Meadowbrooke Church

In his book, The Warrior Savior, Owen Strachan states in the very first three sentences in the first chapter the point of every page in the Bible: “It was a tree that damned us. It was a tree that redeemed us. And it will be a tree that heals us in the age to come—time beyond all time.”[1]  I want to borrow and use Strachan’s opening statement in his book as the point of this sermon series.  It is the big idea of the overall message of the seventeen sermons that will make up this series that I have titled, The Tree.    I assume that you already know this, but just in case you don’t, here it is: We are in a war! If you are a Christian as I am, then WE are at war. The war we are in is both spiritual and supernatural for we are warned: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).   We are told that there is a domain of darkness (Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9) over which a powerful malevolent being rules (John 8:44; Eph. 2:2).  Before we look into how it is that the domain of darkness came into existence, let me read something for you, and see if what you hear sounds like a commentary on the kinds of things that seem to be more and more common: But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power... (2 Tim. 3:1-5)   So, how did we get here?  Where are we going? What hope do we have that it will ever get better? To answer that question, we need to go to the beginning.   The Tree of Life and It’s Life-Giving Fruit Like all stories, our story also has a beginning. Genesis 1:1 begins in the same way all good stories begin: “In the beginning...” What happened in the beginning?  “God created the heavens and the earth” (v. 1). This is how we tell stories: “Once upon a time…” “A long, long time ago…” In a galaxy far, far away…”  Like all other stories, our story begins in the mind of God.  When, “And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (v. 2), God spoke into the emptiness and created out of nothing that which did not exist previously.     Out of the imagination of the mind of God came forth a world brimming with life and worship.  On the first day God created the heavens and the earth; day and night.  On the second day He divided the heavens from the earth.  On the third day God created the land, sea, and vegetation.  On the fourth day He created the sun, moon, and stars.  On the fifth day, God created creatures great and small.  On the sixth day, God created land animals and finally mankind.  And, on the seventh day… God rested.    The crowning moment of creation was when God said, “Let us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness.... So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (vv. 26, 27). Humanity was born—not simply another creature, but a unique reflection of the Creator Himself. Among all living things, only human beings bear the image of God, set apart to represent Him in the world He created with design, beauty, and purpose.  God blessed the man and his wife and commanded them to, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (v. 28).    Owen Strachan makes the point concerning Adam: “Adam, the first man, was a priest and a king onto God. He lived and ruled under the divine regency of his Maker.”[2] The woman, later to be called Eve in the story, came from Adam’s body and God brought her to Adam as his wife and helper to join him in the mission to exercise dominion on the earth and fill it with humans like themselves and so that they too would walk in obedience and love with their Creator.     When God created, He didn’t use special effects or any tricks; He spoke, and everything in the universe and beyond came into existence.  When He had finished with creation, God declared it to be “very good” (v. 31).  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1) when he took the blank canvas of nothing and then painted the beauty of creation with the brush of His omnipotent Word.   Before Eve was brought to Adam as a helper, God gave Adam another command: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.’” (2:15-17).   The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and It’s Curse-Producing Fruit Before God formed Adam from the dust, He had already created trees on the third day. Among all the trees He made, two were of great significance: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Both of these were placed at the center of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 1:11; 2:9). The fruit from the Tree of Life was available for Adam and Eve to freely enjoy, and by eating it, they could live forever (3:22). In contrast, eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would lead to death. In this way, God presented humanity with a choice in Eden: each day, Adam and Eve could choose life by lovingly obeying God, or they could choose death by turning away from Him in disobedience and rebellion.   Just as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit begins with the memorable line, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” introducing the humble yet unexpectedly heroic Bilbo Baggins, Genesis 3 ushers us into a pivotal moment with the arrival of a seemingly ordinary serpent. However, unlike Bilbo, whose heroism gradually unfolds, the serpent in Genesis 3 is far from harmless—he is revealed as the true antagonist of humanity’s story.     It’s important to remember Adam’s unique role in the garden: he was appointed by God to serve both as priest and king, entrusted to live and rule under God’s authority. The significance of Genesis 3:1 cannot be overstated, as it marks the moment when the serpent targets Eve, the wife of God’s chosen representative, with cunning intent. The serpent’s temptation comes in the form of a subtle question, challenging God’s word: “Did God really say...?” (v. 1). This question sets the stage for the unfolding drama of deception and a choice that will shape the course of human history.   The root of the temptation was to question the goodness of God because He withheld fruit from only one tree in the garden.  In other words, Satan was tempting Eve to doubt the goodness of God.  Thomas Watson once wrote concerning sin, “Sin first tempts and then damns.  It is first a fox and then a lion.”[3]  So Eve, “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate...” But she did not stop there, “...and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6).  Their innocence was violated by their rebellion, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings” (v. 7).  Instead of choosing life, Adam and Eve chose death; they believed the lie of the serpent and thought that by eating the forbidden fruit that they would be God’s equal. They were wrong. They doubted the truthfulness of God’s word and His faithfulness to honor all of His promises and what they received was a curse instead of the blessing the serpent promised.      The serpent was much more than what Adam and Eve believed him to be.  Jesus said of the serpent, that he, “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is not truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Throughout the Bible, we learn that the serpent is also the Accuser (Rev. 12:10), the Adversary (1 Pet. 5:8), the Beast (Rev. 14:9-10), and Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24). He is the dragon (Rev. 12:9), the evil one (John 17:15), the father of lies (John 8:44), and the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4). The serpent is the lawless one (2 Thess. 2:8-10), the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:1-2), the ruler of demons (Luke 11:15), the tempter (Matt. 4:3), the thief (John 10:10), and the wicked one (Eph. 6:16). In every description, he is the embodiment of evil who “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14).  Yet, the serpent was, is, and always will be no more than a created being whose desire to be like God preceded his temptation of Adam and Eve to be like God.   The serpent’s motive in tempting Adam and Eve to sin was rooted in his deep-seated hatred for God and for humanity—God’s unique creation made in His own image. Yet, it was not the devil’s decision that caused Adam and Eve to fall; rather, it was their own deliberate choice to disobey God. By choosing to sin, Adam and Eve forfeited the life and relationship with God that He had originally designed for them.  It was not the serpent who chose death over life for the couple, but Adam and Eve who chose death instead of life.   The Promise of Another Tree In Genesis 3, it was the snake who spoke first out of his own deception that he would have the last word.  Yet, it was not the serpent, but God who had the final word.  The response of Adam and Eve was that of shame

Our scripture passage is about two types of wisdom, so I thought it would be fun to share with you some advice I found on the internet that I will get you into trouble if you do follow it:   “Carry a fork with you. If someone tries to rob you, pull it out of your pocket and say, ‘thank you Lord for this meal I’m about to have’ and charge at them with the fork.”   “Always say what you're thinking out loud.”   "Don't breathe, 100% of people who breathe die at some point."   "Don’t go to the doctor’s office if you only have one problem. Wait until you have four or five; that’s how you get the most bang for your buck."   “If life gives you lemons, squeeze the juice into a water gun and shoot other people in the eyes.”   "When confronted by a bear, give it a hug and tell him it'll be alright."   We laugh at these bits of “wisdom” I found on the internet because they are so foolish they are comical.  In James 3:13-18, we are reminded of two sources of wisdom, and of the two, we as a species gravitate to one over the other.    Wisdom is the application of knowledge.  According to James 3:13-18, not all wisdom is good.    The Source of Worldly Wisdom What is worldly wisdom?  James says that it is, “earthly, natural, and demonic” (v. 15).  Well that sounds a bit harsh does it not?  Let’s dive a bit deeper into what James means here before we judge whether or not he said too much.  The kind of wisdom that is earthly, natural, and demonic is the kind that is motivated and driven by, “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition” (v. 14).    So what is “bitter jealousy” and what does it look like?  The Greek word for “jealousy” is... are you ready for it?  The Greek word is “zēlos.” Do you think there may a better way to translate this word?  Of course you do, a better translation for this word is our English word “zeal”!  Zeal can be positive or negative.  The prophet Elijah was zealous for God is a good way, and that zeal was demonstrated on multiple occasions by standing against evil and speaking on behalf of God, even when it was not safe for him to do so; when his life was threatened by Queen Jezebel, Elijah prayed: “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life” (1 Kin. 19:10).   Zeal can also become a bad thing. Zeal can turn into bitterness, rivalry, and even pride.  In the case of James 3:14, it is a “harsh zeal” that places the individual at the center of his universe at whatever cost may come to those around him.  The kind of “bitter Jealousy” (harsh zeal) James is talking about is self-centered.  The person with this kind of mindset is one whose glory and mission in this world is his own.    The other source for worldly wisdom is “selfish ambition.”  There is not much I need to say to make sure you understand what “selfish ambition” is.  It is the kind of thing we see every four years in America: How do I make sure I get what I want.” There is only one Greek word that is used here for “selfish ambition,” and it is “eritheia.” In ancient Greek it means strife, contentiousness, and selfishness.  It is a word that was also used by the Greek Philosopher Aristotle to describe a “self-seeking pursuit of political office by unfair means.”[1] It is used in the New Testament to describe the jealous or angry leader who, “forms a group which emotionally or physically withdraws from the rest of the church.”[2]These are the kinds of people Paul described in Philippians 1:15-17, “Some... proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking that they are causing me distress in my imprisonment.”   There are varying degrees that “bitter jealousy” and “selfish ambition” can come into the life of a person, but none of it is from God.  Even the best of us can cave to the kinds of vices that lead to worldly wisdom.  Consider some of the people from the Bible such as Abraham, David, and Solomon.   God told Abraham that he would father a child with Sarah, but because pregnancy seemed impossible to the couple, Sarah came up with another plan that was culturally acceptable.  Sarah said to her husband: “See now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please have relations with my slave woman; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” (Gen. 16:2). So, the slave woman got pregnant and had a son and what Abraham got in return was one big giant mess that we are still dealing with today.   David wrote much of the Psalms that are in our Bible, and he knew his Bible pretty well!  He understood what God’s word said of Israel’s kings in Deuteronomy and most likely had memorized it.  He knew that as king, he was not to acquire the kinds of properties the kings of the other nations collected to measure their glory and strength such as many horses or many wives, nor was he to hoard silver and gold (see Deut. 17:16-20).  We know David knew this because he even wrote a song about it that included the verse: “Some praise their chariots and some their horses, but we will praise the name of the Lord, our God” (Ps. 20:7).  Yet at the height of his reign as king, he conducted a census to measure the strength of his nation instead of trusting the God who told Him that his power did not come from numbers but from God alone.   Can you see what Abraham and David’s stories all have in common?  They followed after the wisdom of the world instead of trusting the word of God as their source of wisdom.  Abraham wanted a son so badly and for his legacy to go on, so he took matters into his own hands and got his female slave pregnant.  David conducted a census just like the other kings did because he needed to know how he and his nation compared to other nations.  If you listen closely to the pages of scripture you can hear the serpent’s question with these men: “Has God really said...?”     The wisdom of the world would lead you to an easier and wider road rather than a narrow and more difficult one.  The wisdom of the world would have you erect a house on sand instead of spending the time necessary to lay a good foundation.    Heavenly Wisdom Unlike worldly wisdom, the kind of wisdom that leads to the thriving life God created us to know and enjoy does not come from within, or from this world, or beneath; it comes from above where God is seated.  The wisdom from above is “pure, peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, impartial, free of hypocrisy, and full of good fruits” (v. 17).   From where does “heavenly wisdom” come from?  It comes from God!  Where can I gain this kind of wisdom?  From the counsel God has already given, which is His word.  We already saw in the first chapter that those of us who lack wisdom, are to ask God for it without doubting (1:5-6); the source of the kind of wisdom we need comes from the word of God.  We gain wisdom from above when we first listen to what God has said through His word and then become a doer of it by putting what we read into practice (see 1:21-25).   But here is the thing... there is no wisdom from above if you do not have the kind of faith that moves you to really trust the truth of God’s word.  It is one thing to say you believe the Bible to be true and another to act upon that belief.  Think for a moment about what we say we believe at Meadowbrooke; this is what we state on our webpage about the Bible: We believe the Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, is the divine revelation, the original autographs of which were verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit, thus rendering them trustworthy and solely authoritative in faith and practice (2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Pet. 1:20-21).  The Scriptures reveal the mind of God concerning the need and the method of human redemption, the character and destiny of mankind, and are “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (Jn. 5:39, 2 Tim. 3:16-17).   The more important question is not if we are okay with that statement, but do we really believe it?  The Bible testifies of itself: “All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).  In the book of Hebrews, we are told, “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (4:12).  But do you really believe it to be what it claims?    If you believe the Bible to be the word of God and that it is beneficial for teaching, for correcting, and training in righteousness, then how is it shaping your choices in life, what kind of influence is it having on your relationships, how does it affect how you behave and function at work?  Do you believe the Bible to be the word of God even if what it tells you to do with your life makes no sense to those around you and the rest of the world?  Think about some of the things that God told His people to do.  God told Abraham to leave his home in Ur and promised him a child, even though he and his wife Sarah were quickly advancing in age to the point that fathering a child would be highly improbable.  The conventional wisdom of Abraham’s day suggested that he father a child through one of his servants, but that was not the promise God made to Abraham.  God promised a son that would be both his and Sarah’s, and in their old age God provided an heir.    God used men who acted upon the word of God when others thought they were nuts.  Men like Moses who God commissioned to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt.  Men like Joshua who God told to march around Jericho a bunch of times while blowing seven trumpets and

The title of my sermon is a play on words.  The beginning of this chapter we are told that what comes out of our mouths by way of teaching will incur a stricter judgment; therefore, anything we teach concerning God or His word must fall into the category of “sound doctrine.”  On the other hand, the noise we make with our speech is evidence of what is really in our heart. Words matter.  I will take it one step further—words matter to God.  Proverbs 18:21 puts it this way: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”  Words matter.   The Bible and Creation begins with words! The first words in our Bible are about the first words responsible for everything beautiful and living: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light”; and there was light’” (Gen. 1:1-3).  I love these verses in Genesis! In the beginning there was nothing but God... until He had something to say about it!  His words brought life.  Then what follows in Genesis 1 is a series of phrases like: “God said...” “God called...” What made all that exists a reality were WORDS!  Not just any words from any old mouth, the Words that came from God made everything and all of it was good.    On the sixth day, God spoke more words: “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:26-27). Then, God used Words to bless the first couple by telling them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Listen to me... WORDS MATTER.    Three chapters later, after God used His words to speak beauty and life into existence out of nothing, we are introduced to a serpent.  In an effort to tempt Eve to sin against God, he got her to doubt the words of God spoken to Adam: But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die” (Gen 2:16-17; NLT).  Listen carefully to what the serpent said to Eve and her husband: “Did God really say...?” and then proceeded to get Eve to doubt the word of God and His goodness towards her (see Gen. 3:1-5). Not only does God value His words, but He is concerned about the words of people too.  Jesus even said, “I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgement.  For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36-37).     Our Words Matter Concerning What We Say About God Chapter 3 begins with these sobering words: “Do not become teachers in large numbers, my brothers, since you know that we who are teachers will incur a stricter judgment.”  Here is how the ESV translates this verse: “Not many of you should become teachers...”, which is the way most of the major English translations translate this verse.  What is the point?  The point is that what we say about God is serious and God takes what we say about Him seriously.  James is warning us not to take on the mantle of teacher in the Church recklessly, for those who speak on God’s behalf will be held to a stricter judgment.    Many rightfully apply this verse to the serious call of pastors who are entrusted with preaching the word of God such as myself.  The passage Dr. Ed Hardesty selected to deliver at my ordination charge was from 2 Timothy 4:1-2, “I solemnly exhort you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction.”  In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul instructed a young pastor and son in the faith with these words: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”   The Bible reserves some of the harshest words for those who use the word of God to lead others from the truth of His word. In the Old Testament, we are told that if anyone claiming to be a prophet speaks claiming to speak on God’s behalf prophetically that God did not command him to speak, was to be put to death (See Deut. 18:20-22).  Similar language is used in 2 Peter regarding false prophets who claim to speak for God when they do not: But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their indecent behavior, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Pet. 2:1-3)   There is a stricter judgment that is coming upon those who teach and claim to speak on behalf of God.  It doesn’t matter what people think or what they want, the mandate is the same: “Preach the word.”  Not just sometimes, not just when it is convenient, not even when you feel ready.  Those who have been called to equip the church are to, “preach the word” and to, “be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction.”  Why?  Because the authority is not with the one preaching, but the word he has been called to preach!  This is why, in my opinion, whatever church you find yourself in, ought to be a church where the regular diet of preaching is expository instead of topical preaching. Permit me to give you three reasons why:  Topical preaching is the kind of preaching where the one preaching chooses a subject and builds a sermon around that subject with verses he believes to support that subject. Expository preaching is the kind of preaching where the one preaching choses a scripture passage and builds a sermon around that particular passage, so that the point of the scripture passage becomes the point of the sermon.    The difference between topical and expository preaching is that with topical preaching, the one preaching determines the point of the sermon; with expository preaching, the scripture passage determines the point of the sermon.   The one who regularly preaches topical sermons will never preach more than what he already knows. The one who regularly preaches expository sermons will have to study a particular passage to understand it in order to preach/teach it, forcing the one preaching to grow beyond what he already knows.    Mark Dever, in his book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, wrote the following helpful observation regarding the strengths of expository preaching: In being committed to preach a passage of Scripture in context, expositionally—that is, taking as the point of the message the point of the passage—we should hear from God things that we didn’t intend to hear when we set out to study the passage.... And from your repentance and conversion to the latest thing the Holy Spirit has been teaching you, isn’t that what it means to be a Christian? Don’t you again and again find God challenging you and convicting you of some things you would never have thought about a year ago, as he brings to unearth the truth of your heart and the truth of his Word?   What Dever says next, is so insightful: To charge someone with the spiritual oversight of a church who doesn’t in practice show a commitment to hear and to teach God’s word is to hamper the growth of the church, in essence allowing it to grow only to the level of the pastor.  The church will slowly be conformed to the pastor’s mind rather than to God’s mind.  And what we want, what as Christians we crave, are God’s words.  We want to hear and know in our souls what he has said.[1]   James 3:1 is to warn those who wish to or do teach, to do so faithfully to the word of God because this is the best way to serve His people and to protect the church from the wolves who would seek to harm God’s people.  However, that warning is not only for pastors and teachers and we know this because of the following verses.     Our Words Matter Concerning What We Say to Others James 3:1 is not just for pastors, but for anyone who claims to speak on behalf of God.  Think about what we know; the heart of Jesus’ great commission includes the responsibility every Christian has for teaching: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations... teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20).   The apostle Peter wrote in epistle, “...always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15).  And what is it that we are to be ready to testify with words? In the words of the apostle Paul: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every person and teaching every person with all wisdom...” (Col 1:28).   Christ has gifted His church with pastors, teachers, and evangelists to help His people to speak what they have been called to say with clarity and in accordance with what God has actually said (see Eph. 4:11-13). And when we get it wrong, Christ also called men who are able to teach the word of God, to serve as elders whose responsibility includes: “holding firmly the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound do

If there was any passage in the Bible that appears to be a contradiction from what we read in other books of the Bible, it is James 2:24, which states: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” This verse seems to contradict what Paul wrote in his epistle to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (2:8-9).  So which is it?  Is salvation a gift from God that can be received apart from anything we do, or is salvation something you have to work hard at keeping?    In the 1980s these questions were popularized and brought to the forefront of theological discussions had in many homes and churches.  At the heart of these discussions was the question: “What does it means to believe in Jesus?”  Zane Hodges wrote his book, Absolutely Free arguing that nowhere in the Bible does it teach that belief in Jesus for eternal salvation requires a person to repent of his/her sins. Hodges went as far to say that a person can be a Christian and at the same time not love God.  In response to Zane Hodge’s book, John MacArthur wrote The Gospel According to Jesus; in his book, he argued that true salvation involves a lifelong commitment to Jesus, which is the evidence of true biblical belief.  Those who agreed with Zane Hodges labeled the teachings of people like John MacArthur as “Lordship Salvation.”  Those who agreed with John MacArthur labeled the teachings of people like Zane Hodges as “Easy Believism.”    Far from being a modern controversy, the argument between Hodges and MacArthur was simply an old theological debate dressed in newer garb.  I do not have the time to give a history lesson as to what led up to Hodges and MacArthur duking it out in the form of books, but you should know about the idea ‘if you just believe and say a prayer, that you will be “saved.”’  There is a theological stream that led to language you are probably familiar with, such as: “Ten said ‘Yes’ to Jesus!”  Or you may have had someone in your life encourage you to repeat a prayer, for if you just say the words, you can be saved just so long as you believe the words to be true in your mind.   In 1763, a well-known Scottish author and pastor named Robert Sandeman (1718–1771) arrived in Danbury, Connecticut. His central teaching was that “bare assent to the work of Christ alone is necessary for salvation.” In other words, Sandeman argued that simply believing in Jesus was enough to be saved—you didn’t have to follow Him or demonstrate love for Him. In Sandeman’s view, requiring evidence of love or a changed life made works a necessary part of salvation, which he firmly rejected.   By the time Sandeman set foot in Connecticut, his writings and ideas had already spread widely through American churches. Ezra Stiles, who befriended Sandeman and would later become president of Yale University, remarked, “I believe he has sown a seed in America which will up and grow, though I have no apprehension of any great ill effect.”[1]   Sandeman’s doctrine, which came to be known as “Sandemanianism” and is now often labeled “easy-believism,” was more than a theological curiosity—it ignited debate and concern that ripple through the church to this day. What academic circles now call “Free Grace Theology” became the very ground upon which Zane Hodges and John MacArthur sparred. The warnings of giants like John Wesley (an Arminian) and Andrew Fuller (a Calvinist), echo through history: Sandemanianism, they cautioned, might lull the church into a shallow faith, one that confuses mere intellectual agreement with living trust. Its legacy remains, challenging and shaping the contours of American evangelicalism across generations.     My hope today is not that you are more informed, but that you are more grounded in the Bible.  At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I think; what matters is what does the Bible have to say about it!  So, let us turn to our text this morning to find out.   A Grounded Faith is an Active Faith (vv. 14-17) James askes a question in verse 14, “What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works?  Can that faith save him?”  He then gives us an example of what a faith devoid of works looks like in real-time: “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that” (v. 15)?  What is James getting at in these verses?  He is picking up on what He said in 2:1-13 and forcing us to take a long, hard look into the mirror of God’s word to examine our hearts.    If you say that your faith is in Jesus as the One who died for your sins and rose from the grave, then how can you pass by a brother or sister who shares your faith in Jesus who is in need and do nothing to help that person?  Genuine faith will result in genuine, although not perfect, love for those who share in your faith in Jesus?  Just so you know, James is not the only one who asks this question.  The apostle John had some things to say about a faith grounded in Jesus being an active faith: “Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:7-10).  Where on earth did John and James get their understanding of genuine faith from?  They both got it from Jesus, who said, “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another(John 13:34).    Again, John wrote in his epistle, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us” (1 John 3:23-24).  But, John and James are not the only ones who understood that a faith grounded in Jesus was an active faith, for the apostle Paul wrote: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10).    Listen, salvation is the free gift of God made available through His Son that you cannot earn or work for.  However, when you are genuinely saved by Jesus, you are then “born again” (John 3:1-21).  When you are “born again” you go from being spiritually dead, to being made spiritually alive with Jesus (Eph. 2:1-6).  The evidence that you are alive with Christ is a faith that is living!  In the words of Paul, and in light of our salvation that is from God, you are to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called...”  Paul did not stop there, he continued: “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Eph. 4:1-2).    The clearest sign of being born again is a life transformed—a faith that is alive, first in love for God and then in love for others. This is why Jesus described a coming day of judgment, when all people will be separated into two groups: the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. The difference between them will be revealed in how they responded, with love and compassion, to those in need.  Jesus will say to the sheep, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me’ (Matt. 25:34-36).  Those who ignored the brother or sister who was hungry, thirsty, need shelter, needed clothing, was sick and needed care, or was in prison... will hear these words: “Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.... Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (25:41, 45-46). A Grounded Faith is a Sacrificial Faith (vv. 18-26) When it comes to what read in James and what we read in Paul’s letters, Timothy Keller said when looking at something with only one eye, you lose depth perception. To appreciate something for what it really is, you need two eyes. Why? Because each eye is looking from a slightly different perspective at the same object, and as a result you see it better.”[2]  The problem with Robert Sandeman, Zane Hodges, and Free Grace Theology is that they are only looking at Scripture with one eye, and in doing so, their sermons and books suffer from a distorted theological depth perception problem.  Do you want to know one way you can make sure you have both eyes open?  Have one eye on the text you are reading and the other on the rest of Scripture.  James is not saying works first then faith later; what he is saying is that a faith that has generated new life in God is a faith that acts on the belief it rests in.    To say you believe is easy; to act upon your belief is evidence that you believe.  This is James’ point in verse 18, “But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’”  L

I want to piggyback off the final two verses from the first chapter in James that we looked at last week, which states: “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (1:26-27).  From these two verses, I have two questions that help us make more sense of the verses that follow in James 2:1-13.  The first question we need to ask is this: What makes faith worthless?  The person who says that he/she believes and follows Jesus yet has not bridled their tongue.  The second question is this: If undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows in their distress, what is defiled religion? It is a person of faith who claims to follow Jesus but ignores the most vulnerable of society: Widows and orphans.    In the first century, widows and orphans were vulnerable.  Widows faced economic hardships without a male in the home to provide.  Orphans lacked the protection of a father. Widows without children were at times isolated and ostracized.  Orphans often were without the tender care of their mothers.  In many ways, widows and orphans were marginalized in society.  For the first century church, the care of widows and orphans was a social justice issue that the first century church understood needed to be address as we are all commanded to address: “Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, obtain justice for the orphan, plead for the widow’s case” (Isa. 1:17).  Because the needs of the widows and orphans grew, and were beginning to be overlooked, the leaders in the first century church charged a group of men with the task of looking after such people (see Acts 6:1-6).   So why is this important when our text this morning is James 2:1-13?  Because a faith that rests in Jesus is one that responds to the needs of the marginalized.  When a person goes from spiritual death to spiritual life and is born again, there are two levels of love that begin to flow through the spiritual veins of the one who is now a living and breathing child of God, and that is a love for God and a love for one’s neighbor.  When you are born again your new love for God begins to flow to the point of overflowing to the point that it is expressed in the Christian’s horizontal relationships.  This is why when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment” (Matt. 22:37).  However, Jesus did not stop there, He continued: “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets”   James was no doubt aware of Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees’ question concerning the greatest commandment.  The first four commandments concern our love and relationship with God and the final six commandments concern our love and relationship with our neighbors.  Jesus begins with the greatest commandment because how we treat our neighbor reflects the condition of our relationship with God.  This is why James wrote in verse 10, “For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.”  The NLT translates this verse in a way that ought to help you get the point James is making: “For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.” In other words each of the Ten Commandments are inter-connected.   It is not segmented or impartial just like genuine and saving faith is not impartial.    Impartial Faith is Gracious (vv. 1-5) I am not sure what was going on in these churches of the Christians James was writing to, but it seems that something was off relationally concerning how they treated one another. Apparently, the rich were treated with some level of favoritism over the poor.  We know this because of what James writes in verses 1, “My brothers and sisters, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”  James did not write this to keep these Christians from showing favoritism but was forbidding them from doing what they already were doing.  If you are a Christian, then you are a “bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 1).    To be a bond-servant is to be a slave of Christ; the bond-servant of Jesus means that you are neither free nor hired, but property of your Master.  Don’t think of slavery to Jesus as something degrading, for in slavery to Jesus is where true freedom is known.  However, to be a bond-servant of Christ and to show favoritism by treating one person more valuable than the other is a contradiction – especially the kind of favoritism James was addressing related to the way the rich were treated over the poor.  We know this because of the verses that follow: For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and is dressed in bright clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the bright clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? (vv. 2-4)   The gold ring on a person’s finger was worn by the upper-level Roman “equestrian” class. Those with a gold-ring were not only wealthy, but were highly influential.  Now think of what it would have been like if you were a marginalized Christian Jew, who had an upper-level Roman citizen walk into your church service who also claimed to be a brother or sister in Christ?  You might be tempted to think that if you could just get close to this person, that may help in your standing in society!  Surely close friendship with the person who wore the gold-ring would be a better use of your time than friendship with another poor and marginalized Christian.  To treat one person with more honor than the other because of their social status in this world is to discount the fact that regardless of their social standing, all people bear the image of God and should be treated as such.   What made the situation even more grievous is that this kind of favoritism was going on among Christians whose salvation had nothing to do with their standing in society.  The apostle Paul addressed some of the same issues within the Corinthian church when he wrote the following: For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no human may boast before God.   So in response to this kind of favoritism, James admonished these Christians: “Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” In other words, the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong, all have the same thing in common from the moment of birth: We are all born alienated from God and are by nature dead in our sins.  Yet, Jesus found us and died for us, and it is through His redeeming work that regardless of your social status, your tribe, or what part of the world you were born in or currently live... He died for sinners such as us!    Impartial Faith is Loving (vv. 5-9) The same grace the rich are in dire need to receive, is the same grace available to the poor.  The same grace that is available to the Jew is also available to the Gentile!  The thing that the apostle Peter had a difficult time wrapping his mind around initially was that salvation was equally made available to Gentiles, and that Jesus is equally the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah, and the Messiah to the Jew as He is to those who grew up eating ham sandwiches, peperoni pizza, Italian hoagies, fried shrimp, and even pork feet.  A Jew would not even go into the home of a Gentile because they were considered “unclean.”  Peter was one such Jew until God rebuked him and told him not to label unclean what God has made clean (see Acts 10:9ff).  After Peter was sent into the home of a Gentile and witnessed God’s saving work in the entire household of Cornelious, he responded: “Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34-35).   Peter’s issue was that he could not see how the God of the Hebrews could love and save unclean Gentiles.  Peter’s sin was really not that different than the favoritism that was shown for the rich over the poor in the churches James wrote his epistle to.  It is nothing new that the poor are marginalized or forgotten in the world.  Consider the Netflix documentary titled Gone Girls; Rex Heuermann was able to murder scores of prostitutes because they were not treated with the same value as other women.  It is estimated that 50 million people live in slavery in our world on this very day. Consider the following statistics related to the 50 million slaves that exist in our world today: 6 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. 23% of these victims (roughly 6.3 million people)are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. 78% of those trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation are women and girls and 22% are men and boys. 92% of sex trafficking victims are adults, and 8% are children.    Add to this that in 2024, there was an estimated 1.14 million abortions in

What we know of James is that he and his brothers did not believe that his half-brother and the oldest of his siblings was all that He claimed to be (John 7:5).  It most likely was not until after Jesus’ resurrection that James finally did believe. However, based on what we read in these verses, I am curious if James was present when Jesus preached His sermon on the mount?  James seems to be the sermon on the mount applied to life.   I can’t prove it, but I believe James 1:19-27 is the first four beatitudes applied to life.  Think about the first four beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-6): “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” “Blessed are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth.” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”   Permit me to share some of my initial takeaways from James 1:19-27 and then share how the first four beatitudes fit into these verses. Each of us live with a nature that we wish we did not have to contend with. For some, it is lust. For others, it is anger.  If it is not lust or anger, it is something else.  When it came to lust and anger, Jesus told us in His Sermon on the Mount to take radical action to fight against such sins that come from within (see Matt. 5:21-30).  The apostle John wrote of our struggle with sin: “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).  It would really be great if we didn’t have to wrestle and contend with our sin though!   God’s Word promises us that our fight with sin can be won with the Word of God. In fact, the battle with sin is first won or lost in the mind; listen to 2 Corinthains 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” James states, “ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).  You cannot win against your sin apart from the Word of God.   To believe the Bible to be the Word of God is good, but you cannot progress and grow in your relationship with God if you do not act upon His Word as it is contained in the Bible. The only way to move forward in your faith as a Christian is to hear the Word of God and then act upon the Word of God by doing what it tells you to do.  In the case of James 1:26-27, you have not really heard the Word of God if it has not affected your speech (v. 26).  You have not really heard the Word of God is you are not looking for ways to love others.  It is not enough to believe what the Bible says about the damage your words can do, the only way you will be able to start addressing the problem of your tongue is to, in the words of James, “bridle his tongue” (v. 26).   What God Has Said is More Important Than Your Feelings (vv. 19-21) We live in a world filled with people who are slow to hear, quick to speak, and at the flip of a switch... explode with anger.  We easily respond to the wounding of our pride with anger.  Ecclesiastes 7:9 says of angry people: “Do not be eager in your spirit to be angry, for anger resides in the heart of fools.”  If Ecclesiastes is true, and I believe that it is, then we live in a nation of fools.  There is a righteous anger that ought to be felt and at times expressed, when necessary, but the kind of anger we see all around us has more to do with feeling triggered, hurt feelings, and whatever entitlements we think belong to us.  We will look at James 4:14 later in this sermon series, but for now, we are told: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.”   What is uncomfortable about the epistle of James is that it forces us to consider the simple reality that all of us are here one moment and then we are gone.  You may have 76 years like Ozzy Ozborne or 71 years like Hulk Hogan, or... you may only have until tomorrow!  The question James wants us to ask and that he answers is this: What are you chasing after and why?  Why are you so slow to listen? Why are you so quick to speak? Why are you quick to get angry?   This is why Jesus started his sermon on the mount with the first step towards the life you were born to experience: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3).  To be “poor in spirit” is to recognize just how far short you fall from being right before the only One who matters—namely God. To be “poor in spirit” is to recognize that you cannot help yourself. To be “poor in spirit” is to be fully aware that you need a righteousness that you cannot generate.    If you are genuinely poor in spirit, you will mourn over the sin that offended a holy God, alienated you from Him, and is the reason for the mess that is your life.  There is no coming to God unless you see your sin for what it really is, and if you see it for what it is, then you will come to him with the very keen awareness that your only hope is outside of yourself.    If you really do mourn over your sin while aware that you need God to do the saving, then you will be meek.  The choice of the NASB to translate “praus” to gentle in Matthew 5:5 was a poor discission by the translators.  Every other major version of the Bible translates this world “meek” or “humble.”  To be see yourself for what you really are, and if you see yourself for what you really are, you will not be too impressed with yourself.    So, James states in verses 21, “Therefore, ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility [prautēs] receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” The word James uses in verse 21 for humility comes from the same root that Jesus used in His third beatitude! If you received the word, you received the gospel.  If you received the gospel, you have been born again and the power that raised Jesus from the grave, is the same power that now resides in you in the person of the Holy Spirit who indwells and seals you (see Eph. 1:13-14; 3:20-21).    How do I address the filthiness and wickedness that remains in me?  Be quick to hear what the Word of God says about it, keep your mouth shut by accepting it, and instead of responding in anger, respond in humility.  Who cares about your feelings, what you ought to really care about is what has God said and why does it matter?         What God Wants to Do in Your Life is Greater than What You Know (vv. 22-25) If I understand the Christian life and how it is that God brings change in our lives, it seems to me that for God to accomplish what He needs to in my life, He must wound my ego by exposing my thoughts and the intentions of my heart.  James exhorts us in verse 22, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.”  The author of Hebrews said of the Word of God: “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).   What James states in verse 19 is primarily how it is that God uses His word in the lives of His people to live and finish well.  Why does God want this for your life?  Well, again, in verse 18, God used His word (the gospel) so that we can become born again, “so that we would be a kind of a first fruits among His creatures” (v. 18).  Here is the thing about first fruits: The Israelites were commanded to give God the first fruits of their crops which was the best of their crops.  If you are a Christian, you are God’s first fruits, which means you are of great value to Him, and what He wants for you is to thrive as His child!    If you are a Christian, then it is true that you, at one time, arrived at the cross of Christ as one who was poor in spirit, one who mourned over your sin, and one who died to the any notion that you were able to save yourself by laying down your pride to embrace the cross of Christ as the only hope of your salvation and redemption.  So what has changed since then?  Not a thing! The evidence that the gospel has germinated and taken root in your life is that you are still poor in spirit, that you still mourn over your sin, and that you are still aware that it is only by the grace of God that you have been saved, are saved, and will be saved.    In the mind of James, and every other person who contributed to the Bible, those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn over their sins, and those who let go of their pride come to Christ, it is not enough to only hear the word of God!  Why? Because when a person is born again, something happened that happens to all people who are alive: you are now hungry and thirsty.  But hungry and thirsty for what? Hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of God.  After the first, second, and third beatitude, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6).   When you are hungry and when you are thirsty for the word of God, it is not enough to just listen to the word of God.  This is the point of verses 23-25, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets wh

There are two quotes that have stuck with me that have helped me over the years: The first is from AW Tozer who said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.”  The second is from John Bunyan who said, “Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think... It is wounding work, this breaking of the hearts, but without wounding there is no saving... Where there is grafting there will always be a cutting, the graft must be let in with a wound; to stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back to back or there will be no sap from root to branch. And this, I say, must be done by a wound, by a cut.”[1]   Throughout the Bible, I see the wisdom of Tozer and Bunyan’s counsel as it relates to the hard stuff we experience in life.  As much as God has used AW Tozer and John Bunyan, the real question is this: What has God said about the trials that will come and do we trust and believe Him enough to turn to Him even when we do not understand how He will work it out of our good?  It is to James that we now turn our attention to discover what God has said about it.    God’s Will for the Christian’s Life is to Finish Well God’s will for the life of the Christian is to receive the crown of life.  What is the crown of life you ask?  Ironically, it is a type of “victor’s crown” that the Christian will receive after he/she has died.  During the Isthmian games a crown in the form of a wreath would be awarded the victor who finished whatever event a Greek male athlete participated in. Like the Olympics of today, only the best of the best would compete after training harder than anything else in their lives in the hope that they could receive the coveted crown. Borrowing language from the games, Paul wrote of the Christian life: “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. So they do it to obtain a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way as not to run aimlessly; I box in such a way, as to avoid hitting air; but I strictly discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:25–27).  Just before he was executed, Paul wrote to Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).  The crown of life is eternal life with Jesus.   At first glance, it sounds like James is telling us that in order to receive the crown of life, we have got to dig deep and persevere.  This makes our salvation sound like we have to work for our salvation.  This is not what James is saying at all, and we know this because of verse 18, which states: “In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the word of truth...”  The “word of truth” is the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves.  It is of this gospel that Paul wrote in Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...” (Rom. 1:16).  It was because of God’s will that we went from spiritual death to spiritual life, and the evidence that we are now spiritually alive is with the life we are living today.  Listen to what Jesus said in John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.”  In John 10:16, Jesus said that the evidence of those who belong to Him is in how they respond to Him: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice; and they will become one flock, with one shepherd” (John 10:16).    So here is the rub that is very important that you not only hear me say, but that you take it to heart.  The one who perseveres to the end... even under and through various trials, is the one who was truly born again when they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ; it was in the moment that you were born again that you went from being spiritually dead to being alive with Christ!  The crown of life is given not based on your merit, but because of your relationship with Jesus.  It was His sinless life, His sacrificial death, and His victory over death that secured, secures, and will secure your salvation.  The crown of life is awarded on the basis of your relationship with Jesus with the understanding that His merit is all that you need!  The crown of life is not given to those who have good intentions, it is not given to those who are religious, it is not given because of some prayer you said, it is not given because you started out well, for it is given because you have been born again!  Here is what the apostle John said of those who do not persevere until the end: “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).    If you are wondering how you can know that you belong to Jesus and that you are indeed born again, James provides us with four words: “...those who love Him.”  The evidence that you have been born again besides the fact that you will persevere under trial, is that you love Him.  This is why Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed” (1 Cor. 16:22).   If you have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and have been born again as a result, you will love Jesus... which is evidence that God first loved you (1 John 4:9-19).   Now, when it comes to the trials in life (v. 12) and the temptation(s) we all face, what purpose do they serve in the Christian life?  James seems to indicate that “trials” are both allowed and designed by God while temptation comes from within and is used by the devil and his demons.  What you cannot see in your English Bible is that the root of the Greek word for “trial” (peirasmos) and the root for “temptation” (peirazō) comes from the same Greek root and both words can be translated “test” or “tempt.”   Trials are Designed by God to Ultimately Bless the Christian (vv. 12-13) So how do we make sense of these verses? Permit me to offer you an alternate translation of verse 13 that I think will open these verses up for you in a way that ought to help.  Here is what I think is a better and more helpful way to translate James 1:13, No one is to say when he is tested, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”   How do we know that God does not tempt us?  We know because He is a God of love, we know because He is good, and we know because He is holy! Because God is infinitely good, James states in verse 17, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”  Not only is God good, but because He is God, He has not, does not, and will not change.    Because God is good, every trial that God brings or allows into your life is designed to strengthen your faith... not destroy your it.  This is why James can say in verse 12 that when the trials do come, you can receive them knowing that such trials will ultimately serve for your blessing.  How do I know that?  For starters, it is the pattern we see with God in the way that He has always dealt with His people.   Consider Abraham as one example of how God will use and bring trials into the lives of His people to do the kind of thing that needs to happen in the life of the one who belongs to Him.  After Issac was born and old enough to know better, God told Abraham to take his only son and to offer him as a burnt offering (Gen. 22). What was the purpose of the testing? For starters, to show Abraham that his identity was not to be found in the son he and Sarah had longed for and prayed for their entire lives.  Did God make Abraham go through with the slaughtering of his only son?  Nope.  Abraham would have done it, but God stopped him and then said to him: “For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (v. 12).   For most of Abraham’s life, he struggled to trust God.  All throughout Abraham’s life God used the various trials in Abraham and Sarah’s lives that God brought, allowed, and even the trials Abraham brought upon himself to temper his faith to the point that by the time we come to Genesis 22, he knew he could trust God even when doing so did not make sense, such as God’s instructions to sacrifice Isaac.  How do I know this, besides the fact that Abraham was so committed to obeying God that God had to stop him from following through with sacrificing Isaac?  Here is how I know: When Abraham, Isaac, and his servants arrived at the mountain where Abraham was to follow through with God’s instructions, Abraham said to his servants something that reveals that something had changed in his heart; here is what he said: “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Gen. 22:5).  God told him to sacrifice Isaac, and the reason why Abraham was willing to go through with it was because over the years God was tempering Abraham’s faith to the point that he knew God well enough to know that the God who told him to kill his son was both good and able to raise the dead.  Abraham’s action was the evidence that his faith in God was not just lip service (see Jas. 2:20-23).   Temptation to Sin Comes from Within and Is Used by Satan to Destroy the Christian When the trials come, the primary danger we face in such moments is from within.  Suffering can serve as a catalys

There are moments in history, like the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King Jr., that I find helpful to define as thresholds.  Thresholds are what you have to cross to get from one room to another by entering through a door.  The shooting at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 was one such cultural threshold that we crossed as a nation.  Before April 20, 1999 there were 183 documented school-related shootings that included everything from suicides, gang-related incidents, and mass shootings. Since crossing that threshold on April 20th, 1999, there have been an additional 435 school shootings.    There are other defining moments that have affected America, such as the attacks on September 11, 2001. The political landscape and how candidates behave has affected our nation indefinitely. Now, we find ourselves in a place where it is not always safe to talk about the political party you belong to or who you voted for without risk to friendships or more.  We have crossed a political threshold that I am not sure we will ever recover from.     The 2020 COVID pandemic is another threshold our country crossed and the fruit was not the kind of unity we witnessed the days following 9/11, but anger, resentment, and unprecedented suspicion concerning just about everything.  Although the pandemic was global, it left a lasting mark upon Americans.   In 1993, the world wide web went mainstream, and that has affected American culture. In the early 2000’s smart phone went mainstream, and that has affected our culture. In 2023, AI went mainstream resulting in a global shift, and that is affecting our culture.  And now, truth is more difficult to discern than ever! Now, instead of helping those in need, we stare at a device that feeds us the kind of information that is literally driving us mad as a society!  If we are not staring at our phones, they are used to record acts of violence for show and entertainment.    I am not sure, but it seems to me that we crossed another threshold this past week. I believe we will be able to look back to September 10, 2025 as a,pivotal shift in American culture.  I am not sure what that will look like moving forward, but all that I can say is that while my confidence is fixed upon a greater hope, my heart aches for our country.    I do not know a lot about Charlie Kirk, but I did watch some of his open-air debates on some of the college campuses he visited.  While I do not agree with all of his viewpoints, I did agree with him on two fundamental core values he had before he was assassinated on Wednesday: "When people stop talking, that's when you get violence." Charlie Kirk believed that we should be able to debate charitably even when we do not agree.   “Jesus saved my life. I’m a sinner.  I gave my life to Christ, and that is the most important decision I’ve ever made.” Charlie Kirk believed that Jesus was only hope for the forgiveness of sins, redemption, salvation, and eternal life.  It was reported that minutes before Kirk was shot and killed, he shared 2 Corinthians 5:15 with the crowd: “and He died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.” (2 Cor. 5:15)   If you believe that Jesus rose from the grave, then that ought to change everything for you.  It ought to affect the way you live your life in light of the reality that God does indeed exist and that what He has said about Himself and creation is true.  To believe and submit your life before the risen Christ, is to yield to Him as Lord over your life.  In so doing, you do not get to decide what parts of the Bible do or do not apply to you unless the Bible (the Word of God) has already made that clear.  Many of the things that Charlie said came from a conviction that the Bible was and is the Word of God.    The reason why Kirk’s assassination feels like a significant threshold in history that we as a nation have crossed is because he was assassinated by someone who hated what Charlie Kirk said and stood for. What adds to the heaviness that I feel is that some within the media publicly celebrated his death and many others posted to their TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook accounts celebratory responses to his death.  This is why I posted to my Facebook account the following statement: Timothy, a pastor in Ephesus and the recipient of two of the epistles that are included in the Bible, was beaten by an angry pagan mob, then dragged through the streets, and finally stoned to death by that same angry mob because they did not like what he said about the ungodly nature of the pagan Artemis festival; Timothy spoke up because he was a Christian. The murder of Charlie Kirk and the response of some in the media feels like that to me. I believe his assassination was more than political and that we witnessed the first martyrdom in America.    What I wrote is how I am processing my thoughts and feelings.  What I feel is not as or more important then what the Word of God says about what is happening in our world.  So, let’s look at James 5:7-20 to see how the Word of God can speak into what we are feeling.   Patiently Watch for His Returning (vv. 7-11) Just as the farmer understands that he has no control over the germination of the seeds he plants and must wait until his crops grow and mature before they can be reaped, so it is with the return of Christ. How are we to be patient?  James tells us four ways that we are to be patient: We are to be patient until the coming of the Lord. (v. 7a) We are to be patient with the confidence that He is coming. (v. 7b) We are to be patient by standing on the promise of His coming. (v. 8) We are to be patient by enduring suffering while we wait for His coming. (v. 10)   We are to be patient until the coming of the Lord. (v. 7a) The fact of the matter is that Jesus is coming back.  How do we know that? We know because He walked out of the tomb!  How will He come back?  Jesus said when He comes, He will do so with a host of angels and that His return will be visible and it will be noticed! Jesus said that when He comes, “all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30).  We patiently wait because although it is true that He is coming, He is “coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40).   We are to be patient with the confidence that He is coming. (v. 7b) When Jesus ascended to heaven after He had risen from death while the disciples stared off into the sky, two angels appeared and asked, “ ...and they said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:11).  In some ways, we can do the same thing but just sitting around while staring up into the sky is not what the angels meant when they asked the disciples that question. They continued: “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”   We are to be patient by standing on the promise of His coming. (v. 8) Standing is not sitting.  What I mean by the word “Stand” is the same thing that James means with his words: “You too be patient; strengthen your hearts...”  You strengthen your heart by filling your mind with the promises of God’s word.  You do it with the kinds of promises Jesus left us with: “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be” (John 14:1-3).  We strengthen our hearts by doing the kind of things we read in the Bible such as Hebrews 10:24-25, “...let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”   We are to be patient by enduring suffering while we wait for His coming. (v. 10) What was it that enabled the prophets who suffered ridicule, financial hardship, beatings, and even death at the hands of the people God sent them too?  They were holding onto a better promise!  They were looking for a different city, a “city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).  This is why Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, “choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward” (11:25-26).   While Job found himself swimming in the pain of great loss and unrelenting pain, he was surrounded by friends and a wife who only added to his burden.  Covered in sores and nothing to show of the great wealth he once enjoyed, the one person who should have been a source of encouragement said this to Job: “Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold firm your integrity? Curse God and die!’” What does the kind of patience James encourages us to have look like in the life of Job? Here is how he answered his wife: “Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity” (Job 2:9-10)?    How did Job endure?  He endured by first remembering that God is good, which enabled Job to endure while suffering because his eyes were focused on an infinitely good God! However, he did not only hold onto the assurance that God is good, he held onto the promise of His coming: “Yet as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last, He will take His stand on the earth. ‘Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I will see God, whom I, on my part, shall behold for myself, and whom

Imagine for a moment that eternity is like one long and endless rope.  At the beginning of that rope is a red section that is about 4 inches long representing your life from birth to death.  The average life expectancy for humans globally is 73 years and 78.4 years if you live in the United States.  To put that into perspective, 78.4 years is only 28,616 days of life... maybe.  The four-inch-long red section of an endless rope is your life.    Seventy-eight years (28,616 days) may sound like a lot of time but consider that 9,450 days of your life is spent sleeping which leaves us with $19,166 days away from birth to death... if we live out our 78 days.  Not counting the time we need for sleep, permit me to provide a little perspective: If you are 15 years old, you have about 23,141 days to go before your 78th If you are 25 years old, you have about 19,491 days to go before your 78th If you are 30 years old, you have about 17,666 days to go before your 78th If you are 50 years old, you have about 10, 366 days to go before your 78th Whatever your age is, don’t forget to consider the 5 hours and 16 minutes spent on your phone each day.   That red mark on that very, very long rope also represents how much time you are in the bathroom, looking for something you lost, hours you spend in education or working, and whatever else that consumes your time.  Regardless of the time you think you have left, you might not be here tomorrow.    The entire epistle is James pleading with us not to be so foolish to live our lives with all our language, all our energy, and all of our passion invested in the red portion of the rope.  James calls us to live the red part of our lives on the rope of eternity!   So, here’s what I hope to do with the time we share. I want to devote our attention to James 4:13-16, because everything James warns us about stems from his reflections on how brief and delicate our lives truly are. When I say “temporal,” I’m referring to the fleeting and fragile nature of our existence. But before we dive into James 4:13-16, let’s take a moment to explore the verses that come before and after, setting the stage for a fuller understanding.       The Fruit of Temporal Living is a Life Wasted James cautions us about five pitfalls that people can easily fall into if they live like this life is all there is. The apostle Paul echoed a similar idea, saying that if there’s no resurrection and no hope beyond death, then it would be logical to live just for the moment: “If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Corinthians 15:32). Thankfully, the reality of the empty tomb affirms that what the Bible teaches about life, death, and what lies beyond is true.    If we believe this life is all there is, then it’s logical to chase after pleasure for our own sake. This is the essence of secular hedonism—seeking fulfillment in what is immediate and self-focused, disconnected from any greater purpose. James explains that this perspective grows out of the same source as worldly wisdom, which he describes as “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (Jas. 3:14). In James 4:11–5:6, he outlines the harmful outcomes that spring from this outlook. Importantly, James directs these warnings to Christians, urging them to recognize and resist these patterns.   Self-centered speech (4:11-12) Slander is a kind of speech that elevates the person doing it above others—and, ultimately, above the authority of God’s commands. The issue isn’t that Christians should never judge others; in fact, Scripture often calls us to hold one another accountable (see Matt. 7:15-16). Rather, James cautions against speech that tears down rather than builds up, words that fail to encourage others in their walk with God (see Jas. 2:8-10; Heb. 10:24-25).   Self-centered pursuits (4:13-16) This kind of planning assumes that we are in complete control of our own destinies, confident that we’ll rise to greet the day as we expect. James cautions us against making life plans without seeking God’s guidance, warning that self-centered pursuits often revolve around our own abilities and ambitions rather than the purpose our Creator has for us.   Self-centered responsibilities (4:17): The person who knows, “the right thing to do and does not do it” is the person who lives according to his/her own moral code.  For James, this is the Christian whose decisions are shaped by what he/she wants to do over what God’s word has said we must do.  Included in this kind of rebellion is the Christian who knows that God is leading him/her into a certain direction, but refuses to yield to God over what he/she wants.   Self-centered riches (5:1-3) When we adopt the view that this life is all there is, it becomes natural to seek comfort and gain at the expense of others. James speaks especially strongly against those in the church who ignore the needs of the poor to enrich themselves. The issue isn’t money itself—after all, financial resources are vital for supporting missions and ministries. Nor does James condemn Christians simply for being wealthy. Instead, he challenges the relentless pursuit of wealth that disregards the truth that every blessing comes from God, entrusted to us for the purpose of advancing His work and serving those around us.     Self-centered advantages (5:4-6) Some members of the churches James wrote to were taking advantage of others by withholding the wages rightfully earned by their workers. This injustice stemmed from greed—a desire to live for personal pleasure, placing themselves at the center of their worlds, often at the expense of those around them (v. 5). By refusing to pay the laborers, they not only pursued selfish gain but also acted with disregard and even malice, putting the well-being of the righteous at risk. As James writes in verse 6, “You have condemned and put to death the righteous person...”   The Christian should know better than to live in the sorts of ways James warns us about.  These things James lists are grievous sins, and those guilty of such things should not take comfort in a salvation they might not possess.  The reason why James uses very strong language is to shock those guilty of such things out of their complacency and toward repentance. There is a judgement coming that we all must be mindful of as we live out our lives here: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).   The Fruit of Living in Light of Eternity, is a Life Well Spent   You do not exist for what is earthly, natural, and demonic.  You and the life you have today, in the words of James, is only “a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away” (4:14).  You are here and then you are gone, and just so you know, that is assuming that you have until your 78th birthday.  Who knows what will happen between now and tomorrow, and it assumes that you are going to be here with little to no regard that each moment is an undeserved gift from Almighty God! This is why we are admonished in these verses: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil”   The kind of boasting that is evil is the kind that assumes not only will you be getting up tomorrow, but also the failure to recognize that if you do get up in the morning, that God allowed it because there is a purpose greater than your plans for work, vacation, the honey-do-list your spouse created, or the leisure you crave.   Dear brothers and sisters, if you are a Christian, then the God who created everything found you in your sin and spiritual deadness.  The good news is that He not only found you, but He did not leave you to your sin and in your spiritual death!  Think about what this means for you! Think about the implications! You were dead, and now you are alive!  Listen to the way Colossians 2:13-14 describes what you have experienced: “And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”   Christian, do you know what this means?  You are now alive with Christ.  How did it happen?  The apostle Peter describes the miracle of new birth in his epistle: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1:9-10). Because of this, no matter what happens to you in this vapor-like life, Jesus promised that even if death comes, “not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 21:18).    Christian, because you are alive with Christ, because you belong to Him, because you have been rescued and delivered from the darkness of this world that is earthly, natural, and demonic... your citizenship is in heaven and what you do in this life is an investment for eternity.  James’ point in these verses is that you do not waste the life that God has gifted you.  You were made for joy, and that joy is only possible in Jesus (John 15:11). This is why the Christian is able to find joy in suffering knowing that this life is a vapor compared to what is ours as citizens of God’s kingdom. Remember how James begi

As I was preparing for this sermon, I read something that John Stankey, the CEO of AT&T, said back in 2022 with the acquiring of HBO concerning his goals for HBO that I think was very perceptive. It’s not hours a week, and it’s not hours a month. We need hours a day. You are competing with devices that sit in people’s hands that capture their attention every 15 seconds. I want more hours of engagement. Why are more hours of engagement important? Because you get more data and information about a customer that then allows you to do things like monetize through alternate models of advertising as well as subscriptions.   There’s a reason why social media platforms, streaming services, etc. are called “attention merchants.” They are working hard to capture our attention. Some people also call it “adhesiveness.” The longer they can get us to stick around, the more money they make.[1]   Stankey rebranded HBO to HBO Max, and under his leadership, subscriber growth more than doubled from 36 million to 76 million.    Social media platforms rely on sophisticated algorithms to decide which content appears in your feed and in what order. These invisible gatekeepers shape your online experience, curating what you see and when you see it, all with the aim of keeping you engaged for longer periods.   What is my point?  My point is that there are pressures that you are both aware of and unaware of that seek to influence you.  There may not have been the kinds of algorithms that we have today in the day, and age, James wrote his epistle, but they were no doubt there.  There is a system that is spiritual that is opposed to God that wants to do all that it can to draw you away from Him, and that system is what the Bible calls the “world.”  We were not made for the world, but for God. It is the tension we face as Christians to be pooled by the world or to draw close to God that he addresses in these verses.   Going with the Current of the World is Friendship with the World (vv. 1-5) We gravitate towards the kinds of things James lists in verses 1-5.  If comes naturally for us as a species to fight against each other. Remember what James wrote in 3:14; he said, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart...” your jealousy and selfish ambition is, “earthly, natural, and demonic” (v. 15).  Then in 4:1, James informs us that the source of our fighting with one another comes from that part of us the apostle John described: “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:16).   What James means by World is the ethics and principles that are motivated by a desire to dethrone God. The wisdom of the world encourages those who live in it to cater to what you want, give yourself everything your eyes desire and live life your way to get the most of it.  This is the wisdom of the world that James warns us of in chapter three, and it is here in chapter four that shows us how it affects everything around us.    The Greek word for “quarrels” can mean battle, fights, strife, or conflicts.  What instigates this kind of fighting with one another is what James calls our “pleasures.”  This is another Greek word that you knew without knowing that you had it in your vocabulary (last week it was the Greek word “zēlos” that the NASB decided to translate “jealous”); the Greek word of “pleasures” is hēdonē from which we get the word “hedonism.”    What is hedonism?  You may think that it is the pursuit of pleasure, and it certainly is that, but at its core, hedonism is the pursuit of joy. In fact, what we learn from the Bible is that we were made to pursue and experience joy.  There are scores of verses in the Bible I can show you, but for now, three should do: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4)   “You will make known to me the way of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Ps. 16:11)   “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials...” (Jas. 1:2)   The Word of God encourages us to pursue joy. Blaise Pascale, the famous philosopher, observed: “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”[2]   We even acknowledge that we were made for joy in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  However, what we were not made for is a joy that excludes a relationship with God.  The kind of worldly wisdom and joy-seeking that leads to conflicts is a secular wisdom and the Godless pursuit of joy.  This is kind of joy seeking is secular hedonism, and it is, “earthly, natural, and demonic” (3:14).   What is the fruit of secular hedonism?  James provides us with a list in verses that follow: Fact + result   “You lust and do not have... so you commit murder.” (v. 2a) Fact + result   “You are envious and cannot obtain...  so you fight and quarrel.” (v. 2b)   Fact + reason   “You do not have... because you do not ask.” (v. 2c) Fact + result “You ask and do not receive...” (v. 3a)   Full reason   “...because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures.” (v. 3b)[3]   What kind of joy seeking is James describing?  It is one where the pleasure and joy seeking is rooted in a world that is hostile towards God.  Secular hedonism is self-centered joy seeking that makes the one pursuing it the center of his/her universe.  So James accuses those who pursue such pleasures in verse 4 as “adulteresses.” Why?  Because he is writing to Christians who should know better that the only joy we were created for and the one that is lasting, is a joy that can only be found in God.  To seek your pleasure from this world, is to align yourself with the world by becoming its friend.  To this, James states emphatically: “do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (v. 4).   What do we do with verse five?  What does James mean?  There is much debate over the way this verse should be translated and some of the main versions of the English Bible show that.  Theologians are divided over whether the Greek word for “Spirit” is referring to the immaterial part of us that we also call our soul or if it is the Holy Spirit that every Christian receives at the moment he/she becomes a Christian.  Here is what I think James means by the statement: “Do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose, ‘He jealously desires the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”?  I think what he means is what we have seen in verses 1-4, and that is: we were made for a joy that can only be satisfied in God and the reason why He gave us a soul is the same reason He gave us the Holy Spirit, and that is to use our lives and to find our joy in Him.  In other words, we were born on this earth to know God, but because we are dead in our sins, God caused us to be born again and has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to live for Him for the purpose of finding our joy in Him (remember that James is writing to Christians). Abiding in the Word is Friendship with God (vv. 6-10) So what is the solution for the kind of problem James lists for us in verses 1-5?  He provides us with the answer in verses 6-10.  It’s really found in verse 6; let’s read it slowly and thoughtfully: “But He gives a greater grace.  Therefore it says...” What says? from the same Scripture in verse 5 James referred to: “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”   God created you; you did not create Him.  Of all the gods that people worship, there is only One who is the Creator and we were made for Him just as the apostle Paul testified before a group of idol worshipers at Mars Hill: “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’” (Acts 17:26-28)   God created us to know Him, but humans are fallen, sin-cursed, and spiritually dead!  What hope is there for a humanity bent on finding their satisfaction and joy in anything or anyone but the One who created mankind in His image?  James doesn’t need to explain the gospel again to his readers because they have already heard it and received it, all that he needs is one word, and that word is “grace.”  Christian, how is it that you have gone from death to life in Jesus?  How is it that you have been called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light?  How is it that you have been born again and are now sealed by God’s Holy Spirit and are a child of God?  Just one word will do! “He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”   Because you have received a “greater grace” there is a greater joy available to you.  Remember what it was that brought you to the cross of Christ: You came to Jesus because you were poor in spirit, you came to Him because you mourned over your sins, you came to Him because you could not save yourself.  There is no coming to Jesus if you are not willing to humble yourself before Him; it is Je

Through every sentence and paragraph that makes up James’s epistle, it oozes with wisdom as to how the Christian can live out his/her faith.  The epistle helps us understand what faith looks like while suffering, how it responds to both poverty and wealth, how faith in Jesus impacts our speech, and how our faith as Christians helps us navigate life in our upside-down world.    The group of Christians James addressed his letter to were Jewish Christians who understood what it meant to be a marginalized people, even before faith in Jesus; but after belief in Jesus as the promised Messiah, they were also ostracized by members of their community, and for some, their own family members.    So, who was James? Let me begin by stating the two things that we know about the person who wrote this epistle: 1) James was the half-brother of Jesus, and 2) he did not believe in Jesus until he witnessed His resurrection.  Here is why I am mostly certain that James, the half-brother of Jesus (and not the apostle James) wrote this epistle: The apostle James died by execution under Herod before this epistle was written (Acts 12:1-2), and the James mentioned in Galatians 2 and Acts 15 is the brother of Jesus who became a predominant leader in the Jerusalem church.   We are told in the gospels that Jesus had biological brothers who were born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus’ birth who did not fully believe in Jesus even though they grew up with Jesus (see Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3; John 7:3-5).   Jesus appeared to his brother, James, and then to the rest of His brothers, after his resurrection (see 1 Cor. 15:6-7).   However, when James did finally believe in Jesus, he was all-in on who his older brother claimed to be, and his belief was backed up by his life, actions, and convictions.  Not only was James all-in when it came to Jesus, but how he introduced himself in his epistle tells us a lot about who he was as a man of God: “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad...” (v. 1).   James does not introduce himself as the half-brother of Jesus, but as a “bond-servant” of God.  The Greek word for “bond-servant” is doulos, and it literally means “slave.”  In other words, James’ authority as a leader does not come from his biological relationship to Jesus, but his submission to the Lordship of Christ, not as his older brother, but as the King of kings and Lord of lords.  The other thing to note here is that James places “God” and “the Lord Jesus” side-by-side, implying that Jesus’ words before James believed are the truth that he has since bowed his knee too (see John 10:30).    I believe that James finally believed that his brother was the Messiah when Jesus appeared to him after He rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:6-7), which is a good reminder right from the very beginning of James, that no one who has truly encountered the resurrected Christ can remain unchanged by an encounter with the living Christ.  James went from a doubter who grew up with Jesus to a believer who would identify himself as a slave to God, and held Jesus as the Lord over his life.      The dispersed Christians James addressed his letter to most likely include hundreds of Christians who fled Jerusalem as a result of the stoning of Stephen and the great persecution Saul (before his conversion and was renamed “Paul”) and others brought upon the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.  I think James originally addressed his letter to those we read about in Acts 8:1-3, “Now Saul approved of putting Stephen to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen, and mourned loudly for him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and he would drag away men and women and put them in prison.”   It was to these Christians (and others), and now to us, that James’ letter addresses.  The two great themes that are repeated through this epistle are faith (a word used at least 14 times) and obedience to God as the fruit of genuine faith (there over 50 imperatives given throughout James regarding this).  This is the reason for the title of my sermon series: Faith and Works.  There were other titles I thought of while preparing for this sermon series that came to mind, such as: Faith-Acts, Faith-Works, but settled for Faith and Works.  If you are looking for a verse that encapsulates the theme of James, I submit to you James 2:17, “In the same way, faith also, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”   With the time that I have left, I would like to direct your attention to three categories that James addresses in verses 2-11 that set the tone for the rest of the epistle: 1) suffering and joy (vv. 2-4), 2) wisdom and knowledge (vv. 5-8), and 3) poverty and wealth (vv. 9-11).   Suffering and Joy are Compatible (vv. 1-4) Suffering and joy sound just as incompatible as water and oil do they not?  Whoever wanted to sign up for a healthy dose of suffering?  You might be thinking to yourself: “Jesus did.”  You are correct in thinking so, but do not forget that on the eve of His suffering, we are told our Lord prayed while in agony over what He was about to suffer: “And being in agony, He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:44).  Jesus even included in His prayer, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (22:42).   The world tends to look at joy and suffering as incomparable, but James gives us a different perspective, he informs these dispersed Jewish Christians who have lost their homes and loved ones, “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials...” Notice that James does not use the word “some” but the word “all” when it comes to the level of joy that we should have over the “various trials” we will experience in life.     Why should we consider it “all joy” when things get difficult in life? On the surface, it sounds like James is giving us the same advice Bobby McFerrin gave us in the late 80’s with his one-hit-wonder song, Don’t Worry, Be Happy. Some of you remember the song: Here's a little song I wrote You might want to sing it note for note Don't worry, be happy In every life we have some trouble But when you worry you make it double Don't worry, be happy   Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style Ain't got no one to make you smile Don't worry, be happy Cos when you worry, your face will frown And that will bring everybody down So don't worry, be happy   Did you know that McFerrin’s song was number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks straight and that he received a Grammy for Song of the Year for that song?  If James told these Christians the same thing Bobby McFerrin wrote in his song, they would have assumed that James was out of touch at best, and crazy at worse!  Thankfully, James is not telling Christians who face the various trials that come our way to fake a smile and repeat to ourselves: “Don’t worry, be happy.”  That just will not work!  James also experienced the fear his dear brothers and sisters experienced when persecution came into their city, and he no doubt felt the loss of dear Stephen when he had his head and body crushed under a barrage of rocks that resulted in Stephen’s martyrdom (see Acts 7).    James is not talking about putting a smile on your face or faking your joy after receiving news of a terminal illness, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one.  He is reminding us that there is purpose behind our suffering even when it is brought to us by the hands of evil men or rouge cells in your body. Behind your suffering is a good God who does not waste your tears nor your hurts.  What James wants these Christians to understand, and what the Spirit of God wants us to know, is that the various trials you will experience are allowed into your life by design and with purpose.  Consider what two other apostles had to say about the purpose of suffering in the Christian life: The Apostle Peter: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ...” (1 Pet. 1:6–7)   The Apostle Paul: “...but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom. 5:3–5)   It is also important to note that James informs us that trials will come.  The question is not “if” they come, but “when” they come (v. 2). We will come back to the significance of verses 3-4 next week when we look at verse 12, but for now you should know that your trials are producing something in you dear Christian. What those trials are producing is the kind of endurance that is fueled by hope because what others mean for evil, or what the hard things in life will ultimately be used for is not your demise or destruction, but your good, because such trials are allowed for two purposes in your life: God’s glory and your good.  What else could verse 4 mean?  Such trials are wielded by the Almighty to bring about the following in your life: “...that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”    Again, we will unpack this truth a bit more next week, but for now, think of “trials” as “trails” that God has purposed to use, to bring about verse 12 in your life: “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those

The Bible begins with a garden, and it ends with a garden.  In the first garden, Adam and Eve sinned and what they received and what we inherited was a curse. To Eve and all her daughters, God said: “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall deliver children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16).  To Adam and all his sons, God said: “Cursed is the ground because of you; with hard labor you shall eat from it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; yet you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:17–19).  Essentially, what the curse would produce for them was the kind of suffering that sticks.   What do I mean by characterizing the curse with the kind of pain that sticks with you?  If you have ever suffered from nerve pain, you know from experience the kind of pain I am talking about.  There are some prescription medications that can help numb you to the pain, but nerve pain is very difficult to treat.  If you have had sciatica, any form of back pain, a pinched nerve, or anything of that nature, you have experienced the kind of pain that sticks.    Sometime ago I read a quote from someone who said, “Our first parents’ bit into the forbidden fruit and our teeth have ached ever since.”  That person was not referring to the kind of ache you might experience when you bit into something cold or hard, no... the kind of ache is the one I experienced after having all four impacted wisdom teeth taken out of my jaw in my late 20’s.  The curse has left us with a kind of aching that sticks and is with us until our final breath, and it is this ache that leaves us with tears.  Tears over our broken world, tears over a relationship, tears over wayward children, tears over the hurt and damage caused by parents, tears over the problems sin causes in our world and to our own selves.    The House that Adam and Eve Had Adam and Eve enjoyed the presence of God in a Garden that was not at all dissimilar to the tabernacle the Israelites set up and tore down as they journeyed in the wilderness, nor was it unlike the temple Solomon built after David’s death.  The tabernacle and temple were designed as a model to reflect Eden as the “house of the Lord.”    What Adam and Eve had in the garden was a gift from God that included the presence of God; In his excellent book, The Warrior Savior, Owen Strachan wrote of Eden, “From the start, God sought faithfulness on the part of his people through testing.  He gave them a forest-garden overflowing with beauty and gladness, trees spilling unblemished fruit, but he also gave them a prohibition—one delivered under the starkest terms: death from disobedience.”[1]   The tabernacle and the temple served to remind God’s people not only of the beauty of Eden but the promise that His people would one day be where He is... in His presence.  So, when David wrote the last line in Psalm 23, it was the promise of God to restore what was lost in Eden that he had his heart and eyes set upon.  To be in the house of the Lord is to be with the Lord.  David does not have a building in mind here, but to be in the presence of God.  The house of the Lord is not a structure but wherever it is that He dwells.  What made the loss of Eden so devastating and catastrophic was not Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the garden, but that they were driven away from the presence of God.  In other words, what made Eden home was the presence of God not the other things that were a part of Eden’s beauty.    Before Adam and Eve were driven outside of the garden, God cursed the snake and promised the first couple that things would not stay cursed because He would send a Deliverer to reverse the curse of sin.  The serpent entered God’s house (the Garden) and enticed Eve and her husband to doubt God and question both His goodness and faithfulness! In the garden the crafty and cunning snake spoke: “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” Eve replied: “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die’” (Gen. 3:2–3).  The serpent then went in for the strike: “You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4–5).  Adam and Eve succumbed to Satan’s temptation and bit into the forbidden fruit, but that is not how the story ends!   God found the couple and He spoke to the great serpent what is a promise to all mankind: “And I will make enemies of you and the woman, and of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel” (Gen. 3:15). Strachan observes: “In Genesis 3, the snake spoke first. But the snake did not have the last word in Eden, just as the devil will not have the last word in history.” Strachan continues: “When God shows up, the hiding stops, and justice rolls down.... the God who comes to earth is not only pursuing a mission of justice.  This God is, even more, about to unleash a great rolling flood of mercy.”[2]    It is the promise of a better Eden through the promise of a snake-stomping redeemer that David had in mind when he wrote: “Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life, and my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever” (v. 6).  Who can guide me, who can restore me, who will keep me, who will bless me, and who is it that loves me?  It is the Lord of the 23rd Psalm and He will lead me to the place where I will be able to see Him face-to-face in His house forever.    The House that We are Promised We have seen over and over again throughout this series that the Lord of the 23rd Psalm is Jesus the Good Shepherd, for He said of Himself: “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10:14-15).  The serpent is a thief, and Jesus said of him: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).  The 23rd Psalm is the promise of the abundant life that can only be experienced through the good shepherd.  The abundant life includes the table He has prepared before me in the presence of my enemies (v. 5a).  The abundant life is to have His favor in the form of the oil He has anointed my head with and the cup he has placed in my hand that is overflowing with His blessing!  This is what Paul meant when he wrote Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ...” The cup of God’s favor is Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace.”    Now, think again what it is that the 23rd Psalm is saying to those of us who have been found by the good shepherd.  The good shepherd leads me: “The Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in need. He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.”   The good shepherd restores me: “He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.”   The good shepherd keeps me: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.   The good shepherd blesses me: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows.   The good shepherd loves me: Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life, and my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever.   What does this all mean?  There are no green pastures or quiet waters without Jesus leading you.  There is no restoration for your soul or the righteousness you need apart from Jesus as your guide.  There is no walking THROUGH the valley of deep darkness apart from Jesus keeping and guarding you.  There is no blessing and treasuring of God upon you without Jesus. Finally, there is no goodness, faithfulness, and a better Eden apart from the God who loved you so much that He sent His one and only Son!    Why did David long to dwell in the house of the Lord? What is it that makes heaven great? For what reasons does the promise of a better Eden outweigh all the sorrows of this world?  These questions have nothing to do with the place and location of the house of the Lord, heaven, a new and better Eden, but everything to do with the One who is in the House David longed to dwell, heaven, and the new and better Eden.   When Jesus prayed hours before His crucifixion, He prayed this: “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).  This is one of the reasons Jesus assured His disciples: “In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be” (John 14:2–3).  For David, the blessing of being in the house of the Lord forever was that he would be with the Good Shepherd forever. In his commentary on Psalm 23, James Johnston commented on this very point: “Take away the people and a house becomes a sad and empty place. The joy of Heaven is not mansions or streets of gold. Jesus is the joy of Heaven. It will be home because he is there.”[3]   The Better House that David Longed For For starters,

Have you ever been chased by a dog?  I have been chased numerous times, and not once did I ever feel wanted, special, or loved by any of the dogs that pursued me. Of all the times I have been chased by dogs while on a bike, my experiences have mostly been in Cheyenne.  I now arm myself with canine safe spray that will not harm any dog that decides to pursue me but will most definitely stop them from continuing!  So, what does any of this have to do with the 23rd Psalm?    In the 23rd Psalm, we have discovered that in pursuing the Lord as our shepherd, we find in Him all that we need.  In following Him, He causes me to lie down in green pastures.  When I pursue Him, He leads me to refreshing and lifegiving waters.  He is the one who restores my soul when I look to Him to satisfy my hunger and thirst for righteousness. Because the Good shepherd atoned for my sins on a cross I deserved, and then defeated death by rising from it, I fear no evil as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  Why do I fear NO evil?  As He leads Me, He is the one who carries a rod to protect me from my enemies and a staff to protect me from myself.  He is the one who sets a feast before me in the presence of my enemies, He is the one who anoints my head with oil, and He is the one who gives me the cup of His favor that is overflowing!    From the first verse to the fifth, the 23rd Psalm compels me to follow the Good Shepherd for my good and the sake of His name until we come to verse six: “Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life...”  I hope to show you why David shifts from our need to follow the shepherd to the degree, nature, and length “goodness” and “faithfulness” follows His sheep.  I hope to do this by answering the following three questions:   What is the nature of the “goodness” and “faithfulness” that is following the Jesus’ sheep? To what degree is “goodness” and “faithfulness” following me? For how long can I expect “goodness” and “faithfulness” to follow me?   What is the Nature of the “Goodness” and “Faithfulness” that is Following Me? So, where is the “goodness” and “faithfulness” coming from and to what degree is it “following” the Lord’s sheep... and what if anything does this have to do with dogs?  To answer that question, we need figure out how in the world “goodness” and “faithfulness” follows anyone or anything?    To answer this question, you need to see the verse that precedes it; look at verse 5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies...”  The “You” in verse 5 is Jesus, and it is He who prepares a table in the presence of my enemies.  Now, if He prepares a feast on a table before those who belong to Him in the presence of their enemies, what was it that the enemies were doing before the table was prepared?  Well... to answer that question, you need to consider verse 4, which states: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”  Now, follow the logic and flow of these verses.  If all that the enemies of those who sit at Jesus’ table can do is to angrily watch you feast on the banquet He has prepared for you with the oil of His favor upon your head and the overflowing cup of His blessing in your hand, then what do you think the nature of the “goodness” and “faithfulness” is that is following you?    To get a clearer understanding of the nature of what it is that is “following” Jesus’ sheep, you should understand the manner in which goodness and faithfulness is following them.  The Hebrew word for “follow” can be translated “follow after” but it is most commonly translated “chase” or “pursue.”  The NASB, the NJKV, and the NIV all chose to use the English word “follow” while the CSB and the NLT have chosen to use the word “pursue.”  Listen to how the NLT translates this verse: “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever” (Ps. 23:6, NLT).  The image that should come to mind from Psalm 23:6 is not that of a shepherd who passively follows His sheep with the hope to bless them, but a shepherd who pursues His sheep to lavish goodness and faithfulness upon them!    Okay, but what of the goodness and faithfulness that is pursuing Jesus’ sheep?  What does that mean for you Christian?  The Hebrew word for good that is used here is used in Nahum 1:7, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him.” It is the same Hebrew word used for “good” in Psalm 196:1, “Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His mercy is everlasting.”  Do you know why it is that “goodness” follows God’s people?  It is because He is good!    There is another word we need to consider together to understand why Psalm 23:6 is good news, and that word is “faithfulness” and it comes from the Hebrew word, khesed, and it literally means, “mercy,” “loving-kindness,” God’s “steadfast love,” and His “enduring faithfulness.”  It is a word that describes God’s covenantal faithfulness towards His people, and it is a word God used to encourage and embolden Moses after he asked if He could see God’s glory; this is how God answered Moses: “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion” (Exod. 33:19).  So God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and passed by Moses, and as God passed by Moses, this is what the Lord declared: “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness [chesed] and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” (Exod. 34:6–7)   So, for God to make all His goodness to pass before Moses, He declared His covenantal love and faithfulness.  These are the two Hebrew words David uses to describe what it is that pursues and chases after those who belong to the Good Shepherd!  The oil on your head and the overflowing cup in your hand is because of the “goodness” and “faithfulness” that chases after you.  And oh, dear Christian, there is more to consider, and we will do it by answering the second question.   To What Degree is “Goodness” and “Faithfulness” Following Me? The goodness of God and the covenantal faithfulness of God is who He is!  He is infinitely good, and He is infinitely faithful!  Do not misunderstand what it means to have the “goodness” and the “faithfulness” of verse 6 pursue you!  The “goodness” is God’s goodness, and the “faithfulness” is God’s faithfulness, and both chase after you because He chases after you!  He found you dear Christian!  He pursued you when and while you were still in your sins!  What does it look like to have “goodness” and “faithfulness” pursue you?  It looks like Ephesians 2:1-5, “And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ...” (Eph. 2:1–5)   What does the “goodness” and “faithfulness” of God look like?  It looks like Romans 8:28-30, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” (Rom. 8:28–30)   What does it look like to have the “goodness” and “faithfulness” of God chase after you? It looks like Jesus and His promise to His sheep: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.... My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:10-11, 27–29)   The “goodness” of God and His covenantal “loving-kindness/faithfulness” is pursuing me because Jesus is not interested in tagging along, hanging back, and no... Jesus is not waiting to see what I will do!  Jesus is the good shepherd who pursues His sheep!  Listen, it is because of the goodness of God and His khesed (mercy, loving-kindness, steadfast love, and faithfulness): That while you were dead in your sins, He made you alive together with Christ. It had nothing to do with your performance and what you could offer God and everything to do with His rich mercy, great love, and all-sufficient grace.   He pursued you not because He had to, but because He wanted to cause all things to work together for your good and His glory for His glorious purposes. He called you Christian to, “become conformed to the image of His Son” and that is why He predestined, called, justified, and one day will glorify you.   It is not because God needed you that His goodness and faithfulness pursued you; no, it is because the infinitely good and faithful shepherd laid down His

In 1939, J.R. Tolkin took Robert Dickman’s hypothesis one step further in a lecture he delivered titled, “On Fairy Stories.”  In his lecture, Tolkin said the following about fairytales and those who create them: Probably every writer making a secondary world, a fantasy, every sub-creator, wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from reality, or are flowing into it…. The peculiar quality of the “joy” in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth.   The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind, which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories….  But this story is supreme, and it is true.  Art has been verified.  God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves.  Legend and History have met and fused.[1]   In the Bible, the three great antagonists that we face in our story include the great serpent, the problem of sin, and death (in that order).  Satan entered into the Garden as a serpent where the first man and woman enjoyed true love with both God and each other, they were tempted to sin against God by the Serpent.  Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit that God commanded them not to eat and a curse was pronounced upon all of creation, and ever since that fateful day, sin and death have vandalized the peace we were created to enjoy with God.  In the wake of Adam and Eve’s rebellion and under the shadow of evil and death, God gifted Adam and Eve a promise: The great serpent would one day be destroyed: “And I will make enemies Of you and the woman, And of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)   So who or what is the serpent? In The Lord of the Rings, he is the Dark Lord Sauron.  In The Wizard of Oz, he is the Wicked Witch of the West.  In The Matrix, he is Agent Smith.  In The Chronicles of Narnia, he is the White Witch. In Superman, He is Lex Luther.  In Star Wars, he is Darth Vader and every evil Sith Lord before and after him.  The serpent is Lucifer, the devil, the father of lies, the accuser, and the great dragon.  There is another antagonist that is the consequence of our sin and rebellion, and that is “death.”  The word “gospel” simply means good news, and oh is there good news my dear brothers and sisters!  The apostle Paul spoke of it in his epistle to the Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). The gospel of Jesus Christ from Genesis through the last chapter of Revelation has everything that every great story requires, and it is a story that has the power to not only transform, but to save! The gospel of Jesus Christ is supreme because it is indeed true, and it is seen and heard throughout the 23rd Psalm!     The Good Shepherd Guides His Sheep through the Valley of Deep Darkness On resurrection Sunday, we looked at the first part of verse 4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me...”  Even if your first Sunday at Meadowbrooke was on that day, you should know by now that the Lord of the 23rd Psalm is the Good Shepherd, and His name is Jesus! He is my shepherd; therefore I will not be in need.  Why will I not be in need?  Well... because He is my bread of life who satisfies my hunger and quenches my thirst (John 6:35)!  Why will I not be in need?  Well... because He is the Light of the world who lights up the darkness that surrounds me (John 8:12)!  Why again will I never ever be in need so long as Jesus is my shepherd?  Well... let me tell you: He for me is the resurrection and the life who has promised that not even death can take from me what I already have in Him (John 11:25-26)!   Now, just because Jesus is my Shepherd, that does not mean that I am exempt from walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  As I said on Easter Sunday, we all must experience the valley of utter darkness that includes suffering, sickness, a broken world, and even death; however, those whose shepherd is Jesus only must walk through it while everyone else must walk in it.  For the one who does not know Jesus as the bread of life, the light of the world, and the resurrection of life will never know the kind of hope that transcends the grave.  For the one whose shepherd is not Jesus, the grave is death’s victory dance over you, and the news only gets worse beyond the grave.  Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).  Again, to all who would refuse Jesus as the good shepherd, He warned: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:13–14). Jesus is the narrow gate!   For those whose shepherd is Jesus, then the valley of the shadow of death is a temporary experience that you are only passing through.  Do you know what that means?  It means that there is life at the end of the valley!  There is a table, and there is oil, and there is a cup placed into your hand dear Christian that is overflowing with His goodness and faithfulness all the days of your life!  At that table, we will hold high that cup and toast: “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-57).    The Good Shepherd Comforts His Sheep with His Rod and Staff What is the significance of Jesus’ rod and staff?  For starters, He is the one leading us through the deep dark valleys on this side of eternity; while in the valley, we have no reason to fear evil because He is with us, and while with us... He is armed with His rod and staff.  In their commentary on the Psalms, Josh Smith and Daniel Akin comment: “We are going through the deep, dark valleys because our good shepherd is leading us! The dark valley is part of the path of righteousness.”[2] Not to belabor the point I made previously, but what does the dark valley include?  It includes pain, it includes suffering, it includes disease, it includes achy joints, it includes persecution, and it even includes death!  After all, Jesus did say: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b).  You may be saying in response to this: “Pastor Keith, what about what Jesus said in John 10:10?”  Here is what Jesus said: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly.”  The thief is anything or anyone that promises to give you what only Jesus is able to give, and the abundant life is a life with Jesus.    Now, what about the rod and staff?  Why not just the rod or only the staff?  Why both? The rod was typically used as offensive weapon against any predator that would threaten the sheep from the outside while the staff was used to direct, round up, and pull in the sheep.  While the rod is used to protect the sheep from enemies, the staff is used to protect the sheep from themselves.  Jesus guides me with His staff, and as He does, He leads me through the valley to the table where He has prepared a feast for me.  Because it is Jesus who carries the rod and the staff, I can be confident that Jesus will lead me to where I need to go, or as the apostle Paul put it: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6), and He will use His rod and staff to do it.  Or as one person wrote: “Jesus Christ, our Shepherd, is no emaciated weakling. Our Shepherd is a warrior, as shepherds had to be. No one can snatch his sheep out of his hand (John 10:28). The muscles of his arm are flexed to defend his flock; he doesn’t carry a club for nothing. He is obviously enough for whatever the valley throws at us.”[3]   What is the point of verse 4?  Here is the point: If Jesus is my shepherd, then even in the darkest moments of life I have all that I need because I have Him.  Or, as the modern hymn, Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me, so adequately and helpfully states: The night is dark, but I am not forsaken For by my side, the Savior, He will stay I labor on in weakness and rejoicing For in my need, His power is displayed To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me Through the deepest valley, He will lead Oh, the night has been won, and I shall overcome Yet not I, but through Christ in me   The Good Shepherd Prepares a Feast for His Sheep in the Presence of Their Enemies So, where is He leading me? Where is He leading you dear Christian? What is waiting for me, and what is waiting for all who are being led by the Good Shepherd?  A table that has been prepared by Jesus is what is waiting for His sheep.  What is on that table?  A feast is what is on that table!  What is the meaning of this feast that He has prepared?  It is a testament, it is proof, and it is a witness to God’s favor upon His sheep.  This, my friend, is the “abundant life” Jesus provides!  Again, another set of verses from Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me rings true! No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven The future's sure, the price, it has been paid For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon And He was raised to overthrow the grave   To this I hold, my sin has been defeated Jesus, now and ever is my plea Oh, the chains are released, I can sing, "I am free" Yet not I, but through Christ in me   Where is the table set for His redeemed to feast?  It is set in the place that my enemies are made to watch and not per

Nobody expected Jesus to rise from the dead, not even His disciples and those closest to Him expected Him to get up and walk out of the tomb.  It did not matter to His disciples that Jesus said that He would “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise from the dead” (Mark 8:31), because what He said fell upon deaf ears at the time. On the day of Jesus’ death, everyone believed that He had lost, and evil had won.  There was no coming back in the minds of all who watched Him die, and for good reason!  When a person was sentenced by Rome to be crucified, it was a sentence that was equally horrible as it was terminal. Jesus died and was buried in a tomb.   When Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to Jesus’s tomb, they went to anoint a decomposing and dead Jesus to cover up the stench of death while His disciples mourned. What these women were expecting was a very dead body.  When they arrived at the tomb and found the stone moved, they were alarmed not because they expected the resurrection, but because they thought someone messed with the body (see Mark 16:1-5).  This is why the young man, who most likely was an angel, said to them: “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; see, here is the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6).  What was their response? They were terrified: “...they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8).   What the disciples saw as defeat, the angels viewed at the edge of their seats, if Peter and the rest could have heard the chatter from heaven, maybe they would have heard: “You just wait and see what’s coming!”  If it were possible to hear the angels, and if they were listening closely enough, maybe they would have heard all of heaven ask: “Did you not hear what Jesus said when He was with you?  Did you not hear Him say, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.... No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.’” (John 10:14-15, 18)?    Some of you are feeling the way the disciples and those closest to Jesus felt in the wake of His death.  Some of you are feeling like the disciples did when they woke up on Sunday morning: stuck, unsure, afraid, frustrated, angry, and hopeless.  I want you to know today that there is a hope within your reach that can swallow up your paralysis, uncertainty, fear, frustration, anger, and hopelessness.  For me to do that, I need you to see some things in the 23rd Psalm.   Everyone Experiences the Valley of the Shadow of Death Death is the great antagonist and for some strange reason, we act as though we will never experience it, and when it does come... we are surprised by it.  Just before Frank Sinatra died, he said, “I’m losing.”  The comedian, Groucho Marx’s last words were, “This is no way to live!” Caesar Borgia (chay·zaa·ray bor·zhuh) said on his deathbed: “While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die and am unprepared to die.”    In Psalm 23:4, we come to a very familiar sentence that has served to comfort the anxious and fearful: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”  Death is something that we all must face and not one of us will be able to escape it.    The “valley of the shadow of death” is not only death, but the deep darkness of sin, and it is a deep darkness that “envelops all humankind.”[1] The valley of death is a darkness that no one is exempt from, even if you are a Christian.  You see, the valley of deep darkness represents the curse our world is under and the curse that affects us all, and that curse is sin. This is why our world is a mess, this is why there is sickness and disease, and this is why we have to say “goodbye” way too often and sometimes way too soon.  The Bible says that all of us are guilty of sin (Rom. 3:23), and that it is something that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Here is what the Bible says: “...through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned.... Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam” (Rom. 5:12, 14).    What the valley is to you really depends on whether or not you can say with the Psalmist: “The Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in need.”  You see, there is one group of people who will be swallowed up by the valley and then there is another group of people who will walk through the valley.  The question is this: “What group do you belong to?”    Not Everyone Remains in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Jesus said of the 23rd Psalm: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).  Here is what the Bible says about all of us: “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way...” (Isa. 53:3). Or to say it another way, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).  All of us have sinned and fall short of meeting the standard of a Holy God.  So what was God’s solution to address our sin problem?  Listen to the rest of Isaiah 53:3, “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the wrongdoing [sins] of us all to fall on Him.”   Jesus said, “I am the Lord of the 23rd Psalm” but He did not stop there, He went on to say, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep” (vv. 14-15).  The way that you know that the Lord of the 23rd Psalm is your Shepherd is whether or not you believe who He claimed to be and that when He laid down His life for you because of your sins, that His death on a cross is sufficient for the forgiveness of your sins.  And listen, if you really believe in Jesus, if you really belong to Him, and if you really know Him... you will believe the things that He said about Himself: “I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)   “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)   “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26)   Anyone can say the things Jesus said, and everyone will die one day.  If all that Jesus did was lay down his life for the sheep, then all that He is... is a dead martyr and nothing more.  But consider what Jesus said to the disciples that they missed, most likely because of how impossible they found it to believe what He said to be: I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice; and they will become one flock, with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it back. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.” (John 10:14-18)   What the disciples missed was the most important part of what Jesus said: “I lay down My life for the sheep.... I lay down My life so that I may take it back.... I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back.”  In other words, “I will die for your sins to redeem you, and then I am coming back by way of a resurrection!”  It should not have surprised any of the disciples or the women who knew Jesus that the tomb was empty on the third day, but because the resurrection was so impossible and so beyond the limitations of their imagination that the Good Shepherd, the Lord of the 23rd Psalm, could die for sins and then conquer death by rising from it.  This is why the angel said to the women when they arrived at the place Jesus was buried: “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; see, here is the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6).   Conclusion We all want a “happily ever after” story.  We go to the movies, and we watch sporting events just so that we might experience the impossible! We want to experience the Fellowship of the Ring and Frodo and Sam’s impossible mission to destroy the evil ring of Sauron.  For you romantics in the room, you want Jerry Maquire to walk through the door finally believing that the love of his life is his wife, Dorothy, and maybe your heart fluttered when Dorothy told Jerry to shut up, followed by the words: “You had me at hello.” If you like the kinds of movies I like, then you wanted to stand and shout just before the great battle scene in Avengers: End Game.    However, when it comes to experiencing the impossible for real and in our lifetime, we are shocked. When fantasy and reality merge and the impossible really happens, we are shocked.  Perhaps you think your game is over because you are at the bottom of the 9th with three balls, two outs, a man on second, and you are down by one run! But wait, there is still a player on second and one more pitch to go over the plate.     It was during the first game in 1988 World Series that Kirk Gibson, who played for the D

In Genesis 1:1, the Bible begins with a simple but profound sentence.  Most English translations of the Bible begin with ten words and end with ten words. In Genesis 1:1, we are told: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  In the final verse of the book of Revelation the Bible concludes: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Rev. 22:21).  What these two verses tell me is this: We are alive and are here today because of God and by His grace.    In Psalm 23, we discover that it is by the grace of God that I am brought into the fold of His sheep, and it is for His glory that He has done so.  The invitation to be included as one of His sheep has nothing to do with my performance and everything to do with His grace and glory, as John Piper put it: “God is the beginning and God is the end of all my righteousness. The path of righteousness has his grace as its starting point (for he leads me into it) and it has his glory as its destination (because his leading is for his name’s sake).”[1] What happens in the in-between is the messy part.  After He finds us, it is His goodness and faithfulness that keeps us with no intention of letting go.   The 23rd Psalm sounds like a pilgrimage because it is.  Remember that there are five images in this Psalm.  We looked at the first image, which was: “The Abundant Life” (vv. 2-3a).  God lets and makes me lay down in green pastures in that He causes me to do so.  How does He cause me to lay down in green pastures?  He does so by removing all that prevents me from doing so.  I was made to lay down in green pastures by waters of rest, but without the Good Shepherd we blindly go astray; according to the prophet Isaiah we were both hopeless and helpless: “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way...” (Isaiah 53:6).  The next four images are as follows: Image #2: The Secure Life (v. 3b) Image #3: The Hard Life (v. 4) Image #4: The Victorious Life (v. 5) Image #5: The Everlasting Life (v. 6)   It is to the “Secure Life” that we now turn our attention.  What is it that makes His guiding in paths of righteousness for His namesake that brings security to those who belong to Him?   Where Does the Shepherd Lead? Where does the Shepherd lead and how does where He is leading relate to our security?  For starters, it is in the nature of His guiding that brings His sheep security: “He guides me in paths of righteousness.”  The nature of His guiding is that it does not end and that it is ongoing; it is not a onetime event where the sheep are guided by Him such as a prayer that is said or a decision that was made.    So, what are the “paths of righteousness” that He guides me into?  We are given an answer through the nature of David’s prayers like the one we find in Psalm 5, “Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way straight before me” (v. 8).  The answer to David’s prayer is Psalm 23:3, and those paths of righteousness are descripted for us in scores of verses in both the Old and New Testament.  One such passage in the Old Testament is Psalm 1:1-3,   Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,                Nor stand in the path of sinners,                Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!   But his delight is in the Law of the Lord,    And on His Law he meditates day and night.   He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,                Which yields its fruit in its season,                And its leaf does not wither;                And in whatever he does, he prospers.   The paths of righteousness according to Psalm 1 includes delighting in the Law of Yahweh and meditating on His Law day and night.  The Law of the Lord is the Word of the Lord.  That which you delight in is where you desire to spend your time.  If you delight in a particular person you will want to spend time with that person.  If you have a hobby or job that you delight in, you will look for ways to spend time participating in that hobby or job that you delight in.  The evidence that you delight in the Law is seen in the amount of time you spend in the Law.    The one who delights in the Law of the Lord will thrive in the kinds of ways we were meant for.  God wants you to thrive and considering the fact that it is His image we bear, thriving must include our Creator.  Later in the Psalms, David wrote: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105).   Jesus said something similar to Psalm 1:1-3 and 119:105; He said, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31). The Greek word used for “continue” is menō, which, as you may recall from last Sunday’s sermon, can be translated “abide.”  If you abide, if you remain, if you continue in My word... “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  The Greek word for “know” is ginōskō, which is the kind of knowledge that is much more than head knowledge.  Jesus said, “If you remain, if you continue, if you abide in my word, you will really know [ginōskō] the truth, and the truth will set your free.”  Let me say it a different way so that you get what is being said here: “If you take up residence in the word of the Good Shepherd, you are truly His sheep, and by listening to His voice, you will live!”  Listen, the Shepherd’s guiding does not happen apart from our abiding!       I am not sure if you will find this as cool as I do, but going back to John 10 where Jesus identifies as the Good Shepherd of the 23rd Psalm, He uses the same Greek word for know that He used in John 8:31. In John 10:14-16, “I am the good shepherd, and I know [ginōskō] My own, and My own know [ginōskō] Me, just as the Father knows [ginōskō] Me and I know [ginōskō] the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice; and they will become one flock, with one shepherd.”   Okay, so why does any of this matter and how does Psalm 1:1-3, John 8:31-32, and John 10:14-16 help you understand the 23rd Psalm better?  So here we go: You cannot be led in the paths of righteousness if your knowledge of the Good Shepherd is only about filling your head without your heart being engaged.  I will say it another way: If you are not abiding in the Lord of the 23rd Psalm then you are not finding in Him what you need.  If you do not find in Him what you need, then you will not find in Him the green pastures and waters of rest that you were made for.  If you do not find in the Good Shepherd the green pastures and waters of rest you that were made for, then you will find that the paths of righteousness that He guides His sheep on as displeasing instead of delightful.       Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the 23rd Psalm, and it is He who causes me to lie down in green pastures because He is the green pastures that will never leave me hungry.  It is He who leads me to waters of refreshment because He is the Living Water who satisfies the thirsty soul.  Jesus restores the soul because He makes all things new!  As the great Shepherd of your soul, Jesus guides those who abide in Him in paths of righteousness.  There is no guiding apart from abiding in Lordof the 23rd Psalm!   Why Does the Shepherd Lead? So, why does He do it?  Why does the Good Shepherd guide his sheep in the paths of righteousness?  He does it for the sake of His name!  What does that even mean?  It means that He rescued you from the condemnation of your sins, He gives Himself to you as the Great Shepherd of your soul to meet your need for Him, He provides the green pastures and quiet waters for your good, He renews and restores your soul, and He delivered you from your crooked paths of this world and set you on the straight path of righteousness that only Jesus can provide.  God did it all, and He did it by putting His reputation on the line!   Our story is summed up in one verse from the prophet Isaiah: “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him” (Isa. 53:6).  “To fall on who” you ask?  Ah... I am so glad you asked!  The sins of us all... fell upon Jesus who is the Lamb, the Lion, and the great Shepherd of our souls!  This is why the apostle Peter wrote: “...and He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls” (1 Pet. 2:24-25).   In response to all that Jesus accomplished, Paul wrote those glorious words that ought to thrill every soul that belongs to His flock: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things” (Rom. 8:31-32)?  And He does so for His namesake!  This is why, when you read Ephesians 1:3-14 regarding how and why God saved you from your sins that we are given three answers: The Father chose us before the foundation of the world and made us sons and daughters through His Son, and why did He do it that way? He did it, “to the praise of the glory of His grace...” (1:4-6).   The Son redeemed us through His blood and now we have the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. Why did He do it that way?  He did it, “to the praise of His glory” (1:7-12).   The Holy Spirit made our redemption and salvation a guarantee by sealing us as God’s own possession. Why did He do it that way? He did it, “to the praise of His glory” (1:13-14).   He chose his lambs for the sake of His name, He redeemed his lambs for the sake of His name, and He marked His lambs as His treasured possession by His Holy Spirit for the s

The second verse in the 23rd Psalm is a peculiar one for those of us not accustomed to the undeveloped lands of the Bible.  When you read of “green pastures” and “quiet waters” you most likely think of Goshen County, WY which produces more beef cattle than any other Wyoming county in our state.  When I read Psalm 23, I think of the New Jersey Highlands consisting of lots of green and lots of water.  But the “green pastures” that David had in mind was a dry and rocky set of rolling hills with tough grass sparsely scattered throughout.  The grass was so sparsely scattered, that if one of the sheep wandered off, he would most likely starve to death if any of the predators in the region didn’t find him first, and depending on the season, water was even more difficult to find.      Because sheep are the most helpless of animals; they are not just dependent on the shepherd but are in absolute need of a shepherd for survival.  Sometime ago there was a story out of Istanbul that reported the death of four sheep.  Their shepherds reportedly neglected their flock by leaving the sheep to roam free so that they could eat breakfast.  The sheep followed their leader right off a cliff; one by one, four hundred of them fell nearly 50 feet to their deaths.  The loss of sheep was estimated to be $74,000.    In the ancient world, shepherding was the least respected of occupations and required the full attention of the shepherd all the time.  If a family had sheep, the youngest son was expected to serve as a shepherd.  Because David was the youngest of eight sons, his job was to shepherd the sheep for his father Jesse.  When David wrote this psalm, he wrote from his own experience, and like all other shepherds, David lived with the sheep.    To appreciate this Psalm, we need to understand why it is structured the way that it is.  There are five images that include the critical role of the shepherd as he leads, guides, and provides for his sheep; each Sunday, we will consider one of the five images we are given.  So that you know where we are going, I will list them for you here: Image #1: The Abundant Life (vv. 2-3a) Image #2: The Secure Life (v. 3b) Image #3: The Hard Life (v. 4) Image #4: The Victorious Life (v. 5) Image #5: The Everlasting Life (v. 6)   Today we will consider the first image, which is where the Shepherd of the 23rd Psalm is ultimately leading His sheep, and that is the abundant life.   What is the Way to the Abundant Life? For a sheep to “lie down” four things need to happen: They need to be free of fear, friction, flies, and hunger.  Phillip Keller spent eight years as a shepherd before he became a pastor, in his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, he wrote of what it takes to get sheep to lie down: It is almost impossible for sheep to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met. Owing to their timidity they refuse to lie down unless they are free of all fear. Because of the social behavior within a flock sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with others of their kind. If tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lie down. Only when free of these pests can they relax. Lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food. They must be free from hunger.”[1]   It is only the shepherd who can provide the kind of trust, peace, deliverance, and pasture that the sheep need.  Yet, of the five images in this Psalm, David begins with the one about rest.  The first thing that we receive from Yahweh as our Shepherd, is rest.  How does He provide us with rest?  According to the NASB2020, “He lets me lie down in green pastures...”  “He leads me beside quiet waters.” “He restores my soul...”   The Hebrew word for “lets” is the Hebrew word “rbṣ” and most translations translate this word as “make.”  If you are using the NIV, the ESV, or an older version of the NASB, Psalm 23:2 reads something like this: “He makes me lie down in green pastures...”  So which is it?  Does Jesus, as our good Shepherd “make us lie down” or does He, “let us lie down in green pastures”?  The Hebrew word for “lets” is both causative and imperfect so literally it can be translated, “He causes me to lie down in green pastures...” So, why does all matter?  Our Shepherd removes from His sheep every agitation and threat that would keep us from the kind of rest we were made for and the rest that we need.    However, the presence of Jesus in our lives not only causes us to lie down, but He also takes us to quiet waters; in Hebrew, “quiet waters” is literally “waters of rest.”  Where the quiet waters are, so there is life for all that surrounds those waters, and where there are green pastures and still waters in the dry and rocky climate of a cursed world, there is renewal.  What kind of renewal you ask?  The kind that restores the soul of the sheep.  The Hebrew word used for “restores” means to “turn back” or “return.”  The place that the Psalmist is describing is the place where those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6) will be filled and refreshed by resting in the Shepherd of the 23rdPsalm.   It is Jesus who said, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).  It is the Lord of the 23rd Psalm who said: “I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).  The Good Shepherd said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).   According to Psalm 23, the Christian life begins with rest, and the kind of rest we receive is the abundant life that can only come through Jesus.  But what is the abundant life?  Is it prosperity in the world’s eyes?  Is it the pain free life?  What is the abundant life that Jesus came so that we, as His sheep, would have?    What Kind of Abundant Life Does the Shepherd Provide? The abundant life is a life rooted in Jesus.  The abundant life comes out of the abiding life.  So, what is the abiding life you ask?  Jesus told us what the abiding life is in John 6:54-56, “The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him” (John 6:54–56).  The Greek word for “remain” is “menō.” If you are using the ESV or an older version of the NASB, you will see the word “abide” instead of “remain.”  To remain or abide is to rest in Jesus and to rest in Him is to take up residence in the life of Christ.  How does one do that?  You do it by taking into your mind, heart, and soul all that Jesus is and all that he taught and commanded us to do.  The same Greek word is used in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”   So what does it mean to have the abundant life?  Does the abundant life mean that you have a pain free life?  If the abundant life means that the Shepherd’s will for you is to be comfortable with little to no suffering in this life, then what do you do with our Shepherd’s words to his sheep: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b)?  The New Living Translation is closer to Jesus’ point: “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”  If the green pastures and quite waters do not include the kind of agitation and trouble that suffering brings, then what do you do with Jesus’ warning to his disciples: “You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, other relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all people because of My name. And yet not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 21:16–18).   If the green pastures and quiet waters that the Jesus leads his people to does not include suffering and even death, then what do you say to the fathers, the mothers, the children, and the friends of the 70 Christians who were taken from their village at 4am on the morning on February 13th of this year by a rebel group with ties to the Islamic State?  They were taken by force to a Protestant church where they were slaughtered with machetes and hammers; those 70 Christians were our brothers and sisters in the faith.  They heard the call of Jesus and followed Him (see John 10:14-16), yet when their bodies were discovered, each of them was also beheaded.  Where are the green pastures and quiet waters of those 70 beheaded Christians from the Congo if the 23rd Psalm is also for them?      Those 70 beheaded brothers and sisters are now included among the martyred saints described in Revelation 6:9-11, When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?” And a white robe was given to each of them; and they were told that they were to rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who were to be killed even as they had been, was completed also.” (Rev. 6:9–11)   Those 70 Christians among the masses in heaven who are asking the question: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?”  Notice the answer they received: “rest for a little while longer, until the number of your fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who are to be killed even as you have been killed, is complete” (v. 11).  There will be more who will be massacred, butchered, and slaughtered in the name of the Good Shepherd, but that is not the en

The Psalms are the song book of the Bible, and as you are probably aware, songs and poems are written out of the deep well of the human heart.  The difference between the Psalms and every other song or poem is that the Psalms are inspired by God Almighty and are the Word of God.  Of all the Psalms, it is the Psalm before us that is most familiar.  In my opinion, what the Lord’s prayer is to the New Testament, Psalm 23 is to the Old Testament.  It is that familiar, and it is familiar for good reason.   Think for a moment what it is that Psalm 23 says of all those whose God is the Lord: He does not leave His sheep to themselves, but leads them to the place of life, nourishment, and rest with the assurance that He will not lose any that belong to Him.  As the Shepherd, He promises to be with His sheep in the face of death and will stand before them in the face of the enemy.  As the Shepherd of His sheep, those who belong to Him will only know His faithfulness and love which is a promise that not even death can take what belongs to the Lord, who is the Shepherd.   No wonder why this Psalm is often included in so many funerals or read at the bedside of the sick and dying. However, there is a danger with the amount of exposure we have had with the 23rd Psalm, and that danger is as the saying goes: “Familiarity breeds contempt.”  By being so familiar with the Psalm, we can lose respect for what it says or miss the point of the Psalm altogether.  My hope is that in the weeks to come, you will gain a better understanding of what this Psalm means for you and that over the weeks to come, you will experience the Lord of the 23rd Psalm.   Who is The Lord of Psalm 23? For you and me to appreciate the 23rd Psalm, we have got to understand who the shepherd of the Psalm is.  For starters, He is not just any old shepherd, He is the shepherd to all who truly know Him to be the Lord. One of the ways we can lose respect for this Psalm is to assume that it applies to any and all people.  In the very first verse we are told that for the Lord to be the shepherd of any person, that person must belong to Him.  The key word used in this verse is known as a “possessive determiner”, and that word is “my.”  The way that you can know that He is your Lord is found in the second half of the first verse: “...I will not be in need.”  You can know that you are not in need because you have the Lord as your shepherd, and the way that you know that He is your Lord is because you understand that there is no other “lord” in this world that gives you what only He can give you.    I have officiated many funeral and memorial services over the years, and my fear is that for some, the 23rd Psalm was printed on their memorial card more for the beauty of the Psalm than for how the deceased loved, followed, and identified with the God the Psalm describes.  Before you can ever claim the kind of comfort and assurance the Psalm is meant to provide, you must answer who the Lord of the 23rd Psalm is first.   The Shepherd of Psalm 23 is Yahweh The Lord that David refers in Psalm 23 is Yahweh.  The first time the Hebrew people were introduced to God as Yahweh is in Exodus 3 when Moses encountered God through the burning bush.  Just so you know, there are many different names for God used to describe His character and nature; the name used that is God’s covenantal name is Yahweh.       After 40 years of working for his father-in-law Jethro in the wilderness, God called out to Moses from a burning bush.  Moses was in the wilderness because he had killed an Egyptian guard, buried his body in the sand, learned that it was known that he did it, and had fled Egypt and went into hiding.  As Moses got closer to the burning bush, God told him to remove his sandals in His presence because the ground he was standing was now holy.  God then told Moses that He heard the cries of His people and planned to use the now 80-year-old man to deliver the Hebrew people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.  God was not going to send Moses into Egypt before Pharaoh alone, for God assured him: “I will be with you” (v. 12).  Moses then asked what name he was to give to the Hebrews when he went back into Egypt; here is what he said: “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them” (v. 13)?   God’s answer gets at the heart of what Yahweh means: “I AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (v. 14).  At the heart of God’s answer are four facts about God for why the Israelites should believe God would deliver them: Yahweh is the Creator who is above all other gods man may make.  Because Yahweh is the Creator, He sustains all things, governs all things, is sovereign over all things, and owns all things.  As Yahweh, God is eternal, for He had no beginning and will have no end; He is the Alpha and the Omega, and as the Alpha and Omega, He is the first and the last.  The essence of what Yahweh means is found in verse 14, “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”   God told Moses: “You tell the Hebrew slaves that I AM WHO I AM sent me to you.”  To wrap our minds around what God told Moses, I need to ask you in terms of your occupation or what you are currently doing day to day each week, “Who are you?”  I am not asking if you are a Christian or not, I am asking what is it that requires your time?  If I were to ask you to write down who you are, you may write: “I am an electrician.” Or “I am a teacher.”  You might write down, “I am a programmer.”  You might write down, “I am a stay-at-home mother.”  “I am a dad, a mom, a grandmother, or grandfather.”  Here is the thing with all of that, the answer you give today to that question will one day change.  One day you will not be able to work, one day you will retire, one day your children will move out of your home to begin a family of their own, and one day you will die.  However, with God, He is “I AM WHO I AM.”    One pastor said that what God said to Moses through the burning bush is the equivalent of saying: “I BE WHO I BE.” The point is that we change, but the Lord does not change, nor will He ever change.  Why?  Because Yahweh is infinitely and perfectly self-sufficient and self-existent; if you belong to Him, He is your shepherd and there is no other god or lord that you need!  David Gibson, in his book, The Lord of Psalm 23, put it this way: “...the one whom you need to shepherd you neither needs you nor needs to be shepherded himself as he gives himself to shepherd you.  He shepherds you from his eternally undiminishing fullness, and he is never the poorer for it.”[1]   The Lord of the 23rd Psalm is unchanging, and it does not matter what you think of Him or what you make of Him, He is eternally who He has always been, what He still is today, and what He will always be: He is the Great I AM WHO I AM; He is Yahweh!  However, what He may or may not be to you is your Shepherd.  There is only one way to come to know Yahweh as your shepherd.   Jesus is the Shepherd of Psalm 23 What dominates this Psalm is the promise of a life much fuller and richer than anything that any other god or lord can offer.  The life that the Lord of the 23rd Psalm provides is the abundant life!  The kind of life that the Shepherd of Psalm 23 provides is one that includes food to satisfy the hungry, water to quench the thirsty, security for the vulnerable, and rest for the burdened sheep who come to the Shepherd out of a desperate awareness that all that the Shepherd is and has, is all that the sheep need.    There are a number of statements Jesus said about Himself that include the phrase: “I Am...” Just about every time He used that phrase, it unhinged the religious leaders of His day because they understood where that phrase was coming from, for it came from Exodus 3 when God said to Moses that He, Yahweh, was “I AM Who I AM.”  One of those statements is found in the gospel of John and the way that He said it, there can be no confusion what it was that He was claiming: “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me...” (John 10:14).  Jesus said the only way to know the shepherd of the 23rd Psalm is by knowing who He is, believing in all that He claimed to be, and acting on what you know and believe concerning Him.  Consider some of the things Jesus said about Himself: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37–38)   “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28–30)   The reason Jesus was able to say these kinds of things was because He was, and is, and will forever be the good shepherd of the 23rd Psalm!  This is why He said, “Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All those who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:7–10). Again David Gibson offers the following insight of what it means to have the Shepherd of the 23rd Psalm: “Psalm 23 is about abundant life. It is more about the happiness of living than the sadness of dying, and all of the happiness is bound up with being able to say that this Lord who is a shepherd is also my shepherd.”[2]   So I ask you dear friend, who is the Shepherd to you?  Is He your Shepherd because He is your Lord?  Is He your Lord because you hav

When I was a child, I remember the sense of security I had while Ronald Reagan served as our president.  I also remember his farewell address to our nation and the great sense of loss that I felt knowing that he would no longer be serving as our nation’s president.  John Winthrop preached in 1630 upon arriving in Massachusetts; in his sermon Winthrop declared his fellow pilgrims: “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.”  He also said of their future in Massachusetts: Beloved there is now set before us life and good, Death and evil, in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his Ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land we go to possess.    John Winthrop’s sermon had a profound impact upon President Reagan for he placed that line about Winthrop’s hope and expectation that one day that land he and the pilgrims discovered, “...will be as a city upon a hill.”  I still remember President Reagan’s farewell address to our nation; I was in eighth grade at Neshaminy Junior High when I heard it.  Reagan’s address is just over 20 minutes long, and although we do not have the time to listen to it, I would like to share with you his concluding remarks that I believe have affected our nation more than some of you may realize: I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.   And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.   We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. There is a phrase introduced to our nation from another campaign that I was going to use for the title of this sermon... a phrase I have heard many Christians say or embrace that I have chosen not to use.  I know that when some use the phrase, it has been and continues to be used out of a hope and desire for America’s good. However, I have instead chosen the phrase: “America is a shining city on hill” used by a president I still admire and respect.    Jesus is Eternally the Same (vv. 7-9) What I dislike about a sermon series like “Christians Say the Darndest Things” is that today you will receive an exposition on Hebrews 13:7-14 without the benefit of seeing the wounder of chapters 1:1-13:6.  We are skipping right to the end without gazing at the Christ who is, “the heir of all things, through whom God also made the world.”  Right out of the gate in the book of Hebrews, we discover a Jesus who is, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature.”  In Hebrews we discover a Jesus who, “upholds all things by the word of His power.”  The Jesus of Hebrews 13:8 is the same Jesus who, “When he had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:1-3).      Because Jesus is, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature” (1:3), He is the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9).  Jesus is the great “I AM” (John 8:48-59) because He is equal with the Father as the eternal Son (John 5:15-23).  Jesus is He who was and is “the Light of mankind” because He is the Word who was in the beginning with God through Whom “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-4).  This same Jesus became flesh through the miraculous conception in Mary’s womb while still a virgin, He was born and lived among mankind yet without sin, and He lived for the purpose of dying for sinners like you and me on a cross.  This same Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb, and on the third day... He defeated sin and death by rising from the grave.  For this reason, this same Jesus is highly exalted and upon Him is, “the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8-11).   Jesus is the same yesterday in that when God the Father spoke creation into existence, it was Jesus the Son who completed it: “for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:15-16). The reason why the earth remains in orbit and every atom and molecule remains in place is because the One who is also the same today is responsible for holding, “all things together” (Col. 1:17).    Jesus is the same yesterday in that He was the One before Whom Abraham bowed (see Gen. 18:1-22).  Jesus is the same yesterday in that He is the One who wrestled with Jacob (see Gen. 32:22-33). Jesus is the same yesterday in that He appeared before Joshua as the captain of the Lord’s army, and it was before Him that Joshua removed his sandals and worshiped (Josh. 5:13-15). Jesus is the same yesterday in that He was the One who was seen by King Nebuchadnezzar in the furnace as He kept Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from perishing in blazing fire of the furnace (see Dan. 3:8-30).  Jesus is the same yesterday. Listen, the same Jesus who provided Peter, John, and James the miraculous catch of fish that compelled Peter to fall to his knees and respond: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8), is still the same today! The same Jesus cured lepers, made the lame walk, the blind see, and the dead rise... is still the same today!  The same Jesus who died for sinners and rose from the grave is still the same today!  The same Jesus who commanded us to make disciples (Matt. 18:19-20) and promised, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judah, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8), is still the same today! And listen, the same Jesus who promised that He would come back in the same way that He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9), is the same Jesus yesterday, today, and forever!      The point is that if you get Jesus wrong, or if you miss Him, or if you choose any person, thing, or ideology over Him... you will get everything else wrong! The message of Hebrews is that Jesus is a treasure that no other treasure can compare.  This is why we are told in verse 8 to, “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their way of life, imitate their faith.”  Those who truly spoke the word of God to you are those who did not get Jesus wrong!    Jesus is the same yesterday.   Everything in this World is Consistently Unsatisfactory (vv. 10-11) Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever... His life, death, and resurrection provide for us a more permanent solution to our sin problem.  What this means is that Jesus’ cross is a better altar unlike ones used under the Old Covenant.  The carcasses of the animals slaughtered on the Day of Atonement during Passover were taken out of the city to be burned; if they were thrown into a pile with the city and burned, they would have defiled the city.  Not so with Jesus, for while living, he was led outside of the city to become a curse for us on the cross we deserved (Gal. 3:10-14), and by dying for our sins outside the gate, His blood is what makes us holy.    What is the point?  Here is the point: There is no person, there is no religion outside of Christianity, and there is no government that can do (if you are not a Christian) or has done (if you are a Christian) what Jesus alone can do.  Paul Washer put it this way in his sermon preached to pastors some time ago answering the question as to how Jesus’ death on a cross for a few hours on a tree to save a multitude of men from an eternity in hell: “Because that one Man is worth more of them put together. You take mountains and mole hills, crickets and clouds. You take everything. Every planet, every star, every form of beauty. Everything that sings, everything that brings delight, and you put it all on the scale, and you put Christ on the other side and HE outweighs them all, HE outweighs them ALL! Brethren, this is the one we chase after!”[1]   Compared to Christ, everything in this world is not only temporary but unsatisfactory.  Jesus is the living water, and all the promises of this world together cannot compare.  They are all broken and cannot deliver what they promise to deliver!  The Old Covenant only provided a temporary solution to the sin problem of the Hebrew people; the work of the priests required them to remain standing for the need of a sin covering was ongoing.  This is why just three chapte

“My truth...”  “Speaking my truth...” “Your truth...” I have read a number of articles to try and learn what is meant by “My truth.”  There are a number of suggestions such as: “The way I see things may be different than the way you see things.”   “Be true to yourself.”   “A pretentious substitute for a non-negotiable personal opinion.”   “The way I see and understand something may be different than the way you see and perceive it.”    “I know some stuff, and it’s likely that may change over time.”   In a recent trailer for a show on Hulu titled, Faces of Music, one of the cast members stated what I think is the current understanding of “Your truth” with the following words: “It is not about right or wrong, it’s about your truth.”      Maybe there is no real definition of what “Your truth” really means and maybe that is the point.  The reality is that we live in a day and age when truth is determined by one’s experiences and feelings which is nothing new, just a different dress.  So, is there such a thing as “your truth?”  The good news is that the Bible does address the question of truth.   The Unknown but Knowable God Permit me to begin with a story. About 600 hundred years before Paul ever set foot in Athans, there was a plague that came upon Athens that none of their gods could answer or fix.  The leaders of that city learned of a man who was a prophet of what they called the “unknown God.”  They summoned a representative of this unknown god from Crete, and he instructed them what was needed for the plague to be lifted.  This representative requested two flock of sheep be brought — one white flock and one black flock.  He prayed to this unknown God and asked that all the sheep that he caused to lay down to graze, would be sacrificed to this god on a new stone alter.  Well, there were sheep that did lay down to graze, so they were sacrificed on alters to the unknown God and the plague was lifted as a result.    This unknown god was worshiped and then forgotten over time until two of Athens’ elders found one of the altars and refurbished it.  One of the things they had done to this altar was that they etched into it an inscription that read: “TO THE UNKOWN GOD.”  This was the altar the Apostle discovered while walking through Athens.  This was the only God the Athens had no idols for whom they did not create or know.  This is the God who, according to the Bible, “…has planted eternity in the human heart” (Eccl. 3:11b; NLT).   What the altar to “THE UNKOWN GOD” teaches us is that we grope around for something to make sense of our world and to discover something more than what is visibly before us.  The reality is that each of us is born spiritually blind just as the Bible states: “...the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).  It is not all that different with our society’s pursuit of truth.    This whole business about speaking your truth or standing in your truth reminds me of the six blind people who heard about a strange animal, called an elephant, that had been brought into their village.  Because none of them were aware of an elephant’s shape or form they thought they would inspect the creature by touching it. One of the blind men grabbed the elephant’s trunk and said, “This elephant is like a big snake.”  Another blind man felt the elephant’s ear, and said the elephant seemed like the shape of a fan.  Another who felt the elephant’s leg, said, “this creature is a pillar like the trunk of a tree.”  The blind man who placed his hand upon the side of the elephant said it is like a wall that breathes. The blind man who felt its tail, described the elephant as being like a rope.  The blind man who felt its tusk, stated that the elephant is like a spear.    People trying to figure out what truth is or what their purpose is in life are like those blind men. There may have been some truth to what they felt but could not understand what they were touching unless they understood that what was before them was much greater than individual experiences.  We live in a world full of blind men groping in the darkness trying to make sense of it without considering the Creator who made it all.      God is Too Big to Be Manipulated (vv. 22-25) There was a god to be worshiped for just about every occasion in Athens.  We are told that Paul’s spirit, “...was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols” (v. 16).  It is important to point out that his spirit was provoked, but it was not because he thought those who worshiped those idols knew better.  The provocation that he felt was not unlike the kind of provocation you might feel if a family was asleep in a house on fire, the provocation you would feel in your spirit would be the recognition that you had a moral obligation to do all that you could to wake the family up and get them out of the house before it was too late.    What we can learn from Paul in the way he addressed the Athens is that he used their culture as a bridge to introduce them to the God they did not know who was too big to be manipulated like the gods they created.  By bringing the gospel to Athens, Paul shared how there was only one true God who was knowable only because He has made Himself known.  He alone “made the world and everything that is in it…” and He, “…does not dwell in temples made by human hands…”(vv. 24-25).  The God who made everything is not served by human hands like the hundreds of idols that filled Athans.  What Paul meant is that the God they thought was unknowable did not need to be cleaned up, polished, or fixed, because as Creator... He cannot be manipulated. As Creator and since He made everything, God is in need of nothing. Not only does the One true God need nothing, but He also cannot be treated as an idol because unlike the idols people create, He alone, “gives to all people life and breath and all things.”  What this means is that God does not adjust or yield to what we think truth is.  Because He is the Creator, by default... we are the creature; manipulating God is as impossible as it is for a statue to manipulate the artist who made it.   Apart from God, we are blind and what spiritually blind people are able to see are the shadows of spiritual truth.  People genuinely know that both good and evil exist.  The Greek Mythology of the Athenians proves this as do the stories we read and watch.  I believe that all humans, although spiritually blind, are able to see and sense the reality of the existence of God and his truth.  The Athenians groped in the darkness in pursuit of truth while their only hope was the gospel of Jesus Christ that allows us to know the truth of who God is and how to live in the world He created.    Our Purpose Is Too Significant to Be Ignored (vv. 26-29) When God created mankind, He created us with a deficiency that could only be met by Him.  Why else would the Apostle write that God created men and women, “if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each of us” (v. 27).  God has created in us a deep longing for Him because He has made us in His image.  In verse 28, Paul said to the Athens: “for in Him we live and move and exist...”  Think about that statement for a moment.  Our living and moving and very existence is found and experienced in God.  In other words, our purpose in life is found in Him.  Every study out there that has been done about the importance of finding your purpose in life reveals how important having purpose is.    We humans are like the farmer who was seen by his neighbor shooting at his barn. As the neighbor got closer to the farmer’s barn, he noticed the many targets panted onto the side of his barn, and at the center of every single target was a bullet hole put there by the farmer’s gun.  The neighbor commented to the farmer: “Wow! You are an amazing marksman, your ability to hit the bullseye from that distance is impressive!  What is your secret, and can you teach me?”  To which the farmer replied: “It is really not that hard, for I first shoot my hole and then I draw the target around it.”  To live life like the Athens or to make up truth as you go without any consideration of who God really is, is to shoot for what we think is important and then draw the meaning of life around it. We shoot for security and then draw the meaning of life around it.  We shoot for relationships and then draw the meaning of life around it.  We shoot for what we think truth should be and then draw the meaning of life around it.  When we do that, we are like the blind person groping around in the darkness only to left with a creation out of our own imagination!     Because the people Paul was speaking to probably had little understanding of the Hebrew Bible, he used the pagan poets of the day to illustrate the truth of God.  So Paul told these guys: see, even those whom you respect have said: “for in Him we live and move and exist...” Which was a statement probably taken from the same guy who 600 years ago introduced the Athenians to the unknown God.   The point is that we are not the creator, we are the created.  We live and move and have our being in Him because He is the One who fashioned us, not out of necessity, but out of love.  The most loving thing God could have ever done for you and me is that He created us that we might find our joy in the One in Whom we “live, and move and exist...” (v. 28).  Paul then quoted one of their poets to show that although such poets groped in the darkness, God was not far from them: “for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’”  Paul did not stop there: “Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, and image formed by human skill and thought” (v. 29).  I