
2And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
3His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
4And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
5And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
6Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
7And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
8And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
9Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
12And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

THE NEW TESTAMENT READINGS
Revelation 12:7-12 (King James Version)
7And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Ephesians 6:10-13 (King James Version)
10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.



THE SERMON
If you have looked at a newspaper, watched a TV news program or caught a radio newscast while driving lately, you have been literally bombarded with news reporters shouting stories and offering eyewitness reports of bombings, killings, wars, genocides, shootings, attacks, crashes, wrecks, explosions, hurricanes, storms, floods, tornados, fires, deaths, rapes, murders and any number of other disasters and terrible events that manage to kill, maim, cripple and harm people, people who are, more often than not, innocent people, bystanders, victims and non-combatants.
All of these happenings and incidents and occurrences can be labeled the result of evil. The world we live in is a very dangerous place because of evil The results of evil ideas and evil actions make it difficult to stay alive today. However, if we look into the Word of God it becomes obvious that the constant presence of evil has plagued mankind for centuries, perhaps since time began.
We have read this morning about a man named Job from Uz. We do not know exactly were Uz was, and many of the details are sketchy about just who Job was, but there is a good possibility that he was the same person mentioned in Genesis 35 by the name of Jobab, the 2nd king of Edom, a relative of Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. Remember the one who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew? The story of Job is, I believe, a fascinating one. Maybe it could be the topic we deal with next Sunday, the Lord willing.
But getting on with today’s lesson, according to the scripture, Job’s name came up on the agenda of a meeting, a meeting around a table in the conference room of Almighty God, a meeting with all the head-angels. Satan, being one of them, was asked by God what he thought about Job. And angel Satan, being a negative thinker, did not have much confidence in Job’s being able to maintain his righteousness, especially under duress.
Perhaps noteworthy in this particular passage is that here is Satan, the accuser of the brethren, the deceiver, the father of lies, the destroyer, the sworn enemy of mankind right there sitting at the table accusing Job before the Father of being good just because God had blessed him and protected him. Of course Job won and the devil lost his bet, however, at Job’s expense. But Job got it all back, even double in the end.
Then skipping about 4,000 years in time, we read an account by the Apostle John of his vision on the Island of Patmos about 90 AD. There was some conflict in the heavenly realms which resulted in that old Serpent, another name for Satan, or the Devil--also known as the accuser of God’s children—being removed from the conference table and consigned to the Earth. No longer did he have the Ear of the Father so as to accuse the faithful, evidently actually overcome and demoted, stripped of any real power, all done because of innocent righteous blood shed on Calvary.
But the line in verse 12 of that passage that said “. . . .woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short. . .” kind of brings one up short, gets your attention.
The book of Revelation is the only book in the Bible that promises you a blessing if you read it, or hear it read. In verse three of the very first chapter, we find it says, “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”
So, hopefully we can all get some blessing and some information from the passage read this morning.
Next, Paul gives us some insight into who the real enemy is in the sixth chapter of his letter to the Ephesians. That particular letter was, according to scholarship, most likely written not to the church in Ephesus exclusively, but as a circular letter to be read in all the churches in the area that is now known as Greece and Turkey. So, this morning, we have read some of it as well, to a portion of the church in Marshall, Texas
We learn first of all here that the Devil has or uses wiles, or cunning arts, deceit, craft and trickery, and God supplies some protection, some armor against these tactics, but we must be knowledgeable enough and willing enough to put it on and wear it. We could do a sermon or two on this armor, and might some day, however, for this lesson, lets just concentrate on our task of defining and recognizing this thing we call evil.
Paul informs us that our struggle is not against human beings. Our enemy is not human. Our opponent is not a man or woman. Our battle is with beings in the spirit world.
Now, hear me out. I did not say this, the Apostle Paul, who claimed to have had visions or spiritual visits with Jesus, who wrote a third of the New Testament cannon, who devoted his life to taking the gospel of Christ all over the known world in his day. Paul says that our real enemy, the real evil, consists of, and I quote, “. . . .principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[a] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
The Greek word translated principalities has to do with the idea of rulers and magistrates. The word rendered powers could also be given as, spiritual potentates. Then the word translated “rulers” could as well be translated as “the devil and his demons” devil and demons who rule what Paul describes as the darkness of this age, or as one definition is given: the persons in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway. Thus Satan and his bunch have so deceived some that to them dark is light and the night is desirable and gives them, to use another metaphor—a sense of boldness to do evil things. And Paul continues, using the word spiritual—non-physical—hosts or many beings all over the place, all over the heavens that surround the earth constantly involved in doing wickedness, wreaking havoc, wantonly destroying, and making misery for mankind.
We could find numerous other passages in both the Old and New Testaments that would shed light on our subject: the idea, the concept, the personification, of evil if time permitted. But I will cite just one more example here. It is a passage we recite almost every time we come together as a church. We call it the Lord’s Prayer.
The version from Matthew six is the one you are most familiar with. It goes:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
According to those who study such things, the Greek word translated “evil” is used in the nominative case in Mt. 6:13. This usually denotes a title in the Greek. Hence Christ is saying, deliver us from "The Evil", and is probably referring to Satan. Thus some translations render it “deliver us from evil” while others translate it deliver us from the evil one.” I think we all know who the “Evil One” is.
Our struggle is not against human beings this morning. Our enemy is not human. Our opponent is not a man or woman. Our battle is with a being and his beings in the spirit world, Satan and his angels and his demons. We read about demons in the New Testament. Jesus dealt with them on a daily basis. The demons knew who Jesus was, even though most of the people in Galilee and Judea did not seem to get it.
Do we have demons today? Well, if we do not have demons today, when did they leave? Where did they go? Do you suppose that the demons are as busy today as they ever were, putting evil thoughts in people’s heads, cajoling, lying, conniving, convincing, deceiving and tricking folks into doing all sorts of destructive things. That’s why we need the armor! The Deceiver is cunning enough to deceive the very elect.
Put yourself in the enemy’s mind for just a moment. If you wanted to destroy God’s children, break up God’s family, disrupt the Bride of God’s Christ, what would be a foolproof tactic? Why not sow seeds of distrust, of suspicion, of pride of one’s knowledge, of selfishness, and self aggrandizement and self importance and help folks be so fully convinced that they had it all figured out and everybody else was wrong.
Sow seeds of doubt about spiritual things, instigate a fear theology instead of a faith theology. These are a few of the destroyer’s methods in use today in the church. I don’t believe that any one of us is above being deceived. This is why we must have a knowledge of the Word of God, because God’s Word is true. If it doesn’t measure up to the Word, then it’s a lie!
But how are we going to know, how are we going to be able to discern fact from fiction if we do not have a working knowledge of the scriptures? Sunday school is good. Listening to a 25 minute sermon once a week is good, however, it may not be enough. Personal study, a respect for the Word, a desire to know what God’s will is, and desire to become closer to the Father every day, to grow in the grace and knowledge of God would be our goal, it’s part of the armor of God, it’s having our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel, knowing the word, knowing wherein we stand.
We have not scratched the surface of this subject, but time is up for today. If we need to take anything away this morning, take home this:
Our enemy is not human. Our enemy is an angelic being called Satan. He is real, he is alive and he is furious with anyone who believes in Jesus. He is out to get you. When you get on God’s side, you automatically get on Satan’s list. He has helpers in angels and demons and you can’t see them, they are only spiritually discerned. People can be influenced by these demons, we witness the result of these evil influences every day on the news and many times in personal experiences.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies, those people who persecute us, revile us and falsely accuse us because of our stand on God’s side. He tells us to turn the other cheek, to pray for them and help them. The New Testament instructs us in how to bring others into the Kingdom: to preach the Gospel, to live the Gospel, to shout the Good News, to turn on the light of truth, to be the good Samaritan, to be the helper, to be the giver, so that those folks who are deceived and walking in the Devil’s darkness might see a better way, might have hope, might choose life instead of death.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. There is one way and that is the Lord’s way. If that’s narrow, then that’s narrow. God’s desire is for everyone to come to a knowledge Him, He would rather that none would succumb to the Devil, but He also said that at some point, every knee shall bow, and that means everyone who ever lived, who lives now and who will ever live, every knee shall bow before the Lord Jesus, God’s Christ. I guess it means that even though one might go through life as an atheist and unbeliever, at some point that person will be forced to bow and acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ. But we can’t guarantee what will happen to that atheist next. I think I will just choose life, just choose Jesus and acknowledge Him right this minute as Lord of Lords and King of Kings, will you Join Me?

Amen

Are you the Messiah (The Anointed One), or shall we look for another?

I preached the following sermon in September, 2006. The setting was in a church in Marshall, Texas.
Hear the Word of the Lord
Old Testament Reading
Jonah 1: 17 – 2: 10 (King James Version)

17Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah’s Prayer and Deliverance From Jonah 1: 17 through the end of chapter 2

17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
1Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,
2And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
3For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
5The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
8They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

New Testament Reading

Matthew 12: 38-42 (King James Version)

38Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
39But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
40For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
42The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.


The Sermon

Are you the Messiah (The Anointed One), or shall we look for another?

The title of the sermon this morning is taken from a question asked by John the Baptist about Jesus, when he was in Prison.

Matthew 11:2-4 (King James Version)

2Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
3And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
4Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:
2Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
3And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
4Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see:

Things about the lame walking, the blind seeing and folks getting healed and the dead getting raised. Jesus knew that John was familiar with the prophesies of the Messiah from the Psalms and Jeremiah and Isaiah

In our New Testament reading this morning from Mathew 12, Jesus states that the idea that Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days and lived to tell it, was the only sign that they were going to get.

What did they want a sign of, a sign for, What were they looking for proof of?

Well, the answer is obvious if we give the question a little thought. Here was a man going around, calling himself the Son of Man, a title church folk of the day knew quite well, because it was a title used by the prophets of old. So, here was this fellow, walking around calling himself a prophet, preaching stuff that was a little too close for comfort, healing people on the Sabbath and eating without the customary ceremonial washing of the hands. And as far as they were able to find out, had never been to rabbinical school. The story went that he just walked in from the river Jordan one day, a man about 30 years old after having been a carpenter, a worker in wood in that little town of Nazareth (and nothing good has ever come from Nazareth), a Galilean, certainly not qualified to be proclaiming such high ideals and such teachings, stuff that made the church folk nervous to listen too, in fact made some of them downright angry. Angry enough to think about trying to hush him up, even to kill him.

Well Jesus—give us a sign to prove that you are the Messiah. All this healing and preaching is not enough. We need proof, a sign before we will believe.
“Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” (Matt. 12)
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
We might just note here also that Luke gives his version of this exchange in chapter 11.

Sometimes, when you read a passage in the Bible, do you ever question and wonder just why God decided to give us that particular information? Or, maybe you think, what is the point, Lord? Why, Jonah?

Who was Jonah anyway?

Jonah, was one of the minor prophets who lived about 750 years before Jesus was born. The Old Testament book of 2nd Kings (II Kings 14: 23-29) tells us that Jonah was a prophet and statesman who helped King Jeroboam to regain territory that Israel had lost in the past. The passage also states that Jonah was from a little town called Gath Hepher, which was just 6 miles north of another little Galilean town, Nazareth. So, Jonah and Jesus were born just six miles and 750 years apart. Coincidence? Maybe.

Scholars mostly attribute the book of Jonah in the Old Testament, to Jonah himself. Although, if he did write it himself, he was pretty hard on himself, as we will see in a minute. The book of Jonah tells a preposterous tale about a man being thrown overboard, swallowed by a fish and then spit out on a beach alive--all over a space of three days.

Speaking of Bible scholars, some of them today do not believe that this story really happened, they believe that it is merely an allegory, a fictional account intended to teach a lesson.

I want to go on record right here and declare that I believe the story is true, that it really happened and that it has some significance for us here and now.

Lets look at some facts. Gospel writers Matthew and Luke state that Jesus said that the only sign of his Messiahship he was going to offer was the sign of the prophet Jonah’s journey to the bottom of the sea, his being ingested into a big fish and, after 3 days, his being spit out upon the beach and his subsequent evangelical mission to the foreign city of Nineveh, whereupon they repented and were saved from the wrath of God.

Unless we are willing to disregard the testimony of Matthew and Luke that Jesus believed Jonah was a real live person who actually lived through an actual fish-swallowing event, as well as the testimony in 2nd Kings, that Jonah actually lived and did activities in Israel during the reign of Jeroboam, then we would have to conclude, with our Lord, that the fish story was not so preposterous after all! My Bible says that with God, all things are possible.

So, the Jonah story actually happened just the way the Bible says it did.

God told the prophet that He wants Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent of their wickedness, or He (God) will destroy them. Nineveh was a city of 120,000 (little bigger than Marshall). Its ruins can be found today, located just outside of Mosul, Iraq. You have probably heard newscasters speak of recent battles and incidents in and around that area. So, about 2,750 years ago, Nineveh was a very important city on the north-south trade routes right on the banks of the Tigris river. It was the capital of the Assyrian empire and its king exerted pressure on all surrounding nations, off times exacting taxes or payments for protection. Evidently folks’ behaviors were about the same then as they are now. So, Nineveh was the stronghold of the enemy of Israel.

Can you imagine being asked by God to go into the capital city of your nation’s worst enemy unarmed and then preach a message that warns of their destruction if they do not immediately repent and quit doing their wickedness?

What ever else Jonah was, he was evidently not too big on bravery. Have you ever noticed that God sometimes uses people who are not the strongest and best, but maybe are the weakest and most unlikely. Maybe God can use me for something. Maybe he can use you. Anyway, Jonah was not going to do it. Have I ever defied God and just refused to change or to do something I knew was His will? I think you know the answer to that one.

Have you ever done something you absolutely knew that God had said in His word not to do, and you understood it and there was no doubt, but you just refused to heed the warning and went ahead anyway? Don’t everybody answer at once! Well, you get the point.

Jonah bought a ticket on a Phoenician ship to the end of the known world, a place called Tarshish. The town was a mining port off the western coast of Spain. Jonah was taking no chances. He was somehow going to hide from God. Well, the ship got underway, and before they got hardly out of sight of land a most fierce storm suddenly appeared without warning and was so bad that the sailors dumped their cargo overboard in hopes of lightening the load to make the ship ride higher in the water, but nothing seemed to work and they feared that the ship would break apart in the swirling waters or be swamped and sink in either case.

All else done, the sailors, each prayed to his god. But the storm continued to pound them. They cast lots and somehow Jonah was identified as the culprit.

Well, Jonah, the prophet, knew he was caught, finished, found out, done. He confessed he was running away from the very Lord Who made the sea in the first place. Jonah volunteered to give his life for the lives on board the ship. Throw me overboard, he said. As soon as he hit the water, the sea ceased its raging, the wind calmed and the ship was safe.

We read Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the big fish that God had prepared. He said that he went down to the bottom of the sea and go tangled in the sea weed and used the term Sheol. Now in Hebrew, the word signifies the place the dead go after life ends. So, the case could be made that Jonah actually drowned and the fish took him up from the ocean’s floor, swallowed him and provided a safe place for his return to life so that he composed this prayer.

From the depths of trouble, despair and perhaps even death, Jonah remembered the Lord, prayed to Him, knowing that his prayer was heard, and then repented and said he would do what God wanted him to do. Three days are passed and the fish spits him out on land at God’s direction.

Allow me a bit of imagination here. Don’t you suppose that this spitting out from the fish, this miraculous resurrection from the dead, the storm damaged ship limping back to Joppa and the sailors who had a tale to tell about this Hebrew they threw overboard—don’t you suppose that this kind of thing gets told around. They didn’t have CNN or FOX back then, but mankind has always been able to get word about that kind of thing out and about.

So—by the time Jonah gets to Nineveh and just gets a day’s walk into the city with his cry of repentance or destruction, they had heard about the God of the Hebrews and this man Jonah and they were ready to put on the sackcloth and ashes.

And God did not destroy the city, just then anyway. Jonah pouted. Got mad at God. Got mad, that the bad guys did not get what was coming to them, but instead got mercy.

I see Jonah as a type of Christ and most of the typology works, until we get to the last little drama about the gourd plant and the worm. But perhaps most significant in the story of Jonah is God’s statement in the very last verse:

the LORD said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

God, our Father in Heaven, loved those Ninevehites even though they had done many bad deeds. And God, our Father in Heaven loves these Marshallites, no matter what. He loves you and wants you to do right and, like Jonah’s case, will even do miracles to get his will accomplished

We have covered a lot of ground this morning and we have not really scratched the surface of what these scriptures have for us, and I would hope that you would go home and get your word down and read these passages and see what might be there for you, individually.

The scriptures are real and are about real people who lived and died and we can learn from the record of their lives and their activities. The one thing the Bible does is to tell it like it is and not to put any kind of “spin” on it. Jesus is very real, he was born a little baby and had to learn to talk and walk just like you did. He was born of Mary and I believe the story is true that she knew not a man, but that God somehow caused that child to be formed. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at the river Jordan right after his baptism by his cousin John the Baptist and Jesus ministered in Galilee and Judea for the space of three years, was executed on a Roman cross in the City of Jerusalem at the request of the local Sanhedrin Court (church folks, if you will) who said let his blood be upon us. He was buried in a borrowed tomb and when they went back to embalm the body on the third day, he was gone. He was risen! And he showed himself, first to the women and to the apostles and to upwards of 500 followers. And when the disciples were with him in his resurrected body just before the day of Jewish feast day of Pentecost, they saw him lifted up into the heavens and there was an angel that said to them, that Jesus was coming back to get his own. Someday.

I want to be able when that time comes to say hello Lord, and to hear that “well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joys of the Lord.”

Jesus said come unto me, you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He said he that if we would confess that he is Lord, that he would certainly confess us, speak up for us, to his and our Father in heaven.

The invitation to come home and make Jesus Lord of your life is given to you right this minute.

Amen.