Life’s Hurts, Habits and Hang-ups and Their Healing Choices
Subtitle: Making Changes, transformation (Romans 12:1-2)
Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church on Sunday, June 30, 2019

We are going to be looking at Romans 12:1-2 in a few minutes. Please turn there.

We have been walking through the 8 steps to healing from the book, “Life’s Healing Choices.” These are the steps outlined by number. These are 8 principles and each principle is a Christian version of the 12 steps of the 12 step method of recovery. These 8 principles/steps are an acronym that spell “recovery.” If you are a Christian, then you are in recovery. We are all in recovery from our sin problem. In addition to that we all have hurts, habits and hangups from the world. We are on number 5 today.

Celebrate Recovery’s Eight Recovery Principles

1. Realize I’m not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. (Step 1 of the 12 step method)

2. Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him and that He has the power to help me recover. (Step 2 of the 12 step method)

3. Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control. (Step 3 of the 12 step method)

4. Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. (Steps 4 and 5 of the 12 step method)

5. Voluntarily submit to any and all changes God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. (Steps 6 and 7 of the 12 step method)

6. Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others when possible, except when to do so would harm them or others. (Steps 8 and 9 of the 12 step method)

7. Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will. (Steps 10 and 11 of the 12 step method)
8. Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and my words. (Step 12 of the 12 step method)

We are now on step 5:
Voluntarily submit to any and all changes God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. (Steps 6 and 7 of the 12 step method)

Read with me:
Romans 12:1-2 tells us:
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

We will come back to that passage in a little bit.

So, my theme is taken from step 5:
Be transformed!

I. What is wrong?
a. We have defects and these defects come from three sources.
1. Biological
2. Sociological
3. Theological.
b. In the book, “Life’s Healing Choices” these are called: Chromosomes, circumstances and choices.”
c. Each of our parents contributes 2300 chromosomes to our birth. However, this is not excuse for our hurts, habits or hangups. This just shows there are certain habits that are part of our DNA.
d. Socially, we have a legitimate need for love, respect and security. But as we grow up the social circumstances we face develop who we are. Even as adults, we are still changing based on our social circumstances. Some, even many, of these are good things. But there are some negative hurts, habits and hangups which we develop as well. Sometimes we develop hurts, habits and hangups as a way to protect ourselves from certain people or situations. Or, maybe we excuse them that way. Sometimes our hurts, habits and hangups are a response to a situation, or situations.
e. Theologically, we have a nature and this goes back to Adam and Eve. We are also in a fallen world.
i. Creation: everything was created good (Gen 1-2).
ii. Fall: humanity fell from grace, we have a sin problem. We also have diseases mental, physical, etc (Gen 3).
iii. Redemption: (Jesus saved us, but we are not in Heaven yet (Romans 3:23 and 6:23).
iv. Restoration: someday God will make all things new (Rev. 21-22).
a. So, we have these hurts, habits and hangups and sometimes they become comfortable, like an old pair of shoes. They may be comfortable like an old pair of shoes. Even though they have holes in them.
f. Why is it so hard to change?
i. We confuse the defects with our identity.
ii. We often confuse our identity with our character defects. We say, “That’s just the way I am.” We identify ourselves by our defects when we say, “It’s just like me to be a workaholic or overweight or anxious or passive. It’s just like me to be fearful or lose my temper or to lust.” Our words and thoughts become self-fulfilling prophecies. If you say, “I’m always nervous when I get on planes,” what’s going to happen the next time you get on a plane? You’re going to be nervous.
iii. Every defect has a payoff. A mom who is struggling with her anger might politely say to her children, “Kids, come to dinner.” When they don’t come, she asks them again. When they still don’t come, she yells, “Kids, come down to dinner, or you are going to get me mad, and you know what happens then!” Then they come. Unconsciously, the kids have set up their mother to yell and get mad, and Mom has figured out that yelling works. There’s the payoff.
iv. Satan discourages our efforts to change. John 8:44: You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
II. What does the Bible say?
a. Let’s go back to Romans 12:1-2.
b. Black is the opposite of white, wet is the opposite of dry, left is the opposite of right, winter is the opposite of summer. There are many opposites in our life. The world is the opposite of God. The world opposes God. James 4:4 says that friendship with the world is enmity (hostility, ill will) with God. In John 17 Jesus prayed about the world hating the disciples and Him. In Gal 1:4 Paul talked about this “present evil age” or “world.” There is a dichotomy between Christians and the world. There is a difference between the things of God and the things of this world.
c. Let’s focus on verse 2. In verse 2 Paul calls us to avoid worldly contamination and have spiritual transformation:
d. We can present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy, by not being conformed to this age, but by being transformed.
e. These words: “Conformed” and “transformed” are both commands.
i. Transformed is the word for metamorphosis. This is the same word used to describe a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. We must have a gradual change to be more and more like Christ.
ii. I think of Clark Kent changing into Superman
f. The New American Commentary: The verb occurs in two other settings in the New Testament. First is Mark 9:2 (Matt 17:2), where Jesus is said to have been “transfigured” before his three disciples. Next is 2 Cor 3:18, where Paul taught that believers, as they behold the glory of the Lord, are being “transformed” into his likeness. The transformation of which Paul spoke in Rom 12:2 is not a change effected from without but a radical reorientation that begins deep within the human heart.
g. This happens by renewing our mind
i. Paul doesn’t tell us what to renew our mind in, but I can take some guesses
ii. I think of walking according to the Spirit in Romans 8, which sets one’s mind on things above.
iii. I also can’t help but think of Jesus’ command “to deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me” (Mark 8:34; Matt 16:24; Luke 9:23)
iv. Don’t be conformed, but be transformed to discern God’s will. We should renew our mind in God’s word.
v. This, “don’t be conformed” passage is quite memorable: I like it. This is a rhetorical nice and memorable verse.
h. When we are transformed we can test God’s well
i. 1 Thess. 5:21 says to “test everything”
ii. We must test things to make sure they fall under God’s will. We can’t do this when we are of the world, but only when we are of God. God’s will is good and acceptable.
iii. We cannot test these things when we are still in the world.
i. Come out of the world, be Christ like. There is a difference between the world and Christianity.
III. What is the treatment from this step (Most of this comes from the book, Life’s Healing Choices)?
a. How do we cooperate with God’s change plans? All of us have picked up worldly habits. We all have hurts, habits or hangups.
b. We can only change by God’s power.
c. Focus on changing 1 defect at a time Proverbs 17:24: Wisdom is in the presence of the one who has understanding,
But the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
d. Focus on one specific change at a time: anger, anxiety, worry.
e. Focus on 1 victory at a time.
f. We live in a world of instant everything: mashed potatoes, coffee, microwave popcorn, even information. And we want instant spiritual maturity. One day we are a total mess, and we want to be Billy Graham the next. It doesn’t happen that way. There’s another old saying: “Life by the yard is hard, but by the inch, it’s a cinch.”
g. Don’t set a deadline, some things you will be working on for your life.
h. Ask God to help you just for today: “Lord, just for this day, I want to be patient and not get angry. Just for today, protect me from going to those Internet sites. Just for today, help me think pure thoughts instead of lustful ones.
i. Focus on the day.
j. Thank Him at the end of the day.
k. Focus on God’s power, not your will power.
l. Try to imagine God literally taking away your character defect. Let’s say you are working on your temper. Imagine taking your temper out and opening up the garbage can. Imagine putting your temper into the garbage can, sealing the lid, and taking the garbage can out to the curb. Then imagine the garbage truck pulling up by the side of the road. See the sign on the side that says, “God & Son, Doing Business with People Like You for 2000 Years.” Watch them pick up the garbage, dump it in the truck, and smash it down. Then watch as the truck turns around and speeds off, taking your defect with it. Some days you will need your garbage picked up about every hour. Talk to God about it: “God, it’s going into the garbage.” Then let God take it away. Willpower doesn’t work. You have to trust God’s power, not your own. He can help you change your character defects if you submit to Him and pray, “Lord, I know I can’t change on my own power, but I’m trusting You to change me.”
m. Focus on the good things, not the bad (Phil 4:8).
n. Did you know that every time you think a thought—positive or negative—it sends an electrical impulse across your brain, and that impulse creates a path? Every time you think the same thought, the path gets deeper and reinforces that brain pattern. Some of us have negative ruts in our minds because we’ve thought the same negative things over and over. But we can also create positive pathways in our mind. Every time we think about a scriptural truth, we reinforce that positive brain pattern. The only way to replace the negative ruts is to think God’s Word over and over.
o. Focus on good, not feeling. Fake it until you make it is good in this case.
p. Focus on people who help, not hinder.
q. Focus on progress, not perfection
IV. Action (Most of this comes from the book, Life’s Healing Choices):
a. Pray
b. Write: In addition to writing in your journal, this action step will provide you with some Bible promises to help you focus on the good things, not the bad.
i. On one side of each card write scripture,
ii. On the other side write a practical application of the verse in the form of a personal affirmation.
b. Share with a prayer partner.
i. Share the one defect God has guided you to focus on changing first. Be honest about the character defect, how it has hurt you and how it has hurt others.
ii. Share the progress God is making in your life in changing this defect. Be honest about your level of cooperation.
iii. Share about your efforts to act yourself into a better way of feeling. Share the negative feelings you’re trying to replace, and share the positive actions you’re taking even though you don’t yet have the feelings to match.

Robert Bellah, a sociologist who teaches at the University of California at Berkeley, is very interested in the influence of religion on the community. In an interview in Psychology Today he said, “We should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a new vision of a just and gentle world. The quality of a culture may be changed when 2 percent of its people have a new vision.”

There are many more than 2 percent Christians in your country and mine. Then why aren’t we having more effect? Why aren’t we having more influence? I pray that God will call you to permeate non-Christian society for Christ, to take your stand there uncompromisingly with the value system and moral standards of Jesus.
Eugene Peterson shares:
Everybody treats us so nicely. No one seems to think that we mean what we say. When we say “kingdom of God,” no one gets apprehensive, as if we had just announced (which we thought we had) that a powerful army is poised on the border, ready to invade. When we say radical things like “Christ,” “love,” “believe,” “peace,” and “sin” — words that in other times and cultures excited martyrdoms–the sounds enter the stream of conversation with no more splash than baseball scores and grocery prices.
Pray

Life’s Hurts, Habits and Hang-ups and Their Healing Choices

Subtitle: Confession (Psalm 32:1-5; Romans 3:23-24; James 5:16)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church on Sunday, June 16, 2019

Today is Father’s Day. I am going to talk about the best thing a father can do and that is to man-up. Man-up and be mature in the faith. Man-up and repent of sins. Man-up and take your sins seriously. Man-up and take your hurts, habits and hang-ups seriously.

A trend continues to take place in the online world of anonymity. Several websites offer the opportunity to air one’s darkest confessions. Visitors put into words the very thing they have spent a lifetime wanting no one to know about themselves. While visiting, they can also read the long-hidden confessions of others, and recognize a part of humanity that is often as obscured as their own secrets—namely, I am not the only one with a mask, a conflicted heart, a hidden skeleton. “Every single person has at least one secret that would break your heart,” one site reads. “If we could just remember this, I think there would be a lot more compassion and tolerance in the world.” Elsewhere, one of these sites made news when one of its anonymous users posted a cryptic message seemingly confessing to murder, catching the attention of Chicago Police.  Jill Carattini adds: “The invitation to emerge from our darkest failings, lies, and secrets is not an invitation to dwell in our own impoverishment but rather a summons to light, reconciliation, community, and true humanity. The unique message of Jesus is that there is no reason to hide. Before we came up with plans to improve our images or learned to pretend with masks and swap for better identities, he saw who we were and was determined to approach regardless. Before we found a way to conceal our many failings or even weighed the possibilities of unlocking our darkest secrets, God came near and called us out of obscurity by name.” [1]

Why do we hide?

Why do we hang on to guilt?

How can we recognize we are forgiven and move on?

How do we move on?

Some, correction, all of us are dealing with hurts, habits and hang-ups. Let’s talk about the next step in working through them. Today, we talk about confession. Today, we talk about reflection. Today, we talk about forgiveness.

Today, my theme is:

Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, God and someone I trust.

You are completely forgiven, confess, reflect and move forward.

Let’s read Romans 3:23-24:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus… 

Let’s read Psalm 32:1-5:

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
² How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!

³ When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

1. God forgives and it is good to be forgiven.
   5. Look at Psalm 32:1-5.
   6. This Psalm is usually looked at as a thanksgiving psalm. David is giving thanks for forgiveness. We do not know exactly what the occasion was. It could have to do with the sin with Bathsheba or something else.
   7. Either way, isn’t it nice to be forgiven?
   8. Verse 1: how blessed is it to be forgiven?
   9. Swindoll helps us think this through:
   10. Do you remember Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”? The main character has committed murder. Unable to escape the lingering guilt of his deed, he begins to hear the heartbeat of the victim he has buried under his floorboards. A cold sweat covers him as the beat-beat-beatgoes on . . . relentlessly. It refuses to go away. Ultimately, it becomes clear that the pounding that drove the man mad was not in the grave down below but the pounding within his own chest. So it is with an unforgiven conscience.
   11. The ancient songwriter David was no stranger to this maddening malady. As we shall soon discover, the longer he refused to come to terms with the enormity of his grinding guilt, the more he became physically ill and emotionally distraught. Only forgiveness can take away that grind.[2]
   12. Swindoll believes this Psalm was written after he was forgiven for his sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12).
   13. Notice how in verse 1 David says we are blessed when our transgression is forgiven.
   14. In verse 2, David says we are blessed when God does not impute iniquity.
   15. Iniquity would mean that we have committed a gross sin. A transgression means to cross a moral or Divine law.
   16. David uses both terms. Additionally, David uses the generic term for sin.
   17. David is talking about sin being forgiven, sin being covered and sin not being imputed, or counted, against us.
   18. David knows what it is like to be forgiven.
   19. In verse 3, David talks about keeping silent about sin.
   20. How many of you have lived with unconfessed sin? How was the guilt? Was it like the beating heart in “The Tell-Tale Heart?
   21. If this was David reflecting on his sin with Bathsheba, he must have known what it was like to have that weight on his shoulders. Do you know what it is like? I bet you do.
   22. David says, when I kept silent about “my sin.” David says, “my sin.” He owns up to it.
   23. He says, “his body wasted away.” What an image! It is true though. We all know what stress does to the body. Some eat more, some eat less, some lose sleep, some are anxious.
   24. Verse 5: David acknowledged his sin. He acknowledged it to God. He says, God forgave him.
   25. God forgives and He forgives completely. We have talked about that before. We read the passage early, Romans 6:23, justified, freely. That means that we are forgiven completely.
   26. David repented, David confessed, do you need to confess?
2. Confession
   1. We need to confess our sin first to God and to others.
   2. A woman came in to see her pastor and said, “I’m depressed. I’ve been in bed for weeks, and I no longer have the energy to get out of bed and live.” Sensing her deep pain, the pastor asked her, “Is there something in your life you really regret?” She began to pour it out. “Yes. My husband travels. I had an affair and got pregnant and had an abortion. I have never told my husband about it.” The pastor shared God’s promise that no matter how deep the stain of our sins, God can take it out and forgive us. Distressed, she replied, “It just doesn’t seem fair. Somebody’s got to pay for my sin!” “Somebody already has,” the pastor assured her. “His name is Jesus Christ. That’s why He died on the cross. He died for that sin and every other one you’ve committed and confessed and ones you’re going to commit.” She cried and asked, “How do I ask God for His forgiveness?” You may be asking the same question.
   3. Let’s look at James 5:16: Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
   4. James shows that communal confession goes along with prayer.
   5. In Psalm 66:18 the Psalmist writes that if he had cherished sin in his heart the Lord would not hear his prayer.
   6. I don’t think you must always be concerned about some unconfessed sin that you don’t know about.
   7. What you must be careful of is repetitive sin. This is sin that you are going through and you cannot conquer. This is sin which you have given into time and time again. We should always confess our sins to God, but we must also confess them to each other.
      1. This doesn’t mean giving your dirty laundry to the whole church. Who wants to be first we can have an open mic right now. No!
      2. This does mean having a prayer partner or a group of Christian friends that you can share your struggles with at a specific time and place. There is a time for public confession as well. Don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think that is what James is writing about.
   8. We need to confess because in confession we clear our minds and hearts.
   9. We need to confess because in confession we can hear the person we confess to say that we are forgiven, or God forgives you. We need to hear that.
   10. We need to confess to everyone we have offended in our sin (as far as possible). In some cases that may be a large group of people.
   11. We need to confess so that we can be held accountable not to continue in that sin.
       1. This means the person we confess to, or at least one of the people, should say, “You are forgiven, now how do we prevent you from falling into this sin again?”
       2. We are not meant to live the Christian life alone. Unchecked sin corrupts absolutely. Our sin is contagious, always. It is not secret. If you don’t believe me look how divorce affects children. Be sure your sin will find you out and it does hurt other people (Numbers 32:23).

• I know that some of you need to confess and I urge you to do that. Make it a point to confess the sin today.

1. You may have to confess to your spouse that you have looked at pornography.
2. You may have to confess to your children that you have treated them badly.
3. You may have to confess to your boss that you did something wrong.

• You may have to confess to someone else.
• Don’t ignore the Spirit’s nudging about this. In Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus told the people that if they are about to worship God and they realize they have an unresolved issue with someone else, they must resolve that and then come back to worship. In confessing our sin we can truly be spiritually healed and fulfilled.

• Reflection:
  1. Now, this sermon series is about healing from hurts, habits and hang-ups. How do you get that? You only receive healing when you seek help.
  2. The Bible calls us to confess to God. That is what David did.
  3. The Bible calls us to confess to each other. That is what James said. That is in the Bible. We cannot ignore it.
  4. Some of you are dealing with guilt, or anxiety, or fear, or anger or many other things in addition to other hurts, habits and hang-ups. I believe, part of the reason things are so bad is because you are dealing with things on your own. You cannot do that. We are not meant to live the Christian life alone. Let others in.
  5. Here is a start: take a moral inventory: This is something where you sit down and think about the person, persons, or institutions who have hurt you. Write it down. Then you think of the cause, then the effects, then the damage, and then your part. This is not about blaming. This is about considering and reflecting to know how you got to where you are today.
  6. Why is it important to do this inventory in writing? Because writing forces you to be specific. Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through the lips to the fingertips. If you don’t put it down in writing, it will remain vague. Just saying, “God, I’ve blown it in life,” is not specific enough. We’ve all blown it. We need to get specific, and we need to write it down.
  7. When doing this you must:
     1. Do be radically honest
     2. Don’t rationalize

• Don’t blame others

1. Don’t deceive yourself
2. SPECIAL NOTE: If you have been physically or sexually abused as a child or adult, I want you to know that I am sorry that you suffered through that abuse. There is no way I can know the pain it caused you, but I want you to know that I empathize with your hurt. When you start writing down your list of wrongs, simply put the words “NOT GUILTY” for the abuse that was done to you. No part of that sin committed against you was your fault. Renounce the lie that the abuse was your fault. Do take responsibility for how you may have hurt others because of your reactions to your past abuse.

1. Think of this like journaling. But that is not all: meet with a prayer partner or Christian mentor, advisor, counselor and go over it. Again, we need to support each other.
2. Why can’t we just admit our faults to God?
3. Why must another person be involved?
4. Because the root of our problems is relational. We lie to each other, deceive each other, and are dishonest with each other. We wear masks and pretend we have it together. We deny our true feelings and play games largely because we believe, “If they really knew the truth about me, they wouldn’t love me.” We become more isolated than ever. We keep all of the junk of our past inside, and we get sick.
5. There’s a saying: We are only as sick as our secrets.
6. The hurts, hang-ups, and habits that we try to hide end up making us sick, but “revealing your feelings is the beginning of healing.”
7. Whom Do You Tell?
   1. Ask someone you trust
   2. Ask someone who understands the value of what you’re doing—

• Ask someone who is mature enough not to be shocked—

1. Ask someone who knows the Lord well enough to reflect His forgiveness to you.
2. Before you say anything, find a place to meet without interruptions
3. Be up-front in saying that you need to share your moral inventory

Close:

We all need this. One of the greatest things I have done is confessed sin. The Bible tells us to do this. Some of you think confessing to God is enough, but that is not what the Bible teaches. This is Father’s Day, father’s be willing to repent. First to God, then to others who you have hurt. But also to a trusted Christian friend. Be willing to get help to conquer your hurts, habits and hang-ups. You cannot do it alone.

I am here and I want to help all of you. If you want me to help you with a moral inventory, talk with me.

I was in college and my dad and I were in his workshop and he apologized to me for his angry outburst when he was raising us. Praise God for dads who repent.

A long time ago, I faced a pornography problem, was it an addiction? Maybe. Was it a sin, definitely. Did I repent to God? Right away. Did I repent to Meagan? Eventually, but not soon enough. I only got free from that hurt, habit and hang-up when I invited Meagan in and confessed. Do you know how much that weighed on me? It was a heavy weight, but I did not get free until I stopped trying to take care of it by myself.

Seek help. Many of you are dealing with a lot and thinking it is normal Christian living, but it does not have to be.

 Let Go video:

https://www.ignitermedia.com/products/7951-let-go

pray

[1] Jill Carattini, “Out of Obscurity,” A Slice of Infinity blog/RZIM Ministries (7-26-17)

[2] https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/living-under-the-cloud-of-guilt

Life’s Hurts, Habits and Hang-ups and Their Healing Choices

Subtitle: Letting Go (Luke 15:11-32)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church on Sunday, June 9, 2019

Grant and his battles with alcohol:

I have begun reading a new biography. The book is about General Grant from the Civil War. There are many books or movies that could tell the evils of drug or alcohol abuse and this could be one of them. Certainly, Grant remained a great general and fascinating human being despite his alcohol abuse. It is hard to tell exactly how much Grant drank. In the very beginning of the book the author, Ron Chernow, writes that Grant was likely a functioning alcoholic. Further, Chernow shares that today we recognize being an alcoholic as a disease which they did not recognize back then. It seems that General Grant would go months, maybe even years, without drinking and then drink in excess after a major battle. However, even those reports we cannot be too sure of because other generals and politicians would spread rumors about Grant for their own gain. This is how it came about. Let’s backup a little in Grant’s military career. U.S. Grant, actually Hiram, Ulysses Grant, was sent to West Point, though he did not wish to go there. He did not drink alcohol at that point. Later on, he started drinking and drinking in excess in his early military career. In 1854 he was a captain in the army. He had not seen his wife and children in over two years. He was serving in California under an over-scrupulous leader. The leader knew that this young man drank too much and caught him drunk. He warned him to resign or face court martial. Grant’s friends told him to fight it and he would win, but Grant wanted to be with his family and resigned.

Following that Grant could not succeed in civilian life, but then the Civil War breaks out and he had a cause. He tries and tries and tries to get an appointment as an officer. He finally gets his break and he excels in the military to be the man who eventually led the north to win the war. But, you know what? Those tales of his drinking followed him. Anytime someone wanted to hurt him in public relations they brought up how he had to leave the army because of alcohol abuse.

So, today let’s think for a moment about those people trapped in sin. They are just living in it. Now, it is one thing for us to focus on that as Christians. Once we are believers we have identified with the Savior. Once we are believers we have committed to the Savior. However, why are we so very often ignoring the sin in the church and complaining about the world? Why don’t we clean up our house? So, I was reading an article about a pastor’s kid who left the church. This young man, who is now a pastor himself, grew up in the church and was turned off by the church. He was turned off when his mom would take him to the church during the middle of the day to surprise his father and only find his dad being yelled at by a member because he changed the carpet. He was turned off by the church when they would make such a big deal about the drums in the sanctuary. He was turned off by the utter hypocrisy. Then he heard Frederick Buechner speak. Buechner is a well known Bible scholar. Buechner said the Holy Spirit is not in every church. That is very true. Anyways, this pastor’s kid leaves the church, then his neighbor was going to strip clubs at night, getting drunk, etc. This pastor’s kid tells the neighbor he should try Jesus. The neighbor said, I would not try Jesus because many of the people at the strip clubs are preparing to be pastors during the day! Wow! What hypocrisy! We have to take care of that inside the church. Outside the church we must expect the world to be the world. So, as we do this we realize that Jesus came for everyone. The person living in unrepentant sin needs to know about Jesus, that is what they need first and foremost. The biggest thing that harms our credibility is when the supposed Jesus followers are doing the same things. So, let’s clean up our act because we are committed to Jesus. Let’s clean up our act because we are crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20), at the same time, let’s recognize the Gospel is for everyone and let’s take the Gospel to everyone.

The story today is about two brothers. One brother is the older brother. Think of him as the religious person. The younger brother is the worldly person. He is not religious. He is anti religious. Then there is a father. The father represents God.

Let’s read the story and I wish to show you that God is loving and He desires a relationship with everyone. God desires a relationship with unrepentant sinners. God desires a relationship with worldly people.

Today, I want to impress on all of us the high importance of letting go.”

Theme:

My theme let go and surrender to Jesus.

Let’s read Luke 15:11-32:

¹¹ And He said, “A man had two sons. ¹² The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them. ¹³ And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. ¹⁴ Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. ¹⁶ And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. ¹⁷ But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’²⁰ So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. ²¹ And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; ²³ and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. ²⁷ And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸ But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. ²⁹ But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; ³⁰ but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ ³¹ And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”

• First, let’s say that God desires a relationship with the unrepentant. God desires a relationship with the worldly person, who is living for the world.
  • At this point, Jesus is in Samaria. At this time, He is telling all these parables in an area that is hostile to the Jews in Jerusalem. The Jews in Jerusalem were hostile to them as well. I want to emphasize that Jerusalem Jews did what it took to avoid them. They would travel extra just so they did not come in contact with them. But Jesus goes right through the heart of Samaria and He tells parables. He tells parables that are not in the other Gospels.
  • To the Jerusalem Jews the Samaritans would be unrepentant worldly people. Unrepentant people are in the world, living for the world and they do not care. They live for themselves and God wants a relationship with them.
  • So, here is Jesus in this worldly area, in this area forsaken by most Jews, but not by God. He tells a parable.
  • We call this the parable of the prodigal son. Prodigal means extravagant or wasteful. As you heard in the parable, the son wastes his father’s money.
  • There are two sons in this parable and the younger tells his father that he wants his share of the estate. Now, you must know that there are a couple problems with this. The first problem is that asking for an inheritance early is like saying, “Dad, I wish you were dead!”
    • Regardless of the insult the father divides the inheritance between his two sons. This is the second problem. According to the Old Testament (DT 21:7), the elder son was supposed to receive a double portion.
    • Now, what you need to know is that this is a parable; it is a story with a purpose. It may or may not have really happened. Jesus is setting this parable up in order to show God’s great grace.

• Jesus is showing that regardless of what we do, God is our Father and as our Father He welcomes us into His loving arms. This younger son is blasphemous to his father, by asking for the inheritance, but the Father represents God. The Father still wants a relationship with him.

• Verses 13-14 show that the son takes his father’s money and he leaves. Jesus says that he wasted his wealth with wild living. Jesus doesn’t tell us what the son was involved in but we can take a guess. We can take a guess because some of you have been in situations like this.
  • I also think that some of you have had children leave home and disgrace your name. Still some of you have had situations where you were prepared to welcome a child back home. You have been where this father is. Some of you are the father and you have had your heart broken by what your child has done. For you it may not be that your child has wasted your money. You don’t care about the money, it is that your child has made poor decisions and consequently ended up in a very bad situation. It may make you nauseas to think about the situation your child is in.
  • Some of you have done this yourself. Some of you are the younger son and have experienced drastic forgiveness and reconciliation.
• Now, let’s pause for a moment.
• This sermon’s point is letting go. We are in a sermon series about life’s hurts, habits and hang-ups and their healing choices. The third choice is letting go. We must let go and surrender to Jesus. Maybe you have done that, have you really? This prodigal son is about to get to the lowest point and he surrenders.
• The Gospel is in this parable. The prodigal is living apart from the world. We all must come to a point in which we surrender to Jesus. I mean, really surrender. Often times it takes a crisis to make us surrender.
• Oftentimes, Pride, guilt and fear keep us from surrendering to Jesus. We may have too much pride.
• Or we have Guilt: Do we feel ashamed? Are we afraid to ask God for help?
• John Baker writes it this way: Maybe you’ve tried to make deals with God: “God, if You just get me out of this mess, I will never do it again!” You may be embarrassed to ask Him for help. Or you may think God doesn’t know all the things you’ve done wrong and won’t ever forgive you. You’re wrong; He knows. Even though He knows it all, there is no sin that God cannot or will not forgive. He wants to forgive all your guilt. That’s why Christ went to the cross![1]
• Then there is fear: Are you afraid of what you might have to give up if you surrender the care and control of your life to Christ? Fear takes many forms:
  • We may be afraid to trust God. There’s a story about a guy who falls off a cliff. Halfway down he grabs on to a branch, and he’s hanging on for dear life—he can see five hundred feet down and five hundred feet up. He cries out, “Somebody help!” Suddenly, he hears the voice of God, “This is the Lord, trust Me, let go, and I’ll catch you.” The guy looks back down at the five hundred feet below and back up again. Then he calls out, “Is there anybody else up there?”[2] Sometimes we turn to God only as our last resort. We are afraid to let go and trust Him.
  • Maybe we are afraid of losing control. But we are not in control to begin with. We may be controlled by our anger. We may be controlled by our anxiety. We may be controlled by our chemical addiction. We may be controlled by our own need to control everything. We may be controlled by life. Surrender and let Jesus control you.

• We also may have worry which keeps us from letting go and surrendering to Jesus. We are worried about what this looks like. Some of us have lived with our hurt, habit or hang-up our whole life and so letting go of it is unimaginable. You may think, I don’t have a major addiction, I just have anger issues, but it is under control. But even a little bit of anger hurts yourself and others and Jesus wants to help you. Let go. You may think, I don’t have major sin or addiction, I just have worry and anxiety. Still, don’t you think the Holy Spirit wants to give you peace (John 14:27)? You don’t have to live with that. But, I wonder, if we like our anger, we like our anxiety, we like our worry, we like our fear, we like our addiction, maybe too much to let go and let Jesus take over.

• John Baker writes: Worry causes us to confuse the decision-making phase with the problem-solving phase. Consider the process of buying a house. First, you make the initial decision to buy the house. That’s only the beginning. There are several more problem-solving steps that must be taken before you can actually move in. You need to go to the bank and apply for the loan. You need to get an appraisal and complete the escrow. Then you have to contact the moving company and set up the utilities. All of this has to be done before you spend the first night in your new home! If you focus on the “problems”—the individual tasks involved in making your dream a reality—you may never make the decision to buy the house. Make the decision; let God worry about the problem solving.[3]

• God does have the ability to get us where he wants us. John Baker, in his book, Life’s Healing Choices compares it to America in World War 2. Before we would take a Japanese island we would soften it by bombing it. Then we would take the beachhead. In the history of World War II, once the Marines landed and established a beachhead, they never lost an island. It was just a matter of time until the entire island would be set free.^[4] The beach head is like our conversion, or if we have been converted but we have not surrendered all to Jesus, the beachhead is when we turn our hurt, habit or hang-up over to Jesus.
• BUT, before the beachhead we need softened, we face the consequence of our hurt, habit or hang up. God is letting us go our own way so that we realize we need Him.
• This brings us back to the parable. The prodigal is facing the consequence of his sin.
• Verses 15-16 show that now, this son is feeding pigs. Pigs were an unclean animal in Judaism, so for Jesus’ audience this is a big deal. This son has sunk to a very low station in life. But Jesus is setting this up to show the great, great love of God, our Heavenly Father.

• To have a relationship with God we must repent. However, whether we repent or not, God wants a relationship with us.
  • Verses 17-19 show that the son is repentant. He realizes what has happened to his station in life. He is ready to confess this to his father.
  • Verses 20-24 show us that as he comes back to his father, his father sees him from a distance and runs to him. We also see that his father wants to throw a party to welcome his son home.
    • In that day it was considered a breach of an adult male’s dignity to run, but this Father is so excited to see his son come home that he runs to him and embraces him.
    • A man was commissioned to paint a picture of the Prodigal Son. He went into his work fervently, laboring to produce a picture worthy of telling the story. Finally, the day came when the picture was complete, and he unveiled the finished painting. The scene was set outside the father’s house, and showed the open arms of each as they were just about to meet and embrace. The man who commissioned the work was well pleased, and was prepared to pay the painter for his work, when he suddenly noticed a detail that he had missed. Standing out in the painting above everything else in the scene, was the starkly apparent fact that the father was wearing one red shoe and one blue shoe. He was incredulous. How could this be, that the painter could make such an error? He asked the painter, and the man simply smiled and nodded, assuring the man, “Yes, this is a beautiful representation of the love of God for His children.” “What do you mean?” he asked, puzzled. “The father in this picture was not interested in being color-coordinated or fashion-conscious when he went out to meet his son. In fact, he was in such a hurry to show his love to his son, he simply reached and grabbed the nearest two shoes that he could find. “He is the God of the Unmatched Shoes.”[5]

• Some of us can hear this story and think like the eldest son. We see his reaction in verses 25-32

• The eldest son’s thinking is on the side of TRUTH—all TRUTH and no grace. His thinking is that the younger brother made his decisions and he should live with him.
• But I think that no matter what that elder son cannot see things the way a parent would. That elder son just can’t think about watching the boy learn to walk, rocking him to sleep at night, teaching him to fish, taking him to Chipotle for the first time, school programs and all those other things. A parent thinks with their emotions.
  • I believe that God made us emotional because I think God has emotions. The Father in this parable is clearly God and when we are in the filth of life; when we are in bad situations, I think that God hurts. Some of you know what it is like to hurt and ache and lose sleep because your child is in a bad situation. Then I think you have a small element of how God feels when we are in a bad situation. God grieves and God hurts. Then when we choose to come back to God, He runs to us and throws a party in Heaven.
  • God desires a relationship with all so He sent Jesus for everyone.

God desires a relationship with unrepentant sinners.  God desires a relationship with the neighbor who goes to strip clubs. God desires a relationship with the person out late at night drinking because they are depressed. God desires a relationship with the man who has burned every bridge they have formed because he was never taught how to work with people. God desires a relationship with the person who cannot hold a job because he never had a father to mentor and teach him to work. God desires a relationship with the person who even cannot parent because he was never modeled or taught how to parent. You know what? God desires a relationship with the guy blaspheming Him on the news. God desires a relationship with the Muslim terrorist. God desires a relationship with the Nazi solder. God desires a relationship with every unrepentant person and God desires a relationship with us.

The question is: who do you most identify with? Are you the older brother? If you are a believer, are your interests, God’s interests? Do you desire to introduce those unrepentant people to Jesus?

Are you unrepentant? Are you harboring a hurt, habit or hang-up? Know that coming to Christ does mean repentance. The third step in life’s healing choices is letting go and surrendering that to God. I encourage you, do that today. Tell God in a simple prayer, “God, I wish to surrender my addiction to pornography to You.” Or, “God, I am surrendering my anxiety to You.” Or, God, I am surrendering my anger to You.” Or, God, I am surrendering my alcohol abuse to You.” Or, maybe you do not know Jesus. In that case surrender to Him today for the first time. Tell God: Lord, today, I confess that I have sinned and missed Your perfect standard. I believe in You. Jesus, I believe that You died on the cross for my sins and rose again. I am committing my life to You and trusting in You for my salvation. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

[1] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (pp. 87-88). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[2] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (p. 88). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[3] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (p. 90). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[4] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (pp. 92-93). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[5] Contributed by: Wayne Major found at SermonCentral

Life’s Hurts, Habits and Hang-ups and Their Healing Choices

Subtitle: Getting Help (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

It doesn’t rain much in Southern California. And it rarely rains enough to cause any flooding. But several years ago it rained so hard that a portion of Lake Forest actually flooded! Glen lives in a low area. The flooding was so bad that the Orange County Register sent a reporter, in a boat, out to Glen’s neighborhood. The reporter found Glen’s wife, Jo Ann, sitting on their roof watching large objects floating by, so he climbed up on the roof to interview her.

As the reporter questioned Jo Ann, he saw a Weber barbecue float by, and then he saw a large golden retriever pass by on top of his doghouse, and finally, a sport utility vehicle! A few minutes later, he saw a hat float by; but after it floated about twenty feet past the house, it started floating back upstream. When it got about twenty feet on the other side of the house, it started floating back down again. The reporter watched the hat go by seven or eight times, and finally he asked Jo Ann, “Do you have any idea how that hat is floating up and down stream?”

 “Oh, that’s just my crazy husband, Glen. He said he was going to mow the lawn today, come hell or high water.” The problem with many of us is that we are still focusing on the lawn while our home is floating away. We have the crazy notion that we are in control.[1]

Last week we talked about admitting our need. When we admit that we need help we may have another struggle. The next struggle is dealing with our grief and pain and denial and turning it over to God. You may wonder, what does that mean turning it over to God? Well, that is what this whole series is about. Turning something over to God does not mean you will receive instant help. Sometimes you must go through a process. God also wants to use His people to help His people. So, you may think, “I told God about it, now what?” Well, now you must confess it to a Christian friend (James 5:16) and maybe a counselor or a pastor or accountability partner for help. God uses His people. You also must learn spiritual habits and God will help you that way.

Today let’s talk about getting help.

Let’s read: 1 Timothy 4:7-8:

 ⁷ But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;⁸ for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

The Christian life is discipline and training as we grow. As we grow and deal with our hurts, habits and hang-ups we will have grief, pain and denial.

1. We will have grief: This is God’s pathway to comfort.
   1. We mourn our past mistakes.
   2. We mourn our loss of control.
   3. We discover God’s pathway to comfort.
   4. We must let God meet our need.
2. We will have pain: God’s antidote for denial
   1. It is difficult getting rid of our hurts, habits and hang-ups and turning them to God. It is difficult getting rid of that addiction. It is difficult fighting anger. It is difficult not worrying or gossiping or being anxious. We will have pain. Depending on the severity of our hurt, habit or hang-up we will have more pain. We may need a treatment center or to see our doctor for a medication to help. But that goes along with admitting the need.
   2. S. Lewis helps us understand: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[2]
   3. One writes: Pain is God’s way of letting us know something is seriously wrong and needs our attention. If your appendix bursts, and you felt no pain, you wouldn’t know your body needed help. The toxins from your appendix would infect your abdominal cavity and could eventually kill you. Pain alerts us to our need for help.[3]
   4. Pain is also God’s fire alarm. If a fire alarm went off in your house, I don’t think you’d say, “Oh, there goes that stupid fire alarm again! Somebody throw a rock at it and make it stop.” Hopefully, you would do something about it. You would call the fire department and get some help. But when our “pain alarm” goes off, instead of dealing with the source of the pain, we often try to cover up the sound. We try to mute the noise with people, work, food, alcohol, sex, and many, many different things. If you ignore the alarm, your house could burn down. An important point needs to be made here. Just because God allows pain to enter your life does not mean that He causes the pain, and it certainly doesn’t mean that He enjoys seeing you in pain. Pain is often a consequence of our poor choices or the poor choices of others. God allows the natural consequences of these poor choices to play out. This is not the same thing as Him causing our pain. God loves us and wants to lead us out of our pain and into His healing. The miracle is that He brings good out of our pain by using it to lead us to His comfort and away from our denial.
   5. With that said, take a look at yourself: How’s your pain level? Is God using your pain to get your attention?[4]

• We will experience denial, refusing God’s Power to Help
  1. Blame: we will blame another person rather than get help. You may blame your parents for their anger. You may blame your circumstances for your anxiety. You may blame your genetics. You may blame your parents because they abused alcohol so did you, or so do you. But this denies the problem.
  2. Other forms of denial are just as strange. When someone asks us how we’re doing, we often say “I’m fine” or “So far, so good.” Who are we kidding? We could say the same thing if we’d just jumped off a building and were halfway down. We haven’t hit bottom yet, so we say we’re “fine . . . so far, so good.”
  3. Instead of denying your pain, allow it to motivate you to get help, to start making healing choices, to face the issue that you’ve been ignoring for ten, twenty, maybe thirty years. Don’t refuse God’s power to help.[5]

1. However, God has Denial Busters
   1. We rarely change when life is cool and comfortable. We change when we feel the heat. We start to change after our marriage falls apart or after our kids go off in the wrong direction. One man said, “The acid of my pain finally ate through the wall of my denial.” Unfortunately, we usually don’t change until our fear of change is exceeded by our pain. Most people never choose to move toward healing until there is no other option.
   2. God uses three denial busters to get our attention, to force us to move into recovery and away from the choices and circumstances that have messed up our lives:[6]
      1. Crisis: God uses the pain of an unexpected crisis to shatter our denial: illness caused by years of substance abuse, stress brought on by workaholism, job loss due to inappropriate actions, or a divorce due to infidelity.[7]
      2. Confrontation: Losing your job, or your family is another denial buster.

• Catastrophe: there may be a catastrophe, and this will cause us to recognize the hurt, habit or hang-up.

1. God wants to get our attention Because He has a better way.

1. Accept help:
   1. God exists (Rom. 1:20; Heb 11:6)
      1. Romans 1:20: For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
      2. Heb 11:6: And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and thatHe is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
   2. You matter to Him.
      1. There are misconceptions like we may think that God does not care.
      2. Understand the truth of a loving God who cares.

• God knows your situation.
  1. Ps 31:7: I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness,
     Because You have seen my affliction;
     You have known the troubles of my soul…
  2. Ps 34:18: O taste and see that the Lord is good;
     How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
  3. Ps 56:8: You have taken account of my wanderings;
     Put my tears in Your bottle.
     Are theynot in Your book?

1. God cares about your situation. The situation you are in right now may seem hopeless. But it’s not.

1. He has the power to help us.
   1. Plug into God’s power: believe and receive.
   2. Phil. 2:12-13: So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
2. Apply
   1. Pray to God about what He is convicting you of.
   2. Write about it in a prayer journal.
   3. Share: Prov. 27:17: Iron sharpens iron,
      So one man sharpens another.

Close:

Once again, is God convicting you of something, pray and turn it over to Him. We all have hurts, habits and hang-ups. All of us have something that God wants to work in. The trouble is we think we can handle it on our own, but we cannot.

Being a Christian does not mean we have to continue on with the same problems. Let God help you.

Some of us think our sin is small and so we would rather sit and judge someone else, beware. That is what the Pharisees did and that is what the Sadducees did.

In his book What Good Is God?, Philip Yancey writes about being invited to speak at a conference on ministry to women in prostitution. After some discussion with his wife, Yancey agreed to accept the invitation as long as he could have the opportunity to question the women and hear their stories.

At the end of the conference Yancey had the following conversation with the women:

I had time for one more question. “Did you know that Jesus referred to your profession? Let me read you what he said: ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.’ He was speaking to the religious authorities of his day. What do you think Jesus meant? Why did he single out prostitutes?”

After several minutes of silence a young woman from Eastern Europe spoke up in her broken English. “Everyone, she has someone to look down on. Not us. We are at the low. Our families, they feel shame for us. No mother nowhere looks at her little girl and says, ‘Honey, when you grow up I want you be good prostitute.’ Most places, we are breaking the law. Believe me, we know how people feel about us. People call us names: whore, slut, hooker, harlot. We feel it too. We are the bottom. And sometimes when you are at the low, you cry for help. So when Jesus comes, we respond. Maybe Jesus meant that.”[8]

Maybe, just maybe it was because the tax collectors and prostitutes knew they were sinners in need of a Savior and they admitted the need and accepted help. They came to Jesus. Are you going to Jesus with your needs? Come to Jesus with your addition to spending money. Come to Jesus with your fear. Come to Jesus with your anger. Come to Jesus with your pornography addiction. Come to Jesus with your lust. Come to Jesus with your drug addiction. Come to Jesus with your alcohol addiction. Come to Jesus with your anxiety. Come to Jesus.

Come to Jesus and have life.

John 10:10:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Prayer

[1] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (pp. 47-48). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[2] C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: Macmillan, 1944).

[3] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (pp. 49-50). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[4] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (pp. 49-50). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[5] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (p. 51). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[6] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (pp. 51-52). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[7] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (p. 52). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

[8] From What Good Is God?, by Philip Yancey, p. 75; reprinted by permission of FaithWords, a division of Hachette Book Group, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Life’s Healing Choices, Admitting the Need (Gen. 3:1-10; 2 Cor. 5:17)

Video from Igniter media

Here’s some good news: if you’re like most people, you’re way above average—at almost everything. Psychologists call this the state of “illusory superiority.” (It’s also called “The Lake Wobegone Effect,” from Garrison Keillor’s fictional Minnesota town where “all the children are above average.”) It simply means that we tend to inflate our positive qualities and abilities, especially in comparison to other people.

Numerous research studies have revealed this tendency to overestimate ourselves. For instance, when researchers asked a million high school students how well they got along with their peers, none of the students rated themselves below average. As a matter of fact, 60 percent of students believed they were in the top 10 percent; 25 percent rated themselves in the top one percent. You’d think college professors might have more self-insight, but they were just as biased about their abilities. Two percent rated themselves below average; 10 percent were average and 63 were above average; while 25 percent rated themselves as truly exceptional.

Of course this is statistically impossible. One researcher summarized the data this way: “It’s the great contradiction: the average person believes he is a better person than the average person.” Christian psychologist Mark McMinn contends that the “Lake Wobegone Effect” reveals our pride. He writes, “One of the clearest conclusions of social science research is that we are proud. We think better of ourselves than we really are, we see our faults in faint black and white rather than in vivid color, and we assume the worst in others while assuming the best in ourselves.”[1]

Today, I begin a new sermon series Life’s Healing Choices, Freedom from Your Hurts, Habits and Hang-ups. I will be taking the sermon titles and chapter titles from the book by that name. We all have hurts, habits and hang-ups, don’t we?

Have you ever eaten too much?

Have you ever lost your temper?

Have you been anxious?

Have you dealt with greed?

Are you secure in anyone or anything other than Christ?

Are you addicted to a substance?

Do you drive faster than the speed limit?

Jesus said if people thought they were okay keeping the law, you can sin in your thought life (see Matthew 5:22 and 28). What about your thought life? Are you depressed? Please note, some of these hurts, habits and hang-ups are sin issues, others, such as depression, are not sinful at all. Most all of us have hurts, habits and hang-ups and God wants us to turn them over to him. But, how do you do that? That is what this series will be about.

I want to encourage you to turn your hurts, habits and hang-ups over to Christ. First you must recognize them. Some of you think that your hurt, habit or hang-up is just part of being human. That is NOT true. Listen, your hurt, habit or hang-up is part of your sin nature and if you are unwilling to turn it over to Christ then it is pride, which is another sin.

So, today, my theme is.

We are NOT God, we need help.

Some sermons are expository, walking through a passage. Today, and through most of this series, will be making a case from Scripture.

1. Genesis 3:1-10 teaches us about our nature from the beginning.
   1. We have a nature that has fallen from grace, but this is not originally what it means to be human.
   2. Let’s read Genesis 3:1-7: Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; ³ 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.’” ⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ When the woman 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 onewise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
   3. Notice from this passage, God had already created man and woman. That was in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. God created. We did not create, God did. Now they are in paradise and the serpent is there. The serpent is possessed by the devil.
   4. In verse 1, the devil makes Eve question what God had said. The serpent questioned the Word of God. Take note: The devil has been asking us to question God’s Word since the beginning of time.
   5. In verses 3-4 Eve answers the serpent/devil. Notice in Eve’s answer she stretches the truth, but not in a bad way. Eve says they cannot eat from the tree in the middle of the garden (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), or touch it or they will die. God never said they could not touch it.
   6. The serpent/devil tells her a lie: The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 
   7. Eve eats and then gives to her husband.
   8. From this account we get the idea of a sin nature.
   9. If you look at the next few verses we see they begin to blame one another and so sin entered the world.
   10. Now, many people will say, “I am only human” as they excuse sin. However, Adam and Eve were fully human before sin entered. We were not created to sin.
   11. In Genesis 9:6 it shows even after the fall we are still in God’s image.
   12. In Romans 3:9-23 we see that no one is good. Let’s read Romans 3:23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…
   13. Let’s read Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
   14. Because of this nature we see it still affects us today. Romans 7:14-25 shows that even for the Christian we have a battle between the flesh and the Holy Spirit. We will come back to that passage another Sunday.
   15. Pastor Timothy Keller paraphrases an analogy originally used by C.S. Lewis (in his bookMere Christianity) to demonstrate the nature of sin in our hearts.
   16. Now if you want to know if there are rats in your basement, you don’t walk to your basement door, clear your throat, and say, “I think I’ll go down and see if there are rats in my basement,” then jiggle the knob, open the door and in a very leisurely way turn on the light, clear your throat, and walk down the steps loudly and slowly. When you get to the bottom you look around and say, “Well, what do you know: I have no rats in my basement.”
   17. If you want to know if you have rats in your basement, you sneak up to the door, silently open the door, flick on the switch, jump to the bottom of the steps, and look around and they’ll all be scurrying away. And then you’ll know if you have rats.
   18. Based on this analogy, Lewis wrote:
   19. The excuse [for most of my sinful moments] that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard [like a rat who didn’t get enough warning] … Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth?[2]
   20. The Times once sent out an inquiry to famous authors, asking the question, “What’s wrong with the world today?” and Chesterton responded simply, “Dear Sir, I am. Yours, G.K. Chesterton.”

1. We play God and we must not do this.
   3. We see in the passage listed above that we have a war going on within us. This war comes from our very nature. It is called the sin-nature. It started in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve sinned and then they felt shame. They immediately blamed for the sin. Eve blamed the serpent and Adam blamed Eve. Some 4000 years later Jesus came, lived, was crucified for our sin and then was resurrected. He then sent us the Holy Spirit. Since we have the Holy Spirit we do not have to sin. But our sin nature still makes us play God.
   4. We try to control our image to make us look better. This is thinking we are God.
   5. We try to control other people to cover up our sin and make us look better.
   6. We try to control our problems.
   7. We try to control our pain. We are playing God.

• There are consequences of playing God
  1. Fear (Gen 3:10). Are you living in fear? You are always afraid someone will find out about your hurt, habit or hang-up.
  2. Frustration:
     1. John Baker Jr. writes: Trying to run the universe is frustrating: Have you ever been to Chuck E. Cheese’s? They have this game called Whac-A-Mole. You use a big mallet to beat down these little moles that keep popping up. But when you whack one, three more pop up. You whack those, and five more pop up. That machine is a parable of life. We whack down one relational conflict and another pops up. We whack down one addiction or compulsion and another one pops up. It’s frustrating because we can’t get them all knocked down at the same time. We walk around pretending we’re God: “I’m powerful; I can handle it.” But if we’re really in control, why don’t we just unplug the machine?[3]
     2. We cannot handle it. We need to admit we need help.
  3. There are at least two other consequences: Fatigue and failure.

1. There is a cure, the cure.
   1. We need to admit weakness and accept God’s help. In 2 Cor. 12:1-10 Paul talks about a thorn in his side and God says that in weakness he is stronger because he is forced to depend upon the Lord.
   2. Admit that you need help.
   3. What does that mean? Right now it just means admitting there is a problem. Your anxiety is something God wants to help you with. Your anger is something God wants to help you with. Your fear is something God wants to help you with. Your abuse of alcohol is something God wants to help you with. Your abuse of drugs is something God wants to help you with. Your addiction to food, or tv, or video games or whatever it may be is something God wants to help you with.
   4. God does not want you to have to live in fear, or worry, or defeat. He wants to help you. But you have to admit it. You have to admit it and you must recognize it is not part of being human. It is not the way God wants you to live.
2. Apply
   1. We are new creations in Christ. What does it mean to be new? 2 Cor. 5:17: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he isa new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
   2. John 10:10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have itabundantly.
   3. Jesus wants to give you life.
   4. We are new in Christ. Let God transform you.
   5. The first step is to pray about it. Admit you need God’s help and pray to Him about it.
   6. Write: Next write about it in a prayer journal.
   7. Share: Next share with a close friend about it. Ecc. 3:12 tells us we need each other.

There is help.

I know that some of you are dealing with major addictions and you are to the point of admitting the need. Awesome, let’s get you help.

I know that some of you do not consider your anger, or anxiety, or worry a problem, but you don’t need to live this way. In John 14:27 Jesus says He gives us peace. In Phil 4:6-8 we are told when we pray about something we can have the peace of God. Over the next several weeks I am going to preach about how to turn something over to God, but the first step is to admit you need help.

A while back I was on vacation and attended another church. The pastor shared about hearing the news of his wife’s cancer and he said he had peace through the whole process. How did he have peace? It came from his spiritual walk.

Maybe you don’t want to wait through this 8 week series to hear the other step. Then call me, email me or talk to me and we will get you help now. You can talk with me in total confidentiality, unless you are going to hurt yourself or someone else.

Pray

[1] Matt Woodley, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; sources: “Study: Self-Images Often Erroneously Inflate,” ABC News (11-9-05); Mark McMinn, Why Sin Matters (Tyndale, 2004), pp. 69-71

[2] Timothy Keller, Sermon, “The Two Great Tests” (1-23-2005); Submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky

[3] Baker Jr., John F.. Life’s Healing Choices Revised and Updated: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits (pp. 18-19). Howard Books. Kindle Edition.

Final Warnings (Galatians 6:11-18)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, May 19, 2019

We will be turning to Galatians 6:11-18 in a few minutes. Please turn their in your Bibles, tablets or smart phones.

Let me show this video as we begin.

Free to serve video:

https://www.ignitermedia.com/products/8217-free-to-serve

We are wrapping up Galatians today and as we do so we will see the summary of Paul’s themes. Galatians is about Jesus. Galatians is about how we are saved by Jesus and Jesus alone. We are saved by faith in Jesus.

Today, my theme is: Paul’s final warnings

Application: boast in Jesus

Let’s read: Gal. 6:11-18:

¹¹ See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. ¹² Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. ¹⁴ But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵ For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. ¹⁶ And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

¹⁷ From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.

¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

1. Submit to Christ, boast in Him (verses 11-16).
   1. As we look at verses 11-16 that is theme that we see. We must surrender to Christ and we must only boast in Him. Only boast in Jesus.
   2. First, we see Paul’s signature in verse 11. This is Paul’s John Hancock
   3. The New American Commentary shares: It was a common convention of Hellenistic letter writing that a secretary or amanuensis would prepare the main body of the letter while the sender would append his signature and perhaps a few closing words of benediction as a way of attesting the contents of the letter and assuring the reader of his full endorsement. We follow much the same practice today when an attorney or legal secretary draws up an official document that requires the signature of a client for validation.^[1]
   4. We gather from other comments in Paul’s letters that it was customary for him to dictate his letters orally to an amanuensis and then add a personal postscript and signature in his own hand at the end of the epistle (cf. 1 Cor 16:21; 2 Cor 10:1; 2 Thess 3:17; Col 4:18). Thus most commentators believe that 6:11 is the place in Galatians where Paul took the stylus from the hand of his secretary and finished off the letter in his own handwriting using, for some reason, unusually large letters to which he drew attention in this verse.^153,[2]
   5. I imagine Paul dictating this letter, maybe over several sessions and then giving his signature right here.
   6. This is VERY important.
   7. We know that people would write in someone else’s name. We also know there was pseudepigrapha literature in that day and age (see 2 Thess 3:18 for an example).
   8. We see false motives in verses 12-13, the legalizers boasts in circumcision.
      1. It seems that verse 12 shows people are being persecuted for the Gospel. It seems that the Jewish people are persecuting Christians for the message of grace.
      2. The IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentary shares: The metaphor here is grotesque: Paul has been assailing those who live “by the flesh,” by merely human, mortal power, ignoring God; physical circumcision was commonly said to be “in the flesh” (so also KJV, NASB, NRSV here). Here Paul speaks of these culture-bound missionaries as if they want to take the Galatians’ foreskins back to their senders. See comment on 4:29 and 5:11.^[3]

1. We come to verses 14-16 and we see the theme only Jesus (verses 14-16), boast in Jesus.
2. In verse 14 we see that Paul will only boast in Jesus. He will only boast in the cross. Paul had made similar statements in 1 Cor. 1:26-31 and 2:2.
   17. What matters is that you are a new creation (verse 15). Paul wrote about this in 2 Cor. 5:17. We are made new in Christ.
   18. John Winthrop wrote: O Lord, crucifie the world unto me, that though I cannot avoyd to live among the baites and snares of it, yet it may be so truely dead unto me and I unto it.[4]

• Verse 16 is a blessing.

1. Those who walk as new creation will have
   1. Peace: isn’t this nice? How nice it is to have peace? Remember the fruit of the Spirit in Gal. 5:22-23. What is it like to have peace? We have peace in Christ because we are not trying to earn our salvation.
   2. Mercy: we receive mercy in Christ because we do not experience the wrath of God.
2. Also, the Israel of God.
   1. This is likely Jewish believers though he could be referring to the Gentile Christians.
   2. Some would say he is talking about all believers, but it seems as though he is referring to Jewish Christians.
3. Final warning and benediction (verses 17-18)
   1. This seems to be a solemn warning.
   2. Paul talked about his scars. 2 Cor. 4:10 and 11:23 are examples of his beatings.
   3. I like what MacArthur points out: slaves were branded, military were branded, he is saying he is branded for Jesus. He is saying not to question him.
   4. Then verse 18 is a wonderful close.
   5. Paul affirms them in a loving benediction. He calls them “brothers,” or “brothers and sisters.”
   6. Paul extends grace.

• Applications:
  1. We must be bold following Jesus even if it means persecution (verse 12).
  2. We cannot compromise the faith in order to avoid persecution (verse 12).
  3. We must only boast in Jesus and the cross (verse 14).
  4. We must be crucified to the world in living for Jesus (verse 14).
  5. We must understand what matters is that we are new in Christ (verse 15).
  6. We must be loving to people as Paul was in his final verse (verse 18).

Conclusion:

The Comedian Louis CK has a routine in which he jokes about having the impulse to give up his first class airline seat to a soldier. Louis CK says,

[Service men and women] always fly coach. I’ve never seen a soldier in first class in my life … And every time that I see a soldier on a plane I always think, You know what? I should give him my seat. It would be the right thing to do, it would be easy to do, and it would mean a lot to him… I never have, let me make that clear. I’ve never done it once … And here’s the worst part: I was actually proud of myself for having thought of this. I am such a sweet man. That is so nice of me, to think of doing that and then totally never do it.

In June of 2014 Oscar nominated actress Amy Adams actually acted on that thought. Boarding a flight Friday from Detroit to Los Angeles where she was shooting a new movie, Adams noticed an American soldier being seated in coach. She decided to do something that she’s always just thought about doing. Jemele Hill, a reporter for ESPN and a fellow first class passenger, witnessed Adams quietly asking the airline crew permission to switch seats with the soldier, whom she didn’t know. Adams moved back to coach, and the surprised soldier, who didn’t know who his benefactor was, moved up to first class. Hill immediately got the word out on Twitter, and after their arrival in L.A. Adams told reporters, “I didn’t do it for attention for myself. I did it for attention for the troops.”[5]

That is how we should be. We must give up our seat to Jesus. We must give Him the spotlight.

When divers combed the wreckage of the Kursk (the destroyed Russian nuclear submarine on which 118 sailors perished), they found a letter written by Lt. Dmitri Kolesnikov. The handwritten note was addressed to his wife, Olga. It was penned after the explosion that sealed the sub’s doom on August 12, 2000, in the Barents Sea and confirmed speculation that all the crew had not died instantly.

A few hours after the submarine plunged to the bottom of the sea, Kolesnikov wrote, “All the crew from the sixth, seventh, and eighth compartments went over to the ninth. There are 23 people here. . . . None of us can get to the surface.”

The note included a deeply personal expression of affection to his beloved Olga, who admitted that her husband had a premonition of death when he bade her goodbye before sailing out to the Barents Sea. Eerily, the last lines of the letter indicated that death was closing in. The auxiliary power had failed. Kolesnikov wrote unevenly in the pitch darkness: “I am writing blind.”

What a terrible sense of approaching doom.

This sailor’s despair and foreboding isn’t all that different from what many people feel about this world.

The apostle Paul, blind and knowing that a martyr’s death was near, also wrote goodbye letters. His letters, though, were filled with hope in Christ.[6]

Let’s pray

^[1] Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 430.

¹⁵³ See Longenecker, Galatians, lix–lxi; Fung, Galatians, 300–302; W. P. Doty, Letters in Primitive Christianity, 40–41. Despite the strong internal evidence for Paul’s use of an amanuensis, we should not imagine that these helpers were given such great freedom and leeway as actually to compose the materials found in the Pauline Epistles. It is much more likely that he dictated to a secretary word by word. His signature at the end was his “apostolic seal” verifying that the foregoing content was precisely what he had intended to convey to his readers. For two different assessments of this feature of Paul’s epistolary practice, see G. H. Bahr, “The Subscriptions in the Pauline Letters,” JBL 87 (1968): 27–41, and R. N. Longenecker, “Ancient Amanuenses and the Pauline Epistles,” in New Dimensions in New Testament Study, ed. R. N. Longenecker and M. C. Tenney (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 281–97.

^[2] Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 430.

KJV King James Version

NASB New American Standard Bible

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

^[3] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ga 6:12–13.

[4] John Winthrop. “The American Puritans,” Christian History, no. 41.

[5] Adapted from Mark Tapson, “Amy Adams, Class Act,” Acculturated blog (6-30-14)

[6] Greg Asimakoupoulos, Naperville, Illinois; adapted from (Chicago suburban) Daily Herald (10-27-00)

Mother’s Day video from Ignite Media.  

Today is Mother’s Day and I wish to say Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.

I want to continue in the sermon series on Galatians, but I believe you will see how this passage relates to mothers. The Bible relates to all of us in our context. Sometimes we try to divorce the Bible from our life, but that should not be. Today’s passage applies to the child and the parent, the employer and the employee. This passage is very applicable to mothers.

I want to encourage all of us to live in the present and be involved in ministry in the present. Serve in the present. I have been involved in a lot of ministry with people with dementia and Alzheimer’s. I have been through specialized training with that tragic illness and I have coordinated a few Alzheimer’s symposiums. During one particular symposium a chaplain from a retirement home was speaking and he talked about living in the moment. He said that very few of us live in the moment. People with Alzheimer’s live in the present. By way of application, do we live in the present? I cannot speak as a mom, but I speak as a parent, I speak knowing that we must live in the present. We will come back to that.

My theme today is: Bear One Another’s Burdens 

Let’s read Gal. 6:1-10:

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. ⁵ For each one will bear his own load.

⁶ The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. ⁷ Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. ⁸ For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. ⁹ Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. ¹⁰ So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

1. In verses 1-5 Paul talks about caring for one another.
   1. We all must admit that it is usually the mother who is the most caring, agreed? God has created women with the ability to be the most caring. Like a mother the church is called to care for one another. Like a good mother, the church is called to bear one another’s burdens. Let’s read the verse:
   2. Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.
   3. The Moody Bible commentary: This section gives more guidance as to what walking by the Spirit looks like. There is movement back and forth between responsibility for oneself (e.g., vv. 1b, 3, 7-8) and responsibility for others (vv. 1a, 2, 6).[1]
   4. The ESV Study Bible: Paul illustrates what he means by the life of love in the Spirit, which he described in more general terms in the previous section.
   5. Paul addresses them as brethren. Then Paul says, “even if.” The “even if” seems odd if we really think of this as a separate chapter; however, chapters were not in the original text. This follows 5: Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
   6. So, then it seems that 6:1 jumps off of that, “even if…”
   7. This is the second part, or appendix of the letter of Galatians dealing with Christian living, Christian ethics.
   8. “even if” anyone is caught in any trespass… so if there is a trespass, then you “who are spiritual” restore…
   9. The NET Bible notes: Who are spiritual refers to people who are controlled and directed by God’s Spirit.^[2]
   10. This likely could also be sarcasm from the Apostle Paul. He could be saying, “You say that you are spiritual, so restore them.”
   11. The passage does not say how they are to restore them. But the rest of the new Testament explains this. Matthew 18:15-17 instructs is with this: “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
   12. Verse 2: Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
   13. This shows that bearing one another’s burdens is very important, Paul says that this fulfills the law of Christ.
   14. Paul says, “the law of Christ.” This is as opposed to the law of Moses. Paul had been saying that they are free and remember Gal. 5:14: For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
   15. We are to love one another. This is important.
   16. Once again, we can all learn from mothers in this way. Mothers are generally the most caring. They are the ones in the trenches caring for their children.
   17. Look at the next few verses:
   18. Verses 3-4: For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.
   19. We are also encouraged to examine ourselves.
   20. Verse 5 shows that we are also responsible to carry our own load.
   21. Look at verse 5: For each one will bear his own load.
   22. This is straightforward with Christian living. We must bear our own load in our work. We must boast about our own work. The New American Commentary: On first blush it seems that Paul had flatly contradicted himself within the space of three short verses. In 6:2 he instructed the Galatians to “carry each other’s burdens.” Now in 6:5 he said that each one “should carry his own load.” This apparent discrepancy is easily resolved when we realize that Paul was using two different words to refer to two disparate situations. The word translated “burdens” in v. 2 (barē) refers, as we have seen, to a heavy load, an oppressive weight, which one is expected to carry for a long distance. But the word for “load” in v. 5 is phortion, which is used elsewhere to refer to a ship’s cargo (cf. Acts 27:10), a soldier’s knapsack, or a pilgrim’s backpack. Stott correctly delineates the difference between the two “loads” in Gal 6: “So we are to bear one another’s ‘burdens’ which are too heavy for a man to bear alone, but there is one burden which we cannot share—indeed do not need to because it is a pack light enough for every man to carry himself—and that is our responsibility to God on the day of judgment. On that day you cannot carry my pack and I cannot carry yours.”^130,[3] Here in v. 5 Paul placed the verb in the future tense (bastasei) to indicate that he was thinking not merely of an individual’s carrying his own weight or bearing his own responsibility here in this life but more particularly the future reckoning that every Christian must make before the judgment seat of Christ.^[4]
   23. So, certainly, there are times we must bear each other’s burdens when one is facing a heavy load, or a spiritual weight which we must help them turn to Christ. But this does not negate that for smaller needs we must carry our own load.
2. In verse 6 Paul gives instructions regarding teachers.
   1. Look at verse 6: The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.
   2. This has to do with providing for, and supporting, teachers.
   3. Paul had taught in other places including 1 Cor. 9:13-18 about taking care of our leaders.
   4. This, by the way, can indirectly apply to taking care of our mothers. If Paul reminds them to take care of teachers, we certainly must take care of our mothers.

• In verses 7-10 we see the principle of sowing and reaping.
  1. Verses 7-8: Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
  2. Paul begins with a warning that they are not deceived.
  3. This is especially applicable because they had been deceived. The Galatians were deceived by the Judaizers trying to make them keep the whole law.
  4. Paul says that God is not mocked! Wow! This is a warning.
  5. Moody Bible Commentary:
  6. Sowing to one’s own flesh includes such things as attempting salvation by works (3:2a) including circumcision (5:2), the evil deeds of the flesh (5:19-21), envy (5:26), and conceit (6:3) to name a Sowing to the Spirit includes such things as faith (3:2b), standing in freedom (5:1), the fruit of Spirit (5:22-23), bearing burdens (6:2), and providing economic support for those who teach the word in the church (6:6). If believers sow to the flesh, they will, in this life, reap the kind of moral decay Paul described, though their eternal destiny will remain intact.[5]
  7. à How often do we mock God in our thinking or actions?
  8. à How often do we mock God thinking we can get away with certain things?
  9. à How often do we mock God blaming Him for our predicament when it is the result of our own choices?
  10. à We blame God for not providing for us when we waste our money on lavish vacations, cigarettes, or many other things…
  11. à we blame God for not taking care of our health when we have eaten poorly and lacked exercise.
  12. à We blame God for our children not following Him when we did not raise them to follow Him. Or, we were hypocritical in the way we raised them. We only raised them to follow Him on Sundays. We did not pray in the home, we did not do family devotions, we did not study the Word in the home, and we lived for money.
  13. à We blame God for our marital issues when we refused marital counseling and married unequally yoked.
  14. à We blame God when our children are harsh with us when we were overly harsh with them.
  15. à We blame God for our children’s attitude and sarcasm when that is what they observed in us.
  16. à We blame God for our children yelling when that is what they observed.
  17. à We blame God.
  18. We reap what we sow.
  19. This is a true principle.
  20. This also applies to generosity: 2 Corinthians 9:6: My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.^[6]
  21. Verse 9-10: Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
  22. Paul is telling them not to be discouraged.
  23. We may think, “no good deed goes unpunished, but don’t lose heart.
  24. In due time we will reap…
  25. “if” we do not grow weary. This means we must keep going and persevere.

Do we live in the present? I am a hyper-planner. I like to plan. I like to have goals and I like to know what to expect tomorrow. However, one particular moment I faced some conviction. It hit me and it hurt a little. Something, or someone, maybe the Holy Spirit told me: “What are you rushing through life for? Some day you will miss these years with your young children. Some day you will miss these years. You look forward to a day when the pressures aren’t so great, but you will miss these years.” That thought was convictional to me. That thought encouraged me to live in the present. Serve one another in the present. Serve one another today, don’t wait for tomorrow. How much do we miss today by looking to tomorrow? How much have I missed today because I was looking for tomorrow? I cannot answer that.

A number of years ago I came home at about 10:45 pm. I was involved in ministry at the University of Mount Union. I came home from an exciting evening with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. After their gatherings I was always wound up and could not sleep. This night I walked in the back door and I was standing in the kitchen probably looking for a snack. Mercedes came out of her room, she was probably only 4 years old at the time. She looked at me and I looked at her and she said something like, “Is it time to get up?” For one split second I had a flash forward. I thought about a day when she will be, maybe 20 years old, and we are standing in the kitchen eating a late night snack talking about things. It was a flash forward as opposed to a flash back. Well, a lot of time has passed and a lot of parenting has passed since then. I must remind myself to live in the present. I hope to have great conversations with my daughters when they are in the future, but for now I must live in the conversations today. God has placed me here to be a servant today. Through living each day, I will get to the future.

The Christian life is a life of bearing one another’s burdens and mothers show that so well. We must honor our mothers; we must care for our children. We must all do our part, living in the present, serving where God has placed us. Don’t be so focused on tomorrow that you miss the service opportunities which God has given you today.

Prayer

[1] The Moody Bible Commentary (Kindle Locations 76077-76078). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

^[2] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ga 6:1.

¹³⁰ Stott, Only One Way, 159–60. Cole has suggested that Paul may be here taking one final glance toward the Judaizers, reminding them that they should be less concerned with “counting scalps” than with their own standing before God on the coming day of judgment (Galatians, 175).

^[3] Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 418.

^[4] Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 418.

[5] The Moody Bible Commentary (Kindle Locations 76097-76102). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

^[6] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), 2 Co 9:6.

Walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church on Sunday, May 5, 2019 

Moving backwards video clip

The Bible teaches that the ways of the world are different than God’s ways (Romans 12:1-2; James 4:4). We are called to be counter-cultural, but how do we do it? We need to walk by the Spirit. In this short New Testament letter of Galatians Paul has repeatedly emphasized that we are free in Christ. We are free to serve Christ. So, now what do we do? As we will see in today’s passage, they are NOT free to sin. They are free to walk by the Spirit.

In the last days of the Civil War, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia, fell to the Union army. Abraham Lincoln insisted on visiting the city. Even though no one knew he was coming, slaves recognized him immediately and thronged around him. He had liberated them by the Emancipation Proclamation, and now Lincoln’s army had set them free. According to Admiral David Porter, an eyewitness, Lincoln spoke to the throng around him:

“My poor friends, you are free—free as air. You can cast off the name of slave and trample upon it …. Liberty is your birthright.”

But Lincoln also warned them not to abuse their freedom. “Let the world see that you merit [your freedom],” Lincoln said, “Don’t let your joy carry you into excesses. Learn the laws and obey them.”

That is very much like the message Jesus gives to those whom he has liberated by his death and resurrection. Jesus gives us our true birthright—spiritual freedom. But that freedom isn’t an excuse for disobedience; it forms the basis for learning and obeying God’s laws.[1]

My theme today is Walk by the Spirit.

Let’s turn to Galatians 5:16-26 and read it.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.¹⁷ For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, ²¹ envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

1. Walk by the Spirit (verses 16- 24)
   1. I believe the theme of this whole passage is that we are free to walk by the Spirit. We see the phrase “walk by the Spirit” in verse 16 and 25.
   2. In verses 19-21 Paul lists 15 nouns to describe the worldly way. Paul calls it the “deeds of the flesh.” By “flesh” Paul means the sin nature.
   3. In Verse 17, we see the flesh and the Spirit are at war. So, we must walk by the Spirit. Some think that all we need to do is retreat like a hermit, but that is not entirely the answer.
      1. So long as we remain in this present life, we never outgrow or transcend the spiritual conflict Paul was describing in this passage. There is no spiritual technique or second blessing that can propel the believer onto a higher plane of Christian living where this battle must no longer be fought. In the early church Jerome, that hardy and stern disciplinarian, removed himself far from the lurid temptations of the city only to find that he had not escaped them at all. As he confessed:
      2. O how often I imagined that I was in the midst of the pleasures of Rome when I was stationed in the desert, in that solitary wasteland which is so burned up by the heat of the sun that it provides a dreadful habitation for the monks! I, who because of the fear of hell had condemned myself to such a hell and who had nothing but scorpions and wild animals for company, often thought that I was dancing in a chorus with girls. My face was pale from fasting, but my mind burned with passionate desires within my freezing body; and the fires of sex seethed, even though the flesh had already died in me as a man.⁷⁶
   4. Verse 18: If we are led by the Spirit, we are not under law.
   5. Verses 19-21: Deeds of the flesh are evident
   6. If I were to group these, I see several, actually 9, that are almost synonymous having to do with human relation: Disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, outbursts of anger (I think of rage), jealousy, strife, enmities. Those are 9 nouns in the Greek
   7. Then we have 2 dealing with spiritualism: sorcery and idolatry
   8. we have 4 dealing with impure nature, mostly sexual: immorality, sensuality, impurity, carousing
   9. we have 1 dealing with excess: drunkenness
   10. People have grouped these differently, that is simply what I came up with. For example: Lightfoot, divided these sinful acts into four classes: (1) sensual passions, (2) unlawful dealings in things spiritual, (3) violations of brotherly love, (4) intemperate excesses.^82,[2]
       1. I do not want to talk about each one of these sins because I do not think each sin is the point. The point is that we need to walk by the Spirit. In fact, it seems clear that this is not an exhaustive list. In verse 21, Paul concludes this list by writing, “and things like these…” which seems to show that he casually listed a catalog of sins. But notice:
       2. In verse 19: Paul begins the list with the what the NASB translates as “immorality.” This is literally “sexual immorality.” It is the Greek word Porneia. About that term one source shares: The word porneia originally meant “prostitution” (cf. the Greek pornē, “prostitute,” from the verb pernēmi, “to sell slaves,” since prostitutes were frequently bought and sold on the slave market), although by the time of Paul it had gained the more general meaning of sexual immorality or irregularity. Porneia is invariably translated “fornication” in the KJV although it denotes any unlawful sexual intercourse, including adultery and incest (cf. 1 Cor 5:1). Acts of sexual immorality, although often done in the name of love, are really the antithesis of love, which is the foremost fruit of the Spirit.^[3]

• Another in Paul’s list is translated in the NASB as “sorcery.” One source shares the following about that word:

1. Witchcraft (pharmakeia). At the root of this word is pharmakon, literally “drug,” from which we derive our English word “pharmacy.” In classical Greek pharmakeia referred to the use of drugs whether for medicinal or more sinister purposes, e.g., poisoning. In the New Testament, however, it is invariably associated with the occult, both here in Galatians and in Revelation, where it occurs twice (Rev 9:21; 18:23). English translations usually render pharmakeia as “witchcraft” (KJV, NIV) or “sorcery” (RSV, NEB). These words correctly convey the idea of black magic and demonic control, but they miss the more basic meaning of drug use. In New Testament times pharmakeia in fact denoted the use of drugs with occult properties for a variety of purposes including, especially, abortion. As J. T. Noonan has written, “Paul’s usage here cannot be restricted to abortion, but the term he chose is comprehensive enough to include the use of abortifacient drugs.”⁸⁶ In the early church both infanticide, often effected through the exposure of newborn babies to the harsh elements, and abortion, commonly brought about by the use of drugs, were regarded as murderous acts. Both are flagrant violations of Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

1. Most of the sins in this list describe gross excess. But we are supposed to walk by the Spirit.
2. Verses 22-23: the fruit of the Spirit.
3. I have preached on the fruit of the Spirit before, so I am not going to walk through each part. I do want to say a few things.
   1. First, notice that it is one fruit with many modifiers. It is “fruit” singular. This is the fruit that we expect a Christian to have. It is “deeds” of the flesh, plural, but “fruit” of the Spirit, singular.
   2. Some say the fruit is “love” and it is modified by joy, peace, patience, etc.

• Either way, as a Christian, these are things we should pursue.

1. Live by the Spirit, walk by the Spirit (verses 24-26)

There’s a story that has been told from Civil War days before America’s slaves were freed, about a northerner who went to a slave auction and purchased a young slave girl. As they walked away from the auction, the man turned to the girl and told her, “You’re free.”

With amazement she responded, “You mean, I’m free to do whatever I want?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And to say whatever I want to say?”

“Yes, anything.”

“And to be whatever I want to be?”

“Yep.”

“And even go wherever I want to go?”

“Yes,” he answered with a smile. “You’re free to go wherever you’d like.”

She looked at him intently and replied, “Then I will go with you.”[4]

1. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh and its sinful desires (verse 24). Notice this, get rid of the fleshly desires. Put them to death.
2. Instead, live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit (verse 25).
3. Paul closes this with an exhortation: “Get rid of boastful, challenging one another, envying one another” (verse 26).

• Applications
  1. We must walk by the Spirit (verse 16).
  2. The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. We must surrender to the Holy Spirit (verse 17).
  3. The desires of the flesh are numerous, and we must stay away from them (verses 19-21).
  4. Sexual immorality is a desire of the sin nature, we must beware of that sin (verse 19).
  5. We must guard against sexual sins, sins against humanity, sins of idolatry including spiritualism as well as sins of excess (verses 19-21).
  6. We must allow the Holy Spirit to reign in our life and produce this fruit.
  7. We must let the fruit of the Spirit push out the fruit of the world.
  8. We must have self-control. We must not be mastered by anything.
  9. We must have love for all.
• We must have joy even in difficulty.
• We must be patient, even in trials.
• We must be kind
• We must be gentle, submissive to the Word and to others.
• We must have peace.
• We must have goodness.
• We must be faithful to God and to others.
• We must crucify the flesh with its passions and desires (verse 24).
• We must walk by the Spirit (verse 25).
• We must not be boastful, challenge others and envious (verse 26).

Close:

In family life and in church life, there’s always a huge gap between the ideal and the real. For example, every autumn my family likes to go apple picking.

Here’s the ideal day of apple picking. The leaves are golden and rusty, the sky is beautiful, and it’s 75 degrees. We all pile into the van and start singing and laughing as we merrily drive to the orchard. We arrive early in the morning with plenty of time to enjoy the orchard. Surprisingly, the folks at the apple orchard say, “Today apples are free for families.” So our kids guzzle apple cider and stuff themselves with apple donuts—and they don’t even get a sugar high! Finally, after a perfect day at the orchard, we drive home as our children keep saying, “Wow, thanks, Mom and Dad!”

But the real day often looks like this. It’s a disaster from the start. We leave at least two hours late. The apple orchard closes at 5 P.M., we’re leaving at 3 P.M., and it takes an hour-and-half to get there, but I bark at everyone, “We’re going, so get in the car!” We missed lunch because we were scrambling to get everything done. With blood sugar levels plummeting, my wife and I start arguing. I think it’s her fault that we’re leaving late; she says it’s my fault. We keep arguing until the kids interrupt because now they’re arguing with each other. I turn around and snap at the kids, “Knock it off! I’m arguing with your mom.”

When we pull into the apple orchard, we only have thirty minutes before closing time. So we tell the kids, “Hurry up, so you can have some fun.” By this time of the day all the good apples are gone, and nothing is free. The entrance fee was outrageous because they know they can rip off suburban families who are trying to pretend they’re in the country for the day. When we get the kids back in the van, it’s already dark. On the way home, we finally get our apples: we stop at McDonald’s for an apple turnover.

Unfortunately, family life and church life aren’t always ideal. That’s why we have to practice love, acceptance, and forgiveness in the midst of real community among real fellow-sinners.[5]

We must walk by the Spirit.

Pray

[1] James L. Swanson, Bloody Crimes (William Morrow, 2010), p.46; submitted by Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois

⁷⁶ LW 27.68–69.

⁸² Lightfoot, Galatians, 210. We may ignore Lightfoot’s comment to the effect that the third class of sins would be especially enticing to “the excitable temperament of a Celtic people,” as well as his jibe that the mention of orgies and drunkenness was “not unfitly addressed to a nation whose Gallic descent perhaps disposed them too easily to these excesses.” Later commentators have tended to follow, with some modifications, Lightfoot’s fourfold division of Paul’s catalog of vices. See Burton, Galatians, 304–10; Fung, Galatians, 253–61; Matera, Galatians, 208–9. See also C. G. Kruse, “Virtues and Vices,” DPL, 962–63; E. Schweizer, “Traditional Ethical Patterns in the Pauline and Post-Pauline Letters and their Development,” in Text and Interpretation, ed. E. Best and R. McL. Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 195–209.

^[2] Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 392.

^[3] Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 392–393.

⁸⁶ J. T. Noonan, Jr., “An Almost Absolute Value in History,” in The Morality of Abortion: Legal and Historical Perspectives (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970), 9. That φαρμακεία was a common term for abortion-inducing drugs is borne out by its recurrence in other early Christian writings. Thus the Didache includes the following list of negative imperatives Christians were expected to obey: “You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not corrupt boys. You shall not fornicate. You shall not steal. You shall not make magic. You shall not practice medicine (φαρμακεία). You shall not slay the child by abortions (φθορα). You shall not kill what is generated. You shall not desire your neighbors wife” (Did. 2.2). See further T. George, “Southern Baptist Heritage of Life” (Nashville: Christian Life Commission of the SBC, 1993).

[4] Tullian Tchividjian, Surprised by Grace (Crossway, 2014), page 182

[5] Stewart Ruch, from sermon “Shaping the World of Each Child,” at Church of the Resurrection, Wheaton, Illinois

Resurrection Sunday

Our Savior Lives (John 20:1-10; 1 Cor. 15:55-57)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church on Sunday, April 21, 2019

Let’s think about children and joy. A number of years ago I was cutting the grass when all of a sudden I saw my then two year old, almost three year old, run out the back steps, get on her tricycle and ride up and down the drive way with a huge smile on her face. I saw joy, I saw excitement on her face. [This was not Meagan not paying attention] Now, at that time, we had a somewhat large yard and I was on a riding mower and I know her mother would not have let her out by herself. I was looking for Meagan but she was nowhere to be found which meant that Mercedes had found a way out. Mercedes loved and loves to play outside. I love seeing joy on her face. This made me think of the numerous moments of joy on a child’s face. I have seen it for almost 8 years now. But I think of holidays.

As Mercedes gets older she is really able to understand what is going on. One particular Christmas we carefully set out the gifts so that she could see them. She came out of her room and let out a happy scream and said “Presents!”

Do we have excitement in the Lord? Do we have joy in the Lord?

Let’s read John 20:1-10

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. ² So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and *said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” ³ So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; ⁵ and stooping and looking in, he *saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. ⁶ And so Simon Peter also *came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he *saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸ So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. ⁹ For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. ¹⁰ So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

Theme: In the next few minutes I want to explain the resurrection and the significance of the resurrection.

1. Let me start by explaining the Easter Rush.
   1. For the last 20 years or so the Christmas rush has been a bigger and bigger deal. Stores were opening earlier and earlier the day after Thanksgiving. Now, they are even opening Thanksgiving Day. I realized this when I served as a shift manager at a McDonald’s in a commercial area. We were working the day after Thanksgiving and it was a new store. We did not know how busy we would be. The rush began at about 6:30 am and did not end until after 11 am. But before the Christmas rush there was an Easter rush. Let me tell you about the Easter rush.
   2. Jesus has been crucified, the disciples are in mourning. But they do not realize that Jesus cannot be kept down.
   3. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb to see Jesus.
   4. She was the first to the tomb and she sees the stone rolled away.
   5. Mary did the logical thing, she goes to Peter and John. This is likely John, usually when we read, “The disciple whom Jesus loved” we believe it is John. She runs to Peter and John. She was in a hurry.
   6. Do you think Peter and John would have believed her? I would hope so, but she may be the one whom Jesus casts 7 demons out of in Luke 8:2. She could easily say, “I saw the tomb empty and they may say, “You saw something…” “Come on Mary…”
   7. Peter and John run to the tomb, but John ran faster. Funny thing about running, we don’t need to run fast, just faster than the one we are running with. It is like when I have been running with others and a dog comes after us. I don’t need to outrun the dog, I just need to outrun the other people. This is the Easter rush.
   8. They get to the tomb and see the tomb empty.
   9. John saw and believed.
   10. Verse 9: They had not understood the Scriptures that He must rise from the dead.
   11. Notice that Mary was the first to the tomb and the last to leave (verse 11). She was very devoted and faithful, we can learn from Mary.
   12. This Easter rush preceded any Christmas rush. The Easter rush was a big deal because our Savior Lives! No one can keep Jesus down! He had been resurrected!
2. The disciples learned the same thing we learn– Our Savior Lives
   1. What is the significance of the resurrection? As I make each of these statements I would like you to respond with Our Savior Lives!
   2. We can have a relationship with Jesus because He lives. If He was not resurrected we would not have a relationship with Him. Our Savior Lives!
   3. Christ is our Savior who cannot die again. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again (Romans 6:9).[1] Our Savior Lives!
   4. Because of the resurrection we have new birth: According to his great mercy, [God the Father] has caused us to be born again to a living hopethrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).[2] Our Savior Lives!
   5. We have forgiveness of sins because of the resurrection. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins (1 Corinthians 15:17).[3] Our Savior Lives!
   6. Because Jesus is raised we have no condemnation. Who is to condemn?Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us (Romans 8:34).[4] Our Savior Lives!
   7. Because of the resurrection we have the Lord’s personal fellowship and protection.[5] “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) Our Savior Lives!
   8. Because of the resurrection of Jesus we know that we will also be raised from the dead: [We know] that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesusand bring us with you into his presence. (2 Corinthians 4:14; also Romans 6:4; 8:11; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:20)[6] Our Savior Lives!
   9. If Jesus was not resurrected there would never be a Christianity. Our Savior Lives!
   10. The Romans would have shown the grave and it would be over. Our Savior Lives!
   11. Jesus’ resurrection shows the grave could not contain Him. Our Savior Lives!
   12. Jesus’ resurrection shows that He is the victor. Our Savior Lives!
   13. Jesus’ resurrection shows again, the miracles are true. Jesus has the power and authority over all nature. It’s not hard to figure out: He can break out because he wasn’t forced in. He letshimself be harassed and black-balled and scorned and shoved around and killed.[7] Our Savior Lives!
   14. No one can keep him down because no one ever knocked him down. He lay down when he was ready.[8] Our Savior Lives!
   15. And all God’s people responded with Amen—AMEN!

• The resurrection is of the utmost importance in the Christian faith.
  1. The resurrection gives us hope. We have hope eternal, but we can also have a relationship with Jesus because of the resurrection.
  2. Tennent, the President of Asbury Theological Seminary said the following: “Buddhist travel to the remains of Buddha, Muslims travel to Medina for the remains of Muhammed but there is no place in the world you can travel to worship the remains of Christ!” (1 Cor 15) We cannot do that because Jesus arose.
  3. The Bible also says that Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection. This means that we, if we trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior, will also have a future perfect and eternal body with Christ in His Kingdom.
  4. In 1 Cor 15:3-8 the Scriptures write about Jesus appearing to the disciples and later over 500 people all at the same time. Again, Jesus showed many that He has been resurrected.
  5. Later on in 1 Cor. 15:13-15 the Scriptures tell us that if Christ was not raised from the dead our faith is in vain! This means that our faith is useless. Later on in that same chapter the Scriptures write about our hope in the resurrection. You see, because Christ rose from the dead we have hope. We have hope that when we die it is not the end. We have hope that when our family members and friends who are Christians die they are not gone, but with Christ in eternal paradise. We can see them again because they will have resurrected bodies as Jesus did. Paul wrote, “Where O death is your sting.” (1 Cor. 15:55) There is no sting because we have eternal life in perfect bodies.
  6. Also, Christ’s resurrection shows that this is not simply His normal body coming back to life. No, this is a renewed body. In John 20:11-18 Jesus enters a room when the doors are locked. It seems as though our resurrected bodies may not be as limited as our current bodies. Jesus’ resurrected body will not die. Neither will yours. If you are a believer in Christ, you will have an eternal, perfect body.

I am going to read the words to Because He Lives

 Because He Lives

Think about it:

God sent His son, they called Him, Jesus;
He came to love, heal and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days because He Lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

And then one day, I’ll cross the river,
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain;
And then, as death gives way to vict’ry,
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

 When I was a child, on Christmas, my birthday and Easter I received gifts (probably too many definitely too many). On Christmas and Easter we would go to my grandparent house in the afternoon and I was always eager to share the news of what I received. After my birthday, I could not wait to share with my friends what gift I received.

When we have joy we share it. Joy is the gift that keeps on giving if we allow it to.

Share Jesus He has risen!

Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross paying the price for your sins? Sins are the wrong things we do.

The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The Bible says that the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). The Bible says that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by Him. (John 14:6). The Bible teaches that sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). The Bible says that God will not let the guilty go unpunished (2 Thess 1:8-9). Yet, the Bible teaches that God loves the people of the world (John 3:16). That is a dilemma. God can’t tell a lie or He wouldn’t be God (Numbers 23:19). God doesn’t change His mind (1 Sam 15:29). That is why God sent Jesus. The guilty must go punished. Jesus took our punishment on the cross. The penalty of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life.

Let’s pray

[1] http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/can-t-keep-jesus-down

[2] ibid.

[3] ibid.

[4] ibid.

[5] ibid.

[6] ibid.

[7] ibid.

[8] ibid.

Palm Sunday, the Savior Enter Jerusalem (Mark 11:1-10)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, April 14, 2019 

The Savior Enters Jerusalem

Humility and Royalty, we like both don’t we? We like both of them. For example, many, many people watched when Prince William was married a few years ago. Remember Princess Diana. I think people liked Princess Diana because she was royal and humble. We like those things. We like strength with humility. We like someone who can save us, but also not act better than us, right? In Science fiction this is Superman, but in reality this is Jesus.

I grew up under Superman played by Christopher Reeve.

Clip from superman II when superman flies and you hear the music and then he says “Zod, you care to step outside?”

I love that clip, that is so awesome! The next few minutes in the movie are great! It is exciting, we know that they are about to be rescued. I see the same idea when Jesus enters Jerusalem.

As I looked at this passage I was trying to think of a different theme, but I kept coming back to what I had talked about before. Today, I see the same idea. He enters in humility, but is worshipped. Later, Jesus is humble all the way to the cross.

My theme today is that our Savior Enters Jerusalem

Application: worship Him as Savior

Read Mark 11:1-11: 

As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, ² and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ you say, ‘The Lord has need of it’; and immediately he will send it back here.” ⁴ They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it. ⁵ Some of the bystanders were saying to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” ⁶ They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission. ⁷ They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it. ⁸ And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. ⁹ Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting:

“Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;
¹⁰ Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;
Hosanna in the highest!”

¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.

1. I know this is a familiar story, but try to think about it with fresh eyes.
   1. We need to try to read the Bible as if we have never read it before. When this happens we will notice all kinds of new things.
   2. I like how John MacArthur sets up this passage:

The week begins with His arrival in Jerusalem. The year is 30 A.D. by the best chronology. The month is the first Jewish month, Nisan, and the arrival is on the tenth and the crucifixion is on the fourteenth and that all matters because God has established a very firm time table.

Importantly, it is the Passover week of that year and Friday will be the day when tens of thousands of Passover lambs will be slain, none of which can take away any one’s sin. However, on this Passover, there will be one sacrifice made for sin that will take away the sins of all who have ever believed through all of human history and it will be the sacrifice of the true Lamb.

This is neither the heavenly coronation of Christ, nor is it the earthly coronation of Christ. It is not a coronation of Christ at all, it is a mock coronation. It is a false coronation. It is a fraud. There are no formalities here in this coronation. There are no dignitaries. There is no regalia. There is no fanfare.

This really is very similar to His birth. In His birth, His mother arrives in Bethlehem in humble obscurity riding on a donkey. Here He arrives in Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Yes, He is the true King, King of kings, Lord of lords, Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, Savior, and no monarch in all human history remotely compares to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none so magnificent, powerful, wise, sovereign, just, pure and holy and all the elite and all the monarchs of all human history collectively together stacked on top of each other wouldn’t go high enough to touch the hem of His all-glorious garment. This is a true King, but this is no coronation.[1]

1. As we look at this passage, we notice where Jesus was coming from being Bethphage.
2. We can notice that in the first few verses Jesus’ disciples obeyed Him and went and got a colt.
3. Then we see the parade in the following verses.
4. Before we get there, it is important to make note that in this Gospel Jesus’ Divinity is called a “Messianic secret.” Jesus would tell them not to tell anyone. An example of this is Mark 8:29-30. Peter had confessed Jesus as the Messiah and Jesus told him not to tell anyone about this (Mark 1:43-45 is another example.).
5. However, in this case Jesus allows people to worship Him. In this case He allows Himself to be known as King.
6. Jesus is the authentic King, He is the True King. When I was twenty years old I was looking for a car. I was at a dealership and my dad showed up. I thought, “This is great, my dad is here and can co-sign.” I did not realize that that was not why he was there. My dad came to the dealership because a few weeks earlier my older brother bought a car at this dealership and traded in his old car. But when my brother traded in his old car he gave the dealership a fake title. Really. What happened was that my brother was making payments on his car to my dad and mom. When my brother turned 21 my dad declared the debt paid and gave him a title, but it wasn’t the real title. The real title was in my dad’s safe. My dad made a simple title on the computer. What is funny in this mess is that the dealership did not figure it out. My dad realized this was the case and brought in the real title.
7. There are a lot of fake Messiahs. In fact, there had already been fake Messiahs in Judaism. But Jesus is authentic. There are people out there who promise eternity and all the answers. Just watch politicians. Jesus is Truth and He has the answer to eternity. When He came into Jerusalem the people recognized this.

1. In verses 8-11 we find the parade. Jesus now makes His entrance.
   1. But He is going to enter riding on a donkey. Come on, you and I know that no one of importance rides on a donkey!!! A donkey! Well, to the Jewish people it was quite royal to ride on a donkey. In fact, in 1 King 1:33 we see David having his son ride into town on his donkey.
   2. Now, to the Romans the donkey wouldn’t be anything of royalty. In fact, a few years ago I heard that while Jesus is riding into one end of Jerusalem on a donkey, Pilate of Rome was riding into the other end of Jerusalem on a war horse with soldiers. What a contrast. But Jesus is the real King.
   3. There is another reason he is riding a donkey: Mark doesn’t really tell us why this happened, but Matthew does.  Matthew 21:4: “This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.” What prophet? Zachariah, 500 years before Zachariah 9:9, Zachariah said, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your king is coming to you gentle and mounted on a donkey, not even a donkey but even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden…the foal of a donkey.’”[2]
   4. Now, they put coats on the donkey for Jesus to sit on and then they put coats and leafy or palm branches on the road. Spreading coats under a person was recognition of royalty.
   5. Now, this happens during Passover and Jewish hopes of a Savior ran high, so Rome, not wanting any trouble, had extra soldiers around.
   6. People in front and all around Jesus were shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the coming Kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!” This comes from Psalm 118:26. Hosanna is Hebrew and means “save us.”
   7. Someone wrote:

On Palm Sunday, my 5-year-old niece, Stephanie, sat on my lap while we listened to the pastor’s sermon. He described Jesus’ approach to Jerusalem and how the crowds cried, “Hosanna, Hosanna!” At that, Stephanie perked up and began to sing, “Oh, Hosanna, now don’t you cry for me!”[3]

1. The people are ready for a Savior. They are worshipping Jesus as King. Now as they shout and worship the Lord this bothered some. It’s not listed in Mark, but John’s Gospel chapter 19:39-40 adds: Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”
2. Jesus will be worshipped one way or another. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

• The people worshipped Him then, are we worshipping Jesus now?

1. The Romans weren’t worried and they shouldn’t have been. For less than a week later Jesus would hang on the cross and say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
2. Jesus, the King comes into Jerusalem, the people worship Him, the people were eager for a Savior.
3. A few years ago, okay, maybe like twenty-two years ago, ESPN believed Vinny Testeverde was the Savior for the Browns. He wasn’t and couldn’t have been. There is One Savior and He is not a sports player.

• Let’s apply this a little more. We must think about the following:
  1. We must also worship Jesus as King.
     1. He is your king as well. The Romans missed this, the Jewish elite missed this. They missed that the King and Savior of the world is making His entrance. They missed it, you don’t have to.
     2. When you leave this place, leave in worship and leave in excitement. Praise God that He did enter Jerusalem on a donkey for if He hadn’t we wouldn’t be saved. He had to come to Jerusalem to die in our place. Worship Jesus as King!
  2. They were excited about Jesus entering Jerusalem, am I excited about Jesus in my life?
  3. Think about Jesus’ example. Jesus enters in humility and He goes all the way to the cross in humility. Live this example.

Author and educator, Howard Hendricks, sat in a plane that was delayed for take off. After a long wait, the passengers became more and more irritated. Hendricks noticed how gracious one of the flight attendants was as she spoke with them. After the plane finally took off, he told the flight attendant how amazed he was at her poise and self-control, and said he wanted to write a letter of commendation for her to the airline. The stewardess replied that she didn’t work for the airline company, but for Jesus Christ. She said that just before going to work she and her husband prayed together that she would be a good representative of Christ.

Doing it for Christ’s sake adds another dimension to submission. You are submitting not just to your employer or husband or parent, but to the Lord, because of your love and gratitude for him.[4]

Can we humbly bow to Jesus in this way?

In reality, later during Holy Week they think that they defeat Jesus, by killing Him, but in killing Him we all win.

Jesus, our King, Our Savior, hailed as royalty right now, will humbly go to the cross and win on our behalf. He did this for us.

Pray

[1] https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/41-56/the-false-coronation-of-the-true-king

[2] https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/41-56/the-false-coronation-of-the-true-king

[3] Brenda Fossum, Duluth, MN. Today’s Christian Woman, “Heart to Heart.”

[4] Lorne Sanny, “The Right Way to Respond to Authority,” Discipleship Journal (March/April 1982)