This was given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on February 13, 2005, the first Sunday of Lent that year. The Gospel Scripture is from Matthew 4: 1-11…

       The Church of Christ that I grew up in, down along the river in Hartford, didn’t have a steeple. (I don’t think any of them do, though I can’t say as I ever knew the Theology behind why.) But I had seen lots of churches that did have steeples, and some of them were pretty tall!

       Now, as a young child I had no idea what the temple actually looked like, but when the King James version, which is what I read from, says that… “the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,” I always pictured the two of them somehow perched and teetering on top of one of these high church steeples… makes quite a picture, doesn’t it?

       Another thing that I sometimes had a problem with, as a child, was the idea that the devil even thought he could try to tempt Jesus… I mean, after all, He’s the Son of God, right? Don’t you think He would be immune to that sort of thing? And as I got older, that train of thought extended into my wondering about His crucifixion as well… I mean, what was the big deal? If he truly was the Christ… if He truly was God-on-earth… then He had to know that he would be resurrected three days later, right? And so, following that line of thinking still further, it was only natural that he led a pure and sin-free life… how could He do anything but?

       It has only been as I have continued to grow in my faith and understanding that I have come to terms with the idea that, in order for any of this to make any sense, we have to accept the fact that while on this earth, Jesus was as human… as fallible, if you will… as you and me!! Because it is only by His humanity that He is able to understand and relate to all that we mere humans have to deal with every day… it is that humanity that knows human fear and heartache… that knows human pain and suffering… and it is through that humanity that He becomes the ‘perfect sacrifice’ for our sins!

       The Life Application Commentary tells us that, “A person has not shown true obedience if he or she has never had an opportunity to disobey. We read in Deuteronomy that God led Israel into the desert to humble and test them. God wanted to see whether or not his people would really obey him.” And so, “This time of testing showed that Jesus really was the Son of God, able to overcome the devil and his temptations.” “Jesus wasn’t tempted inside the temple or at his baptism but in the desert, where he was tired, alone, and hungry, and thus most vulnerable. The devil often tempts us when we are at our weakest point — under physical or emotional stress (for example, lonely, tired, weighing big decisions, or faced with uncertainty). But he also likes to tempt us through our strengths, where we are most susceptible to pride.”

But all of this leads us to an even more fundamental question… why do we need to struggle with this concept of sin… I mean, where did sin come from, anyway? For an attempt at that answer, we must needs go to the Old Testament and read from Genesis…

       We all know the story of God giving Adam and Eve full run of the Garden except for one particular tree… and what transpires in spite of it!

       The Wycliffe Bible Commentary says that… “The author of Genesis here lists the steps leading to the entrance of sin into the hearts of these divinely created individuals, who had started life with such clean hearts and so much promise. Disobedience and sin becloud the picture. Though these beings were morally upright, they had been given the power of choice; and they were subject to the power of the tempter at any moment. Hence the test was inevitable. The garden was an exquisite creation, filled with plenteous provisions. Man’s environment left nothing to be desired. One prohibition, however, had been placed upon the man and woman. Every tree, shrub, and delicacy could be theirs, except the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” This prohibition seems to have produced the atmosphere in which human minds welcome the appeal of the tempter.”

       From the ‘Treasury of Bible Illustrations’ we read… “The Bible says that sin separates; it comes between man and God. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.”

Sin is like a giant canyon, with man on one side and God on the other. A canyon can never be removed; it will always be there. And it is useless to try to fill up a canyon. But when a bridge is put across a canyon, a man can cross it as if no canyon ever existed there. Forgiveness of our sin is like a bridge. A bridge allows us to have eternal life, even though there is sin which otherwise would separate us from God.

Sin is also like a cut or break in an electric wire. There must be a perfect connection from the source to the light bulb before there can be any light in the bulb. Sin separates our connection with God. Forgiveness is like a splice in a wire. It does not take a brand new wire to complete the circuit, but there must be a wire in which every single break has been repaired.

Sin separates man and God. There is only one way to get back to God; through Jesus Christ!”

And that brings us back to our verses from Matthew! We all know how Jesus responded to the devil’s suggestions. When he told Him to make food for Himself, Jesus replied, reading from ‘The Living Bible’ this time, “No! For the Scriptures tell us that bread won’t feed men’s souls: obedience to every word of God is what we need.” While atop the temple, His reply is, “It also says not to put the Lord your God to a foolish test!” And finally, when Satan offers Him the world in exchange for worshiping him… ” Jesus told him… Get out of here, Satan. The Scriptures say, ‘Worship only the Lord God. Obey only him.'”

In Romans chapter 5, beginning with verse 12, Paul writes that, “… just as sin entered the world through one man… in this way death came to all men, because all have sinned.”

The ‘Treasury of Bible Illustrations’ tells of, “A news documentary on TV that claimed 91 percent of the United States’ students in colleges, universities and graduate schools cheat on exams and tests in order to graduate.

This is what happens when God is rejected and atheism is accepted. Atheism will bring down our civilization. Civilization is based on mutual trust.

We remember when a man was as good as his word. A handshake over a deal was as dependable as a legal document. A man would rather die than lie or cheat. Christian standards formed the basis of society even among those who did not profess to be Christians.”

Sin surrounds us everyday. But is it just in others…?

Have you ever considered how a worm gets inside an apple? Perhaps you think the worm burrows in from the outside. No, scientists have discovered that the worm comes from the inside. But, how does he get in there? Simple. An insect lays an egg in the apple blossom. Sometime later the worm hatches in the heart of the apple, then eats his way out.

Sin, like the worm, begins in the heart and works out through the person’s thoughts, word and actions. For this reason, David once wrote, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”  

In Psalm 32 he says, “Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!” And one of the best ways for each of us to be ‘upright in heart’ is to keep Jesus’ words close to our hearts at all times… “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Today is the first Sunday of Lent… that time of year when we focus our thoughts on the sacrifice that was made in our names! And as we survey that wondrous cross, we try to look at our own lives as in a mirror… we reflect on all that we have been… all that we have done… and we consider what our Lord might have done in our place. For we know that He was truly human… we know that He felt the same pulls and tugs and trials and temptations that each of us feel… and we wonder how He will look on our actions. I know for myself, I come up wanting!

But we also know that because He was human, He understands… and because He understands, He forgives! But… that forgiveness carries a price! A sacrifice must be made! And because He loves us… He paid it!

Based primarily on verses 1-11 in the 5th chapter of the Book of Romans, the original version of this was presented at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on February 27, 2005 and is included much earlier on this website! THIS version includes some Very Minor updates…

As any who have had occasion to drive any long distance might attest to, it can sometimes get mighty boring out on the highway. And the problem becomes even more intense for those of us who, like I used to, drive professionally 2 – 3,000 miles-per-week! And one of the things that I liked to do was ‘listen’ to a good book once-in-a-while. Many, many books have been transferred to various audio formats, and I have started a small library of them over the years. King Lear, Ten Little Indians, and an assortment of Sherlock Holmes tales are just a few of those that grace my shelves, along with a collection of Star Trek and other sci-fi stories. Most of these are in cassette form, thought the latest were on CDs, trying to keep up-to-date as it were. Some of these are read by well-known personalities, some by the author, and some by the person who actually played one of the characters on TV. Some are read straight, with only the voice of the reader changing to note different people and such, others add musical background and special effects to enhance what is being read, while still others are recordings of full-blown radio productions with name-stars in the lead roles and a supporting cast of ‘hundreds’!

And so it is that, while in a bookstore in one of the big malls down close to St. Louis last weekend, we looked at audiobooks, and bought one titled Pompeii, written by Robert Harris, and read by Michael Cumpsty, and I have sat behind the wheel listening to all six hours of it on more than one occasion! The fictional story… I believe it is what has become termed ‘historical fiction’…  begins two days before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, in what we now call 79 AD, and centers around the engineer of the ‘Aqua Augusta’, the aqueduct commissioned by the Emperor Augustus some three-hundred years earlier to provide water for the naval fleet he wanted to station on the western coast of Rome. Let me read from the book, itself…

“Oh, but she was a mighty piece of work, the Augusta – one of the greatest feats of engineering ever accomplished. It was going to be an honour to command her. Somewhere far out there, on the opposite side of the bay, high in the pine-forested mountains of the Appenninus, the aqueduct captured the springs of the Serinus and bore the water westwards – channelled it along sinuous underground passages, carried it over ravines on top of tiered arcades, forced it across valleys through massive syphons – all the way down to the plains of Campania, then around the far side of Mount Vesuvius, then south to the coast at Neapolis, and finally along the spine of the Misenum peninsula to the dusty naval town, a distance of some sixty miles, with a mean drop along her entire length of just two inches every one hundred yards. She was the longest aqueduct in the world, longer even than the great aqueducts of Rome and far more complex, for whereas her sisters in the north fed one city only, the Augusta’s serpentine conduit – the matrix, as they called it: the motherline – suckled no fewer than nine towns around the Bay of Neapolis: Pompeii first, at the end of a long spur, then Nola, Acerrae, Atella, Neapolis, Puteoli, Cumae, Baiae and finally Misenum.”

And while the story itself might be fictional, the writer has obviously researched the period, and goes in to great detail describing the various cities and how life was conducted back then. It also makes a very strong point that without the aqueduct, life there would be very difficult, if not down right impossible! There were some 10,000 sailors stationed in Misenum, alone, and at least that many more support personnel and families… none of which would be able to survive there without the aqueduct because there were no natural source of water in the area… and as we all know, water is essential to all life!

In our Old Testament verses this morning, we heard how the Israelites had, “camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”

But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

And in spite of their grumbling and complaining, God had Moses strike the rock with his staff and caused water to come out of the rock, “that the people may drink!”

And in the Gospel of John Chapter 4, verses 5-42, we hear the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. You all know the story… how Jesus was sitting alone at the well when a woman came up to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink… how she was shocked that He, a Jew, would even speak to her, a Samaritan, (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans!) How Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

Water! The ‘stuff’ of life! And Living water!!! The ‘stuff’ of eternal life! Which brings us back to our verses from Romans…

Paul writes… “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

The Life Application Commentary tells us that… “Having demonstrated in the previous chapter that what was real for Abraham can be real for everyone, Paul launches into one of his stirring summary statements. Abraham’s life illustrates the truth that faith may require human action, such as waiting for a promised child, but that the effective part of faith is its connection with God. Faith like Abraham’s never requires blind trust, but trust with eyes wide open. Paul goes on to say that if we have faith, we can experience a different life. It will not be easy, but it will be a life full of peace with God, joyful hope, personal development, growing awareness of God’s love, and continued reconciliation with him.

One of the remarkable consistencies in Paul is how he links faith, hope, and love together. Rarely does he mention one without the other two…This passage from Romans begins by stating that personal faith is necessary for justification. This is followed by the response of rejoicing “in the hope of the glory of God”. But faith and hope do not exist alone, since “God has poured out his love into our hearts”. For Paul, wherever faith is present, there also are hope and love. The greatest, however, is love.”

He makes note of this in verses 6 – 8 when he says… “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Life Application Commentary goes on to say… “Paul introduces some difficult concepts in this chapter. He demonstrates the truth of the gospel in ways that stretch our thinking.” And the truth is, we could not possibly delve into it very deeply in just a fifteen-odd minute sermon! So for now, let me make this one point…

Again quoting from The Life Application Commentary, “Paul states clearly that faith, hope, and love are at the heart of the Christian life. Our relationship with God begins with faith, helping us realize that we are delivered from our past by Christ’s death. Hope grows as we learn all that God has in mind for us; it gives us the promise of the future. And God’s love fills our lives and gives us the ability to reach out to others.

Since faith, hope, and love are essential characteristics of the Christian life, their opposites (doubt, despair, and hatred) can devastate any relationship with God. We must guard against them and help those who struggle with those devastating feelings. We must not avoid or fear those experiences that will cultivate in us a godly character.”

And we find one example of that in the book, Practical Bible Illustrationsfrom Yesterday and Today …

“Jesus plainly stated that he came to save sinners. The man who refuses to be called a sinner puts himself beyond the possibility of salvation.

A wealthy industrialist was traveling in California in search of better health; while spending a few days in an inland town, he learned that in this village there resided a man who owed him a large sum of money. The young man had come here after an unsuccessful career in the East, and was beginning to prosper in a small way.

“The young man seems to have been trying to help himself,’ said the rich man, “and I am going to destroy the note I hold against him.” The note, however, was miles away among his papers, and he realized that he might not live to return. Not knowing the exact amount of the note, he sent his private secretary to the young man, to make inquiry concerning it, and to offer to give the debtor a receipt against it; thus protecting him from proceedings that might in future be entered against him, should the capitalist die before he reached home. To the surprise of the secretary, the young businessman put on an indignant manner and denied the debt.

“When I owe your employer it will be time enough for you to be talking to me about forgiveness,” he said.

The debt remained unforgiven and the heirs of the rich man insisted upon the collection of the note. This was done, to the ruin of the man who remained unforgiven because he was not willing to admit that there was anything to forgive.”

In many ways, Jesus IS forgiveness! The ‘Living Water’ that He offers could well be thought of as that forgiveness… for the water He offers is the water of Eternal Life… but that could not be attained by any of us without a constant source of forgiveness! For all have sinned… and I fear that, as humans, we will continue to do so! But again, Paul says that, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And that is what the Season of Lent is supposed to be about… acknowledging the sacrifice made in our names… understanding and accepting it… and preparing our hearts, our minds, and our lives to be worthy of it!

Living Water! Gushing forth as from an everlasting, eternal fountain! But let us never forget the words of the hymn that say… A fountain filled with blood!

I am Not much of one to use or recite ‘prepared’ prayers! But when I ‘pastored’ the little church outside of Jacksonville (Lynnville, IL) in the early 2000, I found it necessary to print them in the bulletin each Sunday for ALL to pray together. Sometimes I would just quote Scripture, sometimes I would look in the older hymnals, etc. to find ones no longer ‘familiar’, and on occasion would just write my own! THIS is one of mine, and upon coming across it today felt moved to share it…

All:  GOD, sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. We live in a world that says, “Look out for number one,” and yet you tell us to think of others. The world tells us to buy more, and you tell us to give it away. Following you makes us foolish in the world’s eyes. But it’s not the world’s opinion that we care about. To the world we are weak, but in your eyes we are strong. There is joy in our obedience to you. If we follow your path, you’ll be there at the end of it. If we stray from the path, we’ll get caught in the briar and brambles. And when we find our way back to you, we’re bruised, tired, and hungry. Then we wonder what was so important that we left the path for it in the first place. Help us keep our eyes on our destination. Light your heavenly home so that we won’t be distracted by some­thing shiny off the beaten path.    Amen.

My article from the February 2002 edition of the ‘Circuit Rider’, the newsletter I did each month for some years for the Wesley Chapel UMC outside if Jacksonville, IL…

One of the birthdays that we celebrate in this country, and Particularly here in Illinois, during this month of February is that of our sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln. The occasion usually gives me cause to remember my first visit to his home in Springfield, IL.

        The two fourth grade classes at Woodrow Wilson School, in Hartford, IL, would always combine for a field trip to visit the Lincoln sites in and around Springfield. If I’m counting right, I went in 1963. We all gathered early at the Illinois Central train station in Alton and rode to what Was the ‘new’ station in Springfield where we boarded chartered school busses and took off. In one days’ time we went through Lincoln’s home, Lincoln’s tomb, the old State Capitol, the new State Capitol, and New Salem. Having been to each of these many times in the years since, I have often marveled at how that was possible! And yet I have the proof!

Somewhere in one of the boxes of ‘stuff’ stored from my youth, (yes I tend to keep everything, much to my wife’s chagrin) are black-and-white pictures from two or three rolls of film that I took on that trip. Some of these are of several of my classmates posing in front of the bronze statue of Lincoln that still stands on the east side of the Capitol building today. I distinctly remember these because of the ‘faux-pas’ that the very young and inexperienced photographer (me) made…I cut off Lincoln’s head in every one! The pictures that I best recall, though, are from New Salem. I have pictures of the oxen yoked and pulling a wagon, various friends ‘posing’ in front of different buildings, and even of the mill down at the river. (This was long before they dug-out the stepped path down the side of the cliff… we had to ride on the bus to get to it by the highway!) But my favorite was one of my mother. She was standing on the porch of a cabin across the way holding the 8mm movie camera. When she saw me, she started filming in my direction. I hurriedly held up my camera and snapped one of her. So I have a picture of her taking a picture of me. But to make it more interesting, I also have the 8mm film! On it is a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me! So actually, my picture is a picture of her taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me!

I also bought a souvenir while at New Salem that I had for many, many years…a die-cast Civil War cannon! There were two sizes to choose from…the larger one was about six inches and actually ‘fired’ little pellets… the smaller was about four inches and was totally static but very authentic. My finances dictated that I get the smaller one, but several others had purchased the larger, and as we waited in the station for our return train, a small but enthusiastic battle was occurring. And at some point during that battle my cannon was ‘taken out’…one wheel broke off at the axle. However, instead of moaning the loss, I dubbed it my “F-Troop” cannon and continued on. (For those who understand that reference, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, no explanation would succeed!) For the thirty-odd years that I had and displayed that artifact it was always described as my “F-Troop cannon”.

I managed to return to some of these sites before graduating high school, and each time was a very special occasion. So it was only natural that when I moved to that area as an adult, going to any of them was still very special to me. And as many times as I have gone, and Still go, to each over the years, I am still struck with a sense of child-like fascination and wonder each time I go!

Imagine, then, my amazement as I came to realize that very few people that lived around that part of the state had ever been to any of them! Indeed, some had never heard of New Salem ‘State Park’…they only knew of the little town over in Pike County! I just couldn’t imagine someone growing up this close to all of these very special things and never seeing any of them! I guess that with them this close, they just didn’t seem as special. But when I would take anyone of them to see for themselves, their excitement would be as great as my own, and they would bemoan the years that they had chosen to ignore something that close to them.

Many Christians are like that in their relationship with God. Some have grown up in Christian environments and don’t ever remember not knowing the basics about God. Others found Christ a little further down their life-path but have difficulty remembering how and/or why. And more, still, have only touched the surface of the great sphere of love surrounding God and never taken the time to submerge themselves in a deeper understanding of their relationship. The most exciting experience that anyone can have has been right there within easy reach. We just haven’t bothered to see what it was all about!

But occasionally our chains get rattled. Some newcomer comes in and is just so excited about the magnificent things that he-or-she is seeing and feeling! God is so Great! Jesus is so Wonderful! The whole story of Love and Salvation is just so Amazing! We sit there with our ‘yes, yes, we know’ attitude, and the newcomer begins to realize that we have never been where they have been… we have never seen and felt the things that they have seen and felt…and we have been this close to it all of our lives!

Sometimes we need to take stock of what’s around us. We need to recognize God’s love for us. We need to acknowledge the death of His Son for us. We need to hear God’s message to us. And we need to be open to His calling of us!

Yes, it would be nice to have someone infuse us with such excitement that we truly begin to see the same things that they are seeing. But those things are there now! They always have been! We have just been too acclimated to them to acknowledge them! Don’t let familiarity blind you to all of the Joy, Love, and Peace that God can provide! Open your eyes…open your Heart…and…

FEEL THE EXCITEMENT!

Using Scripture from Matthew 16: 24-25 and Mark 7: 7, this is my article from the July 2001 issue of the Wesley Chapel UMC (Jacksonville, IL) monthly newsletter, the ‘Circuit Rider’…

  View     Point    by the Editor

       Larry and I came to know one another through a mutual interest in electronics and singing in the Boys’ Choir during our sophomore year of high school. We were soon best friends and doing any number of things together. Over the years we designed, setup and operated a number of lighting and sound systems for various plays, dances, and concerts, as well as performed in a number of them. We worked together on parade floats, building sets and scenery, fundraisers, and anything else that came our way. For one dance, I crawled through the rafters of the high school gym (about forty feet up) dragging extension cords with me to hang a blue spotlight directly over a fountain in the center of the floor. At the junior high gym, where we did our musicals, our extension ladder was about a foot short of reaching the girders overhead. Since I was the lightest (at that time), four guys would hold the ladder straight up as I would climb to the top of it with a rope. While hanging on with one leg wrapped through the ladder, I would pull up the lighting accessories that Larry would tie to the rope and attach them to the girder. Then he would toss the light bulbs up to me and I would put them in and aim them. Believe it or not, we never dropped a single light bulb, and not one of us was ever hurt.

       His dad had owned an electrical supply house in Edwardsville, and though retired for some years, he still worked as a part-time electronics salesperson, and owned a number of rental properties in and around Edwardsville.

The summer after we graduated, the maintenance man who worked at one of his apartment complexes was going to have surgery and be off work for about two months. They asked me if I would be interested in filling in for him during that time. I still worked for our neighbor on his farm, but given the choice of walking beans for $1.25/hr. or going into town for the $2 or 3/hr. that his dad was offering, I made arrangements to take off the one day a week that I needed to do the ‘chores’ in town.

The first thing each week was to get out the old Lawn-Boy and cut the grass. (Stores were starting to sell riding mowers, some with as much as 5 hp!, but normal people still had to push.) The next thing would be to get out the buckets, mops, and rags. Each hallway/stairwell had to be cleaned top-to-bottom and waxed. Even the wooden handrails were cleaned with Pine-Sol. (One resident told me how clean everything always smelled there.) Then of course was the usual cleaning up outside, emptying trashcans, etc. One job, however, was done on an as needed basis, but had to be done as soon as it was needed.

The building was brick, and as was the usual practice then of that type of building, had a flat roof, recessed about a foot below the outside wall of bricks. Drains were installed and the whole thing was covered with tar and gravel. The problem was that over time, the roof had sagged around the drains. So, whenever it rained, I needed to go into town and drag a sump pump, extension cords, and garden hoses up onto the roof to help get the water off. I soon found that, for the deeper spots, it was faster to rig up the hoses to siphon over the edge and hope that no one was walking underneath.

Now, I can’t say that I performed all of my tasks flawlessly. After all I was fresh out of high school and was a very busy person! I maybe wasn’t there to do the mowing, etc. on the same exact day each week. But I did try to be responsible about the water on the roof.

How many apartment buildings have you been in lately? I don’t get to many, but of those I have been through in the past ten years, I can honestly say that none of them smelled of Pine-Sol, the floors were far from clean, and a general air of neglect permeated everything. It seems that the level of service has dropped considerably over the last thirty-or-forty years. Or is it rather that the attitude of responsibility to maintain that level of service has all but disappeared? How strongly do the owners or managers want it done? Do the people in charge of doing it take any pride in what they are doing?

The services that I was hired to provide were not anything above and beyond what was expected of any respectable establishment back then. And the reasons for them, be they health or just good business, haven’t changed. But people’s ideas about what their responsibilities are, whether management or employee, have. Far too often, our primary responsibility revolves around ourselves. It may be improving the ‘bottom line’, or wanting to spend more time doing something more ‘enjoyable’. But whatever the reason, you can be sure that it centers on the individual.

In Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus says, “If any of you want to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.”  He doesn’t say, “…on Sunday mornings.” He doesn’t say, “…unless it’s perfect golfing weather.” He doesn’t say, “… as long as your team doesn’t have a game.” He doesn’t say, “…if it’s convenient.” He says to “… put aside your selfish ambition…”

If we want to follow Christ, if we want to obey God, if we truly want to live Christian lives, then our primary responsibility MUST be to God. Being a Christian is not a part-time job. It is not a matter of convenience. It is not a social function, a stepping-stone, a distraction, or a good deed. Being a Christian is a way of life, and a way of living your life. NOTHING is more important than our responsibility to God, and to doing His work. NOTHING!

Jesus quotes from Isaiah, in Mark 7:7, when He says, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away.”  Don’t let Him be speaking of you when He adds, in verse 8, “…you ignore God’s specific laws and substitute your own traditions.”

This was first given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on February 6, 2005, and again, with some minor changes, at the Harford (IL) East Maple Street Chapel on April 20, 2008. THIS is the later ‘version’ of it. (The ‘original’ can be found on here earlier in the posts…)

The various Scriptures are from Exodus 24: 12-18, Psalm 99, Matthew 17: 1-9, and 2 Peter 1: 16-21.

       One thing that all of us who watched the original Star Trek series in the late ‘60’s learned early on was to never… never… ever… wear a red shirt when beaming down to a planet for the first time! You might have all of the salt sucked out of your body, or jump on an exploding rock, but however it might happen, you could just about count on being killed! The next thing that those of us watching learned was that that didn’t seem to matter… the red-shirt that was zapped by lightning in one episode was the same one that the Horta dissolved into a puddle of acid three weeks later! In fact, all of us who have ever watched television or been to a movie are well aware that much of what we see on ‘the screen’ is ‘film-maker’s magic’. And so it was with some air of disbelief that the twenty-odd students going through the training program sponsored by the Operating Engineers union sat to watch the safety film produced and provided by the Carpenter’s Union.

       It was the winter of 1973/74, I was almost three years out of high-school and had been married for less than one, and was about the average age of all those attending this eight-week training program. And the film we were watching was very graphic for its day… we saw one scene where someone came and distracted a man using a radial-arm saw and watched the blade slice off his fingers… another scene showed a guy holding a piece of wood with one hand and drilling with the other… you guessed it, he drilled through his hand… and scene after scene of things just like these, all intended to make one be aware of just how dangerous all of these things can be. And I must say that I, at least, learned something from it… to this day, every time I pick up a power tool I think of all of the things that I’m not supposed to do with it… and sometimes, I even pay attention and don’t do them!

       Another aspect of our safety training during that program was listening to some of the stories of our instructors. Each of them had been an operator for many years and had seen many kinds of mishaps… some funny… some not so funny. One told of running a crane during the building of the Poplar Street Bridge across the Mississippi River into St. Louis. There was a radio tower near by that was surrounded by a chain-link fence, complete with barbed-wire around the top. The caretaker had a really nice watermelon patch he tended inside of that fence. On occasion, this operator would have somebody hang on the cable as he lowered him into that patch and come away with a watermelon… the caretaker would come out screaming and yelling for them to stop, but could never really do anything about it.

       One day, while lifting concrete up to the bridge roadway, the operator heard a loud ‘snap’, and realized what it was… one of the struts in the boom had broken! As the boom began to collapse with the five-yards of concrete over the workers, he hung on and swung the unit away from the bridge, saving, undoubtedly, many lives… including his. In fact, the only actual ‘casualties’ were the crane, itself, and the watermelons… you see, that five yards of concrete landed right in the middle of the patch!

       Another instructor told of running a small crawler carving a road out of the side of a mountain when the clutch linkage must have fallen off and he couldn’t stop… as it went over the edge one way he jumped the other! Luckily, he jumped towards the hill and survived with minor cuts and scrapes! Still another instructor told of the guy who jumped up on his big crawler after lunch one day and started backing, in high gear, into the pit where they were working. Distracted, he didn’t realize he had missed the road and had one track going down and the other one still on ground level… before he could stop, it had turned over on top of him! He didn’t survive!

       Now, I tell you all of this to make a point… you see, for all of the gory effects that we saw in that film, we knew that they were just effects… they weren’t real! We knew that all of those things were possible… but the impact on us was just not as great as one might like. Yet the stories told to us by the instructors really did make an impression… because they were real! And we knew they were real because these men were actual eye-witnesses!!

       And that’s the same point that Peter is trying to make in the verses I read this morning! “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.”

       Now, Exodus 24: 12-18 tells a small part of the story of Moses meeting God on Mt. Sinai, while the Psalm talks about that very event, and closes by shouting… “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.”

And Matthew 17:1-9 tells of the very event Peter is talking about … how he, James and John accompanied Jesus up a high mountain and watched as Jesus was transfigured into Holy radiance and stood speaking with Moses and Elijah! And as they spoke, they saw Jesus enveloped in a bright cloud and heard a voice say, “This is my beloved Son, whom I Love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” And we learned that… “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” 

       Which brings us back to this passage from 2 Peter! Already, there were numerous cults and false teachers trying to spread their version of the story of Christ and what they wanted it to mean. 2 Peter was written with the intention of debunking these false teachings and establishing the truth.

       The Life Application Commentary says that, “Whether parents, coaches, professors, … or friends, we hold our teachers in high regard. They have opened our eyes, provided counsel, broadened our horizons, solved mysteries, and filled our minds. We have benefited greatly from their wisdom and expertise.

That’s what makes false teachers so dangerous. Misusing their privileged position and betraying trust, for the sake of pride, reward, or ambition, they prey on the unsuspecting and lead many astray.

Knowing this powerful influence of teachers, the apostles and other church leaders continually warned against those who would twist the truth and lead believers astray. That was the purpose of 2 Peter. Written to strengthen the church to resist the internal challenge to their faith, this brief letter warns of false teachers who deny Christ and scoffers who mock his return. Believers are to beware and to keep their focus on Christ.

Our world, today, is filled with cult leaders, religious scams, and others who would lead people astray. Estimates of the number of cults worldwide run as high as ten thousand. Some of these cults and many false teachers have even infiltrated the church. Reading 2 Peter can help you determine what is truth… rejecting every type of false teaching.”

It is important to realize that all of the books we have in our Bible have been inspired by God. Erwin W. Lutzer, author of The DaVinci Deception, a book which thoroughly debunks all of the proffered fallacies contained in The DaVinci Code, says that, “As you read the Bible you will discover that the Word of God came down to us in different ways.  Sometimes God spoke to the prophets directly, revealing things that could not be known in any other way.  Sometimes God wrote the words himself, as in the Ten Commandments.  However, God also used natural means, as in the case of Luke, whose book was written after painstaking research.

In the opening paragraph, Luke explained how his book came about:

‘Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.  Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.’”

In the last two verses of what I read, Peter says that… “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

This… is… the Word of God… given to us… the people of God… Praise be to God!

Everything in this book is real! There are no special effects wizards hard at work trying to deceive us! There are no clever story lines designed to mislead us! There are no fiction writers in here intent on making some kind of name for themselves by fabricating outlandish fairy tales! What we have are eye-witness testimonies and/or carefully researched and documented accounts… all of which have been inspired by God… giving us the history of God’s work with His people Israel, and of the life… death… and resurrection of his Son, Jesus! And more than that, it is a road map of how we are to live our lives in His name… and why… the promise of an eternal life with Him!

And finally, there is this… Carl F. H. Henry says that… “There is only one real inevitability: It is necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled.”

Using the 1rst chapter of 1 Corinthians, verses 18-31, as the Scripture, this was given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on January 30, 2005, and again, after a small rewrite, at the Hartford (IL) East Maple Street Chapel on February 7, 2010

       It was either ‘80 or ‘81 that I convinced my friend Henry to join me in starting a lawn mowing/landscaping business in Edwardsville, and to that end we acquired a very used John Deere riding mower, to supplement his old Craftsman, a new but very inexpensive string-trimmer, an older and very small International industrial tractor, various other tools and equipment, and a trailer to haul it all on. And I must say that with my contacts, advertising expertise, and sales ability, it didn’t take long for us to sign a number of mowing contracts with different organizations around the area. But I was also very interested in building-up the landscaping side of things, and was always on the look-out for new homes or remodeling projects being done that I might stop at and talk about us doing what we could to help.

       A mutual friend of ours had a sister who had just purchased a home in a new subdivision several towns away and wanted the dirt in the yard finished much smoother than what the contractors had left it, and to get a proper stand of grass growing. After we got the equipment there, I noted that the backyard ran downhill all the way to the house, and she admitted that they were having a problem with getting water in the basement every time it rained, and that, so-far, no-one had given them any viable options of what to do about it.. After looking the situation over for a bit, I set the blade on the back of our little tractor to as angled and as tilted position as it would go, then starting about twenty feet away from the house, proceeded, in a number of passes, to dig a two-foot deep trench all the way across the back yard and around one side. With each pass, I could see their jaws drop ever more in amazement as they wondered what in the world I was doing to their yard! Finally, one of them asked me if I knew what I was doing… I just smiled and said, “Trust me!” I told them to all go back inside for about two hours and then come see what they thought!

       When they returned, they saw the entire back-part of the yard smoothly tapered down to the bottom of what had been that trench, while the ground from there to the house sloped up all the way to the wall! What was now the low-spot of the yard gently tapered around the side of the house and smoothed back to level at the front yard. Now, all the rain water from the back and off of the roof ran towards it and was diverted around to the front, where it spread-out over that grass and made its way on to the street. They were shocked and very, very pleased with how it had turned out, and admitted that no-one had even considered doing that. And I am very happy to add that they called three-or-four months afterwards to praise the work I had done and to tell me that they had never had another drop of water in that basement!

       Now, you might ask, “what has all of this got to do with today’s lesson?” Trust me!

       The Life Application Commentary says that, “Paul had not come to Corinth to make disciples for himself; he had come to “preach the gospel”. But this preaching was not according to the world’s wisdom or desires — it was not filled with philosophical arguments or supernatural acts. Paul’s preaching was the message of the cross — Jesus Christ crucified on behalf of sinners. Such a message always has two results, for ultimately all of humanity will end up in one of these two classes. (1) To those who are on the road to destruction, the gospel message sounds foolish . . . the message of the cross surely seems stupid to those who desire worldly wisdom. “Who wants a crucified king?” they might ask. (2) But for those who are being saved . . . [the gospel message is] the very power of God. Paul wrote to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek”. The gospel message is more than a true story and a good way to live; it is “the very power of God.” Only with such power can the gospel message redeem sinful people and transform them into God’s people.”

       He then summarized a verse from Isaiah to emphasize a point that Jesus often made: God’s way of thinking is not like the world’s way… that is… normal human wisdom. “The wisdom of the wise” and “the intelligence of the intelligent” refer to world-centered wisdom and intelligence. These are not wrong, but they are worthless as a means of salvation. The context of the passage in Isaiah is that God hates those who “draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips… their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote”. Thus, God says he will destroy their wisdom and intelligence because it can never help them find him. People can spend a lifetime accumulating human wisdom and yet never learn how to have a personal relationship with God. They must come to the crucified and risen Christ to receive eternal life and the joy of a personal relationship with the Savior. It doesn’t matter if they use their “wisdom” and “intelligence” to search for God… or to attempt to dismiss him… they will only find themselves doomed to frustration and, ultimately, to eternal separation from God.”

So the question then poses itself… of what use is human wisdom? Many intelligent people had looked at the water problem at that house I started telling you about… the contractor, the architects, and many others… all with book learning and/or years of experience… and all had told them that it was a situation that they would either have to pay big bucks to fix, or just learn to live with… and so I’m sure it must have seemed utterly foolish to them for me to start digging what looked like a gigantic hole in their back yard! But when all was said and done, my ‘foolishness’ was of far greater value to them than all of the ‘wisdom’ offered by others… and that is the gist of today’s passage… that even the ‘foolishness’ of God is far more valuable than any man’s wisdom!

       A story from ‘Practical Bible Illustrations’ tells of an educated Chinese man who was employed by some missionaries to translate the New Testament into Chinese. At first the work of translating had no apparent effect upon the scholar. But, after a time, he became quite agitated and said, “What a wonderful book this is!” “Why so?” said the missionary. “Because,” said the Chinese, “it tells me the exact facts about myself. It knows all that is in me. The one who made this book must be the one who made me.”

The Bible tells one the fundamental facts about oneself indeed. How superficial, by way of contrast, are human textbooks on psychology, or the human mind! And such is the power of God!

You see, in verse 25, Paul says that, “… the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom…” And then, he adds… “the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” The most foolish thing that God might do is still far wiser than anything man might accomplish! The weakest thing that God might be capable of is still far and away more powerful than anything we can even imagine!

The Life Application Commentary says that, “This verse provides the key to Paul’s words in these chapters. The message of Christ’s death for sins sounds foolish to those who don’t believe. They believe that they, by their own wisdom, can find the “ultimate reality” or make for themselves the best life; however, they will be woefully disappointed. Their wisest plans cannot even compare to God’s most insignificant act. Paul’s words do not imply that God could ever be foolish or weak; instead, he was making the point that human wisdom and human strength cannot begin to compare to God. What the world sees as foolishness (Christ’s death for our sins as a display of God’s power) is God’s truth. The cross was reserved for criminals in Paul’s day. How could such an act have any power? Yet this “foolishness” is wiser than any human plan that could have been laid, for through Christ’s death alone comes salvation. Even an act that had appeared to be weakness (a human body dying on a cross) was far stronger than any human strength, for Christ would come back to life. Death seems to be the end of the road, the ultimate weakness. But Jesus did not stay dead. His resurrection demonstrated his power over death. And through what had appeared to be weakness, Christ accomplished what no amount of human strength could ever accomplish. By his death, people are saved from eternal death and given everlasting life — if they trust him as Savior and Lord. The “foolish” people who simply accept Christ’s offer are actually the wisest of all, because they alone will live eternally with God.”

Still quoting from the Life Application Commentary…“The Good News of Jesus Christ still sounds foolish to many and offensive to others. It is foolishness to any who have chosen another way to face their unavoidable appointment with death and what comes after. It is offensive to those who attempt to maintain a facade of self-righteousness or self-confidence in the face of life’s questions. Those who cannot consider their own sinfulness will find that the gospel offers a solution they insist they do not need. Our society worships power, influence, and wealth. Jesus came as a humble, poor servant, and he offers his kingdom to those who have faith, not to those who work hard or improve themselves. This may look ridiculous to the world, but Christ is our power, the only way we can be saved…”

What more can I add to that? Let all of God’s people wisely say…

Written for the January 23 service at the Lynnville (IL) UMC in 2005. The Scripture is from the 27th chapter of Psalms, verse 1 and verses 4-9, as well as Jesus’ teaching of what has come to be called ‘The Beatitudes’…

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.” The Biblical Illustrator quotes C. H. Spurgeon in saying, “The soul is assured of (that statement), and therefore declares it boldly. Into the soul at the new birth Divine light is poured as the precursor of salvation. Where there is not enough light to reveal our own darkness, and to make us long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. After conversion our God is our Joy, Comfort, Guide, Teacher, and, in every sense, our Light: He is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Not merely does He give light or salvation; He is light, He is salvation; he, then, who has laid hold upon God has all covenant blessings in his possession.”

“Whom shall I fear?” Again, C. H. Spurgeon tells us that that is… “A question which is its own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared; for the Lord, our light, destroys them. The damnation of hell is not to be dreaded; for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different challenge from that of boastful Goliath: that rested on the conceited vigour of an arm of flesh; this on the real power of the omnipotent I AM.

Our life derives all its strength from God: we cannot be weakened by all the machinations of the enemy. This bold question looks into the future as well as the present. “If God be for us, who can be against us,” either now or in time to come?”

       The books of 1^st and 2^nd Samuel are very fascinating reading. Basically, they tell the story of how David became the Anointed of God and all of the trials he suffered through because of it. As you know, Saul had fallen out of favor because of his disobedience to God, and God had anointed a very young David to take his place. Saul thought that he could undo what God had done and attempted to kill David. In 1 Samuel 19, we read…

 “Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David and warned him, “My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”

Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?”

Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.”

…

But an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.

Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.

And in chapter 23 we read… “Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, and he said, “God has handed him over to me, for David has imprisoned himself by entering a town with gates and bars.” And Saul called up all his forces for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.” David said, “O LORD, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me. Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, tell your servant.”

And the LORD said, “He will.”

Again David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?”

And the LORD said, “They will.”

So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place.”

In these verses, and many others like them, we learn just how troubled David’s life had been. So it should come as no surprise that he wrote in this Psalm, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling;”…

David knew trouble! And I’m sure that he often felt as if he had had enough… he wanted to rest in the safety of God’s house… because he also knew that God had always been the source of his deliverance!

I had a friend who was also very familiar with troubles. I met her one Saturday many years ago at the Laundromat… her daughter was five, then, and my son, four… we were both single… and we struck up a friendship that lasted over all of these years. I, alone at first, and later with others of my family, would take her and her family on trips to St. Louis and Chicago from time to time, and we always made a big to-do about exchanging gifts at Christmas time. And even though we didn’t get to see as much of one another as we might have liked in recent years, we each tried to keep tabs on one another as best we could… my wife would see her in the store and the two would visit and share what was going on in each of our lives, and she and her family were certainly in my prayers every day.

You see, after her second child was born, she developed Lupus, and lived with the debilitating effects of that disease until it finally killed her just this last week in 2005. For twenty-two years she would have bouts of excruciating pain and anguish as different parts of her body were affected, interspersed with joyous times of being in remission. But through it all, she strove to take care of her family and worship her God… that’s right, she never lost her faith, no matter how bad things might have been!

I knew that during the early years of our friendship, my lack of faith was something that always bothered her… you see, I was going through a few trials of my own at the time, and had turned away from acknowledging and following that course that had been laid out so plain for me as a youth. And even though we never really had much opportunity to discuss it, I also knew how happy she was when I once again headed down this path and began building my ministry to God and Christ.

Another thing we never discussed but I knew was that she was one who surely took to heart the words of Jesus as He began His Sermon on the Mount…

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,”…  I know there were times when her spirit was weak and discouraged… “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Blessed are those who mourn,”…  I had many an opportunity to sit with her to listen and encourage her as she would cry… “for they will be comforted.”

“Blessed are the meek,”…  A fiery Irishwoman she might have been, but I have never known anyone more tender and loving and caring than she could be… “for they will inherit the earth.”

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,”… She certainly did that, and tried to instill those qualities in her children as well… “for they will be filled.”

“Blessed are the merciful,”… no one was exempt from her forgiveness… including me, sometimes!… “for they will be shown mercy.”

“Blessed are the pure in heart,”… if hearts were made from soap, she would have been Ivory!… “for they will see God.”

And I’m certain that she does today!

So you see, troubles of any magnitude are no excuse for turning away from God! And we find some backing for that in what David is saying in this Psalm. In fact, the Biblical Illustrator calls this a ‘psalm for life’s storms’. First, it gives us COURAGE. This courage is founded on confidence in God. When the soul feels God with it, it becomes invincible.

That courage is heightened by memories of past deliverance. Recollection of past mercies strengthens our faith in future supplies.

It defies all future enemies, and faces the mysterious future with a jubilant soul.

       The Psalm also talks of a SHELTER IN LIFE’S STORMS. It tells us where… The house of the Lord: the place where He specially manifests Himself to His people… it tells us the means by which the shelter is to be secured… Dwelling with God; delighting in God; and inquiring after God… and it gives us the source from which it is to be derived… God Himself… and the spirit in which it is accepted… Confidence and praise.

       All of us face troubles in our lives! E Stanly Jones gives the following prescription for meeting trouble; “Don’t think your case unique; it can be matched many times over. Don’t give yourself to pity; the temptation will be to feel sorry for yourself; a self-pitying self is a pitiable self; don’t allow yourself to slip on that. Don’t give yourself to excessive grief. Many do it, thinking they thereby show their love. Don’t retail your sorrows; doing so will cause them to grow. Don’t resign yourself to sorrow and feel it will continue. Don’t complain; the more you complain about things, the more you have to complain about.” After all,W. Russell Maltby has said: “Jesus promised His disciples three things – that they would be entirely fearless, absurdly happy, and that they would get into trouble.”

But it was Dean W. R. Inge who said, “He who will live for himself shall have small troubles, but they shall seem great. He who will live for others shall have great troubles, but they shall seem to him small!”

In our Psalm, David cries out, “Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior.” And Jesus answered him… and us… when He said… “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven…”

Given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on January 16, 2005, the verses are from Isaiah 49: 1-7 and John 1: 29-42…

       The year was 1975. I was four years out of high-school and still knew all of the answers to the world’s problems! And the number one problem the world had to deal with right then was how to supply me with all of my millions that I intended to make. To that end, I went to the local Case dealer in town and bought my very first tractor… a Case 644.

       This was a 14hp garden tractor built from the ground-up as an industrial loader, and along with it I bought the four-foot mower deck, the three-point hitch, and the 46” hydraulic-driven tiller that went on the back, along with various other sundries all intended to increase its versatility and usefulness. And, man, was I excited about it!

       Through experimenting with different configurations, I found that if I raised the bucket up over the cab, put the front wheels hard against the front of the bed, and flipped-up the flexible drag on the rear of the tiller, I could just close the tailgate on my ’64 Ford F250, and could then set the mower deck in along the side of it. It wasn’t long before I headed south to see my friends down in Edwardsville and show-off a little bit. After picking up Henry and listening to him ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over it, we headed to another friend’s house. He came out, looked it over and said, “What’d you do… shop around till you found one that just fit the truck?”

I’m sure that everybody sitting here this morning has had occasion over the years to be so excited about something that you just couldn’t wait to rush-off and tell it to your best friend… or sister or brother… or your mother or father… or everybody! And that’s just the way Andrew felt when he learned that this Jesus was truly the promised Messiah! He couldn’t wait to find his brother and tell him all that he had learned, and bring him to meet Him and learn from Him himself!

Our verses in John start out with John the Baptist seeing Jesus coming towards him and crying out, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” The Life Application Commentary tells us that, “The title “Lamb of God” would be associated in the minds of the Jews with the Passover lamb and the lambs used in the daily sacrifices for the sin offerings.

Every morning and evening, a lamb was sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah, God’s servant, would be led to the slaughter like a lamb. To pay the penalty for sin, a life had to be given – and God chose to provide the sacrifice himself. When Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice, he removed the sin of the world and destroyed the power of sin itself. In calling Jesus the Lamb of God, John pointed to Jesus as the substitutionary sacrifice provided by God.”

John then gave this testimony… “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” Let me read that again… “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”  

Now, Andrew was a follower of John’s! But he knew John as the precursor of the Messiah… that is, he knew that John was not the Messiah, himself, but the one foretold to prepare the way for Him! So when John gave this testimony in front of him, Andrew probably jumped for joy, and began to follow Jesus. And when that day had ended, Andrew just had to run and find his brother and tell him that he had seen the Messiah!

You see, they knew the prophecies… when they heard the verses that we read from Isaiah this morning, they knew that it was the Commissioning of the Servant of God… the Messiah! Listen to them again, and hear them as the words of Jesus! “Listen to me, all of you in far-off lands! The LORD called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name. He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver.

He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.”

I replied, “But my work all seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose at all. Yet I leave it all in the LORD’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.”

And now the LORD speaks — he who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring his people of Israel back to him. The LORD has honored me, and my God has given me strength. He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

This was the Christ! The Promised one! And they were excited! They wanted to learn all that they could learn, and tell everybody that they knew about Him! And you know what? WE should be just as excited! WE should be trying to learn just as much! WE should be telling the world the Gospel story of our Lord! Why?

Because of that last line I just read from Isaiah! “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Jesus was not to be the savior of just the Jews… He is the Savior of us all!!

John said, “I have seen… and I testify… that this is the Son of God.”  The Life Application Commentary says that… “John was declaring Jesus’ special position with God. God had told John that he would reveal his sent one to him — the Spirit would descend upon the Messiah and remain upon him. John saw this and declared his belief in Jesus as God’s identified Son. Those who receive the Spirit can also declare that Jesus is the Son of God, for the Spirit enables us to believe and confess.

Today… people are looking for someone to give them security in an insecure world. We must point them to Christ and show them how Christ satisfies their need. They must hear it first from us. And we cannot pass on to others what we do not possess! If we know Jesus, we will want to introduce others to him!”

So I ask you this morning… do you know Jesus? If not, His story is a fabulous one… and it’s all written in here, for all to read and learn! And if you do know Him… if you have seen, and believe, and testify that He is the Son of God… how will you answer when He asks what you have done to spread His message throughout the world? It’s time that we all ‘show and tell’ the world about Christ!

This was given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on January 09, 2005. The Scriptures are from Isaiah 42: 1-9, Acts 10: 34-43, and Psalm 29, among others…

L…U…E…B…B…E…R…T… Back when I was driving a ‘Big Truck’ delivering edible oils around the country I often had occasion to spell my last name out for people as they took note of just who was entering or leaving their plant, and as I did, I usually let them know how aware I was that it is an awkward name to spell by telling them that it appears 12-13 times in my junior and senior-high school yearbooks, and it is spelled about 10 different ways! Now, I went through them a while back to verify that, and it’s actually spelled about 5 different ways, but you get the idea. There are the simple mistakes like leaving out one ‘B’, to, I think misidentifying me altogether as ‘S. Lueck’. The worst, however, was the one that said I was ‘S. Buebbert’… my friends have never let me live that one down!

In these verses from Isaiah, God says, “I am the LORD; that is my name!” Now, it s seems as if God is very particular about His name! Even as far back as His talking to Moses from the burning bush, in the book of Exodus, God said, “”I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”

You see, in Isaiah, God says, “I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” Barnes’ Notes says that… “This is the name which God has chosen by which to distinguish Himself from all idols, and which He regards as appropriately expressive of His existence and perfections. He will not allow it to be ascribed to another, nor will He allow another to assume or receive the honor which is due Him, whether it be man, or whether it be an idol. God claims that all appropriate honors should be rendered to him, and that men should cherish no opinions, maintain no doctrines, indulge in no feelings, that would be derogatory to the honor of his name. This declaration is designed to counteract ourinclination… to attribute to man that which belongs to God, or to ascribe to our own wisdom, skill, or power, that which he alone can accomplish.”

And I think that all of that is very understandable! God… IS… God! And Psalm 29 tells us that we should… “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” We read… “the LORD thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon… The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the LORD shakes the desert… and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

Now, when Dorothy and her entourage first went in before the great Wizard of Oz, they were greeted with a booming voice and great flashes of fire and light as the Wizard sent them to destroy the other wicked witch, and his ostentatious presence filled them with such fear and awe that they obeyed! Yet, on their return, Toto discovers the man behind the curtain working the controls, and the ‘great Wizard of OZ’ is discovered to be just a circus man from Kansas. And I think that all too often we keep expecting to find some curtain to pull back and discover the true identity of God! But there is no curtain! There is no magic! None of this is some kind of conjuring trick or special effect designed to fool us into believing!

God… IS… God! His reality… and ours… is whatever He deigns it to be! And He expects us to remember and acknowledge that on every level! He does not belong to us… we belong to HIM! He is not required to do our bidding… we are required to do HIS!

And yet, this great Being… this great creator of all things… this most powerful and most wonderful God… our God… says in Isaiah… “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.”

This is what God the LORD says — he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

And this Great, All-powerful God then says, “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you!“ He is telling us of the Messiah… the Promised One… His Son… who is to come! Then, in the 3^rd chapter of Matthew, we’re told, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” God foretold of the arrival of His Son… and He acknowledged Him at the start of His ministry on this earth!

In the verses from Acts, Peter tells us that…“…God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” He said… “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”

Peter then adds… “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

There is a display up at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago that I love to watch and listen to each time we go in which a man mixes and assembles a number of various chemicals together and describes what each one is and what it does. At the end, he says something like, “Now, what have we made? This lemon crème pie! No lemon… no crème… just pie! All through the magic of modern chemistry!” And that is what many have come to expect in today’s world… nothing is what it appears to be!

But… our Lord is real… and He is alive today! His Son, Jesus, is real… and alive today! There is no magic… no flashes or filler designed to impress or mislead us… no conjuring tricks or slight of hand… there is only the Lord! He is real! And He created all that is… all that was… and all that will ever be! He is the Lord! Yet, for all of that greatness… for all of that power and majesty… He loves me enough… He loves you enough that He sent His only Son to die for our sins!

And you don’t get more real than that!