What if God is sending us “distractions from mission” strategically? What if he is sending them to reveal his glory, to advance his kingdom, and to lead us to partners on mission? Today, you are invited to put yourself in the place of one of his disciples and pay attention to what Jesus does. (14 minutes)
Two announcements:
Annual Meeting: Our annual meeting is on Sunday, 3/21 at 2pm on Zoom. Send a request for an invite if you’d like to attend.
Good Friday Worship Gathering: We are gathering before sunrise at the Mickler’s Landing for fellowship and worship as the sun comes up. Sunrise is at 7:13 am. It’s a good idea to get there about an hour early. This year, it’s bring your own breakfast.
As Jesus calls us to meet people in their places of deep pain, loss, and grief, as he sends us as his representatives to those places, we are confronted with some real challenges. What do we say? What can we do? How will it be helpful? How can we keep it from being awkward.
It’s often more than we can handle – but with some love, courage, and preparation, we can move into those places and represent Jesus well. Moreover, if we go as he sends us, we go to places where we are more likely to enjoy the great privilege of seeing Jesus at work.
This is the second message in a series on helping people in places of pain. This one is very practical and was the Sunday Message sent out to Love First Coast on Feb 21, 2021. It’s about 11 minutes long.
Have you ever considered the prospect of being with the poor to be a huge opportunity? But what does it mean to be poor? And how does that connect with being present with Jesus? You may want to try it to find out! (10-1/4 mins)
If discipleship is about learning from Jesus how to live like Jesus, life on mission is learning to represent Jesus faithfully. It’s not easy to stay on mission, but it’s worth it and the stakes are high. James makes it clear: it’s about life and death! He encourages us to choose life! James challenges us to persevere through trials while giving insight regarding the temptations that will take us out! One leads to a crown. The other to death.
(15 Minutes)
God has placed you strategically to influence the lives of your neighbors, friends, and family. Could you use more wisdom for this assignment? Of course! No matter where we are, what role we play, or how wide our influence may be, God calls us to represent him wherever we go – and for this, we need to grow in wisdom!
James offers good insight for understanding the kind of wisdom we need and for gaining this critical resource! (About 16-1/2 minutes).
We pray regularly, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” When we pray that, we are praying for heaven to come to earth.
Imagine with me what heaven coming to earth would be like.
When heaven comes to earth, fear and anxiety take flight. When heaven comes to earth, people are valued because God values them. When heaven comes to earth children are cared for and protected; they receive lavish love because Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.”
When heaven comes to earth, needs are met, forgiveness reigns, people love across differences, grace overcomes every divide, and money and power are used in ways that bring joy, meeting needs and always, always honoring God.
When heaven comes to earth, no one drinks to forget, no one takes drugs to escape, and no one takes their own life. When heaven comes to earth, no one beats up helpless people and posts it on the internet. There’s no corona, no cancer, and no one saying, “How tragic.” There is no despair, no cruelty, and no abuse of power. There is no hunger, no sweatshops, no human trafficking, no injustice of any kind.
When heaven comes to earth families are sustained and supported, people find welcome, abundance, and the relentless practice of kindness. Generations meet at a common table, virtue is passed on, understood, appreciated, and celebrated.
When heaven comes to earth, people thrive. Courage, hope, faith, love, and joy characterize each day. No one suffers alone. No one cries alone. No one dies alone.
When heaven comes to earth, faith is not lost, hope is not given up, and love does not, does not fail – because, by the grace of God the Father, through the work of the Holy Spirit, by the victory of Jesus – heaven has come to earth.
When Jesus was tempted, he pretty famously told the Devil, “Man shall not live by bread alone…” Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. We “don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” The verse tells us that we human beings need more than food to live – to really live. Yes, you can stay alive if you eat, but to really live we need more. Deuteronomy said, and Jesus said, we need the Word of God to live.
What is the Word of God?
Classically, Christian theology taught there was a threefold form of the Word of God. But before I unpack that, let me just say a bit about the biblical words that are often translated “Word”. The Hebrew is dabar. Dabar Adonai – over and over again. It means, “Thus says the Lord” or as Eugene Peterson put it: God’s decree. In Genesis that all things were created by God’s Word, God’s decree, because “Thus says the Lord.”. In Isaiah, we read that God’s Word accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent out. There’s something powerful about God’s Word. In the Psalms, God’s Word tastes sweeter than honey and it is a a “lamp unto my feet” revealing things that might trip us up, and a “light to my path” showing the way. The Word reveals God and God’s ways. In the New Testament Greek, Word is Logos. The Greek philosophers, I’ve been told, loved that word. It’s the central idea, the most elemental principle. It’s the very heart of reason. In the beginning of John’s gospel, he says, “in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God!
What is the Word of God?
Clearly, this concept means a lot in the Bible. And there’s a good reason for that. God’s Word is how God reveals himself. It’s how we come to know who God is, what God is like, what God thinks of us… we come to know who we are and how we’re supposed to live by God’s Word.
But what is God’s Word? Okay – the threefold form of God’s Word.
The first form is God’s written Word. This, of course, points to the Bible. The Bible is essential for hearing from God. We need the help of the Holy Spirit when we read the Bible. People argue for the Bible and about the Bible all the time. They use words like “inerrant” and “infallible”. The Fundamentalists and the Liberals used to argue about such things to, frankly, an intolerable and unproductive degree. I’m not going to revisit those arguments. But let me point out that it is God who is inerrant. It is God who is infallible. If the Bible is as well, then any well-meaning, rational person who reads it would have to believe it. But I have known people who were well-meaning, rational, who even seemed motivated to believe – they wanted to believe – but came away from the Bible unconvinced. I’ve seen the opposite as well – people who read scripture not expecting to be changed, and they were. One of the better-known stories there is the story of Nicky Gumble – who has led the Alpha Course for years. He read the New Testament to find arguments to convince friends it wasn’t true. And his reading convinced him that it was. There’s a reason both of those things can happen. The words of scripture become the Word of God by God’s help. We need God’s help to hear from God when we read the Bible.
The Bible came to us through God’s work. God the Father ordained it and gave it. The Holy Spirit inspired and guided its creation. Jesus fulfilled it and demonstrated it. The Spirit preserved it. And the Father is glorified by it still! When we read the Bible, we need God’s help to hear God’s Word. When the Spirit of God is involved, every “jot and title”. Every single bit of the Bible has the potential to become God’s Word to us. Here’s a practical point – Call on God when you read scripture.
The second form is God’s proclaimed Word. Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” God’s Word is proclaimed by preachers. But it’s also expressed through activities like music and art and craftsmanship. Good architecture preaches. The sacraments preach, too. I know a woman who was converted when someone handed her communion. God’s Word is also proclaimed in creation. Again, we need God’s help for these things to become God’s Word. I’m a preacher – sometimes. And I can tell you that when I preach, I try hard. I do the work. And sometimes when I preach, people hear from God. But sometimes, they just hear my rambling pseudo-intellectual articulations. But when God gets involved, when the Spirit moves in people’s hearts, they hear God’s Word. When I was in seminary, I went out to preach one Sunday in Leander Texas – and I layed an egg. It may have been the worst sermon ever preached in Leander Texas –. I was so unconvincing, illogical, and not very articulate that day. I bored myself. Following the service, people were politely shaking my hand, but then I saw her. A woman walked up to me in tears thanking me for saying exactly what she needed to hear that day. God had spoken through, what I thought were empty ramblings.
Okay: so we have the written word and the proclaimed word, and the last one is – The Living Word of God. That, my brothers and sisters, is Jesus. In the Bible, you may not catch it, but if you read it carefully you will notice that Jesus let’s people know that he is God. In Mark 2, he tells a paralyzed guy that his sins are forgiven. The teachers who are there are not pleased. “Who can forgive sins but God alone.” And Jesus asks them – which is easier to say – your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk – but so that you know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins, I say to you rise and walk. And he rose and walked. Who has the authority to forgive but God alone. In John 8, he tells some Jews – before Abraham was, I am. And they picked up stones to stone him to death for blasphemy. They knew what he meant. John calls him the Logos – the Word – by whom all things came into being. On the mountain, the disciples worship him, and he lets them – and every good Jewish believer knew that they were to worship God and God alone. Revelation puts him at the center of worship in heaven. Jesus is fully human – and fully God.
Jesus is the fullest expression of who God is. Jesus reveals God to us. Jesus is living word of God. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. And if you want to know what a human life can be like, should be like, look at Jesus.
But do you know how we come to accept that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. By the power of God? And it’s possible you are feeling that right now. If so, that means you are feeling drawn to know Jesus better right now – that is God at work in your heart.
So why read the Bible? Well, God likes to speak to us through the scripture. The Bible is the best source for all good proclamation of the Word. And reading the Bible is the best way I know to learn from Jesus how to live like Jesus.
Pray. Ask for his help. Pick up the book. And Read!
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three in one both now and forever. He is the Sovereign God who holds your future. He is the suffering God who knows your pain. He is the covenant God who has claimed you and tells you who you are, that you are his child. May he grant you a restful night and strength for the day.
Jesus tells a story in Matthew 13 which includes important financial advice you won’t get from Wall Street. A sower goes out to sow seeds. Some seed lands on the road where it gets eaten up. Some seed lands on rocky soil, where they grow into plants that wither in the sun. And some falls among the thorns. Some translations says weeds. And the thorny weeds or weedy thorns grow up with the plant and choke it so it remains unfruitful. Key word there: unfruitful. What is Jesus talking about?
This is Part IV of V of the Parable of the Sower. I’m am breaking the thorny, weedy soil into two parts. Part III was about the weed Jesus calls “the worries of the world.” This time, it’s what Jesus calls “the deceitfulness of wealth.” The Greek word translated “wealth” is the same word for abundance. Have you ever thought much about abundant wealth. This probably isn’t too hard to do if you are an American. Everyone in this country sees commercials and social media posts and has conversations about having or getting an abundance of wealth. I get adds that say, “Just click here for my 7 secrets for making money when you sleep.” These days, the best know people on earth are not sports and rock stars. They are billionaires. Jesus says wealth is deceptive – it’s a like weeds or thorns that choke a plant – and the plant is less fruitful as a result.
My mother was a gardener. As a child, I was often called on to weed the garden. As a result, I have a bit of experience with weeds. And we have remarkable weeds here in Florida. They grow fast. They’re hard to pull out. Some have thorns. Some put off toxins and poison other plants. Some are thorny, and you can hurt yourself if you aren’t careful when trying to pull them out. I had a little garden I planted with my youngest daughter. It was not a good location. We managed to get a small harvest of beans, but I couldn’t keep up with the weeds where we’d planted squash and tomatoes. Most of the squash rotted before we could harvest it, and the three mighty tomato plants produced four wimpy omatoes. Not very fruitful. The weeds were a big part of the problem. The weeds didn’t kill the plants. They just made them unhealthy and consequently unfruitful.
When Jesus takes the disciples aside, he said the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth and like weeds that choke a plant and make it unfruitful.
What is it about abundant wealth that makes us unfruitful. Jesus ties a word to it. Deceitfulness. The ideas around abundance and wealth deceive us. Briefly, wealth deceives us because it’s associated with a false god – whom Jesus called Mamon. False gods promise two things that really only come from God: significance and security. The ideas around wealth deceive us in both places.
Let me give you three quick examples of how money deceives people.
Deception #1 Wealth will make you free.
Think about these words: “whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. As goods increase, so do those who consume them.” Solomon wrote that about 3000 years ago. His point – if you give yourself over trying to get wealth, you make yourself a slave to it. There’s a reason Dave Ramsey, who is a Christian, helps people find financial peace rather promising them financial freedom. It’s because he knows that pursuing financial freedom is a fool’s game.
Deception #2 Wealth will make you safe.
In one sense this is true. If you are wealthy, maybe you can drive a reliable car, get good health care, or move to a low crime neighborhood. But wealth also makes you a target. And money has a way of evaporating. Inflation eats it up. A surprise expense sets you back. And how many stories have you heard of someone counting on money to be there for them, only to discover it was gone, lost, stolen when they needed it. When you trust it to be there for you, it leaves you. And then there’s the fact of life. One day you’ll leave it. Jesus tells the story about a guy who had a great crop. He tore down the small barns and built bigger ones. I’m going to eat drink and be merry. And God said, “you fool. This very night your life is required of you. Who’s going to have your money now?
Deception #3 – Wealth will make life easier.
I bore witness to this one up close as a pastor. What I can tell you is that having wealth amplifies everything. On the plus side – your house is bigger, your cars are nicer, your clothes are more fashionable, and your vacations are more exotic. But – your hours are longer, your worries are multiplied, and your family is more prone to have big problems that blow it up. I recall a very sad die after a funeral. The dad had built up a successful business, bought a house on the water, and put beautiful cars in the driveway. But the kids left the widow, fought over the inheritance, and lost their relationships with one another. Life was harder. And I’ll add one more. I’ve notice that there is no addiction so gripping of its victims as a well-funded addiction.
And there are more deceptions. Have you ever heard these? With wealth, you get more friends. With wealth, you can solve problems. And really, isn’t a fruitful life one that is wealthy?
Jesus says that wealth deceives in a way that makes our lives unfruitful. So here’s the bottom line. If you want to have a fruitful life, make sure you know the truth about wealth.
There’s a story in the Bible about a man named Abram who under stood this. In Genesis 14, Abram went on a rescue mission and fought a battle to rescue his nephew Lot. Lot’s city had been plundered and Lot and his family had been carried off as part of the plunder – likely to be slaves. Abram wins and as a result collects everything that was stolen from Lot’s town plus a lot of plunder. Then me meets a king and a priest named Melchizadek who greets Abram and blesses him in the name of the God who is the “Creator, Possessor, and literally the Purchase of heaven and earth.” Abram knew his God to be the one who owns everything.
He did two things in response. 1) He gave a tenth of everything he had. He gave it to Malchizedek. When you know everything belongs to God – it frees you up to be really generous – because it all belongs to God. And then there was a corrupt and evil king of Lot’s city whose stuff Abram had brought back. That king said, “You can keep it Abram, just let me have my people back.” This was sneaky, by the way. The king would have deflected any trouble with his people and put it on Abram. Abram said, “No. I’m not gonna touch your stuff. No one’s going to say you made me rich.” He could say that because he knew God, and He knew God would provide everything he needed, and so he could be wise with his money.
I could talk a long time on this, but I want to give you an encouragement that came from John Wesley. This encouragement set a lot of people from the deceiving power of money. He said, “Earn all you can. Save all you can. And Give all you can.” And people did. And their stories and the stories of their families changed when they began to live like that.
May you know the Lord who is the possessor of all things. May the story you tell be beautiful and may your family be blessed. May may he set you free to be generous and wise with the wealth God gives you. And may your life bear much fruit! Amen!
In recent years, there have been many reports of people “deconstructing” their faith. 40,000,000 Americans have stopped calling themselves Christian. It really accelerated since 2016. But why? Not surprisingly, there’s a teaching of Jesus helps us understand.
Deconstruction is a term I first heard in seminary. It meant taking a hard, critical look at what was once accepted as true and decide from a new perspective if you still believe it to be true, and if not, to boldly declare “no, I don’t believe that anymore.”
It’s not all bad. Some deconstruction should happen with maturity, as we grow, as our faith becomes our own. For example, I discarded a few simplistic “Sunday school” answers. I once felt that the heroes of the Old Testament always did the good, noble, and right thing. That’s what I picked up in Sunday School. But then I read the Bible. Clearly, it showed that God was good but people were a mess. God did great things through them in spite of who they were. God was the hero, not Noah, Abraham, Joseph, David, Solomon, etc. Another example, I have a friend who grew up in a Christian tradition that taught that if you weren’t baptized in a particular way, you weren’t really a Christian. But as grew in his faith, and as he met people who were not baptized his way who were plainly faithful Christians, he deconstructed that part of his faith. He started showing a lot more grace. These things are good. I don’t think either of us thought we were “deconstructing our faith”. It was more like what comes with spiritual growth. Wouldn’t every Christian do that?
Well, no. Many people have deconstructed their faith and decided when they encountered difficulty. Someone teaches them that science and religious faith conflict. They learn disappointing things about Christians when they look at world history. They get hurt by people in the church. News comes out about Christian leaders and celebrities who’ve given up their faith. Cultural influencers argue convincingly that religious people are ignorant, bigoted, and superstitious. And the list could go on. It’s happened to people I love. Deconstruction results.
Why?
In the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13, Jesus tells the crowd about a sower who goes out to sow seed. In verse 5 and 6, Jesus says “Some seed falls on rocky soil…” The plants spring up. But when the sun comes out they wither because they have no root. No root means no endurance in the hot sun.
Later, Jesus takes his disciples aside and explains this parable to them. The seed, he explains, is the word of God’s kingdom. The one who received the seed that fell on the rocky soil is a person who hears the word, receives it with joy, but has no root. No depth of character. Their faith springs up like a green shoot. But if the hot sun comes out, if they face trouble or persecution because of the word, they fall away because they have no root.
Trouble. The Greek is also translated “tribulation”. The original word has to do with coming under pressure. You feel that pressure any time believing the Word of the Kingdom of God has a personal cost. These days, that cost is likley to include time, money, and status. Your reputation can suffer. As much as any time in our country’s history, being a Chrisitan can create trouble in relationships.
The second thing Jesus talked about was persecution. Persecution is on a spectrum. American Christians have historically not faced much persecution. If they did face persecution, it was as likely as not to be social and come from within the church. But increasingly, it’s showing up in the culture at large. It used to be you weren’t cool if were “too religious”. Now, if you are a Christian, people will call you a bigot, cancel you, cut you off, unfriend you, socially isolate you, refuse to hire you, and try to get you fired. You can find enemies without trying.
So why do people deconstruct their faith? Why do people stop believing? According to Jesus, they encountered forms of pressure or persecution – and lacked the depth of character, the spiritual maturity, to hold onto faith. If you want to keep your faith you need to create room for your roots to grow deep. You need good roots. Just to be clear, only God can grow those roots. But we can cooperate by making the space for the roots to grow.
But what about those who’ve walked away from the faith? Can faith, once lost, be revived? Of course. Personal faith waxes and wains. But every season, at the right time, the sower comes around. Beautiful faith, new life, can grow up again.
So, you got any “rocks” in the “soil” of your heart? The rocks aren’t trouble and persecution. The rocks are what keeps the root from growing deeper. Roots grow deep when they have room to grow and when rocks aren’t in the way.
Let me identify three common rocks that need to be addressed.
It’s hard but it is so worth it! Because, when the trouble comes, your faith won’t wither.
But what Jesus says about it may surprise you.
I’ve seen it – and maybe you have to. Someone presents the good news of Jesus to an unbeliever. The way they do so is solid, well-reasoned, logical, delievered in love, and winsome. The beauty of the gospel is on display. They had listened respectfully. The opportunity to respond is at hand. And they shake their head and walk away.
Why do they refuse to believe?
Jesus explains why. In the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13, a sower goes out and sows the seed. Some seed falls on the path and the birds snatch it up. They can do that because the path is hard, compacted soil. The seed can’t get in. Easy food for the birds. There’s more to the parable, but I’ll pause there for now.
At this point, Jesus takes his disciples aside and explains the parable to them. The seed, he explains, is the word of God’s kingdom. When someone sees or hears about God’s Kingdom and they can’t understand it, or can’t pull it together, the evil one takes it away. God’s word, God’s Kingdom, can’t get into their hearts.The parable remains a mystery to the general population. But he explains to his disciples that there are two things going on. 1) The person who hears the word can’t accept it because he has a heart issue. And 2) The evil one goes to work.
Here’s an insight for disciples. Both issues – the heart of another person and work the evil one – are beyond our control. It was beyond the control of the first disciples and is beyond your control and beyond mine. They couldn’t – and we can’t – fix it.
But what can we do?
1) Recognize it’s a spiritual battle. Do you know how to fight spiritual battles? It’s prayer. Anyone can pray – but if you want to learn how to fight a spiritual battle, get some practice in prayer. I always got better at sports or studies or skills at work when I practiced with others. If I wanted to get better at speaking French, I’d find someone to speak French with. I might be awful at first but I get better fast. Find some people who are will to pray and pray with them.
2) Recognize that a lot goes on in a heart. When someone won’t hear God’s word, very often something has happened that has made their heart – like the soil – hard. Three immediately come to mind. 1 – Wounds. Family wounds from abuse or neglect. Wounds inflicted by other Christians. Wounds from the church. 2 – Willful sin. Somebody just don’t want God to be God. You know, instead of Thy Will Be Done – it’s My will be done. And the last one is, well, God himself. Some people have a hard time with this idea. But God hardened Pharoah’s heart in Exodus for the very purposes God had in mind. It’s tough to think God might do that in the heart of someone we love – but here’s some comfort. God’s timing is perfect. And God’s purpose is for all people to come to know him. And he loves that person more – and better – than we do. All three of these are addressed by loving someone and by prayer.
So to wrap up – your job and mine when God puts a hardened heart in our path is to pray for them and to live joyfully, openly, and honestly as a Christian friend to them whether they are paying attention or not.
LoveFirst Coast 