“Good Sermon Illustrations” Sep 20, 2024

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?…”

One of the hardest things about writing sermons is coming up with good illustrations. Illustrations are important tools for communicating because they help the truth to stick in our minds. I’m always hunting for a compelling story, an article or testimony that correlates with Scripture. When I find such treasures I bookmark them for later.

But I’ve got to be careful. A good illustration is supposed to function as a window to help others see the truth more clearly. Sometimes teachers and preachers labor over them so much that they have to stretch the Scriptures to apply their story. Or they emphasize the story so much that it actually obscures the biblical text. I’ll never forget when a visiting preacher came and opened with a prolonged account, with many hilarious embellishments, of how his kids found what they thought was a human leg floating in a creek. They later found out that it was a very life-like prosthetic and had some fun scaring others with it. After about 15 minutes of this admittedly entertaining story, the preacher transitioned from a legless person to the headless horseman of European folklore. This led him to Ichabod Crane and the loose connection to 1 Samuel 4:21, “And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!”” I still have no idea what the sermon was about.

Jesus was a master teacher and used illustrations all the time. He explained the kingdom of God with everyday images from farming, fishing and building. His illustrations always had a profound impact. “Now a man had two sons…” Who could forget such a story?

Jesus’ preaching ministry was supported by his healing ministry. He encountered people suffering from disease, demonic possession and even death. After healing them, casting out the demons or raising them from the dead, his ‘sermon illustration’ was right there for everyone to see. He also exhibited his power over nature. After illustrating his authority and identity by calming a dreadful storm his disciples were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk. 4:41)

Every person Jesus encountered was changed by the experience. He left many living, breathing sermon illustrations in his wake that could attest to him. These transformed people then went on to persuade others about the truth of the gospel. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)

The world needs more good sermon illustrations. That is, people need to see in us the difference Christ makes. Someone said, “The world isn’t mad at the church because we’re different. They’re mad at us because we aren’t different enough.” Do our lives illustrate the uniqueness of the kingdom? Before people will investigate Christ, they often look to his followers. What will they see?

Scripture frequently confronts us with this challenge. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to a deeper righteousness (Mt. 5:20) and a perfect love (Mt. 5:48). Peter exhorts us, “as he who called you is holy, you also must be holy in all your conduct” (1 Pet. 1:15) so that “by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” (1 Pet. 2:15) Unbelievers look for fault. They read us more than they read their Bibles. Peter’s admonition is to take those accusations out of their mouths by living lives above reproach.

Our hymns for worship also remind us of this sober responsibility. “We are the only Bible the careless world will read… We are the Lord’s last message, given in deed and word; What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?” The world needs good sermon illustrations. Are you one?

I, Pastor Scott, did not write this, but found this unattributed on the internet. I suspect the writer posted it on his church’s website and then it got copied and re-posted..

Priorities – 09.13.2024

When I get caught up in delivering a message (or the details of a picnic), I often leave out written illustrations or quotes I had intended to share during the message. These two are so poignant I thought they were worth printing here.

On Sunday, I made mention of the casualness with which the people of Judah were approaching Temple worship. It was so bad that God called their offering worthless and their mere presence in the Temple a “trampling of My courts” (Is 1:12). It was in light of this irreverence that God showed His prophet WHO He was (Is 6).

The two quotations below, which may be familiar to some readers; are both calls to be less casual about God and our relationship with Him! ~Blessings, Pastor Scott

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

― C.S. Lewis

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…..Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. …”

― A.W. Tozer (The Knowledge of the Holy)

Oh My Soul, Hush! – July 26, 2024

The English word “disciple” is from Latin discipulus; “pupil, student, follower.” Because the Greek manuscripts were translated into Latin long before English was ever a language and Romans came to the British isles. The Latin-based word “disciple” translates the NT Greek word mathéteuó and most literally means “learner” (compare Matthew 28:19 in KJV and NASB – Teach and Disciple translate the same Greek word).

So a disciple is a student. In the first century a Rabbi’s student typically followed him around. Jesus’ students (disciples) were given lots of instructions as they followed Him for those three years and then they changed the world!

Because of that model, we often see discipleship as one and done… and, it would be if:

a) our retention was perfect

b) our soul/heart didn’t play us falsely

Psalm 119 deals with retention. We need to be reviewing, meditating, and studying God’s Word daily. Pride and/or boredom creep in and tell us that we got it or that we are overly familiar. Before long we are skipping days, then weeks, and next thing we know the knowledge we once held dear is buried beneath spreadsheet macros and sports scores (or quilting patterns and recipes). In Colossians 3, Paul writes: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Think for a minute about that word “let”. Imagine you have a cup of water. How do you “let” the water be in the cup? First you don’t dump it out. Secondly, you don’t try to put something else in there that pushes out the water. 🙂

Psalm 42 deals with our cantankerous souls. Before we turn there let’s examine the first human sin. Adam and Eve knew their Creator personally. They had a total of one commandment to remember. They were living idyllic lives. It wasn’t a lack of knowledge that brought them to sin. Satan was able to convince them (her) that she had an unmet need in her life that she hadn’t even known about before and her rebellious heart/soul responded. He still works that way! We have more revelation than Eve had and we also have more temptations than Eve had. We have to develop the habit from very early of not listening to our own hearts! For the last several generations the world’s best advice has been “follow your heart” or “be true to yourself” and that advice is straight from the father of lies! The Bible says we need to talk to our souls (ourselves) and remind our souls that our hope is in God! – Pastor Scott

42 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

5 Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.

6 O my God, my soul is in despair within me;
Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life.

9 I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

Timeless and Timely – 07.12.24

I, Pastor Scott, received this Blog from GES just this morning, I think it’s a great read in these divisive times!

Emphasizing the Important Things

July 11, 2024 by Kenneth Yates in Blog – Acts 10:15, Acts 15:5, Circumcision, Eph 2:14-16, Judaizers

Luz Long and Jesse Owens were polar opposites. Long was a German Nazi and looked the part. He was blond, white, and an educated lawyer. Owens was a black American who grew up in poverty under segregation. In the 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin, Luz and Owens competed against each other in the long jump. Hitler wanted to show the superiority of the Aryan race. Long was a poster child for Hitler’s vision. In the Führer’s eyes, Owens was a despised, inferior human being.

Owens won the event, and Long came in second. But the two men walked arm in arm in the stadium in front of Hitler. Long and Owens developed a strong friendship and even exchanged letters after the Games were over. Their respect for each other’s athletic skills overrode any animosity their respective countries expected them to have.

When WWII broke out, Long served in the German army. His last letter to Owens asked him to come to Germany after the war and talk to his son about their friendship. Long died in combat in Italy, fighting for Germany against the United States. Owens would fulfill his close friend’s request. He would later fly to Germany and tell Kai-Heinrich Long about his father and the friendship they had shared. They met at the stadium where the two athletes had met and competed against each other.

Luz Long and Jesse Owens lived in a world in which insignificant things, like the color of one’s skin, were the things that set men apart. A black American and a white German simply could not be friends. They were to hate one another.

But these men realized that such things were superficial. They were both human beings who shared the love of a sport. They were more alike than different.

The world has always emphasized people’s differences. In the NT, we see how the early Church had to deal with the mentality of the world. The Church began in Acts 2 with a group of Jews. Religious Jews saw themselves as superior to Gentiles. For example, these Jews would not eat with Gentiles. They saw Gentiles as being unclean in a religious sense.

When the Lord added Gentiles to the Church, these cultural differences presented problems. The animosity between Jews and Gentiles manifested itself in the Church. Believing Jews wanted Gentile believers to become Jewish. Those Gentiles needed to eat the right food, and the men needed to be circumcised. Until they did so, Jewish believers would see them as inferior (Acts 15:5).

But the Lord made it clear that such sentiments concentrated on insignificant things. The Lord had made believing Gentiles equal to Jewish believers in every way (Acts 10:15). Both groups were part of the same body, the Church. That should have taken away all animosity between them (Eph 2:14-16). The most important aspect of their lives was that they were brothers and sisters in Christ. In his letters, Paul encouraged his readers to be like Long and Owens were centuries later: Jewish and Gentile believers should walk arm and arm with each other before a watching world.

The same thing is true for us. We may not completely understand the animosity between Jews and Gentiles in the first century. But we meet people who have believed in Jesus for eternal life who are not like we are. They do things differently. They have different interests. Maybe the color of their skin does not match our own. It is all too easy to avoid any kind of close relationship with them.

As believers, however, what we share is much more important. Christ has placed us in His Body. This is an eternal reality. If Long and Owens could walk arm in arm in 1936 Berlin because of their love of a sport, surely we can today because of our love of the Lord.

Asking the Pastor – May 3, 2024

“If God can do everything, then can He do nothing?” Was a forwarded text message I received on Sunday night. I don’t know who asked the question and, while I appreciate that there is “protection” in anonymity, it also requires that I make some guesses. So here goes.

I initially read this as a paradox question: “Can God make a rock he can’t lift?” or “Can God make a square circle?” The “everything” contrasting with the “nothing.” Christians have been wrestling with those questions for two millennia. The conclusions have ranged from “He’s God and can do whatever He wills” to “That question is in itself absurd and God is a God of logic and reason.”
Then I thought, perhaps he meant “is God ever inactive?” This ties directly to Genesis 2:2-3 wherein God says that he “rested on the 7th day.” A closer examination shows us that God specifically rested from creating. We know that He keeps the galaxies and even very atoms in our bodies spinning (Colossians 1:17) and that He doesn’t ever sleep (Psalm 121:4). And we have countless verses that mention His watching presence (e.g. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His – 2 Chronicles 16:9)! And His accompanying presence (Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6, cf. Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5). So my read of the Bible is that the answer is no, YHWH is never inactive. He rested from the work of creating after 6 days, but He is an active, engaged, Sovereign!

It’s also possible that the text sender meant “nothing” in the sense of “in my life” or “in answer to my prayers.” My answer there would mostly be from the various Old Testament stories that teach us that God’s timing is often measured in years, decades, or even generations, while ours is measured in hours or days. Also God is working with a massive 4-D chess board, and sometimes it’s not about me. In 2000, I preached through the book of Genesis. I will never forget how I was hit by Chapter 8 verse 1: But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided (Genesis 8:1, emphasis added). God hadn’t really forgotten His main character, the only humans left alive, it was the author’s way of saying that God’s attention had been elsewhere. God had been busy bringing up the waters from the depth and releasing the waters from the firmament. He was destroying His first creation. He was dealing with something OTHER than Noah and His family. Not every crisis, nor every storm, nor every disagreement, nor every ”unsettling situation” is about me. Sometimes, God is doing something else! But He never removes His hand (John 10:28)! And sometimes His answer to our prayer is simply, “No, my child.”

Hope this is a little bit helpful,

Pastor Scott

The First Word Spoken to Adam & Eve – April 24, 2024

Imagine what Adam and Eve learned about God’s generosity from their first impression of him on their first day. Their first knowledge of God and the world God had made was that rest was not an afterthought — rest was of first importance….

Adam and Eve had accomplished nothing to earn this gratuitous day of rest. Sabbath is, in my estimation, the first image of the Gospel in the biblical story. God’s nature always gives rest first; work comes later. This is reflected in all of our lives. Before our lives in this world began, we got nine months of rest in the womb.

Before taking up a vocation, we get a few years to just play as children. And before our six days of labor, we receive the day of rest. Karl Barth famously pointed out that the only thing Adam and Eve had to celebrate on that first Sabbath was God and His creation:

“That God rested on the seventh day, and blessed and sanctified it, is the first divine action which man is privileged to witness ; and that he himself may keep the Sabbath with God, completely free from work, is the first Word spoken to him, the first obligation laid on him.” Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World, Baker Publishing Group, 2018, Kindle Location 311.

I stumbled across this “clipping” while in pursuit of another line of inquiry, but I thought it was worth publishing here because we don’t really have a “sabbath” anymore. We fully acknowledge that out of the 10 commandments it’s the only one not repeated in the New Testament and we, along with the vast majority of Christian churches, gather on Resurrection Sunday rather than Sabbath Saturday for our day of Worship. We don’t keep ceremonial laws, including those that count steps taken on Saturdays (shabbat) nor work done or fires lit. And we don’t, universally, treat our own day of worship as a day of rest either. I am adamantly NOT trying to introduce a new legalism, but I think every once in a while I need to be reminded that the sabbath wasn’t just part of the decalogue. It was part of creation. We function better if we rest. Amen?

So take His yoke; accept His peace and rest,

“I Can’t See God” – April 5, 2024

I’m reposting this both for its apologetic value and its devotional value. BOTH serve as good reminders, PLEASE take the time to read this C.S. Lewis piece. ~ Pastor Scott

In February 1963, C.S. Lewis published an essay exploring a number of topics related to space-travel, including the idea of finding God in space (A response to Nikita Khrushchev’s proclamation in 1961, that cosmonauts never saw God in space) He wrote:

The Russians, I am told, report that they have not found God in outer space… Looking for God—or Heaven—by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare’s plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters or Stratford as one of the places. Shakespeare is in one sense present at every moment in every play. But he is never present in the same way as Falstaff or Lady Macbeth. Nor is he diffused through the play like a gas…

Now of course this is only an analogy. I am not suggesting at all that the existence of God is as easily established as the existence of Shakespeare. My point is that, if God does exist, He is related to the universe more as an author is related to a play than as one object in the universe is related to another.

If God created the universe, He created space-time, which is to the universe as the metre is to a poem or the key is to music. To look for Him as one item within the framework which He Himself invented is nonsensical…

How, then, it may be asked, can we either reach or avoid Him?…in our own time and place, [avoiding God] is extremely easy. Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully. But you’d be safer to stick to the papers. You’ll find the advertisements helpful; especially those with a sexy or a snobbish appeal.

About the reaching, I am a far less reliable guide. This is because I never had the experience of looking for God. It was the other way round; He was the hunter (or so it seemed to me) and I was the deer…

Space-travel really has nothing to do with the matter. To some, God is discoverable everywhere; to others, nowhere. Those who do not find Him on earth are unlikely to find Him in space. (Hang it all, we’re in space already; every year we do a huge circular tour in space.) But send a saint up in a spaceship and he’ll find God in space as he found God on earth. Much depends on the seeing eye.1

If we are Christians, we know and are known by the God who created the universe and have many reasons to give Him thanks. On a cautionary note, however, Lewis’s insight into how easy it is to avoid God has applicability to Christians as well as non-believers. Christians can avoid God by living their lives concentrating on money, sex, status and the like, and consequently remain spiritually immature and experience little of the transforming power of Christ. Let us keep our focus on Jesus as Lord and Savior, and pursue a life of holiness and righteousness.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

PSALM 19:1 (ESV)

1 C.S. Lewis, The Seeing Eye, from Christian Reflections, edited by Walter Hooper, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995, pp. 167-169, 171.

Growing Older? 03.08.2024

I took an extra day off this week to get some painting done in our home. The bending over to cut in along the baseboard and stretching up to cut in along the ceiling hurt my back more than I remember. I blamed my rather sedentary occupation and was consoled by a family member who reminded me that I was also a grandfather of 8…

So I have a LOT of empathy with Randy, and those to whom this article was aimed (yes, it’s a bit of an advertisement for his book), but that just means he’s a more gifted blogger than am I. 🙂 Enjoy! Pastor Scott

There Is Still Great Opportunity to Serve Jesus, After Age 70 and Beyond

200+Randy Alcorn’s Blog by Randy Alcorn / Mar 4, 2024 at 4:07 AM//keep unread//hide

Our society holds on to youthfulness with a white-knuckled grip. We worship youth and consider the elderly at best, useless; and at worst, disposable. God’s perspective is very different: “Gray hair is a glorious crown; it is found in the ways of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31). Titus 2 encourages both older men and women to be examples to those who are younger, and to teach them God’s ways.

I love to be around older people—that is, older people who have sweetened with age, not those who have soured. Choose which you’d rather be. (And since I’m turning 70 this year, I guess I’m an “older person” too, though I feel no need or desire to retire. I’m as excited about ministry as I’ve ever been, so I’ll trust God to make it clear when I need to start cutting back.)

As you grow older, you can be one of those godly older saints people love to be around. The more you’ve walked with the Lord, the more you’ll have to offer your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, friends, neighbors, and church family. Remember, if God didn’t have a purpose for you here, you wouldn’t be here. (As I’ve written previously, those who’ve retired from jobs still have great opportunity to serve God in the next season of life. Even if you’re unable to physically serve, your prayers, giving, and influence can have eternal impact.)

Last December, a reader named Sharon ordered copies of my book Seeing the Unseen to hand out to teens. She’s almost 70 and works with the youth at her church and its associated school. Sharon gave a talk to high school girls on her wedding anniversary (which has previously been a very difficult day, since her husband died five years ago). She wrote us:

I am so excited! I am having lunch with the 40 girls who received Seeing the Unseen. I am going to have pizza delivered to the school, and I want to hear from them. I should tell you the school is located at our church, so I see so many of the girls on Sunday. Tell Randy several of the girls have told me their family is using his devotional as a family devotional. Is that awesome or what!

And because our Father has me with the teens every Thursday night, I already have a connection with them. …To be able to pour into their lives more of Jesus AND TO GET EXCITED ABOUT HEAVEN AND ALL THAT IS TO COME helps this daughter of the King know why she is still here. …My talk on December 13th was such a gift to me.

I am a big word picture person. So here’s my word picture! Our Father invited me to go to work with Him. He sat me in the front row, and I got to see Him touch the lives of those sweet teens. Just watching our Father be God, here and now, makes me soooooo excited for Heaven and the New Earth.

She also wrote:

As far as ministry after 70: well, let me tell you! It gets bigger and better! I am 69 years old. I have been with teen ministry for 30 years. I pray every summer, “Father, please place me where You want me; if I am no longer effective, move me.” I think I might add this to my prayer this year: “Father please keep me from breaking anything while I am playing dodgeball and baseball with the teens!”

We NEVER retire from God. We just let Him move us where He wants us.

Whatever your age, how might God be calling you to make an eternal impact for His kingdom?

Ask the Pastor – 02.23.24

I received a question this week that I’m going to break into three parts.

Explain 1 John 3, given that we believe in Eternal Security.
Explain the modern prodigals who once walked the straight and narrow.
What can we who remain, do?

1 John 3

1 John is a great book, but it’s best understood as John’s defense of the faith in light of early heresy. In Chapter 1, we see John arguing against a teaching that said believers had no sin. And here in John 3, we see him arguing against a teaching that believers could revel in sin. Unfortunately, the way Greek works, the word for “sin”, hamartia (ἁμαρτία), is simply modified to indicate tense and in English we just have the one word. So unless a translation is willing to add a bunch of words, it’s hard to even pick up John’s meaning. (The person who sent me this question instinctively added “ongoing” to the word sin and she was dead on!) Believe it or not, the Amplified does a really good job of honoring John’s Greek.

“No one who abides in Him [who remains united in fellowship with Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin. No one who habitually sins has seen Him or known Him. Little children (believers, dear ones), do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who practices righteousness [the one who strives to live a consistently honorable life—in private as well as in public—and to conform to God’s precepts] is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who practices sin [separating himself from God, and offending Him by acts of disobedience, indifference, or rebellion] is of the devil [and takes his inner character and moral values from him, not God]; for the devil has sinned and violated God’s law from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because God’s seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterized by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him.”
1 John 3:6-9 AMP

So John is talking about pretenders who want to have their cake and eat it too. He is saying “no”, if you were really abiding, if God’s seed were really in you, you could not live this way on purpose – you couldn’t embrace this worldly lifestyle! John was arguing against hedonist Gnostic false teachers trying to slip into the church. He was not talking about Christians who trip up on day to day life as they abide.

Abiding is the sub-text for believers. If one is truly justified, but living like the devil then that person is not abiding and is to be treated like an unbeliever. (1 Cor 5)

Prodigals

If it hasn’t happened to your family, it’s most assuredly happened to a family you know. Adult children, who professed faith as kids, who were active in church, active in Bible clubs, may have served or gone on missions trips, suddenly walk away. Some drift away, others slam the door, but in either case you are left wondering: (a) Are they going to heaven when they die? and, (b) what can I do?

This is an easy-peasey question to answer, theologically, and a horrible question to answer regarding an individual. Theologically, if a person believes in Jesus for their eternal life there is nothing they can do to become unsaved because it’s no longer up to them. They are already seated in the heavenlies (Eph 2:6); God has reserved their inheritance there as well (1 Peter 1:3-5); He has sealed them with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13-14) and perfected them once for all (Heb 10:10-14)! Individually, however, only God knows what went on in their heart. Is it possible some kids were insincere in their faith claims? Or are they carnal/fleshly like the people Paul addresses in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; not abiding in Christ (John 15; 1 John), but living like the world. Surely there wouldn’t be so much instruction to the church against worldly living if it weren’t possible? God knows, I’m not sure how we can know – especially from a distance.
So we can pray. In 1 John 5:14-16, we are told to pray for the strays. There is a place for intervention (Galatians 6:1; James 5:19-20), but if these are in your family; I’ve no doubt you have intervened ad infinitem. Praying is your assignment now, as it is mine.

Actions/Mindset

As we watch “believers” say and do things that we don’t think “believers” should say and do, we are bothered on so many levels! We can stumble into sin ourselves, or feel offended, or feel confused. What can we read and how should we be thinking?

If they are within the church, I recommend that we study Romans 14 (cf. 1 Cor 8). Both parties who were at odds over meat offered to idols had biblically based convictions.* It’s very easy to be blinded by our own very strong convictions, even if others are valid too!

If they are outside the church, our only concern should be seeing them come to faith. Pray to that end and if you get, or can create the opportunity, share the truth of Christ.

Of course, we live in a very connected world and many are aware through friends and through social media of the lives of those who fall somewhere in the middle. They aren’t part of our local church, they do claim to be Christians, but their choices don’t seem to be on the “idol meat” spectrum. My suggestion is that we look at Matthew 18:15-35. That passage, Jesus’ own words, leave us with two choices. We can confront or forgive. He doesn’t give us permission to discuss, fuss, or start a new Facebook group. We can either take an active role in confronting the sin we see or we can forgive it. In most of these cases the sinner wasn’t sinning against us anyway.

Let’s be careful to take it to God; I’m mindful of the “scene” captured by Luke as Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time. He looked out over the City and wept for it! God understands our grief, Jesus experienced it as a human!

Pastor Scott

* I have judged more than one Christian School debate wherein the topic assigned was “can a Christian drink alcohol in moderation?” I, personally, side with the teetotallers, and we can make a great biblical case; everything from mastery (1 Cor 6:12) to clear headedness (Proverbs 31:4-5). Of course the pro-side has a few verses on their side too, like Jesus’s first public miracle (John 2) and Paul’s advice to young Timothy to stop being a teetotaller (1 Tim 5:23). Who’s the stronger brother and who’s the weaker brother? Perhaps the one who fails to love the other? (1 John 4:7-21)

Stop Gossiping! I know Pastor Jack is more Charismatic than us, it’s his point not his position I’m promoting

He Saves Me – 02.16.24

I post my blogs on Friday with the church newsletter, so I am way late to this party! First let me say I loved watching the SuperBowl! And the group I watched it with didn’t pay a lot of attention to the commercials. So while I did note a Jesus commercial, I didn’t note that it may have been implying some of the things I’m hearing…

So let’s just be clear. Jesus does say, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” He did offer living water to the Samaritan woman, who a man in His position would have normally shunned. He did the servant’s job and washed the dirt off of His disciple’s feet. He said, over and over, whoever believes in me has eternal life. (John 6:47 emphasis added) And He died for our sins; all of them.

It could be that’s all the commercial was saying; but based on the reaction I’m seeing I suspect that the message was from people encouraging folks to “hold to a form of godliness but deny its power” (2 Tim 3:5); rather than come to Jesus and be transformed!

“Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition)

Over and over again the leaders of the church In the New Testament talking to those in the church (the saved) say that groveling in sin was your old way of life! Once we have been bought by His blood, we aren’t supposed to live that way anymore!

“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:5-11 NASB1995 Cf. Titus 3:1-5; Rom 11:30; 1 Cor 6:9-11; Eph 2:1-4; 1 Peter 4:1-5)

The crowds always thin out when the truth is told — “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.’” (John 6:66-69)

Something to think about,

Pastor Scott

P.S. As I’m posting this I’m listening to a press conference on Thursday regarding the shooting on Wednesday. Pray for the wounded, pray for the fearful. The talk, of course, is about disarming the populace, and while I certainly understand that impulse, I’m preaching through the Old Testament and am particularly heighted to the fact that evil is in hearts no matter the weapon of choice. Pray for those hearts!