Chardon church of Christ

He Is Alive!

HE’S ALIVE!!!
Mark 16: 1 – 20

There’s a story about a wealthy man who was terminally ill. The doctor said, "There’s only “one thing” that will save you. “A brain transplant.” - It’s an experimental operation. And it’s very expensive." The wealthy guy said, - "Money is no object. Can you get me a brain?"
The doctor said, - "We have three available right now. The first one was from a college professor. But it’ll cost you $10,000." The guy said, "Don’t worry. I can pay; it will make me much wiser.
What about the second brain?" The doctor said, "It was from a rocket scientist. It’ll cost you $100,000." The man said, "I have the money. And I’d be a lot smarter too. But tell me about the third brain."
The doctor said, "The third brain is from a Politician. But it would set you back a million dollars." The man said, "A million dollars? Why so much for his brain?" The doctor said, "It’s never been used."
· We too have unused power in us, above us, around us,
it is called The GOSPEL!
My wife keeps telling me I’m losing my hearing. Some husbands call it “selective hearing.” An older couple was sitting outside in their rocking chairs one afternoon. She looked at her husband of 60 years and said, “I’m proud of you.” He turned to her and said, “I’m tired of you, too.” She said, “Thanks!” She looked around at the trees moving and said, “It’s windy today.” He said, “No it’s not. It’s Thursday.” She said, “Me too, I’ll go get us some lemonade!”
Hopefully we won’t be hard of hearing when it comes to listening to God’s Word.
It has been said that:
'atheism is a fairy story for people afraid of the light'."
The resurrection story of Jesus:
• Is either the biggest fairy story ever invented;
• Or the greatest miracle and the most significant event in human history!
I believe it is the greatest miracle that the world has or will ever see!
• I don’t know if you have noticed this observation.
• But in the Old Testament when talking about the power of God;
• The writers always refer to creation.
• The miracle of God creating the world out of nothing.
• In the New Testament when talking about the power of God;
• The writers always refer to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead!
• Because there is nothing greater that you can compare with it!
Now one word you have to associate with Jesus Christ is ‘miracle’.
• He entered our world in a miraculous way;
• Conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
• During his three years of ministry, the four gospels record 37 miracles of Jesus.
• Most scholars tend to agree with this number.
• John the apostle tells us (John chapter 21 verse 25);
• Jesus performed many other miracles to these 37 that were not recorded.
• So Jesus entered our world in a miraculous way;
• He lived a miraculous life;
• And even in death, he has that word ‘miracle’ attributed to him!
Peter Larson writes:
• "Despite our efforts to keep him out, God intrudes.
• The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb.
• Jesus entered our world through a door marked 'No Entrance';
• And left through a door marked 'No Exit’”
Our text this morning is found in Mark 16:1-20.
Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. 2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. 7 But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going [a]before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
8 So they went out [b]quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
9 [c]Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. 11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
12 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. 13 And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who [d]believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they[e] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.
Because the empty tomb was discovered on a Sunday morning, every Sunday should be a resurrection celebration. The title of this message is “He’s Alive! Do you Believe Him?” At first I was going to ask, “Do you believe IT?” But the resurrection is more than just an historical event that you believe IN. Jesus is a risen Savior, and salvation comes by believing in Him and being obedient to his will.
In this message we’re going to hear the announcement of the angel, consider the unbelief of the disciples, and hear Jesus give us our marching orders.
I. THE ANGEL ANNOUNCED, “HE’S ALIVE!”
Once again we must admire the women who followed Jesus. They were there at the cross. They were the last ones in the garden when Joseph and Nicodemus placed Jesus’ body in the tomb. And early on Sunday morning, they were the first ones heading back to the tomb. They were carrying additional spices to anoint the corpse of Christ. They’re biggest concern was how they were going to roll the huge stone away from the opening of the tomb.
But they were totally surprised to arrive and find the stone was already rolled away. These brave women went into the tomb. Jesus wasn’t there, but they saw a young man dressed in white. This is a description the Bible often uses for angels. Of course, the women were confused and terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I know you’re looking for Jesus. He isn’t here. He has risen! Then the angel gave them two sets of instructions. These are the same instructions we should follow today.
A. He said, “Come see!”
He invited them to examine the tomb and look for the evidence. The tomb was empty, but it was full of significance. In John’s account, we’re told the strips of cloth that had covered the body of Jesus were stacked up along with the sheet covering His body. These women had to be wondering if this was a dream. They had seen the torture and crucifixion of Jesus. They watched as His body was removed from the cross and placed in the tomb. They knew He was dead. But they were confronted with an empty tomb.
In Acts 1:3 the Bible says Jesus offered the disciples many more “convincing proofs” that He was alive. If you are going to examine the evidence of the resurrection, you have to start with the empty tomb. Even the enemies of Jesus admitted the tomb was empty. Then you are confronted with only three possibilities. First, Jesus really didn’t die; that’s the swoon theory. Second, His body was stolen, either by his enemies or by his disciples. Or third, God raised Jesus from the dead. Come see.
Decide for yourself. But as I said earlier, it’s not about believing IT; it’s about believing Him.
B. He said, “Go tell!”
The angel told the women to go tell the disciples that Jesus was alive and He would meet them in Galilee. However, notice their reaction in verse eight. It says trembling and bewildered they fled: They didn’t tell anyone because they were afraid. I can’t really blame them. They were in shock. A little while later Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and she delivered the message.
We’ve been given the same command to “go tell” the world that Jesus is alive. How often have we been guilty of the initial behavior of the women? Like them, we are too often too afraid to share the Good News.
The best tool to use is your personal faith story. Just tell people naturally what the risen Lord has done in your life.
II. THE DISCIPLES DOUBTED THE REPORTS
Meanwhile the eleven disciples (twelve minus Judas), were hiding behind closed doors weeping and mourning. Mary and the women come running in, “Jesus is alive.” The Bible says they didn’t believe her.
Mark mentions that later two other people show up claiming they had seen Jesus alive. In Luke 24 we read the story of Jesus appearing to two disciples who were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a distance of about eleven miles. They didn’t recognize Jesus. I would have loved to have been on that original walk to Emmaus, because the Bible says Jesus started with Moses (that’s Genesis) and took them all the way through the Old Testament telling how all the scriptures predicted the Messiah would suffer and die. When they finally arrived at their house, they invited their companion to join them for dinner. Jesus, who was the guest, became the host, because the Bible says when He broke the bread, their eyes were opened
and they recognized it was Jesus. Then He, poof!, just disappeared. They were so excited they turned around and traveled eleven miles back to tell the disciples. I imagine they ran this time. Out of breath, I can hear one of them telling Peter, “We saw the Lord! He’s alive!” Mary probably chimed in, “See I told you!” But it says the disciples still didn’t believe.
Of course, Jesus is aware of all of this, so He appeared in the room and rebuked the disciples. He said, “Where’s your faith, guys? I told you I would come back from the grave, and then these witnesses told you. But you guys are stubborn as a mule. Here I am. Now do you believe?” I’m sure they backtracked and said, “Sorry, Lord. Yes, now we believe!”
I think we learn an important lesson from this episode. The best proof of the resurrection isn’t an empty tomb. The best proof of the resurrection is when you meet Jesus.
I know Jesus is alive not because of any of the arguments about the historical resurrection. I know He’s alive because He’s my best friend. He lives inside of me and I talk to Him all the time.
When Saul was persecuting the church, he heard all their claims that Jesus was alive, but he didn’t believe any of them. In fact, he approved of Stephen’s death, and was active in arresting Christians. But one day on the road to Damascus he suddenly believed in the resurrection, because he had a close encounter of the Jesus kind. Later he wrote about the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. “He presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me.” (1 Corinthians 15:5-8)
Paul had heard all the arguments, but he didn’t believe it. But when he met Jesus, he believed Him.
It’s great if you ever get a chance to visit the empty tomb in Jerusalem, but you don’t need to see that. You just need to know Him. Salvation isn’t knowing about Jesus; it is knowing Jesus.
III. JESUS GAVE US A JOB TO DO
In these final words of Mark’s writing, he packs the great commission, God’s promise of protection and the ascension together. Jesus has given us three tasks to do.
A. “Tell everyone the good news about Me!”
Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) There are 2.3 billion Christians, twice as many as the number of Muslims. Christianity is the fastest growing faith in the world. There are over 400,000 missionaries taking the gospel to every people group on the planet.
B. “I will equip and empower you!”
Jesus said, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49) It’s a dangerous plan to start driving your car across a desert with your gas tank on empty. You won’t make it. And it’s frustrating to try to serve the Lord without the power of the Holy Spirit. If the disciples had immediately gone out and started sharing, they would have failed. But they prayed for ten days after Jesus ascended and they were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and they were empowered and equipped. Thousands were saved and added to the church. We’re the same way. We must always pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit. “It’s not by your might, or by your power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.”
C. “I will protect you until you finish your assignment!”
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God.” (Isaiah 43:1-3)
Did you catch what Jesus said about poisonous snakes and drinking poison? Obviously, there are some churches that have taken those words so literally that they have services where they take poisonous snakes out of boxes and handle them to show their faith. How many of you have heard of snake-handling churches? These tend to be small Pentecostal churches in the Appalachian region. Snake handling is outlawed in every state except West Virginia.
Wendy Bagwell was a Southern Gospel singer and comedian. He tells the story about his group being in a little church to sing and they started bringing out the rattlesnakes to handle. Wendy asked the pastor, “Where is your back door? We’re leaving.” The Pastor said, “We don’t have a back door.” Wendy asked him, “Well, where do you want one?”
Someone once asked me what I thought about snake handling and I said, “I think a lot of them are dead.” And indeed dozens of them have died. I suppose because their faith wasn’t strong enough. I don’t want to make fun of any group, because these folks are sincere. I just think they’re sincerely wrong. So what was Jesus talking about? I think the perfect fulfillment of his promise can be found in Acts 28. The Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta. They were building a fire on the beach. A viper came out of the woods and bit Paul on the hand. He just shook it off into the fire. All the natives expect him to swell up and die. But when he didn’t, they thought he was a god, so they took him to the main official on the island.
These words shouldn’t be a license to tempt God.
But it’s Jesus’ promise that He will protect you while you are on mission for Him. You wonder, “I am sure some missionaries have died in service for the Lord.” The Bible says our days are numbered and it is appointed once for a person to die. Sometimes God gets more glory in the death of a servant than in their living.
He’s alive! Do you believe Him? Do you know Him? Will you follow Him?

Pray For Our Leaders

Pray For Our Leaders  

I Timothy 2:1-2

 

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”

 

Good evening. Our text for the lesson tonight is from 1 Timothy 2:1-2. I would like for us to take some time and reflect on the instruction given in these verses.  

 

In our recent trip to Virginia we passed by Washington DC and took note of the vast increase in the activity around that city since we had last visited many years ago. Every country of the world has its seat of power, its capital. London for the UK, Paris for France, Berlin for Germany, Rome for Italy, Vienna for Austria, Moscow for Russia, and Washington DC for the United States Republic.

 

The people who live in Washington DC see more of the government officials of this nation than those who live anywhere else between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. If a Senator or Member of the House of Representatives or Supreme Court Justice or Secretary of the Cabinet or representative of foreign nation enters a public assembly in any other city, their arrival and departure are noted in the media and great attention is paid to them. In DC there are so many political chieftains in the churches, the streets, the shops, that their coming and going raises no interest. Just as the Swiss seldom look up to the Matterhorn, the Jungfrau, or Mt. Blanc, because those people are used to the Alps, they live with them – so those in our capital are accustomed to walk among mountains of official and political eminence and do not see them as a great novelty.

 

Morning, noon, and night those in DC meet the giants, but there is no place on earth where the importance of Paul’s injunction to pray for those in high office ought to be better appreciated.  At this time, when our public men have before them the rescue of our national treasury from appalling deficits, and the immigration question and the global warming question, and there are so many opposing thoughts and ideals, I would like to quote our text with a heavy emphasis—words written by the scarred missionary to the young theologian, Timothy: “I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority.”   Paul starts “I exhort therefore ...” This form has the meaning of "I command." Paul is not revealing what would please him, but that which is the will of God. “First of all ...” Indicates the primary importance.   “Supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings ...” The general meaning of this is "all kinds of prayers". “for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority...” These are to be given for all men including bad rulers as well as for good ones.   This includes all who are in authority regardless of rank, taking in the administrative assistants in government as well as heads of state.

 

In reading this I am reminded of Paul’s writing in Romans 13:1-2 – “ Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.”

 

I suggest to you four or five reasons why the people of the United States should be making earnest and continuous prayer for those in eminent places.  

1. First, we should pray for those in authority because that prayer will put us in the proper attitude toward the authoritative people of the nation.  After you have prayed for a person you will do them justice. There is a bad streak in human nature that impels us to assail those that are more powerful than ourselves.  This is not just here either; the Australians call it “the tall poppy syndrome”, and they define it as “We take delight in unfairly knocking down those who are in positions of leadership in our country”.
   1. We seldom fully like those who in any department have risen to greater heights of authority. You will hear things like, “They are a political accident” or “They bought their way there” or “those who elected that person are blind” and there is an impatient waiting for the person in power to come down more rapidly than they went up.
      1. The best cure for such cynicism is prayer. After we have risen from our knees, we will be wishing the official good instead of evil. We will be hoping for them benediction rather than a curse. If they make a mistake, we will call it a mistake, instead of malfeasance in office.  How much happier we will be; for wishing one evil is diabolic, but wishing one good is saintly, it is Godlike.
      2. After all, did not our Lord say in Matthew 5:44 – “… love your enemies, … and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,”? Does not the apostle enjoin us in Romans 12:14 – “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”? If we are to pray for our enemies--should we not also pray for those who have been appointed by God?
   2. There are investigating committees set up to be watch dogs, keeping watch for misdeeds and misbehavior. Sometimes these are set up with the one hope of finding something wrong.  We see this in the denominations, the general assemblies of the Presbyterian Church, in conferences of the Methodist Church, in conventions of the Episcopal Church, and we find it also in the House of Representatives, and in the Senate. There are always men glad to be appointed to serve on the “Committee of Misconduct”.
      1. After you have prayed, as in the words of the text – for all that are in authority, you will be moved to say, “Gentlemen, Mr. Chairman, excuse me from serving on the “Committee of Misconduct”.   Last night, just before I prayed for those in authority, I read that chapter in Corinthians about charity which ‘hopeth all things’ and ‘thinketh no evil.’“ “The Committee of Misconduct” may be an important committee, but I declare that we are incompetent for its work when we have prayed for those in high position.
      2. I cannot help it, but I would rather be a St. Bernard than a bloodhound, rather be a hummingbird among honeysuckles than a crow swooping down upon a field of carcasses.
   3. Second, we should pray for those in authority because they labor under so many perplexities. D.C. holds thousands of people who expect preferential treatment, and communications are full of applications and lobbying efforts. Officials are at their wits’ end to know what to do, when for some openings there are ten applicants and for others a hundred! Then there are the lobbyists each shouting for their own agenda, some even with differing propositions for the same objective.   And there are the constituents, not only the ones of the official but those of their colleagues with a seeming endless stream of requests and demands to justice for real or imagined hurts.
      1. Perplexities arise when people want a position for which they have no qualification, as we hear people sing, “I want to be a worker,” when they offer the poorest material possible for that position.
         1. There are the foolish waiting to be sent to foreign nations as ambassadors and men without any business qualifications wanting to be installed as consuls, and the unlettered, capable in one communication of wrecking all the laws of language, desiring to be put into positions where most of the work is done by correspondence.
         2. If divine help is needed in any place in the world it is in those places where patronage is distributed. In years gone by awful mistakes have been made. Only God, who made the world out of chaos, could, out of the crowded pigeon-holes of public men, develop symmetrical results. For this reason – pray to Almighty God for all those in authority.
      2. Then there are the vaster perplexities of our relations with foreign governments. For directions in such affairs the God of Nations should be implored. The demand of the people is sometimes so heated, so unwise, that it must not be hearkened to.
      3. There will never be a year when those who are in authority will not need the guidance of the Almighty. Only God can tell the right time for a nation to do the right thing. To do the right thing at the wrong time is as bad as to do the wrong thing at any time.  
         1. Look at it this way; in all national affairs there is a clock. The hands of that clock are not always seen by human eyes, but God sees them, not only the hour hand, but the minute hand, and when the hands announce that the right hour has come the clock will strike, and we ought to be in a listening attitude.
         2. In retrospect we can not know for a certainty what may or may not have happened in any instance but imagine what may have occurred if the Cuban missile crisis had come at a time when other chiefs were in charge, when measures and counter measures had not reached the stage they were at.
      4. You see, there are always in places of authority, impetuous people who want war, because they do not realize what war is, or there are designing people, who want war for the potential of making profit.
         1. They are somewhat like the child who foolishly says, “Let’s throw some cats in the pond” and then watches as his friends are clawed by the panicked animals.   He receives no wounds yet will be quick to point out that his friends should have done thus or so differently.
         2. War is an expensive proposition both in lives and material. Those who beat the drums for war never themselves get hurt. They make the speeches.  
         3. Then there are those who instigate for war because of some great injustice and in the resulting conflict all those who instigated never as a consequence get so much as a splinter under the thumbnail, and they all die peacefully in their beds.

• Third - Prayer to God for those in authority is our only way of being of any practical service to them. Our personal advice would be to them, for the most part, impertinence. They have all the facts as we cannot have them, and they see the subject in all its bearings, and we can be of no help to them except through the supplication that our text advises. In that way we may be of infinite reinforcement. The mightiest thing you can do for someone is to pray for them.
  1. God hears our prayers and God answers prayer. In Psalm 91:15 – “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.” And in Psalm 145:18 – “the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.” Then in 1 John 5:14 – “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
     1. Every genuine prayer is a child’s letter to their Heavenly Father, and He will answer it; and as we may receive a plea from our child for something not in their best interest and instead give them something of greater worth -- so God does not in all cases answer in the way those who send the prayer hope for, but He in all cases gives what is asked for or something better when asked “according to His will”.
     2. At the time of our Civil War, prayers went up from the North and the South and they were answered by the ending of that war. You cannot make me believe that God answered only the Northern prayers, for there were just as devout prayers south of the Mason-Dixon Line as north of it.   God gave what was asked for, peace. I suspect there is not a good and intelligent person in this country who does not believe that God did the best thing possible when He restored to this nation in 1865 to a glorious unity.
     3. Think of the predicament of the Israelites on the banks of the Red Sea, the rattling shields and the clattering hoofs of an overwhelming host close behind them. Trapped between the waters and the advancing army -- they crossed the waters.
        1. How was the crossing affected? By prayer. Exodus 14:15-16 - “And the Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. "But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” That is, “Time to stop praying and take the answer.”
        2. Then the water began to be agitated, rose into walls of sapphire. It was obliged to stand still, and there, right before the Israelites, was a road, with the emerald gates swung wide open. They passed dry-shod on the bottom of the sea as hard as the pavement of Pennsylvania Avenue.
     4. One might say Oh! What a God they had!  I say: “What a God we have!” What power we see shown in Joshua 10:12 when he prayed to the Lord that the “Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of ” Read Joshua 10:13 – “So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped… the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.” The Omnipotent does as He will with the great orbs of worlds, with wheeling constellations and circling galaxies, swinging easily star around star, star tossed after star, or sun and moon held out at arm’s length, and perfectly still as in answer to Joshua’s prayer. To God the largest world is a pebble. God is the creator of all things He can do all things.
  2. Fourth - There is another reason why we should obey the Pauline injunction of the text and pray for all that are in authority. That is so very much of our own prosperity and happiness are involved in their doings. A selfish reason, you say. Yes; but a righteous selfishness like that which leads you to take care of your own health, and preserve your own life.
     1. A prosperous government means a prosperous people. Damaged government means a damaged people. We all go up together or we all go down together. When we pray for our rulers, we pray for ourselves, for our homes, for the easier gaining of a livelihood, and for better prospects for our children.
     2. Do not look at anything that pertains to public interest as having no relation to you. We are touched by all the events in our national history, by the signing of the compact in the cabin of the Mayflower, by the small ship, the Half-Moon, sailing up the Hudson, and by the events that have happened in our own lifetimes.
     3. If touched by all the events of past America, then certainly by all the events of the present day. Every prayer you make for our rulers, if the prayer be of the right stamp and worth anything, has a rebound of benediction for your own body, mind, and soul.
  3. Fifth - Another reason for obedience to our text is that the prosperity of this country is great, and we want a hand in helping its continuation; at any rate I do. It is a matter of honest satisfaction to a soldier, after some great battle has been fought, and some great victory won, to be able to say: “Yes! I was there. I was in the brigade that stormed those heights. I was in that charge that put the enemy into flight!”
     1. If this nation stands aright with God, the day will come when all the financial, political, and moral foes of this Republic will be driven back. By our prayers we may stand on the mountain top and beckon our leaders on and ask God show them a better way. Yea, in answer to our prayers the Lord God of Hosts may from the heavens command them forward swifter than troops ever took the field.
     2. American citizens! Our best hold is on God. We have all seen families in prayer, and churches in prayer. What we want yet to see is this whole nation on its knees.
     3. We have as a nation received so much from God. Do we not owe new consecration? Are we not ready to become a better churchgoing, peace-loving, virtue-honoring, God-worshiping nation? Why not now let it take place? Let us pray that the God of Nations, who has dealt with us as with no other people, by the square and the level and the plumb of the Everlasting Right adjust the cornerstone of our future. Inside that cornerstone a scroll containing the names of all the men and women who have fought and prayed and toiled for the good of this nation, from the first martyr of the American Revolution down to the last one who bound up a soldier’s wounds. Pray that cornerstone to be struck with the Gospel hammer, in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Then pray that this nation rise in Godly fear and that if it be the will of God we live in a divinely founded, divinely constructed, and divinely protected Republic.   “To God be rendered and ascribed, as is most due, all praise, might, majesty and dominion, both now and forever. Amen.”

 

CONCLUSION:

Certainly, in reading our text it seems that Paul is being a bit unrealistic when he calls us to pray for all those in authority; not just those whose policies we like, but all those who rule our nation. When politicians are more concerned in tearing each other to bits than in the welfare of the nation, who feels like praying for them? Who feels like praying for those whose particular kind of politics we dislike; those whom we believe to be dishonest and abuse their position; those whom we think aren’t doing their job.

 

We can be very cynical about our politicians, those in authority. We hear; “Oh those guys need more than our prayers!” “If he isn’t a crook before he’s elected, he will be soon after!” “Politicians are just a bunch of thieves and crooks!”   Our distrust of politicians has so hindered us that we don’t even want to pray for them. Yet we are to pray for them all, those in the party we support and those whose politics we don’t like. They are all involved in the government. They are all people whom Paul says “are ordained by God”.

 

It would have been much easier if Paul had said that we should pray for most people, or for those in authority whom we believe to be doing the right thing. Instead he says that “petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks, be made for all men: for kings and all who are in high places”.

 

Being a person in authority is never an easy position. A leader makes decisions and it doesn’t matter what course of action is decided upon, there will always be those who will disagree and criticize loudly that the politician is incompetent. Then there are the constant pressures of public office and there are also the temptations. Great responsibility rests on their shoulders – how will they respond?   If force is indicated, what kind of force will be used, what countries will oppose any such attempt, what measures need to be taken to ensure that this will not lead to additional conflict? Should we commit our military forces to help, and if so in what way are we jeopardizing peace on this earth and on and on. Certainly on any single point we may feel we have the right answer but I don’t think that there is anyone in this assembly who should want to be in the position of those in authority.

 

No wonder Paul encourages us to “pray for those in high places”. Don’t sit back and criticize them. Don’t rubbish their policies or decisions. Pray for them. We may not always agree with them, but we can still take them to God in our prayers. We can go to

God and ask him to give our leaders wisdom and understanding to act in a way that will bring peace and keep peace. We can ask God to guide them, strengthen them, and give them the resolve to do what is best for this country and for the world.

 

As Christians, God’s children, even though we may disapprove of the decisions people in high office are making, nevertheless our love for them causes us to pray for them. Just as Jesus loves each one of us and intercedes for us at the throne of God even though we don’t deserve it, so too we will pray for those who have taken up the burden of high office and take their needs before His throne.

 

Because the love of Jesus permeates you and me and because our eyes have been opened to the needs of our neighbor in every corner of our community; the need for education, social welfare, crime prevention and detection, export and import, the need to respond to the terrorism, the struggles of immigration and climate change, -- then politics is laid on our consciences.  Politicians need our support and the guidance of the Lord as they seek to find the right path of action.

 

As God’s people in a world where there is so much violence, suffering, and pain, God grant that we may see the unique role He has given us. May we take all those who carry a heavy load of responsibility to almighty God in prayer.

 

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins… If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

 

Invitation song

 Reference sermons by: DeWitt Talmadge and Vince Gerhardy

The History of "Babeling"

The History of “Babeling” 
Genesis 11: 1 – 9

How many times have you heard someone say ... “I wish you would stop babbling?”
Parents frequently make the mistake of thinking they speak the same language as their children. We see this kind of misunderstanding all the time. Here are a few examples.
I can't finish my dessert." Meaning: Your child is defiantly sick and should be taken to the doctor ASAP.
"I didn't do it." Translation: It hasn't been conclusively proven that I did it.
"Frankie Smith is such a no-good rotten liar!" Meaning:
Expect a call from Frankie's parents.
"Mom said it was okay." Translation: I'm going to ask Mom as soon as you say "yes."
Several years ago, there was a tiny village in Scotland called “Lost.” It’s such a quaint name for a quaint little village... but they had a problem. Lost kept losing their sign. A local official explained, "For many years now, the sign has continually been taken because all it says on it is 'Lost.'" He said, “Many people want to have their photograph taken by it looking bewildered (because the sign said “lost”) and every so often it gets taken.”
Now that created two problems: 1st – it got expensive. The signs cost about $400 a piece. And 2nd - deliveries were often lost because some delivery drivers had no idea where "Lost" was. Eventually they renamed the city “Lost Farm” and apparently haven’t had a problem since.
Down thru history towns and cities have been named for all kinds of unusual reasons including the city we’re talking about today... the city of Babel. Why was it called “Babel?” Genesis 11:9 explains: “... its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.”
Now the story in Genesis only takes 9 verses to tell, and is never referred to again in Scripture. But, its impact on mankind has been really long-lasting. From that day to this... the world has been divided by about 5000 languages. And that diversity of languages has created misunderstandings, tensions, conflicts... even wars.
But it wasn’t always that way. Before Babel “... the whole earth had one language and the same words.” Genesis 11:1
When going over this sermon, it occurred to me that one of the first questions people might ask is this: “Is this a TRUE story?” Was there really a city called Babel
with a tower reaching to the heavens, and do all languages really come from one original language?
Those who reject Scripture mock this story. They’ll say it was “an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages.” And they dismiss it as a “made-up” story created by an ignorant culture.
So, was it made up? Is it a myth? Of course not. The fact that it’s in the Bible is really all I need to convince me – that it really happened. But there are outside sources to verify that this is indeed a true story.
ILLUS: For example, the ancient culture of the Chaldeans (from about 1500 BC) retold the story this way: “The building of this temple offended the gods. In a night they threw down what had been built. They scattered them abroad, and made strange their speech. The progress they impeded”
Another ancient culture of about that time period, spoke of a golden age when all mankind spoke the same language. Speech was then confused by the lord of wisdom.
Fast forward to about 600 B.C.. Babylon had a King named Nabopolassar who was something of an ancient archaeologist. He apparently would find old temples and other ancient buildings and rebuild them. He claimed that he had found the remains of the Tower of Babel and wrote: "At that time, I was commanded to build the Tower of Babel which had become weakened by time and fallen into disrepair..."
And, from what we can tell, Nabopolassar didn’t finish the tower. That task fell to his son, a King we all know as Nebuchadnezzar. Recently, a chiseled stone came to light which is called the “Tower of Babel Stele” which has a large engraved picture of Nebuchadnezzar looking toward the tower he built.
That tower appears to have stood for another 300 years until destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
So, this was a true story. And given the Bible’s consistent accuracy on other historical events that’s good enough for me. But what about the language thing? I mean... we have about 5000 languages now, can we seriously believe that all those languages started with ONE language?
Well, yeah... that’s what the Bible says. But, don’t take my word for it.
ILLUS: Back in 1990 - U.S. News And World Report had this on their cover of their magazine: "The Roots of Language - How Modern Speech Evolved From A Single, Ancient Source." In the article, they wrote about modern linguists who were “reconstructing the pathways by which the world's roughly 5,000 languages arose from a handful of ancient 'mother' tongues. A few radical linguists have gone even further, claiming they have reconstructed pieces of the mother of them all:
the original language spoken at the dawn of the human species.” (Nov. 5, 1990 issue of US News and World Report magazine)
The TV program Nova had a special program where they examined the phenomenal discoveries of linguists in Russia and America who had shown that all languages could have come from a single, ancient source.
So, it’s a true story. But what difference does it make? Why should I care? So what if this was an actual event that occurred in the distant past? Well Romans 15:4 explains why we should care: “... whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
You see, there’s something in this story that God wanted us to see. Something that would instruct and encourage us. But what did God want us to see?
Well 1st, it seems, He wants us to see why He did what He did. And there seems to be at least TWO reasons why He did what He did.
And the first reason that catches my attention is found in Genesis 11:6 “And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
What’s God talking about here? Well, He’s talking about the people of Babel becoming like the people who lived Before The Flood. In Genesis 6 we read “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” Genesis 6:5-6
Before the flood, there was one language. And in the days before the flood, people abandoned God and embraced evil.
It says every intention of their hearts was evil. It’s like they stayed up nights thinking of ways to do bad stuff. Evil had become an easy thing... and nothing was impossible for them.
Apparently, that’s exactly what was beginning to happen in Babel. And God said, “we’re not doing this again” and He decided to fix the problem BEFORE it became a problem.
Now, what was it that these folks were doing that made it so obvious to God that they were going to do evil? The answer to that question can be found in why these people were building the city to begin with. In Genesis 9:1 we read “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and FILL THE EARTH.’”
But just a few years later, in Genesis 11:4, we read “Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.’”
God said: FILL THE EARTH and the people of Babel said “I don’t think so. We like it right here... and we’re not going anywhere.”
Now WHY would they do that? Why would they deliberately disobey God? (PAUSE) Because they were afraid. They were afraid that they’d be forgotten so they wanted to “make a name for themselves.” And they were afraid of the unknown. If they were dispersed over the face of the earth they’d be vulnerable... and they didn’t like that idea.
Their fear was based on the belief that they could NOT trust God. God (if there was a god) would forget them, and He definitely wasn’t going to protect or supply for them.
When people don’t believe they have God to supply for them, they tend to engage in the worst kinds of evil. We’ve seen proof of that in our own recent history. Just think of nations who embraced communism – Russia, China, North Korea and so on. What stands out about these countries?
First (because they were Communist) they rejected God. And second (because they rejected God) they were known for tyranny and oppression. They allowed no freedom for their people, because they feared that free people would overthrow them, and they eliminated huge portions of their population because of any perceived threat to their authority. They were afraid and so they embraced evil.
This type of thing can even happen to Christians. If we live our lives like God isn’t there for us, we can engage in evil as well. James says in James 4:2 “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.”) WHO did these Christians NOT ask for help from? God. And because they lived like God had no influence on their lives, they fought and quarreled... and worse.
That’s what happens when you live your lives under a bad theology. When folks leave God out of the picture they can become afraid. I’ve always been amused by this “Charlie Brown” cartoon where Lucy and Linus and looking out of a window at the falling rain. Lucy says: “Boy, look at it rain.... What if it floods the whole world?” To which Linus replies
“It will never do that... In the ninth chapter of Genesis God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” The next frame has Lucy saying “You’ve taken a great load off my mind...” and Linus replies “Sound theology has a way of doing that!”
ILLUS: Sound theology deals with fear, because sound theology makes us focus on a God who has the power to deal with the evils of this world. By contrast, bad theology breeds fear. As I was reading the story of the tower of Babel in preparation for this morning’s sermon, an example of modern-day bad theology came to mind.
How many of you have ever heard of the conspiracy theory that there will one day be a “One World Government”.
Don’t listen to these guys, they’re crazy. It’s not going to happen. Do you know WHY?
I know this isn’t going to happen? Because Genesis 11 is God’s guarantee it won’t happen. He won’t let it happen! The people who sell this idea are really selling FEAR. They’re selling the idea that God can’t help you – and if God can’t help you, you should be afraid! Very afraid. But that’s just bad theology. It’s false thinking. It’s heresy. You need not fear. If God really wanted a One World Government... you couldn’t stop it anyway and God would still be in control.
The whole point of Genesis 11 is that God is in control. In fact, God was not just in control of Babel... He used what happened in Babel to lay the groundwork for something even greater.
Just think about this: at Babel God saw sin and turned one language into many languages. God showed His power by making it so that no one could understand what anyone else said. But about 4000 years later, God used His power to give a message to all people in the midst of their confusion.
In Acts 2 we’re told “there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.” (Acts 2:5)
It was the day of Pentecost, in Jerusalem there were a multitude of people “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians” Acts 2:9-11
There was a multitude of people in Jerusalem with a multitude of languages. It was the day of Pentecost... the day God had chosen to begin His church. Ten days earlier, Jesus had ascended into heaven, but now (at Pentecost)
He was sending down His Holy Spirit upon mankind as He had prophesied ages before. We’re told the Apostles “... were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4
And this huge crowd of Jews from all those different lands and different languages could hear what these Apostles were saying as they glorified God. And the crowd marveled at what they heard because: “... how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” Acts 2:8
At Babel, God divided the people because of their sin. Now, at Pentecost, God united all those who would be healed of their sins. God was not limited by the confusion of languages because He had come with a message that would – forever afterward – speak with one language.
I came across a website that spoke of “sacred languages” that different religions have. They said that for the Jews, that sacred language is Hebrew; for the Muslims, it’s Arabic; for many Buddhists, it’s a language called Pali; and for Hindus, it’s Sanskrit. But, as Christians, we don’t need a sacred language. We have “ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism.
ONE God and Father of all.” And we have ONE message (the life and death of Jesus.) Christians meet, in every nation of the world and they speak in many languages we may not understand, but Christians partake of this “bread & Cup” which represent Jesus’ body and blood, shed for our sins and everyone knows what it means.
And, in every nation around the world, the message of baptism speaks of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and of our accepting His forgiveness in our lives.
We have no need of ONE sacred language because we have a message that speaks to all nations and all languages of the love of God for mankind. That’s why so many believers are dedicated to translating the Bible into as many languages as possible, so that God’s love can be read by as many people as possible.
As Revelation 5 declares “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.’” Revelation 5:9
INVITATION

Sermon Contributor: Jeff Strite

Choosing

Choosing 
Joshua 24:15

Many years ago, if you wanted a pair of shoes, you couldn’t go down to “Payless Shoes” or “Shoe Carnival”.
You couldn’t even go down to Sears or J.C. Penney to pick a pair of ready made shoes to wear. There was a time when – if you wanted shoes or boots – you had to go someone called a “Shoe Cobbler.”

When Ronald Reagan was a young man, an aunt had taken him to a cobbler to have a pair of shoes made for him. The shoemaker asked the young Reagan “do you want a square toe or a round toe?”

Reagan hemmed and hawed. So the cobbler said, “Come back in a day or two and let me know what you want.”
A few days later the shoemaker saw Reagan on the street and asked what he had decided about the shoes. “I still have not made up my mind,” the boy answered. “Very well,” said the cobbler.

When Reagan received the shoes, he was shocked to see that one shoe had a square toe and the other had a round toe.
Years later Reagan commented: “Looking at those shoes every day taught me a lesson. If you do not make your own decisions, somebody else will make them for you!”

APPLY: God created us to be a people capable of making choices. And God has always given His people the power of choice
In the Old Testament, Joshua told the Israelites

“... CHOOSE for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15
God calls upon us to make a choice: to choose Him.
Some choices are hard to make. But sometimes hard choices have to be made.
The 1989 movie Indian Jones and the Last Crusade has a classic scene near the end. The Last Crusade is the final episode of three Steven Spielberg and George Lucas sagas about a globe-trotting archaeologist who battles the Nazis for possession of the world’s great treasures. Harrison Ford played the title role.
In The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and his father seek the one great relic they have been looking for their entire lives—the Holy Grail, the chalice from Jesus’ Last Supper.
The Nazis are also looking for it because they believe the legend that its owner would possess supernatural power to control the world. When the bad guys take Indiana’s dad captive, the hero eventually tracks them to a secret temple deep in the desert mountains south of the Dead Sea.

Once inside the temple, the son rescues the father. Indiana also discovers the hiding place of the Holy Grail. In the final scenes, just as Indiana reaches the sacred altar where the Holy Grail is kept, an earthquake shakes the mountain. Rocks fall. The temple walls move and then begin to tumble. The floor of the temple parts into a great crevasse right in front of the altar.
Indiana watches in horror as the Holy Grail, the object of his life long quest, begins to quiver and then tilt. It falls over, rolls across the altar, and tumbles toward the gaping hole in the earth. Indiana leaps for it. He grabs it just before it falls into the darkness.

Just when he thinks he has saved it, the earth shakes again. He loses his footing and slides into the crevasse himself. In desperation, he grabs for anything to hold on to. His fingers find a rock outcropping a few inches below the edge of the crevasse. The chalice falls from his hands. He is clinging by his finger tips, certain death below him. Rocks are falling everywhere. The earth continues to quake. He can barely hold on.

Just then, out of nowhere, his father peers over the edge. “Take my hand,” the elder Jones cries out to his son. Indiana is about to reach for his father and safety when he spots the Holy Grail resting on a narrow ledge just inches away. If he stretches he can probably reach it. But does he risk it?
How can he forget the Grail? His whole life has been about finding it. He can choose rescue. Or he can risk his life in the hope he can reach the chalice and still grab his father’s outstretched hand. He knows what’s at stake, but he can’t take his eyes off the Grail.
Finally the pleading voice of his father breaks the spell. “Let it go. Indiana, let it go.”
He looks up at his father’s hand and away from the treasure. He lunges for the hand. His dad grabs him and pulls him to safety. They run for their lives as the temple collapses in ruins behind them.

Some choices are hard to make. Sometimes we make them harder than need be. I am reminded of that old sketch Jack Benny used to do. For those of you too young to remember,
Jack Benny was viewed as one of the great comedians of his time. Many of his jokes played off his reputation as a cheapskate. In this scene, Benny is walking down a dark street when a thug jumps out of the shadows and points a gun at him. “Give me your money, mister!” Benny doesn’t move. “I mean business. Your money or your life!” the thief repeats pointing the gun straight at Benny. Jack still doesn’t respond. Finally, the man insists, “You heard me. Your money or your life, which will it be?” Benny hesitates and then responds with that unmistakable slow, deliberate pattern, “I’m thinking. I’m thinking!”

Abraham had a choice to make!
Notice how the story begins, “Sometime later God tested Abraham.” The King James Version creates a problem here when it uses the word “tempt” where our version (NIV) uses “test.” To tempt means to entice someone to do evil. That’s not what the Hebrew word used here means.
The same word is used in Deuteronomy 13:3. “The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

The proverb says, “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart” (Proverbs 17:3).

Abraham had been tested before. The Lord had called him to leave his homeland and family and travel to an undisclosed promised land. Later God promised Abraham, that he would be the father of many nations. Then the Lord tested him by waiting. Years passed and no child was born.

What a test this was! How can any parent be expected to sacrifice a child? Obviously there are evil parents and some who have lost their grip on reality who commit unspeakable crimes against their young. Some religions, past and present, practice human sacrifice. Child sacrifice was common among the pagan nations that surrounded ancient Israel. The Law of Moses condemned it.
Deuteronomy 12:31 says, “You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.” Here God demands that very act of Abraham.

Note how the Lord words his command. “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.” This was Isaac, the child of promise! Abraham actually had another son. Ishmael was born of Hagar the servant when Abraham and his wife Sarah had lost faith in God’s promise of a child. But God kept his promise. Abraham regained his faith.
The boy’s name, Isaac or “laughter,” carried a double meaning. It reminded Abraham and Sarah how they had doubted, even laughed at God, when first told the promise. The name no doubt reflected the long delayed joy that the boy brought into his aged parents’ lives.
Any couple who has had a child or adopted after years of waiting knows what that joy is like. The text doesn’t tell us how old Isaac was when all of this happened. Most Bible scholars estimate his age at maybe fifteen or perhaps even twenty.
Mom and Dad had watched their pride and joy grow up. He was almost a man. Oh, how they loved him! And now God says give him back!

Undoubtedly, the death of Isaac would have broken Abraham’s heart. It would have also broken the inheritance that God had promised. No Isaac; no grandchildren. No grandchildren; no descendents to inherit the promise of God. There was more than a stack of wood riding on Isaac’s back as father and son climbed the slopes of Mt. Moriah that day.

Did you hear what Abraham told his servant when he and Isaac headed up the mountain? “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” We! We will worship! We will come back!
The New Testament cites this event and says, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” (Heb 11:17-19).

Who can read the words of young Isaac and not feel the drama. “Father, here is the wood and the knife. Where is the lamb for the offering?” His Father’s answer, “God will provide.”
The two walked on in silence. Father Abraham piled up stones for an altar of stones, laid down the wood for the fire, and then bound his son and laid him on the altar. He raised the knife, prepared to do the unspeakable.
Those moments must have seemed like an eternity. Like Indiana Jones at the edge of the crevasse he must have looked down at his son and then toward the Heavenly Father. First down at the treasure that his whole life had been about then toward the Father. It was as if the pleading voice of the Father was saying, Abraham, let him go. Let him go.” That was Abraham’s test.

This whole episode was about the first two of the Ten Commandments. Ultimately everything is. Commandment One: You shall have no other gods before me.
Commandment Two: You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Ex 20:3-5).
Translation—Nothing—not the creation of his hands, not the creation of our hands, not his gifts to us nor our gifts to him—must be more important to us than God himself. Idolatry is choosing anything other than God.

Another subplot flows just beneath the surface of this story. Those not familiar with the rest of the Bible seldom see it. But it is there. The clues are everywhere.
When God first called Abraham, he made a point to tell him that what was happening was not just for him. It was for the whole world. God chose and blessed Abraham to start a family (Isaac) through whom would come a blessing that everyone needed.
This was a long range plan. For the next two thousand years others would point back to Abraham as the beginning.
The place where all of this happened was also a part of the plan. Abraham lived in Beersheba a small oasis in the middle of the southern desert.
God told him to travel three days north to make his sacrifice and his choice. He was to go to a place called Moriah. That name may not mean much to you. But according to 2 Chronicles 3:1, a thousand years later it was there that King David bought a piece of ground from Araunah the Jebusite to build an altar upon which to worship God.
That would become the property on which Solomon, David’s son, would build his temple for God in Jerusalem. A thousand years later still, Jesus came to that same place, cleansed the temple of the money changers, and taught people the way to God.
To this day you can see this piece of real estate on the nightly news. Jews, Muslims, and Christians refer to this very site as the holiest place on earth. It was where Abraham built the altar for his son.

It was in the shadows of Moriah that another “father” gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The place of Abraham’s ultimate choice became the place God’s ultimate grace

Here’s the big clue. Jesus said that no one could understand him until they recognize that he came to seek and save the lost and to lay his life down as a ransom for men’s sin. He didn’t come to be just a teacher, though he was. He didn’t come to perform miracles, though he did. He didn’t come to be king. That comes next time. He was a savior! “Behold the lamb of God,” John had said.

How could God command Abraham to sacrifice his only son? While I can’t explain all the issues that surround that question,
BUT this I know. God never tells anyone to do something that he isn’t willing to do himself. Isaac’s story is Jesus story. The same place, the same devotion, the same act. God provided for Abraham at Moriah. God provided for us at Calvary. Do you see how much trouble God went to for your salvation?
He offered Jesus as the sacrifice for our sin. He also prepared and planned and pointed to that sacrifice for thousands of years in advance.

God chose Abraham. And then God asked Abraham to choose him. What would he do? Choose God or the one thing that meant more to him than anything else in the world? Which would it be? God knew the answer. Maybe Abraham didn’t.

What if the decision to go to heaven wasn’t a matter of praying, acknowledging Christ, and obeying the Gospel in baptism? What if it was like this? God tells you to prepare for a long trip. You pack all your most important possessions. Since this a dream even your most important relationships, your ambitions, your likes and dislikes, all go in your suitcases.

You arrive at the airport. There is no baggage check. You drag everything all the way to the plane. There’s the plane—Heaven Bound! But there’s no gangway, not even stairs.

Instead the Lord himself is standing at the door of the plane with a hand outstretched to personally pull you on board. What a welcome sight!

One problem! Your hands are full. You lift one of your bags toward the door expecting the Lord to set it inside. He doesn’t take it. He just shakes his head.
For a moment you are puzzled. Then you understand. You must choose!
You look up into the Father’s face as he pleads, “Let it go! Let it go!”
And that is the ultimate choice!

Who Is The Strongest Man?

Who Is the Strongest Man?
Mark 3: 20-30

Macho men always want to brag about how strong they are. Some boys on a school playground were bragging. Johnny said, “My dad has a list of all the men he can beat up—and all your dads are on his list!” Later that afternoon a knock came on Johnny’s house and his dad answered the door. A big angry man said, “Are you Johnny’s dad?” He said, “I am.” “Well Johnny told my son said you have a list of men you think you can beat up, and my name is on it.” Johnny’s dad said, “That’s right.” The big guy started rolling up his sleeves and said, “Well, I don’t think you can beat me up. What are you going to do about it?” Johnny’s dad said, “I’ll mark you off my list.”
Guys are always bragging about who’s the strongest. Since 1977 there has been a televised event called “The World’s Strongest Man.” Most of the winners have come from Finland, Iceland, and Eastern Europe. These guys are required to perform amazing feats of strength like pulling a Boeing 747 with their teeth. These aren’t body-builders; they are bulked up dudes. One of the competitors from Iceland, who is nicknamed Thor, stands 6’9” and weighs 435 pounds.
So who do you think was the strongest man in the Bible? Are you thinking of the book of Judges and the guy with long hair who could kill a lion with his bare hands? Samson was pretty strong, but after he got a haircut in the devil’s barbershop, he lost his strength.
In our passage today, Jesus is going to talk about a strong man; then He’s going to mention a stronger man. Hopefully, by the time we finish you’ll know the identity of the “The World’s Strongest Man.”
Mark 3:20-30. 20 Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
21 But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”
23 So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan?
24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
26 And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.
27 No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.
28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter;
29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—
30 because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
On June 16, 1858 more than 1,000 delegates met in the Springfield, Illinois, for the Republican State Convention, and they chose Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. That evening Lincoln delivered this address to his Republican colleagues and the main focus of his remarks were on the issue of slavery:
“Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention. If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, NOT ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand."
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." That's a powerful sentence! Did Abraham Lincoln come up with that phrase all by himself? No. Well, where did he get it? That’s right ... he was quoting Jesus.
Whose kingdom is Jesus talking about here? Who’s the “strong man” that must first be bound? Who’s kingdom is about to come to an end?
The main reason for Jesus’ coming was to bind Satan, to divide and destroy his kingdom.
Now, hold that thought for a moment.
Did you ever look up verses in the Bible that have the words “division” or “divide” or something similar in them?
I found that division is not always a negative thing in Scripture. In fact, sometimes God CAUSED division to take place.
For example, in Genesis - when God created the world – we’re told that: “God saw the light, that it was good: and GOD DIVIDED the light from the darkness.” Genesis 1:4
Was that good? God said it was good!
A few verses later we’re told “God made the firmament, and DIVIDED THE WATERS which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. Genesis 1:7
Again, this was a pretty good thing... because God said it was good too.
And then in Deuteronomy we read “... when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven... which the LORD your GOD HAS DIVIDED unto all nations under the whole heaven.” Deuteronomy 4:19
God divided the stars unto all nations? Did you know that if you were in the southern hemisphere you see an entirely different set of stars than WE see in the northern hemisphere. God has divided all the stars unto all the nations under heaven. And that’s kind of a cool thing
So when GOD divides things... that’s a GOOD thing. I mean just by definition - if God does something it’s got to be good --- doesn’t it???
So THEN I read this verse in the New Testament: (Jesus said) Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:51-53)
Jesus came to bring division?? Well, that’s what He said!!! But if (by definition) if God does something it’s got to be good how can Jesus causing division in a family be a good thing?
Well, here’s the deal: People live in one of two realms.They either belong to Jesus or they belong to Satan And when you think about this you begin to realize that entire families belong to Satan. Entire families are outside of Christ.
Now sometimes an entire family will come to Christ. We’ve seen it here. And other times we’ve seen ONLY 2 or 3 members of any family come to church. Maybe the wife. Maybe a teen.
Maybe grandparents. And that reality can create division in the family because some members of the family decide to belong to Christ and others don’t.
By default – if these people don’t belong to Jesus they belong to Satan.
You see --- belonging to Satan is not all that hard. You don’t have to DO anything to Satan. You don’t have to BELIEVE anything to go to hell. In fact, not believing in God - not belonging to Christ - is all it takes. And people who do not make up their minds to God in their lives... belong to Satan! Satan’s kingdom is made up of all kinds of people who simply have not decided they want God to run their lives.
Is that God’s fault? Of course it’s not! But it would be God’s fault if He was satisfied with leaving things that way. Thus, because God’s intention is divide the Kingdom of Satan. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. And God’s focus is on bringing Satan’s kingdom to its knees. His intention is to bind the strong man and to peel off people who once belonged to the devil and give them life and hope and peace.
Now, the problem becomes that Satan has no intention of letting that happen. Satan intends to hang on to every last one of those that he has. And one of the tools Satan will use... is family.
That may end up being true. OR your decision might just make all the difference in the lives of your family. They might just come to Christ because you made that choice first. By standing off to one side and simply being God’s child you may begin to make your family jealous of your faith in Christ. And if that happens, you may be able to help divide up Satan’s kingdom that much more and change the eternal fate of those that you love.
Jesus faced continued bitter criticism from these religious leaders throughout His ministry. That lets us know that if you’re serving God, you can be assured that you’ll face criticism.
When Jesus faced false accusations and criticism, He never tried to defend Himself. He usually asked His critics some questions, and answered with a parable. He turned their rants into teachable moments. In this case He asked, “How can Satan drive out Satan?” And then Jesus, the Master Teacher shared one of his shortest, and most enigmatic parables.
Let me read it to you from Mark 3:27: 27 But no one can enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.
Let’s examine the parable Jesus spoke, and then we’ll talk about the warning Jesus gave.
I. THE PARABLE: Jesus came to reverse the work of Satan
The Pharisees were insulting Jesus when they claimed that He was possessed by Beelzebub. The name “Beelzebub” literally means “Lord of the flies.” (The same name of a novel and a 1960s movie.) Beelzebub was a pagan deity of the ancient Phoe-ni-ci-ans. He was a god of death, filth, and feces.
In Jewish literature, Beelzebub was a chief demon, and sometimes even identified as Lucifer himself. So now you realize the depth of the insult they leveled against Jesus. But He used it as an opportunity to give a short but powerful parable. What is the spiritual meaning of this short parable of the world’s strongest man?
A. Satan is strong, but Jesus is the strongest!
Jesus announced to the world that He came to drive out Satan, the prince of this world. He said, “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” (John 12:31)
I could have said Jesus is stronger, but He’s the strongest. Satan is real, and he is strong. But sometimes we make the mistake of give him qualities that only belong to God.
God is omnipresent—He is everywhere all the time.
God is omnipotent—He is all-powerful.
God is omniscient—He knows everything.
Satan, which means adversary, is Lucifer, a fallen angel. He isn’t omnipresent, but he’s fast and has an army of demons.
Lucifer isn’t all-powerful, but he is like a roaring lion roaming about seeking whom he may devour.
Lucifer isn’t omniscient, he can’t read your thoughts. But, like a snake, he is shrewd and crafty.
So the strong man in this parable is the devil, but Jesus is stronger. His house is this world. Satan is called the prince of this world but this isn’t the only world there is. Jesus is the one who came into the world and He has bound Satan and then stolen his possessions. But Jesus wasn’t really stealing anything from Satan. He was only reclaiming what Satan stole in the first place. Jesus isn’t a thief sneaking in and ripping off someone. He’s like a policeman going into a robber’s house and handcuffing him to retrieve stolen property that the devil took.
Jesus called Satan a thief. He said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”
B. Satan’s “possessions” are people without Christ
The Bible describes people without Christ this way: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 2:1-2)
The Bible says Satan (who is a spirit, like all angelic and demonic beings) is at work in the lives of people who don’t know Christ. Now if you told an unbeliever they were under the control of Satan, they would laugh at you. They would probably say, “Are you crazy? I don’t even believe in Satan!”
But the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” Even for people who don’t believe God exists or the devil exists, Satan is actively keeping their minds shut to the truth about Jesus. They are slaves to Satan without even knowing it.
There is a species of ant in the Amazon area of South America called the Slave-making ant. Hundreds of these ants periodically swarm out of their nest and attack colonies of weaker ants. After destroying the living ants, they carry back the larvae of un-hatched ants. When these young ants are hatched, they are forced to be slave ants. These worker ants are born thinking they belong to the colony never realizing they were forced to be slaves from the time they are born. That’s a picture of humanity. We all need a Savior to come and rescue and reclaim us from the strong man. That’s what the strongest man, Jesus came to do!
C. Jesus bound and robbed Satan on the cross
The very act where the strongest man, Jesus robbed the devil was at the crucifixion. The Bible says, “Having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:14-15)
The Bible says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8) “By his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14)
So what does this mean to us? The devil is a defeated foe. He is still active, but he was rendered powerless on the cross.
He knows his doom is sealed. He’s smart enough to read Revelation 20:10 that says, “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
You may be thinking, “OK if the devil is a defeated foe, he sure is causing me a lot of misery.” He’s like a wounded animal. He’s going to fight to the end, although his defeat is sure. It’s like when the Nazis realized the war was lost, Hitler issued the Nero Decree. He told his retreating armies to destroy everything of value. Satan is doing the same thing. He continues to steal, kill, and destroy. But he no longer has any authority over you. He will try to kill your joy, steal your peace, and destroy your testimony, but his power is broken. You can say to him, “Get away from me, Satan, because greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world!” You’re strong, but I have the strongest man living in me!
So that’s the parable. But because these religious leaders accused Jesus of being in union with Satan, Jesus responded with a stern warning about their spiritual blindness.
II. THE WARNING: Jesus will forgive every sin except persistent rejection of the Holy Spirit’s conviction
Jesus said: “When he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” (John 16:8) Before you can ever be saved, you must experience a sense of guilt over your sinful condition. Jesus said this is the role of the Holy Spirit. It’s not my job to make you feel guilty, that’s the job of the Holy Spirit. Scary stories may bring fears and sad stories may bring tears, but only the Spirit of God can bring true conviction of sin.
The word blasphemy means to “speak against.” So blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is when a person says, “No” to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. In that moment they are “speaking against” the Holy Spirit.
I like the paraphrase from the Message: Jesus said in Mark 3:28-29, 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
“The unpardonable sin involves the total and irrevocable rejection of Jesus Christ. It is rejecting, completely and finally, the witness of the Holy Spirit, which declares that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who alone can save us from our sins.
So, the only sin God won’t forgive is terminal unbelief. And the reason God won’t forgive that sin is because the person who commits it will never ask God to forgive them. If you are someone who considers yourself to be an unbeliever, I appeal to you to trust Jesus today. Every time you say, “No” makes it easier to say, “No” the next time. There is more to life than this life. And the moment after you die, you will realize this. One day we will face eternity.
CONCLUSION
On the evening of June 18, 1850, a man stood in the bell tower of London’s Winchester Cathedral staring anxiously out to sea. All of England was waiting for a report of the Battle at Waterloo between British general, the Duke of Wellington, and the French dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte. The torch signals from a ship in the English Channel were sent by code. The message read: “Wellington defeated...” At that moment a thick fog rolled in. The man in the tower signaled the news across the city and there was great gloom and sadness because that meant Napoleon would next invade England. But hours later the fog lifted and the rest of the message could be read: “Wellington defeated the enemy.” Sadness and despair was replaced with joy and celebration.
When Jesus died on the cross, it would seem as if He had been defeated. But when Jesus rose from the dead the rest of the message was received. Jesus defeated the enemy!
And we can rejoice today. The World’s Strongest Man has defeated our enemy!

Live Like You Were Dying

Live Like You Are Dying
John 14 : 1 – 3

A few years back Tim McGraw wrote a song titled “LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING”
Some of the lyrics go like this:
He said
"I was in my early forties
With a lot of life before me
And a moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days
Looking at the x-rays
Talkin' 'bout the options
And talkin' 'bout sweet time"
I asked him
"When it sank in
That this might really be the real end
How's it hit you
When you get that kind of news?
Man, what'd you do?"

A Bible study group was discussing the unforeseen possibility of their sudden death. The leader of the discussion said, ” We will all die some day, and none of us really know when, but if we did we would all do a better job of preparing ourselves for that inevitable event.”

“Everybody shook their heads in agreement with this comment.”
Then the leader said to the group, “What would you do if you knew you only had 4 weeks of life remaining before your death, and then the Great Judgment Day?”

A gentleman said, ” I would go out into my community and minister the Gospel to those that have not yet accepted the Lord into their lives.”
“Very good!” ,said the group leader, and all the group members agreed, that would be a very good thing to do.

One lady spoke up and said enthusiastically, “I would dedicate all of my remaining time to serving God, my family, my church, and my fellow man with a greater conviction.”
“That”s wonderful!” the group leader commented, and all the group members agreed, that would be a very good thing to do.

But one gentleman in the back finally spoke up loudly and said, “I would go to my mother-in-laws house for the 4 weeks.”
Everyone was puzzled by this answer, and the group leader ask, “Why your mother-in-law’s home?”
“Because that will make it the longest 4 weeks of my life!”
The day before Thanksgiving a man in Phoenix called his son in New York and said to him, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; 45 years is enough. We’re sick of each other. So please call your sister in Chicago and tell her."

Frantic, the son called his sister, who exploded on the phone. "There’s no way they’re getting a divorce," she shouted, "I’ll take care of this." She immediately called Phoenix and said to her father. "You are NOT getting a divorce. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don’t do a thing. DO YOU HEAR ME?"

The man hung up his phone and turned to his wife. "Okay, honey. It’s done. The kids are coming for Thanksgiving, and this time they’re paying for their own flights."
Well, I guess that sometimes people do strange things or go to extraordinary lengths in order to accomplish their purposes.
For example, think about “Surprise” parties
or events and all the effort put into planning and putting them on
and making sure that the guest or guests of honor are properly surprised.
For those who are involved, such an event can turn out to be something really special and precious.
Folks, I’m anticipating a very special event, too. In fact, Jesus Himself talked about it the last night that He spent with His apostles before His arrest and crucifixion.
Do you remember?
Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him.
He had told the apostles again and again that His kingdom was not of this world, and that the time would come when His enemies would kill Him,
but that He would rise again. But somehow it just didn’t sink in.
They couldn’t understand how that could possibly happen to Jesus, their Messiah and their Lord.
But on this last night, in the upper room, Jesus told them plainly that the time had come, and that one of them would betray Him. Jesus even went on to say, “You will all fall away.”
That’s when Peter declared, “‘Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.’” (Luke 22:33-34)
You can imagine the confusion and gloom that settled over them.
And then Jesus began to speak some of the most familiar words in all the Bible:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am." (John 14:1-3)

Did you hear His promise? Jesus is coming again!
A few weeks later angels repeated that promise.
Forty days after His resurrection Jesus met with His disciples on the Mt. of Olives for the very last time, and (Acts 1:6-11). says,
“They asked Him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

“After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go....

It is true! Jesus is coming again!
B. Years later, the apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Thessalonica: (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope...
“For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

It has been stated that the books of the O.T. from Genesis through Malachi could be summed up as saying, "Jesus is coming."
The N.T. books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John proclaim, "Jesus is here."
The remaining 23 books of the N.T. tell us, "Jesus is coming again!"
There’s no doubt about it. God’s Word tells us more than 300 times, Jesus is coming again!
But when He comes, some will rejoice and others will be terrified.
The apostle Paul tells us,
"The coming of the Lord will be like a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2).
However, for the Christian it won’t be a terrifying experience.
It will be an exciting experience, like the anticipated arrival of a long...awaited friend.
The Bible also says, "We who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Does that excite you? If you’re a Christian it should thrill you.
However, there is an old Biblical principle that will trouble many.
It is that we will surely reap what we sow [Galatians 6:7].

A story is told that many years ago a man conned his way into being a member of the orchestra of the emperor of China although he couldn’t play a note. Whenever the group practiced or performed, he would hold his flute against his lips, pretending to play but not making a sound. As a member of the orchestra he received a salary and enjoyed a comfortable living.
Then one day the emperor requested a solo from each musician. The man was terrified. So he pretended to be sick, but the royal physician wasn’t fooled. On the day of his solo performance, the impostor took poison and killed himself.
The explanation of his suicide led to a phrase that later found its way into the English language: He couldn’t “face the music.”
Today someone can pretend to be a part of God’s orchestra by just blending in with the crowd and going through the motions.
No one notices, because you say the right things, go to the right places, and hang out with the right people.
But there will come a day when you and I must “face the music.”
On that day you will stand alone before God and give an account for your life,
your decisions, and your relationship with Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 1:7 says, "This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels."
Some will rejoice, but others will be terrified.
For in that moment when Christ appears in the sky,
they will suddenly realize that it’s too late. They will reap what they have sown.
They gambled with their future, and lost!
God allows us the freedom to make our own choices, but as Christians, we have a responsibility to warn the world that Jesus is coming again!
EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE READY
I know there are many predictions and calculations concerning His Second Coming,
but Jesus said, "No one knows the day or the hour" (Matthew 24:36).
That’s why we must always be ready and constantly helping others to get ready, too.
God stands waiting and willing to forgive. He has patiently postponed His judgment to give us more chances to come to repentance, and more opportunities for people to see and hear a sermon through our lives. Eventually that patience will be replaced by justice, and evil will be punished.
Some years ago an old time minister was Johnny Carson’s guest on the "Tonight Show." At one point Carson asked him, "Sir, what do you think would happen if Jesus came to earth again? I’d bet we’d do Him in again."

To which the minister leaned forward in his seat and said, "You know, Johnny, Jesus said that He would return. But the first time He came in love.
The next time He’ll come in power, and no one will do Him in."
Believe me, when Jesus returns, He won’t have to announce His arrival.
He won’t have to say anything, for every eye will see Him, and every knee will bow.
On the dome of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, is the following inscription, "One God, one law, one element, and one far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." Folks, we must be prepared, for Jesus is coming again!
Had you been on the British Coast in 1845 you might have seen 2 ships boarded by 138 of England’s finest sailors setting sail for the Artic. Their task?
To chart a Northwest Passage around the Canadian Artic to the Pacific.
The captain, Sir John Franklin, hoped this effort would be the turning point in Artic exploration. History shows that it was.
Not because of its success, but because of its failure.
You see, the ships never returned. Every crewmember perished. And those who followed in the expedition’s path to the pole learned this lesson: "Prepare for the journey." Apparently Franklin didn’t.
Though the voyage was projected to last 2 or 3 years, he only carried a 12-day supply of coal for the auxiliary steam engines. But what he lacked in fuel, he made up for in entertainment. Each ship carried a "1,200-volume library, a hand-organ,
china place settings for officers and men, cut-glass wine goblets and sterling silver flatware."
Was the crew planning for an Artic expedition or a Caribbean cruise?
The sailors carried no special clothing to protect them against the cold.
Only the uniforms of Her Majesty’s fleet, thin and inadequate.
The silver knives, forks, and spoons were as lavish as those found in the dining rooms of the royal Navy officers clubs. Years later, some of these place settings would be found near a clump of frozen, cannibalized bodies.
The inevitable had occurred. The two ships had sailed ill-prepared into frigid waters.
Ice soon coated the deck, the spars, and the rigging. The sea froze around the rudder and trapped the ships.
The sailors set out to search for help.
Inuit Indians reported seeing a group dragging a wooden boat across the ice. A boat was later discovered containing the bodies of 35 men. Other Indians discovered a tent on the ice and in it, 30 more bodies.
Many miles from the vessel, the skeleton of a frozen officer was discovered,
still wearing trousers and jacket of "fine blue cloth...edged with silk braid...with a black silk neckerchief."
Strange how men could embark on such a journey ill-prepared, more equipped for afternoon tea than for the Artic sea.
But stranger still how we sometimes do the same. Just like Sir John Franklin, we sometimes act as if life is just a cruise. We have little fuel but lots of entertainment.
We are more concerned with looking good than with being prepared.
We give more thought to table settings than to surviving the journey. We give little thought to the destination, but make sure there’s plenty of silver to go around.
But God is not to blame. If we sail unprepared it’s not God’s fault.
He left detailed instructions. His Word is our map. The Holy Spirit is our compass.
He outlined the route and described the landmarks we should seek.
And someday, if we follow them, we will stand before Him and hear the words,
“Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
But the sad thing is that the Bible says that there will be many who will not choose to prepare themselves. We can read one example in Matt. 25 : 1 – 13
25 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

Many in our society today choose to follow the road, the broad and easy road, to destruction. Matt. 7:13 – 14
And we come together this morning with wonderful news - Jesus is coming again!
I look forward to that with anticipation. Now I have no idea, and neither do you,
if I will go to meet Him before the day He comes to call us.
Whatever the case may be, I want to be ready.
And I pray that you are, too.
It is our privilege to make known the joy that we have, and to invite others to share that joy, to lift each other up when we fall, to strengthen each other when we are weak, to cry together, to pray together, to rejoice together. That’s a privilege that we have.

The new testament states that “He who has ears to hear.... Let him hear the word of God!”
By hearing God’s word we realize that we are ALL sinners and need to repent of our sins.
Then we need to be baptized to cleanse us of our sin.

Was It Worth It?

WAS IT WORTH IT? 
MATTHEW 5:3 – 12

There is a bumper sticker that sums up life on earth like this:
“Many who seek Repentance from God at the 11th hour of their life...
Die at 10:30!

We often hear the question... “Was It Worth It?”
We can ask Adam & Eve as we read Genesis 2:8-9
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Then verses 15-17: 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
And finally Genesis3:2-6: 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
We can ask Noah in Genesis 6:5-7
5 Then the LORD[a] saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

And then Genesis 7:19-22 we read 17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit[a] of life, all that was on the dry land, died.

Or, what about Job?

Or what does Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:3-12?
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
"It will be worth it all when we see Jesus,
Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ;
One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase,
So bravely run the race till we see Christ."

Those words make a beautiful song, but some of the Jewish Christians to whom the letter of Hebrews was written were not sure that it was really worth it all to continue following Jesus.
As Jews they had endured cruel persecutions at the hands of both the Syrians & the Romans. But after they had become Christians, the persecutions were worse than before. Not only were they being persecuted by the Romans, but now as Christians, they were also being persecuted by the Jews themselves.

So all through the letter of Hebrews, the author seeks to encourage them - to help them understand that being a Christian is really worth it all. He reminds them that those who have been faithful to God have always faced persecution, but that the end result will be a glorious victory even beyond their imagination.

In Hebrews 11:32-34 he says, "What more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised;
"who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

He continues on in vs's 36-38, "Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword.

"They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated - the world was not worthy of them."
Then in the next few verses he tells them to do 3 simple things. #1, Remember your heritage;
#2, Throw off everything that hinders;
& #3, Fix your eyes on Jesus. Listen as we go on to chapter 12 of Hebrews, vs's 1, 2, & 3.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
"Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

What a heritage is ours - not only all the heroes of our faith - but most of all, Jesus Christ, our Savior & our Lord!

I. REMEMBER YOUR HERITAGE
Paul tells them that it is important for them to remain faithful because of the example, the witness of all who have gone before. And he portrays it like they are in a race, & the stands are filled with those who have already run the race & won the victory.
For some of us today that is a very good motivation, because, like it or not, we realize that we are being watched.

ILL. A friend of mine tells about the time when he & his family & a bunch of relatives rented several cabins for a vacation.
And, of course, they took lots & lots of pictures.
On the last day together they decided they wanted a picture with all 16 of them in it. But then, who would take the picture? Well, one of them had a camera with a delay system where someone could push the button & still have time to run back & get in the picture before the camera shutter clicked.

So that is what they used. And here they were, all 16 of them on the porch - their arms around each other, with smiles frozen on their faces - waiting for the camera to click. A few moments passed & then someone muttered, "I didn't hear it click. Did you hear it click?"

There they stood, not daring to move, but becoming acutely aware that people walking by, who couldn't see the camera, were staring at them, evidently wondering what in the world they were doing. All they saw was 16 people with their arms around each other, standing absolutely still & grinning.

Well, why do we care what people think about us, & the way we look? What is it about us that wants people to be concerned about who we are & what we do?

Now I realize there are some who proclaim, "I don't care what anybody thinks or says about me!" But deep down, most of us do care, & we want to be respected & appreciated.
But very frankly, when the author speaks about a great "cloud of witnesses",

I'm not so sure that he is saying that they are busy watching us, & that O.T. patriarchs like Noah & Abraham & Isaac & Jacob, are all standing on the edge of heaven looking down at us, watching what we are doing right now.

My personal opinion is that he is saying that there is a great host of people who have already experienced even worse trials & temptations than we will ever face, & they overcame them. They remained faithful in spite of it all. And he is saying that if we are faithful we can win the victory, too!

However, we must recognize that people around us - our family, our friends, neighbors & co-workers are watching us, how we live, what we say & what we do - maybe even more than we realize. And what are they seeing?

ILL. Do you remember the murder trial of Sherri Wolfe? Her ex husband had complained repeatedly to his lawyer about the way she was treating him when he tried to exercise his visitation rights with their children.

Finally, the lawyer suggested that he hide a recording device under his shirt & just before going into his ex wife's home that he start the recorder so that they would have proof that he was being berated & abused when he went to pick up his children.
Little did he know that was the day they planned to murder him.
Before entering the house he switched on the recorder, & went in & sat down on the couch. When he did, Mrs. Wolfe's new husband & another relative attacked him from behind & repeatedly beat him over the head with an iron bar.
On the recording you can hear the sounds of the blows striking his head, & his groans as he died.

The District Attorney, when he addressed the jury, said, "Ladies & gentlemen of the jury. Sherri Wolfe is convicted by her own silence on this recording. The whole time her ex-husband was being beaten she said nothing."
Now he was dead. But even though he was dead, through the recording he was a witness at his ex-wife's murder trial.
And all throughout our lives we are being a witness, too!

II. THROW OFF EVERYTHING THAT HINDERS
If we were to read all of the 11th chapter of Hebrews telling about some of the great heroes of the faith, most of us would be inspired - challenged to get in there & run the race with them. But that doesn't guarantee that we will actually do it.
Most of us in our hearts, really want to run our race well, don't we? Those who have gone before us have passed the torch & given us a heritage & a faith to carry on.
Hymn #222
1. Faith of our fathers, living still,
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword;
Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene’er we hear that glorious Word!
o Refrain:
Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
2. Our fathers, chained in prisons dark,
Were still in heart and conscience free;
How sweet would be their children’s fate,
If they, like them, could die for thee!
3. Faith of our fathers, we will strive
To win all nations unto thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
We all shall then be truly free.
4. Faith of our fathers, we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife;
And preach thee, too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life.
But sometimes there are things in our life that hinder us from doing it. And in this passage the Apostle Paul pinpoints 2 of them.
A. He says, 1st of all, that we need to "throw off everything that hinders." Or as another Bible translation puts it to "lay aside every weight." Now notice that word "weight."
Paul used a interesting word here that was translated "weight."
Normally, we think of a "weight" as something that we wear or carry around. But the word that he used is the word for a tumor, a growth something that is actually growing as a part of us.
He is talking about that "weight" as a growing part of you that you wish to get rid of. You pray about it, & you wrestle with it but somehow it is still there. And that gets you into all sorts of trouble.

How many of us have prayed, "God, if I just weren't the way that I am if I just didn't get irritated & angry so quickly if I could just get along with people easier my life would be so much better."
Well, the biggest problem with most of us is pride - our pride that gets us into trouble. And a sure way to invite trouble is to do the following:
1. Think & talk only about yourself.
2. Use "I" as often as possible.
3. Expect to be appreciated.
4. Be suspicious, jealous & envious.
5. Be sensitive to the way people slight you.
6. Never forgive a criticism.
7. Trust nobody but yourself.
8. Demand agreement with your views on everything.
9. Sulk if people don't show gratitude for your favors.

I guarantee that you will be weighed down by things that hinder if you do those things.
B. But there is a 2nd thing that he tells us to get rid of
"the sin that so easily entangles..."

ILL. There is a troubling passage of scripture about Judas. John 12:6 says that while Judas was one of the 12 he served as their treasurer & was stealing from them. Evidently it was something that he did more than once.

Finally, the time came when Judas found himself with a perfect opportunity to betray Jesus for money. And at that point the Bible says that Satan "entered Judas."

Now what does that mean? I suggest that it means Satan decided, "This is too important to mess up now. I'm going to take charge of Judas myself."
I wonder how many people today find themselves entangled & are thinking, "Well, that's just the way I am. I can't change. And after all, a lot of other people are just like me."
Don't go down that path! Throw off everything that hinders, & fix your eyes on Jesus!
III. FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS
ILL. Do you remember being young & having your mother say to you, "Look at me when I'm talking to you." But you didn't want to because you knew you were in the wrong.
I wonder if sometimes Jesus is speaking to us & saying, "Would you look at me for a change? You would get in a lot less trouble, & be able to run the race successfully, if you would just fix your eyes on me."

ILL. There is a story told of a student who was stopped by a highway patrolman for speeding. The officer told him, "I'll give you a choice. You can either take this ticket & appear in court, or you can look at a picture album that I have in my patrol car."
The student happily replied, "I'll look at the picture album." So they went back to the patrol car, & the officer got out an album full of pictures of automobile accidents, & showed those pictures to him one by one.
The student later said, "I wish I had taken the ticket." Do you know why? Because when we look at the results of our mistakes, we generally don't like what we see. And that young man was shaken by what he saw.
That is why we need to fix our eyes on Jesus, & remember the price He paid for our sin & the love of God that sent Jesus to be our Savior & our Lord.

And one day - "It will be worth it all when we see Jesus,
Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ;
One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase,
So bravely run the race till we see Christ."
Invitation

Based on a sermon
given by Melvin Newland

Using Sigh Language For A Deaf Man

Using Sigh Language For A Deaf Man
Mark 7:31 – 37

This morning we’re back in the Gospel According to Mark and continuing the series of lessons I am calling, “The reMARKable Power of Jesus.”

What you don’t know can hurt you—or embarrass you. It’s important to understand what things mean. I found an actual text message a mother sent to her son. It read:

Mom: Your great-aunt just passed away. LOL.
Son: Why is that funny?
Mom: It’s not funny, David. What do you mean, FUNNY?
Son: Mom, LOL means Laughing Out Loud!
Mom: Oh, my goodness!! I sent that message out to everyone!!! I thought it meant Lots Of Love. YIKES!!! I have to start calling everyone to EXPLAIN!

In our text today, it’s important to understand what
Jesus was SAYING and what He was REALLY DOING.
In our passage today, we’re going to study a miracle in which Jesus heals a deaf man who also has a speech impediment.
We’ve read about this miracle dozens of times before, but as we study it today, there is one detail that has always escaped me.

Just before Jesus healed the deaf man, He did something that surprised me. He looked up to heaven and expressed a deep sigh. He really did use SIGH language for a deaf man.

Mark 7:31-37. 31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears,
and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the [a]impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
If you ever visit Venice, Italy, chances are you’ll take an expensive gondola ride through the crowded canals. You’ll probably go under a famous bridge called “The Bridge of Sighs.” It has another Italian name, but Lord Byron gave it the English name. It’s a bridge that leads from a courtroom to a prison.

Convicted prisoners would be led through this bridge on the way to prison. For some of them, it would be their last glimpse of Venice, thus it was named the Bridge of Sighs. Our lives are one long bridge of sighs.

Today I would like to look at five lessons we can learn from this amazing miracle.
1. The best thing you can do for a hurting friend is to bring him/her to Jesus
“Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk...” Jesus had been on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and He relocated to the area of ten Gentile cities call the Decapolis. Nine of these cities were on the Eastern side of the Jordan River, in modern day Jordan or Syria. They were not Jewish cities.

When Jesus came into the region, His fame as a miracle-worker had already spread. There is an unnamed man who was deaf and could hardly speak. The Greek language is very descriptive of his speech problem. It says his tongue was “tied up with a string.” Today, we talk about someone being “tongue tied.” This speech impediment could have been stuttering, or perhaps, it was difficult for him to pronounce words since he was deaf.

It’s interesting this man didn’t seek out Jesus himself. The Bible says some people brought him to Jesus. These might have been family members or friends. But their compassion for their friend and their belief that Jesus could make a difference caused them to escort their friend to Jesus.

Does this remind you of another healing miracle? In Mark 2 we read about the four friends who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus and tore up the roof to lower him in front of Jesus. My favorite part of that miracle is where it says that when Jesus saw THEIR faith, He spoke to the paralytic man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus honored the faith of those four men.
This man couldn’t call on the Lord, or hear the Word of the Lord. He needed help. People without Jesus need help as well. Do you have a friend or family member who needs Jesus? They need your help because they are spiritually disabled.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says that “The god of this age [the devil] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they CANNOT see the light of the gospel.”
You may be thinking, “Jesus has ascended into heaven, and is at the right hand of God, how can I bring my friends and family members to Him?” I’m glad you asked. When you bring them to bible study or church services, you’re bringing them to the knowledge of knowing who Jesus is and what he has done for each and every one of us!!!
Acts 8:27 – 38 27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”
30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The place in the Scripture which he read was this:
“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
33 In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
And who will declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth.”
34 So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. 36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”
37 Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”
And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

2. Jesus came to save the world, but He relates to each of us individually
When they brought the deaf man to Jesus the Bible says, “He took him aside, away from the crowd.” There were many miracles Jesus performed publicly. But I love the fact Jesus took this man aside and dealt with him privately and personally.
Jesus had such tenderness with this deaf man. He acted out what He was about to do. He placed His Divine fingers in the man’s ears to indicate He was going to fix that problem.

Then Jesus placed some of His Divine saliva on the man’s tongue to indicate that He was going to fix that problem as well.
Then Jesus spoke a word in Aramaic. He said, “Ephphatha.” It meant, “Be opened. Be loosed.” Suddenly, this man could hear Jesus. He could hear the wind. He could hear the birds singing for the first time. The string binding his tongue was opened and he began to speak plainly for the first time—and he could hear his own voice.

Can you imagine his reaction? Today, there are roughly 360 million people on the planet who suffer from hearing loss:
That’s about 5% of the world’s population. Only 10% of those have access to hearing aids and medical science. Today, there is a surgical procedure called a cochlear implant in which many people with profound hearing loss can hear again, or hear for the first time.

You can go to YouTube and watch the reaction of little children and adults when they hear for the first time. When little kids hear their parents’ voices for the first time, they have two reactions: wide-eyed amazement, and then smiles and laughter.

When adults hear for the first time, there is wide-eyed amazement, and then they collapse into grateful tears as they can hear. I can imagine this poor man expressed amazement and then tears of gratitude to Jesus.

For God so loved the world [that’s over all 7 billion of us] that if anyone believes on Him [that’s each of us] they will not perish but have eternal life. Jesus loves you individually, as if you were the only person on earth to love. He came to die for sinners, and if you had been the only sinner, He would have died for you.

Jesus doesn’t save groups of people together: He saves each person individually. He wants to take you aside from the crowd today and touch you and open your ears so you can hear Him, and open your mouth so you can make His name famous.

3. As a man, Jesus understands our pain!
Just before He healed the deaf man, Jesus used sigh language. The Bible says, “He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him...” As I said earlier, this is the part of the story that grabbed my attention for the first time. Jesus sighed.

There are all different kinds of sighs. There’s a sigh of relief when the doctor tells us that the tumor is benign.
There’s a sigh of fatigue after we’ve finished a long, hard job.
And there is the sigh of anguish and grief when someone we care about is no longer with us.

Some of us in the audience this morning have recently lost a family member or dear friend. It causes us to SIGH and possibly even say out loud “I am really do MISS them.” Life is one long bridge of sighs. Job said, For my sighing comes before I eat,
And my groanings pour out like water. (Job 3:24 NRSV)

Sighing is part of the human condition. Jesus was 100% God, but He was also 100% man. He feels what we feel. He is moved to compassion when we suffer. The Bible says, 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. (Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Someone did a word search for the Greek word stenazo, and it appears eight times in the New Testament. It can be translated “sighed” or “groaned.” When Jesus showed up at the tomb of Lazarus and saw the tears of Mary, He groaned because He shared in Mary’s grief. Jesus isn’t the only one who groans and sighs.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:4 that this body we live in is like a tent that gets battered and old. And inside this tent, we groan, we sigh. Have you groaned lately when you’ve tried to get out of bed in the morning? That’s the same word that was used of the times that Jesus sighed. It was a cross between a groan and a sigh.
In Romans 8, we read that the entire creation sighs, we sigh, and even the Holy Spirit groans and sighs. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies... In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (Romans 8:22-23, 26)

Sometimes we are so burdened we can’t even express words in our prayers. That’s when our compassionate, loving God sighs and groans in us with words that cannot even be expressed. When you’re praying if you don’t know the words to say, don’t worry. God understands sigh language.

We sigh because we’re part of a fallen world. That’s why Jesus sighed that day. Someone shared this reflection on this Biblical account: “Jesus was about to heal the deaf man. Why then should He have sighed? In that poor afflicted man Jesus saw but one more sign of that vast crack and flaw which sin has caused in everything good God created. When God finished His work, He saw that it was very good. But since that time the devil has sown evil tares amid God’s wheat; an alien element of suffering intruded into God’s world; a jangling discord clashed into God’s soothing music. Earth is no longer Eden.”

Some people blame God for the suffering in this world. But God is a good God who created a good world. Sin and Satan have created the havoc and suffering. And that’s why Jesus sighed and it’s why we will sigh until we see Jesus.

4. When Jesus has touched us, we can’t resist telling others
The Bible says, “Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.” This is the great irony of the Gospel. This wasn’t the only occasion where Jesus told the recipient of a miracle to keep quiet about it. And in every case, they didn’t stay quiet; they told everyone about Jesus. And yet Jesus has commanded us to tell everyone the great things He has done for us and yet most of us remain silent. That’s the irony.

So, WHY did Jesus tell this man to keep it under wraps? There’s a simple reason. Jesus was already being overwhelmed by crowds demanding a miracle. Jesus’ primary mission to Planet Earth wasn’t to heal the sick. His primary mission was to die on a cross for the sins of humanity. Jesus knew that the more people talked about His healing miracles, the more people would crowd around Him just for a miracle.

But in other cases, Jesus told those set free from demonic influence to spread the word. Remember the man who was tormented by a legion of demons that Jesus cast into the pigs. Then they died of swine flu as they flew into the water and drowned. We read in Luke 8, “The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you.’ So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:38-39)

Jesus has called us to do the same thing. Notice Jesus told the man to tell people what GOD had done for him—and the man talked about what Jesus had done. Have you been telling people what Jesus has done for you?

One of the songs we sing contains the thought: O, WILL YOU NOT TELL IT TODAY! If the ....

5. Jesus’ miracles provide proof that He is the Messiah
You might not have recognized the importance of this final verse. “People were overwhelmed with amazement. ‘He has done everything well,’ they said. ‘He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’”

The Jews as well as the Gentiles around Israel had been looking for a Messiah since Isaiah and the other prophets predicted His arrival. One of the ways people knew to recognize the Messiah was by the miracles He would perform.

Over the preceding four hundred years, many Jewish leaders had arrived on the scene and claimed to be the Messiah. But none of them had performed miracles. But Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies.

Seven hundred years earlier Isaiah prophesied: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” (Isaiah 35:5-6)

Jesus opened the eyes of the blind, healed the deaf, raised paralytics who jumped like a deer, and opened the mouths of the mute to shout for joy.
Jesus touched this man at the point of his pain. What is your point of pain today? Are you struggling with a physical problem? Jesus wants to touch you and say, “Be healed.”

Are you struggling with the guilt and shame from your past? Jesus wants to touch you there and say, “Be forgiven.”

Are you struggling with terrible grief over the death of a loved one? Jesus wants to touch your broken heart and say, “Be comforted.”

Will you let Jesus touch you today?
CONCLUSION
The bottom line of this miracle is that the people said Jesus has done all things well. Can you say that?
We all sigh because we live in a world full of pain and adversity. None of us are immune from suffering. We don’t have a choice about pain. But what we do have a choice about is how we react and respond to our pain.
Through the years, I’ve been fascinated by studying the lives of American Presidents. One of our most obscure presidents was Franklin Pierce, our 14th President, who served from 1853 to 1857.

Historians agree he was one of the five worst presidents, along with, John Tyler.
When the Democratic National Convention was held in 1852, nobody expected Pierce to be nominated. The frontrunners were Sam Houston from Texas and James Buchannan from Pennsylvania. But the party was split and no candidate got a majority. Finally, on the 49th ballot, Pierce was nominated. In the general election he easily defeated the Whig candidate, General Winfield Scott, who had been nominated on the 53rd ballot.

Five weeks before Pierce’s inauguration, tragedy struck his family. He and his wife, Jane, and son Benny, were riding on a train. There was an accident and the train derailed. Benny was killed, while Franklin and Jane were uninjured. Franklin and his wife were devastated by this accident, and they became angry with God.

Jane Pierce didn’t attend the inauguration, and Franklin Pierce chose to “affirm” the oath of office rather than swear it on a Bible. Jane Pierce was not seen in public for two years, she hid in the White House writing letters to her dead son. When she finally appeared she wore the clothes of a mourner. She was so seldom seen she was called “the Shadow of the White House.”

After four uneventful years, Franklin Pierce wasn’t nominated for a second term. Here is the sad example of a couple that faced adversity and it made them angry and bitter toward God. Their lives spiraled down into depression and despair. Jane remained a recluse until her death. Franklin Pierce fought alcoholism and died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 64.

But let me tell you about another person who lived when Franklin Pierce was president. This person suffered from adversity as well, but she refused to blame God. Fanny Crosby was born as a healthy child with sight. At six months, she developed a bad cold and a quack doctor applied a mustard compress to her eyes. This mis-treatment blinded her for life. But she refused to be angry and bitter about her blindness.

At age 8 she wrote this poem: “Oh what a happy soul I am; Although I cannot see; I am resolved that in this world; Contented I will be! How many blessings I enjoy; That other people don’t, To weep and sigh because I’m blind; I cannot, and I won’t!”
Fanny Crosby went on to write over 9,000 hymns including “Blessed Assurance” and “To God Be the Glory.”
On the day Franklin Pierce was inaugurated as President, he was angry and better toward God.

Fanny Crosby was 33 years old and she wrote these powerful words: “All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.”

What is your attitude today toward you pain and adversity? Like President Pierce, has it caused you to be bitter? Or like Fanny Crosby, has it made you better?

Have you come to a place in your life where you can say, “For I know whatever befalls me, Jesus does all things well?”

Our lives will be full of sighs—but cheer up, Jesus understands sigh language. And at the end of your sighs, remember, Jesus does everything well!

Based on a sermon
given by David Dykes

Do I Practice What I Preach?

Do I Practice What I Preach?
Matthew 23: 27 – 28

ILL. When was the last time you overheard a conversation like this? “Madge, how come you never shop at Walmart?” And Madge answers, “Well, I used to. But the last time I was there the place was just full of hypocrites. So I’ll never go back there again.”

You’ve never heard such a conversation about Walmart, have you? We don’t hear that kind of excuse in regard to grocery stores, schools, or the country club. But sometimes we hear it used in regard to the church.

ILL. Zig Ziglar said that he invited a friend to go to church with him. The man answered, “Well, I’d like to go. But the church is so full of hypocrites.” Ziglar replied, “That’s okay. There’s always room for one more.”

A. Turn with me to Matthew 13:24-30. In this passage Jesus is talking about the presence of good & evil in this world.
“24 Another parable Jesus put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
In this parable Jesus says that as wheat & weeds grow side by side they look a lot alike. And if we try to pull up the weeds we would likely uproot the wheat as well. So we’re told to let them grow until the harvest. Then it will be easy to see which is which, & to treat them accordingly.

Jesus told this parable nearly 2,000 years ago. But the lessons He was teaching are just as pertinent today. So let’s consider some of them this morning.
A. The first one is the presence of hypocrisy. Jesus says that there will be both good & evil people in this world, and they’ll be living side by side. Even the church will not be immune to this mixture.

On the one hand, it seems unfair to say that the church is full of hypocrites, because I know a lot of people who have been faithful and true and authentic in their Christian lives, and they’re wonderful Christian people.
B. Now there is a difference between a Christian struggling with sin & a hypocrite. A Christian struggling with a sin comes to God saying, “God, this is a weakness in my life & I really need the help of the Holy Spirit to deal with it.” God welcomes that prayer & He promises to help.

But the hypocrite doesn’t really struggle to overcome his sin. He just tries to hide it. He thinks, “When I’m in church I’ll behave like a Christian. I’ll say the prayers.
I’ll sing the songs. I’ll obey the rules. But when I’m out in the world I’ll act differently & behave exactly the way those around me behave.”

You see, the word “hypocrite” originally came from a word used in Greek drama that meant “one who is play-acting, wearing a mask.” The symbol of Greek drama, as some of you may know, is a two-faced mask.
That’s why a hypocrite is often called “two-faced,” someone who is trying to deceive, pretending to be different than he or she really is.

ILL. A preacher in the Midwest tells about a young couple in his church who boasted to all their friends & neighbors that they were flying to New York City.
They were only going to be able to spend one day there, but the highlight of their trip would be to go & see the Broadway play, “My Fair Lady.” They were so proud of this, & everyone was really impressed because no one else in that small town had ever been to a play on Broadway.

The day came, & when they arrived in New York they took a taxi to the theatre where “My Fair Lady” was playing. To their dismay, they found that the play was completely sold out for the night.
They thought, “What do we do now? Everybody knows that we came to see ‘My Fair Lady.’ We don’t dare tell them that we didn’t.” So they found a couple of ticket stubs on the sidewalk & picked them up.

They bought a program that described the various acts of the play. They went home singing “I Could Have Danced all Night.” And they told everybody that they had gone to see “My Fair Lady.”
The preacher said, “That’s right. They had the ticket stubs. They had the program. They had been to the theatre & they knew the music. But the trouble is, they didn’t see the performance.”

Then he added, “A lot of Christians are like that. We come to church. We have the bulletin. We know the songs. We know what to say & what to do. The problem is that some of us have never really let Jesus enter and change our lives.”

ILL. One of the questions that arose in recent years as the lives of some politicians came under scrutiny was, “Can someone be one thing in his private life, & another in his public life?” Now that’s a legitimate question. And Nathaniel Hawthorne answered it a long time ago.

He said, “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself & another to the multitudes without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.” You can get so confused that you’re not sure who you are anymore.
Jesus condemned hypocrisy. Listen to His words in Matthew 23:27-28.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
ILL. The story is told about a little boy who found a rat in his back yard. He jumped on it. He stomped on it. And he killed it. He was so proud of himself, & he ran to show it to his mother.
But he didn’t realize that the preacher had come to call. So the excited boy ran into the house, carrying the rat by the tail, hollering to his mom, “Mom, look what I found. I found this rat. I jumped on it, I stomped on it, &...” Just then he noticed the preacher & he finished by saying, “And then the Lord called him home.”

SUM. It’s terrible to have to remember to change your behavior depending upon the people you’re with. And that’s hypocrisy.
Now for Part 2 of our sermon ...
A man walked into a flower shop and asked for some potted red geraniums.
"I’m sorry," said the clerk in flower shop, "we are completely sold out of all of our potted geraniums. But I’d be more than happy to give you a deal on something else. Could you use African violets instead?"
Replied the customer sadly, "No, it was geraniums my wife told me to water while she was gone."

APPLY: You’d think that a simple task like watering the plants wouldn’t be too hard for a guy. But speaking from experience, I can sympathize with this man. I realize there are people here that really like gardening, but I don’t. Watering plants just doesn’t make it for me. If I want some vegetables, I’ll go down to the grocery store and get some.

But – of course – somebody had to grow that vegetable that I bought at the store. And our nation has some of the finest farmers that have ever walked the face of the earth. They have the finest tractors and plows and combines, and because of their skill and the tools they can use... America literally feeds the world.

Back in the days of Jesus, however, farmers had a lot less to work with. And the picture we see in Matthew 13: 1 – 9is that of the common farmer. He doesn’t have the tools to properly fit the ground and prepare for seed, so he simply reaches into his bag, takes out handful after handful of seed and flings it across the ground.
Because of the haphazard way he’s throwing the seed...
· Some of it falls on a nearby hard-packed pathway
· Some falls amongst the rocks
· Some falls on weedy ground...
· But then, some of it falls on fertile ground and the seed takes root and gives a bountiful crop

Now Jesus is telling a story, and He’s telling this story to illustrate how God intended to spread the Gospel across the land and bring people to salvation.
But there were a couple of things about this story that struck me as odd:
1st – The parable seems to give the impression that God isn’t all that concerned about which soil He allows His seed to take root in.

Just think about that for a minute:
The Seed is the Word of God.
The Seed belongs to God.

Now, since the Seed belongs to God... don’t you think He’d be a little more selective about which soil even gets to receive this gift?
But that’s not how it plays out.

The footpath and the rocky soil and weedy soil... they all get a shot at this seed... WHY?
Why would a farmer plant corn in a rock filled yard? Well, if the man wanted a crop... he had to scatter his seed in the land that he had... and then trust that the seed would bear fruit.
And the farmer in Jesus’ parable did the same thing.
He’s scattering His seed over all the land He had... trusting that the seed would bear fruit.
In Isaiah 55:10-11 God declares
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
You see that’s the power of God’s SEED - the Word of God
God scatters it all over the earth, because it has power to take root in the harshest ground. And once it takes root, it can bear fruit.
God doesn’t care about the condition of the soil.
Of course, the harsher the soil, the harder it becomes to get a crop... but you can still get a crop.
Isaiah 53:2 tells us
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Anybody have an idea about who that prophecy referred to???? (Jesus)
Jesus was a root out of DRY GROUND
The soil shouldn’t have yielded a harvest - but it did. It gave us OUR SAVIOR
So God doesn’t seem to be concerned about which soil His seed falls on. He’s confident of the power of the seed. The soil doesn’t matter, it’s the harvest He’s looking for.
The best soils were the ones that yielded a harvest of 30 to 100x’s more than what was sown.

The question to ask yourself today is: “what kind of harvest have you been yielding for Jesus?
How deeply has the seed taken root in your souls?

ILLUS: Henry Ford gave away millions of dollars to many different causes in his lifetime, but he was notorious for the fact that he refused to give any money at all to schools. He felt that well-meaning but nonbusiness-like people frequently mishandled those gifts.

Now, there was a woman named Martha Berry who had begun a school in Mt. Berry, Georgia. She’d started the school because she was shocked to discover that many of rural children attended neither a church nor school and were unfamiliar with stories from the Bible. So she decided to start a school where the poor could learn to read and write and do arithmetic and to know basic Bible stories.
But she needed more money than she had.
Now, she was aware of the fact that Ford never gave money to schools but she went to him anyway and asked for an endowment. As expected, Ford refused.
So Miss Berry, said “Well, then, would you give me a dime to buy a sack of raw peanuts?”

Ford was a little taken back and he asked why she wanted just a dime. She replied: “A dime is all I want, Mr. Ford, but I do want to show you what I can do with 10 cents”
Berry returned to her school and she and her students planted and replanted the peanuts. Then she sold the crop for $600 and took the money to Ford.

She stood face-to-face with Henry Ford, and said, “See how practical we are in the use of money at the Martha Berry School?”
Mr. Ford was so pleased with what she’d done, he gave Miss Berry the $600 back... and added $2 million to it. Martha Berry took the money and built the buildings that became Berry College in Mt. Berry, GA.

The difference between God and Henry Ford is – God believes we are capable of making good use of what He’s given us. He believes in us, and He trusts us to be faithful.
The question for us today... what have we done with the seed God gave us?
And a 2nd point I want to make about our text – Jesus tells this parable to the crowd... but He doesn’t explain what it means

(pause...) Why would He do that?
Well some have speculated that Jesus used parables to get the people’s attention. That’s why I use stories in my sermons. I hope they keep you interested and they help illustrate what I’m trying to get you to understand. But there’s an even deeper reason why Jesus told the people parables.
Look with me at
Matthew 13:10-16
10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Now at first glance you might think Jesus told parables because He didn’t want everybody to understand what He was saying. But that’s not actually what that passage in Matthew is telling us. He’s not saying He didn’t want people to hear or see God’s truth... He was just being realistic. Jesus knew that there are people out there who really don’t want to understand what God is trying to say. He could explain Himself to those folks until He was blue in the face... but they’d just given Him a blank stare.

ILLUS: About 10 yrs ago Time magazine had an article on something called the “Jesus Seminar.” Apparently some self-appointed scholars got together and questioned the authenticity of the Gospels we find in the Bible. So they had been meeting together twice a year to vote on which sections of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John they felt actually recorded the true history of Jesus. When it came to the parables... the article explained that “these ‘scholars’ decided that they preferred parables without explicit applications.
In other words, they liked the parables - they just didn’t want to be told what they meant. They had eyes to see, but they refused to see... ears to hear, but they didn’t want to hear it.
1 Corinthians 2:12-14
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Until we become Christians, the stories of Jesus can catch our attention but we can never FULLY comprehend what those truths mean... until we God’s Spirit dwells within us.
Acts 2 tells us how we can lay hold of God’s Spirit
In that chapter, we’re told that Peter preached such a powerful sermon that the crowd interrupted his message to ask him what they could do. And in Acts 2:38 tells us that
“Peter said unto them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive (what???) the gift of the Holy Ghost.’”

Notice what it says:
When you repent of your sins
And your baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins...
Then God gives you His Holy Spirit to dwell inside you.
It’s like signing a contract.

When we bought our house, Debbie and I went into a bank office and sat down at a long table across from the sellers. Between us, on the table, was a contract, listing the physical description of the house and some legal jargon. But down at the bottom of that contract were two sets of lines. One set of lines was for us (as the buyers) to sell, and the other set of lines was for the sellers.

So also with salvation. We “sign” the contract by our faith, repentance, confession of Jesus, and baptism. But then God signs the contract. He signs it by placing His Spirit inside of us.
The Spirit is not a dormant thing that sets inside like some inanimate object on a wall. No! The Spirit of God is a living active force that not only marks us as belonging to God, but works within us to comfort us and help us... and to “teach us” spiritual truths.
And one of the tools that Spirit uses to teach us with is God’s Word (the seed). That’s why it is so critical for us to constantly expose ourselves to scripture on Sunday mornings, and in Sunday School, and in Bible studies, and in personal study time. The more we study God’s Bible, the more material God’s Spirit can work with to teach us more... and deeper... spiritual truths about God and our relationship with Him.

The Wisdom of a Mother

The WISDOM of a Mother
Proverbs 3:5-7

As you have probably figured out by now we have a SPECIAL GUEST in our audience this morning. This young lady was born on this day 90 years ago. Herbert Hoover was the President of the United States at that time. She is a mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and a sincere friend. All of us here wearing the white shirts are the various units of my mom and dad.
We as mom’s family would like to acknowledge all the spit she produced to wash dirty faces, all the old gum she held in her hands, all the noses she wiped, & all the bloody knees she 'made well' with her kisses.
We appreciate all the times she made us finish something we said we couldn't do, and continued to believe in us, even when we ourselves had given up.
There is a story told of A husband and a wife in their 60s who were coming up on their 40th wedding anniversary. Knowing his wife loved antiques the man bought a beautiful old brass oil lamp for his wife. When she unwrapped it a genie appeared. He thanked them and gave them each one wish. The wife wished for an all expense paid first class around the world cruise with her husband. Shazam. It took place. Instantly she was presented with the tickets for the entire journey plus expensive side trips dinners shopping etc.

The husband however wished he had a female companion who was 30 years younger than him. Shazam. Instantly he became 90 years old.

If God gave you just one wish, what would it be? I know I would probably wish to get a thousand wishes, but assuming that was not the case what would you wish for?

Solomon was given kind of that choice,
the Lord appears to Solomon in a dream. He offers him whatever he asks for.
In 1 Kings 3:5-9 and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?”

You notice it says, ask for whatever you want and I will give it to you. What would you want if you were given whatever your heart's desire as they say? What would you want? Gold? Glory?
Greatness? Pleasure? Do you look for fame and fortune?

Power and prosperity or longevity maybe? Personal looks? None of this was the case for Solomon. What did Solomon ask for? Wisdom.
Why you may ask
or you might ask what is wisdom?
Proverbs 3:5 – 7 says Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall [a]direct your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the LORD and depart from evil.

And Proverbs 9:10 says 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
Then in the new testament we read in James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you”

The researched definition of Wisdom, is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.

A philosopher Cicero said the function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil. Good, basic.

Robert Green Ingersoll says it is a thousand times better to have common sense without education
than to have education without common sense.

Frank Whitmore said the biggest difficulty with mankind today is that our knowledge has increased so much faster than our wisdom.
Lets think about that for a moment. Knowledge is increasing so fast, wisdom hasn't caught up with it.
Then We can think about what we learned from our mothers: 😊
We learned foresight: "Make sure you wear clean underwear in case you’re in an accident."
We learned logic: "If you fall out of that tree and break your neck, don’t come crying to me."
We learned religion: "You better pray that comes out of the carpet."
We learned about time travel: "If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!"
AND, we learned about the circle of life: "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

Socrates says the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
That is where we are as Christians, isn't it?
By ourselves, what do we know about the creation of Earth? Nothing.
We realize true wisdom is being aware that we aren’t the ones in charge. True wisdom starts with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.

In the Old Testament we have examples of how God acted towards man. We see the history of the human race. We see relationships, how family got started. The goods and bads, the dos and don'ts and then we are offered Jesus coming down from heaven to be an example for each one of us.

John 3:16 tells us... 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
We see that God loved the nature of Solomon's request from what we read in (1 Kings 3: 5 – 9)

I now want to look at what it says in verses 10 - 14 “And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee
And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.”

We see Solomon's request was not selfish nor self-centered. It showed both reverence for God and respect for God's people. Isn't that what God asks of our lives today? Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these other things shall be added unto you. Notice that Solomon asked not personal things. He asked for God's guidance. He asked for the wisdom to serve God.

Notice that Solomon took that seek ye first approach that Jesus talks about.

Then as you continue to read 1st Kings 3 : 16-20. We read of the story of the 2 mothers and Solomon must decide who is telling the truth.
The real mother knew the unique characteristics of her son. She knew the color of his eyes. She knew probably the way he smelled. She knew the softness of his skin by touch. So it is with mothers. We know that our mothers know everything about us. Think about our heavenly father and how much more God knows.
He knows our thoughts He knows our intentions.
we know that He knows the number of hair on our head, AND
for some of us that hair is probably easier to count than others. But we know that the Bible says He knows the very hairs on our heads. He knows. He’s the creator of all.
Matthew 6:26 – 34
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one [a]cubit to his[b]stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not [c]arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Jesus says Our Heavenly Father will care for you more than all of these.

Do you ever wake up in the morning and ponder what is the purpose of life?
Your boss might ask you, what is your purpose of being here?
He's referring to the job but you can think about that in a whole universal sense. What is our purpose of being here today. Why are we here?
We have Solomon making his judgment. Here is a man who prayed for wisdom. He asked for wisdom. He made a judgment this was just one of the judgments that happened in his life. The people marveled at and realized and notice that his wisdom came from God. It came from heaven. It wasn't just Solomon ...it was directed by God.

now I would like to read from Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 what does he say? This wise man which we believe may be viewed as the wisest man in the world because he was directed by God says what?
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
He's basically says I've pondered my whole life. And if I leave one last final statement with you it is this: the conclusion of the whole matter is fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man.

Then
It makes me think about us as Christians. What shall we give in exchange to our very own souls?

When you ask what is my purpose? Today why are we here? Solomon a wise man who asked for God's wisdom says fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it is good or whether it be evil .
As Christians we can obtain wisdom by reading God's word. God is the one that is in control and may we follow that example that love that Solomon had, the love that that mother had for her family. May we have that love for our family. May we have that love for our Christian family. May we have love for those that we've come in contact with.

In Matthew 7:24-27 it says 24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Those of us in the white shirts today have been blessed.
Mom has taught us ... not only by her words BUT also by her actions. Mom is an example of someone who walks by faith not only to us as her personal family, BUT to you as her church family. I would be amiss if I didn’t mention my mom’s 2 great loves who are unable to be here today ... my dad and my oldest brother Ron. But they celebrate with us today in our hearts.
The wisdom of this Hull family.....
Juanita Lavern Fidler Hull’s purpose in life was to be our mom and to be a Christian role model for each one of us.
Lo I am with you always even until the end of earth. We think about what we have. Today if we are in a need of either taking the steps to become a Christian or if we have taken those steps and fallen a way and need the prayers of the congregation whatever our need is we have the chance to make it right as we stand and sing our song of invitation.