By Faith, Jacob

Posted on May 31, 2015 by sarhodes

‘Toy Story 3′ Shows the Power of Blessing Others’ Gifts

In the movie Toy Story 3, Andy, the owner of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and other toys, is preparing to leave for college. At the end of the movie, he decides to give his toys to a young girl named Bonnie.

The scene starts with Andy entering the front gate of Bonnie’s home and showing her the box of toys. Andy tells her, “I’m Andy. Someone told me you’re really good with toys. These are mine, but I’m going away now, so I need someone really special to play with them.” Then as Andy proceeds to hand the toys to Bonnie, he introduces them by saying something special about each one.

He begins with his toy cowgirl Jessie: “This is Jessie—the roughest, toughest cowgirl in the whole West. She loves critters, but none more’n her best pal, Bullseye.”

Andy then hands Bonnie his toy Tyrannosaurus, Rex, “the meanest, most terrifying dinosaur who ever lived.”

For the Potato Heads, Andy says, “The Potato Heads—Mister and Missus. You gotta keep em together cause they’re madly in love.”

Slinky the Dog “is as loyal as any dog you could want.”

Andy blesses Hamm, the Pig, by saying, “He’ll keep your money safe, but he’s also one of the most dastardly villains of all time, Evil Dr. Pork Chop!”

Buzz Lightyear is “the coolest toy ever. Look, he can fly, and shoot lasers. He’s sworn to protect the galaxy from the evil Emperor Zurg!”

Finally, for his pal Woody, Andy says, “He’s been my pal as long as I can remember. He’s brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special? Is he’ll never give up on you—ever. He’ll be there for you, no matter what.”

Toy Story 3, Scene 33, “Goodbye Andy,” 1:28:55 to 1:32:05; Submitted by Derek Chin, Portland, Oregon

Today, we continue our walk through Hebrews 11 and we come to verse 20. For the next two weeks we will look at blessings. Today, we look at Isaac and his blessings of Jacob and Esau. This is an insightful passage and it is a passage that gave me more insights the longer I looked at it. I have read this passage again and again, but until now it never stood out to me how God’s sovereignty came through and how Isaac had faith.

As we look at these two passages we will see that

Isaac blessed his two sons in faith.

Isaac’s blessings are prophetic.

Application:

God is sovereign we can trust Him. This means that we can have faith in Him.

Read with me Heb. 11:20:

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

Now, I must start by summarizing this event in the Old Testament.
1. If you want to follow along, which I recommend you do, please turn to Genesis 27.
2. It can be so very easy to get bogged down with the story line of how the blessing came about, but the reality is that in these blessings we see a great God. God was, and is over everything. God’s will came about. God had determined that the older will serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), and the blessings show that.
3. We have four main characters in this narrative.
  1. We have Isaac and he is the dad. He is the son of Abraham and Sarah.
  2. We have Rebekah and she is the mother and Isaac’s wife.

We have the two sons and they are Esau, the oldest.

And we have Jacob the youngest.

We have some back story that you must be aware of:
1. In Genesis 25:23 Rebekah is told that the older will serve the younger.
2. In Genesis 25:25 we see the birth of the two

In Genesis 25:33-34 we see Esau very hungry so he sells his birthright to his brother. This meant that now his younger brother has the right to the first born blessing.

In Genesis 25:28 we see that Esau was loved by Jacob because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
In Genesis 26:34-35 we see that Esau took wives from foreign women and this made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
In Genesis 27 There is a major deceptive account of Jacob stealing the blessing from Esau. Now, Jacob has already paid for the blessing, but now he actually takes it. I guess Esau was not really going to give it to him. In reality, as I shared, Isaac should have known that the blessings of the firstborn belonged to Jacob, the younger God declared that, yet, Isaac was not obeying God. Do you see how God works? Do you see that God’s will comes about in the end?

Let me break down chapter 27:
1. Verses 1-4: Isaac calls Esau and tells him to go hunt some game and they will eat and he will give him the blessing.
2. Verses 5-17: Rebekah had overheard Isaac’s plan, but she loves Jacob more. So she has her own plan. Jacob is to take a few of the young goats and have them slaughtered and Rachel will prepare them. Jacob will go into his father, Isaac, and pretend to be Esau and steal the blessing. Isaac’s eyesight is failing so this should not be an issue. Jacob will wear Esau’s clothes and use goat skin to make him feel hairy like Esau.
3. Verses 18-29: the plan works and Jacob is blessed.
4. Verses 30-38: Esau returns and is upset that the blessing was stolen. Isaac and Esau are beyond upset. Esau gets the secondary blessing.
The blessings are prophetic:

Verse 28: May God give you:
1. Dew of Heaven
2. Fatness of the earth
3. Plenty of grain and wine

Verse 29:

Let people’s serve you,
And nations bow down to you
Be Lord over your brother’s and may your mother’s sons bow down to
1. à He should have never given this to Esau since he knew what God has said at the birth in Genesis 25:23
Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you.
1. This is from Genesis 12:3 given to Abraham.
Esau:
1. He will be away from the fatness of the earth and away from the dew.
  1. àThis is a contrast to Jacob.
2. By your sword you shall live and you shall serve your brother.
  1. àIn contrast to Jacob.
3. But when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.
Everything in this chapter is a mess, but God’s will came through. His will was that Jacob was the chosen one.
Some insight that Tim Keller gives:

Many years ago, when I first started reading the Book of Genesis, it was very upsetting to me. Here are all these spiritual heroes—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—and look at how they treat women. They engage in polygamy, and they buy and sell their wives. It was awful to read their stories at times. But then I read Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Narrative. Alter is a Jewish scholar at Berkeley whose expertise is ancient Jewish literature. In his book he says there are two institutions present in the Book of Genesis that were universal in ancient cultures: polygamy and primogeniture. Polygamy said a husband could have multiple wives, and primogeniture said the oldest son got everything—all the power, all the money. In other words, the oldest son basically ruled over everyone else in the family. Alter points out that when you read the Book of Genesis, you’ll see two things. First of all, in every generation polygamy wreaks havoc. Having multiple wives is an absolute disaster—socially, culturally, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and relationally. Second, when it comes to primogeniture, in every generation God favors the younger son over the older. He favors Abel, not Cain; Isaac, not Ishmael; Jacob, not Esau. Alter says that you begin to realize what the Book of Genesis is doing—it is subverting, not supporting, those ancient institutions at every turn.

When I read Alter’s book, I then reread the Book of Genesis and loved it. And then it hit me: What if when I was younger, I had abandoned my trust in the Bible because of these accounts in Genesis? What if I had drop-kicked the Bible and the Christian faith, missing out on a personal relationship with Christ—all because I couldn’t understand the behavior of the patriarchs? The lesson is simple: Be patient with the text. Consider the possibility that it might not be teaching what you think it’s teaching.

Tim Keller, in the sermon “Literalism” (available on PreachingToday.com on 5-17-10)

Did you notice God’s sovereignty in these events?
1. Some of you need to read this and be encouraged.
  1. Be encouraged that God’s will always comes about.
  2. Be encouraged that you are never too far gone for God to use you. God wants to use and will use you if you give Him the chance.

You may think I am afraid that I will mess up what God is doing, listen: NO YOU WON’T.

Look God worked in all of this mess and He wants to work in your life.

Some of you have been refusing to let God work in your life. You need to read this, repent and turn to God.
1. I am not saying that you are or are not a Christian. I am saying that you are running from God.
2. Listen, God’s will will come about We see this in this chapter. God works in messy situations. You will not thwart God’s plan. However, you ought to be a part of God’s plan.

Quit running from God. Quit telling God no. Let God, in His sovereign plan use you. Look, He will He absolutely will, use you anyways. So, are you going to go along willingly or begrudgingly.

Apply the faith of Isaac to your life.
1. How was Isaac faithful? Let me get back to this. Isaac was faithful in that he trusted God to fulfill His promises.
2. These promises come from the Abrahamic Covenant. The original promise of the Abrahamic Covenant began in Genesis 12:1-3 and then in Genesis 13:14-18 and then 15:18-21 and then 17:6. These promises had to do with blessing the descendants to be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Isaac trusted God in the blessing.
3. Do we trust God’s promises?
4. God’s promises are found in His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17), do we trust them?
5. Do we trust the promise of the Gospel: 2 Cor. 5:17 ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
6. 2 Cor. 5:21: ²¹God made him who had no sinto be sin^[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Close:

Trust God’s Word which contains His promises, Isaac did. In trusting we have faith.

Don’t run from God and don’t think you are too far Gone. God is working through you and wants to. You will not thwart God’s plan.

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

By Faith, Abraham

Posted on May 17, 2015 by sarhodes

I heard a good illustration from Chuck Swindoll:

My older brother, Orville, was never a wealthy man, but he was wonderfully generous with what he had. He never held back from the Lord . . . and that is still true! It was this overabundance of faith that led him to be a missionary for more than thirty years in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Just before that, he had done some short-term mission work in Mexico and had come north to gather his wife, Erma Jean, and the kids for the long trip down into the far reaches of South America.

Before leaving, they stopped off for a quick visit with our parents in Houston. Now, you have to appreciate the kind of man my father was. Look up the word responsible in the dictionary, and his picture is there! To him, risks are for those who fail to plan. Responsible people leave nothing to chance. As far as he was concerned, faith is something you exercise when your three backup plans fall through and you have run out of all other options. My father was a believer, but he never understood the life of faith. Not really.

My brother, on the other hand, was stimulated by faith. He has lived his entire adult life on the raw edge of faith. To him, life doesn’t get exciting until God, and God alone, can get us through some specific challenge. That drove our dad nuts!

Orville pulled up to the house in an old Chevy sedan on four of the slickest tires I had ever seen. My father always inspected tires when we came to visit. I wondered how long it would take for him to say something. I’m sure Orville did too. Not very is the answer.

After a great supper of good ol’ collard greens and corn bread, onions and red beans, my mother and sister went into the kitchen, leaving my father at one end of the table, Orville at the other, and me sitting on one side. Then it started.

“Son, how much money do you have for your long trip?”

“Oh, Dad, don’t worry about it. We’re gonna be fine.”

Before he could change the subject, my father pressed the issue, “Answer me! How much money do you have in your wallet?”

Orville smiled and shrugged as he said, “I don’t have any in my wallet.”

I sat silent, watching this verbal tennis match.

“Nothing in your wallet? How much money do you have? You’re gettin’ ready to go down to South America! How much money you got?”

With that, my brother smiled, dug into his pocket, pulled out a quarter, set it on its edge on his end of the table, then gave it a careful thump. It slowly rolled past me all the way to my father’s end of the table and fell into his hand. Dad said, “A quarter? That is all you’ve got?”

Orville broke into an even bigger smile and said, “Yeah. Isn’t that exciting!”

That was not the word my father had in mind. After a heavy sigh and a very brief pause, Dad shook his head and said, “Orville, I just don’t understand you.”

My brother grew more serious. Looking Dad in the eyes, he answered without blinking, “No, Dad, you never have.”

I don’t know how he actually made the trip to their destination . . . or how he and Erma Jean took care of all their little kids, but they never went hungry. And they served in Buenos Aires and traveled to other parts of the world for more than three decades. My father was a man who emerged through the Great Depression, lived in fear of poverty his whole life, seldom took a risk, and never experienced the joy of trusting God that made my brother smile so big that day.

That faith, that Swindoll’s brother, Orville, had, that is the faith that Abraham had. Abraham is for sure the father of our faith.

We are here because of Abraham. Our Christian heritage does go back to Abraham.

Abraham was blessed to be a blessing. He followed God in faith, not knowing where he was going but he was blessed and he blessed the world.

I want to turn to Hebrews 11:8-10 in order to talk about Abraham’s faith.

Today’s challenge:

Abraham had faith following God unknowing where God was leading him. So, let’s follow Abraham’s example, having faith in God with our future.

Remember that God is in control. Everyone say:

God is in control—repeat with me.

Ps 89:13

Your arm is endued with power;

your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.

(from New International Version)

Read with me Hebrews 11:8-10:

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Now, let’s read Genesis 12:1-3:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

²“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
³I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

First, we see the pilgrimage of faith, this is separation from the world.
1. This has to do with Abraham’s willingness to follow the Lord. He was willing to follow the Lord in uncharted territory.
2. Let me set the context.
3. In Genesis chapter 1-2 things are generated. Then there is the fall. So, we have chapter 3-11 and these chapters are about degeneration. Things are getting bad. The world is going to hell. God destroys the world with the flood. Now, beginning in chapter 12 we have the regeneration.
4. God will begin to regenerate the world through the line of Abraham.
5. Abraham lived in Ur.
6. He then goes to Haran before getting to the area of the promised land.
7. Of course if you read the rest of Genesis he travels around quite a bit.
8. Interesting: there is a historian from time of Herod mentions a king of Damascus named Abrahames.
9. Abrahames was an “immigrant who arrived with an army from the land above Babylon called the land of the Chaldeans. But after a short time he left this country also with his people and took up residence in the land which was called Canaan”
10. Abram is connected to Damascus through his heir, Eliezer (Gen 15:2-3)
11. By the way: “Ur is well known as an important center in the land of Sumer; it reached its zenith under the kings of the third dynasty of Ur, who around 2060- 1950 B.C. [Abram was born ca. 2166 B.C.] revived for the last time the ancient cultural traditions of the Sumerians. The names of several of Abram’s relatives are also the names of known cities: . . . Terah . . . Nahor . . . Serug . . . Haran . . . and Laban the Aramean, Jacob’s father-in-law, was from the city Haran in Paddan-aram. All these are places around the river Balih in northern Mesopotamia. Haran and Nahor are often mentioned in the Mari documents of the eighteenth century B.C., and cities named Tell-terah and Serug are known from later Assyrian sources.” “In the ruins of Ur at about this time [2070-2060 B.C.] there are some twenty houses per acre. Assuming six to ten persons per house, there were 120 to 200 people per acre, the average figure of 160 being exactly the same as the population density of modern Damascus [in 1959]. Ur covered 150 acres, and it may therefore be estimated that the population was approximately 24,000 inhabitants.” “If Abraham did come from Mesopotamia sometime in the early second millennium B.C., it is necessary to revise the picture sometimes painted of him as a primitive nomad accustomed only to open spaces of the desert, and to recognize that at least to some extent he must have been the heir of a complex and age-old civilization.” “The movement between Ur and Haran becomes easy to understand when we recall that Ur was the greatest commercial capital that the world had yet seen . . . .”
12. By the way, we must understand that Abraham had comfortable living in Ur. It was a commercial center. It was advanced. I heard Billy Graham’s daughter say that there was ventilation.
13. All this and Abraham trusted God.
14. So, think about it: you are, let’s say, seventy-five years old and you hear from God. I don’t know how God spoke to Abraham but He did. Imagine that God speaks to you.
15. God says, I want you to go to Malaysia to serve on the mission field. It may make no sense to you. You are comfortable here. God just tells you to go.
16. Or, suppose that all of your family are close by. Your children live close your grandchildren live close, but God calls your son or daughter to Malaysia. This means that they are going overseas and so are your grandchildren. They are going to be missionaries.
17. Suppose that God calls your family to Iran or Egypt, or Iraq as a missionary. You see, this is what is going on for Abraham.
18. I bet there are many family and friends that he never, NEVER saw or talked to again.
19. No letters, no email, no Skype, no phone.

The problems Abram’s faith encountered were these.

Sarai was barren and incapable of producing an heir (11:30).
Abram had to leave the Promised Land, which God had told him he would inherit (12:10).
Abram’s life was in danger in Egypt (12:11-20).
Abram’s nephew (heir?), Lot, strove with him over the land (ch. 13).
Abram entered a war and could have died (14:1-16).
Abram’s life was in danger from retaliation in the Promised Land (15:1).
God ruled Eliezer out as Abram’s heir (15:2-3).
Hagar, pregnant with Abram’s son (heir?), departed (16:6).
Abimelech threatened Sarai’s reputation and child (heir?) in Gerar (ch. 20).
Abram had two heirs (21:8-11).
God commanded Abram to slay his heir (ch. 22).
Abram could not find a proper wife for his heir (24:5).

Faith: yes, Abraham obeyed. Will you? Will I? I’ll come back to that.

Repeat after me: God is in control.

Ps 89:13

Your arm is endued with power;

your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.

(from New International Version)

Then we see the patience of faith—the ability to wait and endure without ever entering into possession of the promised land.
1. Abraham got to the promised land, but really never owned it. We do read in Genesis 25 that Abraham had bought some land. But he did not get to see Israel take possession of it
2. Abraham did not get to see but two sons
3. Abraham never saw the nation that his descendants would become.
4. God’s promise to Abraham, which he waited on:
5. There are seven elements in this promise—seven suggesting fullness and completeness (cf. 2:2-3). (1) God promised to create a great nation through Abram. (2) He promised to bless Abram. (3) Abram’s name would live on after his lifetime. (4) He was (commanded) to be a blessing to others. (5) God would bless those who blessed Abram. (6) And God would curse those who cursed Abram. (7) All the families of the earth would be blessed through Abram and his descendants.
Perseverance of faith: the positivity of faith, the focus on heaven that causes us to have a certain indifference to things in this life because we’re looking to that glory to come
1. Repeat after me. God is in control. God is in control.
2. Consider that Abraham was looking towards a city that God would design.
3. We are looking to the city of God.
4. We are looking towards the New Jerusalem.
5. We are looking towards a time when God makes all things new and right. (Rev. 21)
6. Now, some two thousand years after Abraham: The Hebrews writer referred to “Abraham” 10 times in total; his example is especially helpful for those tempted to abandon faith in God. Only two other books mention him more: Luke (15 times) and John (11 times).

How do we apply this?
1. I must be willing to trust God to lead me to uncharted territory as Abraham was willing.
2. I must be willing to sacrifice, income, time, talent, location to serve the Lord.
3. I must be willing to move for the Lord.
4. I must be willing to change occupations for the Lord.
5. I must be willing to prayerfully consider mission trips, local or foreign. This may be uncharted territory.
6. I must be willing to serve somewhere new in the community: hospice, nursing home ministry, Men’s Challenge.
7. I must be willing to talk to someone about Jesus. This is uncharted territory in many ways.
8. I must be willing to step out.
9. I must be willing to trust God with my future. I must trust God with the unknown.

Close:

The Undiscovered Country clip (maybe)

The clip from them eating talking with the Klingons, or clip from where Kirk addresses the assemble stating that people are afraid of the future.

The future can be scary can’t it? I think the future can be very scary.

When I was in high school I had many friends who were called into the mission field. Several of them are serving overseas now. I did not want called to missions. I was trying to be sensitive to the Lord’s will but I was not interested. But now, I realize I am called to missions as well. In like manner, I must trust God as Abraham did. I like comfort zones, but I must trust God.

Repeat after me: God is in control, God is in control.

Ps 89:13

Your arm is endued with power;

your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.

(from New International Version)

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

Today’s sermon: By Faith, Sarah

Posted on May 10, 2015 by sarhodes

Introduction:

First let me wish every mother a happy Mother’s Day. We can never fully understand the impact of a mother. In actuality I read:

An article in Forbes asks, “Think you can put a price on motherhood?” A yearly survey by Salary.com called the annual Mom Salary Survey attempts to put a salary on the work of American mothers. First, they broke down motherly duties into the following ten categories: Day Care Center Teacher, CEO, Psychologist, Cook, Housekeeper, Laundry Machine Operator, Computer Operator, Facilities Manager, Janitor, and Van Driver. Then they studied how many hours moms work in those categories and what the family would have to pay for outsourcing that duty. According to the 2012 survey, they determined the following:

The average stay-at-home mom should make an annual salary of $112,962 (based on a 40-hour per week base pay plus 54.7 hours a week of overtime);
The average working mom should make an annual salary (just for her “mom” role) of $66,969 (based on 40-hours of mothering duties and 17.9 overtime hours per week).

The article concludes, “The breadth of Mom’s responsibilities is beyond what most workers could ever experience day-to-day. Imagine if you had to attract and retain a candidate to fill this role?”[1]

Of course, we really did not need an article to state that did we? We know that a mother’s work is never done. I remember thinking back to my mother and how she was always, always doing something. Then she also has such a caring heart. If I was sick or in need her heart would break for me. To this day, she calls up checking on the girls and she works at a childcare center. My grandmother stayed with us and my mother was eager to care for her.

My dad was abused as a child. His brothers and sisters ran away from home. My dad moved out at sixteen years of age. Years later, my dad was thirty-nine and his mother moved in with us when she had a hip replacement. His father had died when my dad was about thirty-one. My grandmother recovered from the hip replacement but during that time we had grown close with her. So, she would stay with us often. One time, my parents were out for an evening and during that time my younger brother did something to which he needed punishment. My dad came home and found out and gave my younger brother a spanking. I look out on the back porch and see my grandmother with tears in her eyes. Amazing! Mothers, grandmothers they care. God has given them this love.

I want to talk about Sarah today. Sarah was Abraham’s wife and the mother if Ishmael and Isaac. But later she became the mother of nations. She became the mother of Christianity. Hebrews 11:10-12 tells us that because of her great faith she became the mother of nations. She is listed in the hall of faith.

My emphasis today is:

The influence of a mother’s faith: Sarah bore a son through a barren womb and influenced a nation and all nations.

The application is trusting God with our children. God has great faithfulness.

A mother’s love is amazing.

Have faith in God to watch over you and your children as Sarah did.

You never know what God will do through your children and grandchildren.

Let’s read Hebrews 11:11-12:

¹¹And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹²And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Now, let’s read Genesis 18:9-15:

⁹“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he said.

¹⁰Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.¹¹Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹²So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

¹³Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

We all must trust God with our children and grandchildren as Sarah did.
1. You and I may read this and it appears that Sarah did not trust God with her womb. Sarah had already been told that she will be a mother. In this passage there are two angels and God talking with Abraham. We find this out in verses 1-9. If you go back to Genesis 12 we read that Abraham was to be the father of nations. Sarah trusted God but did not know how this was to happen. It was in Genesis 17:17 that we find out this was to happen through her womb. Sarah, being 90 years old was to have a child.
2. Reading this passage we see that Sarah laughed. Actually, Abraham laughed as well in Genesis 17:17. They laughed in doubt. It was not doubt that they would be the parents of nations, it was doubt that the child would come through her.
3. But we can look ahead and see that Sarah’s child was born in Genesis 21:2 and he was named Isaac which means “Laughter.”
4. This was somewhere around 2000 B.C., then when Hebrews was penned some 2000 years later, Sarah is remembered for her faith.
5. She trusted God.
6. I do not want to talk about trusting God that you are going to have a child at 90 years old. If any of you are close to that age and God has revealed that to you, by all means, trust Him. I’ll pray for you. I know what it is like to have a toddler in the house and the joys overcompensate the demands, but they will keep you young. I have heard that it is more fun to skip your own children and go straight to grandchildren. You can then have all the joys, yet send them home at the end of the day. My own Mercedes and Abigail love it when their grandparents come over. Yet, I must worry, for they are a handful. Turn your back on Abigail and she is gone. She is only 17 months. Mercedes, watch out she can scale the counters and get into anything. She can open her own vitamins. We have to watch everything lest the kids get into them. We were at a restaurant and Abigail was walking round and simply turned over a bucket of cleaning water. She turns over the dog water at home and must have thought it was the same thing. She is inquisitive and it is cute but it drives us crazy. You know how many cups of coffee have been split because of her inquisitiveness? Stop by, we would love to have you for dinner, but bring a change of clothes.
7. I imagine Sarah at 90 years old and Abraham at 100 years old chasing a toddler around. Then, Abraham would have been 116 years old teaching him to drive a camel so that he could get his temporary driving permit. Sarah would have been staying up late at the age of 106 years old while Isaac is out with friends. I wonder if he had a curfew. Really, I look forward to the days when my children are out for a few hours without my supervision, but I do not look forward to the worrying. I worry with them at home.
8. Of course, they say that your children grow up quick. I do see that happening. I heard of one mother who had 4 children. She was talking and said that people would say they grow up quick and she would think, “I smell like spit-up.” Then she said, “But when I saw my daughter walk out of her room at 17 years old with her keys…” She knew that to be true.
9. I wonder if Sarah thought that way? He was 37 years old when she died. I wonder if she had days where she told him, “Just wait till your father gets home.” I heard of George H. W. Bush getting a phone call from Barbara when the kids were young. Barbara told him that one of the boys hit the baseball through a certain neighbor’s second story window. His reaction, “What a hit!” I wonder if Abraham had conversations like that from Sarah.
10. Sarah had watched everyone else raise children and now it was her turn. The Bible says in verse 14: “Is anything too difficult for the Lord.”
11. How are we doing with trusting the Lord? How are we doing with trusting the Lord with our children on day-to-day bases. How about even after they are grown.
12. I was 19 years old and my parents were taking me to college. I was going some 8 hours away to Georgia. We were at a restaurant when my mother retreated to the restroom, I think to cry because for the first time she was dropping off her son hours away from home for a long time.
13. I wonder if Sarah had moments like that. I wonder if she had moments in which she had to let go.
14. You see, on a mother’s day I can talk about a mother’s love. I mention that with the example of my mother and grandmother. However, I think it is a mother’s love that compels them to care so well for their children.
15. In that manner, we are best to remember that God’s faithfulness is unending and we must trust Him, who can do all things, with our children.
16. Meagan and I tear up with the thought of walking my daughter down the aisle on a wedding day. But that is the common station in life which we will face.
17. I honestly don’t know how parents deal with real struggles of sickness, hardship and even the loss of a child. The only thing that I can say is Sarah had great faith and so must we for God has great faithfulness.
  1. Some Scripture:
  2. Psalm 89:1-2 (and the rest of the Psalm) are about God’s faithfulness.

Psalm 91:1-4 compare God’s faithfulness to an eagle sheltering us under His Wings.

Psalm 100:5 are about God’s faithfulness.
Psalm 108:4: God’s faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Psalm 143:1: O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. (from New International Version)

For those of you have been through those trials my prayers are with you and I know that I can be educated by you.
The other thought about trusting God’s faithfulness with our children is that we never know what God is going to do. We don’t know who are children will end up to be, do you? We can try to rear them and pray for them and we must, but we do not know. But Sarah was told that she would be the mother of nations. We must trust God with our children’s future and our grandchildren’s future.

How do we have faith? How do we trust God?
1. Pray and talk to God.
2. Go to the Bible and read the Scripture passages on faithfulness.
3. Talk with a small group or prayer partner, or myself. Talk with a Christian counselor.
4. Those of you that have been through tough circumstances with children, you can teach me and I would love to hear your testimony.
5. Those going through tough times, I would welcome to listen and pray with you.
6. I can recommend some books.

Close:

A mother’s love is amazing.

Have faith in God to watch over you and your children as Sarah did.

You never know what God will do through your children and grandchildren.

I talked about my grandmother, my father’s mother, with tears in her eyes when my brother was punished. A few years later she went into the hospital. She had a quadruple heart bypass. They said the risk of clot was high, especially early on. She made it through those days, but then they had to put in a pacemaker. Then, after about two weeks she was ready to come home. She was coming home to stay with us. It was a Friday night and we were getting her room ready. We were setting up the hospital bed, etc. We were looking forward to grandma staying with us. Then, my parents received a call from the hospital and they rushed to the hospital. My grandmother was walking with a nurse talking about how she was eager to see her cat again when she had a blood clot. It had been some two weeks, but it happened. The doctor’s worked on her for some time, but then she died.

The next day, my dad was driving me to work and he said, “I don’t know if you noticed but my mother’s death has been hard on me.” He continued, “My dad beat me as a child, but over the last few years with my mother living with us I can tell that she regretted that.” This was the only time I saw my dad choke up with tears in his eyes. The only time. The influence of a mother.

In Genesis 23:1 we read that Sarah died at the age of 127 years. I would imagine that Isaac and Ishmael both wept at the death of Sarah.

However, because of Sarah we have Hebrews 11:12:

And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

She became the mother of nations. She had faith that God would fulfill the promise and He did. She had faith in God’s promise and became the mother of Christianity as Jesus came through her descendants.

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] Sources: Jenna Goudreau, “Why Stay-At-Home Moms Should Earn a $115,000 Salary,” Forbes (5-2-11); Salary.com, “Salary.com’s 12th Annual Mom Salary Survey,” (last accessed on April 24, 2013)

By Faith Enoch

Posted on May 4, 2015 by sarhodes

The story is told of a Sunday school teacher who wanted to explain to the 6-year-olds in his class what someone had to do in order to go to heaven. In an attempt to discover what kids already believed about the subject, he asked a few questions.

“If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale, and gave all my money to the church,” he asked, “would that get me to heaven?”

“No!” the children answered. The teacher was encouraged.

“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me to heaven?”

Again the answer was, “No!”

“Well then,” he said, “If I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children and loved my wife, would that get me into heaven?”

Again they all shouted, “No!”

“Well then,” the teacher asked, looking out over his class, “how can I get to heaven?”

A boy in the back row stood up and shouted, “You gotta be dead!”[1]

That is what we usually believe isn’t it? We usually think we die and then we go to Heaven, except for Enoch (Genesis 5:22-24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-12). These two men went straight to Heaven. This is quite fascinating. Let’s look into Enoch. Before we read the text let me give you the theme and application:

Theme:

Enoch walked with God.

Application:

Walk with God.

That is my simple challenge for the day. I challenge you to learn from Enoch and walk with God.

Let’s start by reading Hebrews 11:5-6:

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Now, let’s turn to Genesis 5:22-4:

After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. ²⁴Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

First, let’s talk about who Enoch was? Or, I guess I could say “is” because he never really died.
1. One Sunday School instructor was determined to repeat “And Enoch was not, for God took him” until even the dullest student would understand it. On a review Sunday he asked the class to state exactly what was said of Enoch. One answer came back, “Enoch was not what God took him for.” —Pastor’s Manual^{^[2]}
2. This is an account that I could skip over too quickly and maybe you have as well. Think about it. God just took him! That is cool isn’t it? Don’t ever miss these amazing events in the Bible.
3. Remember this is the fifth chapter of Genesis, we are really early on.
4. Enoch was a descendant of the godly line of Seth.
5. There was also an ungodly line of Cain.
6. He was the seventh generation from Adam. (Jude 14 says)
7. The 1 Chronicles 1 and Luke 3 have the same genealogy. This is important because as we compare when we see that they correspond it validates the Bible.
8. By the way, these genealogies are important because they become the genealogy of Christ Jesus.
9. This was also a time when the people were living really long. By the way, (Other ancient Near Eastern texts attribute even longer lives to earlier generations; e.g., the Sumerian King List mentions kings who reign—interestingly, before a flood—for periods of 28,800, 36,000, and 43,200 years.)
10. I want to say that I think the other dates are inflated in order to make the kings seems greater. I do believe the Biblical number are accurate. I don’t think they dated differently or not by that much. I think the world was different before the flood.
11. We also learn from this genealogy that people lived to be nearly a thousand years old. And so there wasn’t a lot of death, which meant that the population increased at an amazingly rapid rate. This genealogy is also here, not only to show us the time involved – to show us the expansion of population – but it is here to show us the reign of death. Eight times in this chapter you will read, “and he died; and he died; and he died.” This is the reign of death. This is the judgment of sin.
12. Enoch’s son Methuselah was the oldest man who ever lived.
13. Jude 14 lists Enoch as one who prophesied. This comes from an apocryphal book which says that he called out wickedness. He said, “The Lord is coming and He’s coming with many thousands of His holy ones and He’s going to execute judgment and it’s going to fall on all the ungodly with all their ungodly deeds done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” He was a judgment preacher.

Second, let’s talk about “walking” with God.
1. To walk with God meant to have a relationship with God. This meant fellowship and communion which led to Divine Favor.
2. It did not mean that he never sinned but that the pattern of his life was in relationship with God.
3. In a sermon on “Enoch walked with God,” Dr. Campbell Morgan gave the following illustration: A little child gave a most exquisite explanation of walking with God. She went home from Sunday School, and the mother said, “Tell me what you learned at school.” And she said: “Don’t you know, Mother, one day they went for an extra long walk, and they walked on and on, until God said to Enoch, “You are a long way from home; you had better just come in and stay.” And he went.” —Current Anecdotes^{^[3]}
4. We can walk with God today because of Jesus.
5. Turn to 2 Cor. 5:17 and 21:
6. Verse 17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
7. Verse 21: God made him who had no sinto be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Let’s apply this. I made these personal to me. You may have other applications.
1. The Bible often describes the Christian life as a walking. Walking is natural.
2. What will it take for me to walk, or continue walking, with God?

Enoch walked with God. I will try my best to walk with God.

It seems that walk means a relationship with God or pleasing God. I must aim to please God. I must aim to be in communion with God.
1. The Bible knowledge Commentary calls walk the Biblical expression for fellowship and obedience that results in Divine Favor. I have fellowship with God because of the Holy Spirit. I will praise Him for that sweet fellowship.
2. I have reconciliation with God because of the cross. I will walk with Him.
3. The response is Romans 12:1-2
4. Enoch did not have to run with God. The life he lived is considered a walk. This is natural. This is not something out of the ordinary. I will understand that the Christian life is walking with God as God created me to walk He created me to walk with Him.
Enoch walked with God for 365 years as the Scriptures say, he stuck with it. I will live my life walking with God, all my life. I will finish strong.
1. There are no excuses in my latter years for weakening my faith, lusting after younger women, giving up on God, etc. I must finish with God.
2. I hear of older men getting into pornography now, I will fight the battle of lust all my life.
Enoch prophesied according to Jude 14: he called out the Truth. I will also speak the Truth.

Hebrews 11:6: we cannot please God without faith. I will have faith as Enoch had faith.
1. I will hold true to the promises in the Bible.
2. I will hold the Bible in reverence.
3. I will trust the Gospel.
4. I will seek God’s conviction and follow Him.

Close:

So, Enoch walked with God and God honored that and took him, where are you at in your Christian journey?

Micah 6:8:

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

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] Andy Stanley, How Good Is Good Enough? (Multnomah, 2003), p. 8; submitted by Gino Grunberg, Gig Harbor, Washington

^{^[2]} Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 523.

^{^[3]} Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 1570.

Today’s sermon, by Faith Abel

Posted on April 12, 2015 by sarhodes

Opening:

But let’s talk about the new series. We are going to look at Hebrews 11 which is often called the “Hall of Faith” or the “Triumphs of Faith,” or “Faith in Action.” We are going to look at a verse and then talk about the person. So, we are going to get into the Old Testament. We will look at Abel and then Enoch, Noah and many more of these people in the Old Testament. Sometimes we will have to wonder, “How in the world did this guy or gal get into this list in the New Testament?’ To that we must remember that God uses imperfect people to accomplish His will. We must remember that a little bit of faith goes a long way.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a film version of C. S. Lewis’ book by the same name. In this scene, the children who have once again been summoned to Narnia—Lucy, Edmund, and Edmund—team-up with King Caspian aboard the royal ship, The Dawn Treader.

During their journey, Lucy, the youngest of the children, encounters a book titled The Book of Incantations. This mysterious book boldly promises to provide “an infallible spell to make you the beauty you’ve always wanted to be.” Despite her vibrant faith in Aslan (who represents Christ), Lucy has always struggled with a deep wound: she feels inferior to and jealous of her beautiful older sister Susan. Tempted by her desire to become more beautiful, Lucy speaks forth the spell. Suddenly, a mirror appears on the page directly across from the spell. As Lucy looks into the mirror, she realizes that her face has been transformed into the face of her sister. She decides to tear out the page and hide it.

Later, in a dream, Lucy pulls out the page of the mirror and recites the words at the top, “Make me she, whom I’d agree, holds more beauty over me.” Suddenly, in the dream, the spell works to transform Lucy into her sister Susan. However, by being transformed into her sister, Lucy discovers that she never existed.

As Lucy stands before the mirror, horrified, Aslan appears, and the film has the following conversation:

“Lucy,” says Aslan.

“Aslan,” she replies.

“What have you done, child?”

“I don’t know. That was awful.”

“But you chose it, Lucy,” he tells her.

“I didn’t mean to choose all that,” Lucy answers. “I just wanted to be beautiful like Susan. That’s all.”

Aslan tells her, “You wished yourself away, and with it much more. Your brothers and sister wouldn’t know about Narnia without you, Lucy. You discovered it first—remember?”

“I’m so sorry,” Lucy says sadly.

“You doubt your value,” says Aslan. “Don’t run from who you are.”

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Fox 2000 Pictures, 2010), directed by Michael Apted, chapter 13; 0:50:19—0:51:12; submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky

We are going to look at jealousy today. Cain jealousy kills Abel.

In Genesis 3 we have the devil slithering around as a serpent, talking, tempting and distorting the Truth and Adam and Eve fall into sin. Then we come to Genesis 4 and we have a description of sin as an animal crouching at the door with a desire to overtake an individual, what an image.

In Genesis 3 we have the “why.” Why do these bad things happen, why sin? In Genesis 4 we have the “what.” What is happening that is sinful. Chapter 3 gives the cause and chapter 4 the effect.

In Genesis 4 we have this picture of sin wanting to overtake Cain, like a snake, a lion, a bear crouching, ready to pounce. Though I want to come to that picturesque image of sin, I mainly wish to focus on sacrifice. It is fitting that this sermon series begins a week after Easter because we see that Abel gave an acceptable sacrifice.

Let’s look at the passages, turn to Hebrews 11:4:

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

Turn to Genesis 4:1-7:

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.”²Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. ³In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. ⁴And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. TheLord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

⁶Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?⁷If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

The Theme:

By Faith Able presented a more acceptable sacrifice.

Application:

Are we religious or righteous? Do we serve God out of duty or because we are pursuing righteousness? We’ll come back to that.

First let’s talk about Cain and Abel.
1. Adam and Eve have a son and name him Cain.
2. Adam and Eve have another son and name him Abel. There is no mention of a time lapse so it is possible that these two boys are twins. I imagine, though I cannot prove this, that they grow up together. I imagine that they work together. I imagine that they played games together, wrestle, share a tent or bedroom. I mean, we do not know what it was like back then, but I imagine that as brothers they were together a lot. Now, later on we read that Adam and Eve had many other children (Genesis 5:3), so they had other people to hang out with, we also know that when Cain is banished in Genesis 4:13-14 Cain is concerned about the other people killing him, so we know there were many others. Still, I imagine these two boys are brothers and there might have been a bond when they were young. It seems like they were also the first two boys of Adam and Eve. It seems like they were the first two children of creation.
3. How do people do such evil?

The 20th century was the bloodiest in human history. In Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century, Jonathan Glover estimates that 86,000,000 people died in wars fought from 1900 to 1989. That means 2,500 people every day, or 100 people every hour, for 90 years.

In addition to those killed in war, government-sponsored genocide and mass murder killed approximately 120,000,000 people in the 20th century—perhaps more than 80,000,000 in the two Communist countries of China and the Soviet Union alone, according to R. J. Rummel’sStatistics of Democide.

Ron Sider, “Courageous Nonviolence,” Christianity Today(December 2007)

I find this very cool.
Abel was a shepherd.
Cain was a farmer.
These were common professions. I read, “Both professions were known in early society; sheepherding and agriculture provided an occasion for a natural rivalry. The Sumerian tale of Dumuzi and Enkimdu depicts a rivalry between the shepherd god and the farmer god over marriage to a woman, but it ends in a peaceful resolution.”
In Genesis 46:32; 47:3 the Israelites were shepherds.
In Genesis 4:3-5 we see their sacrifice and how it worked out and did not work out.
Cain brought a sacrifice of the ground. Abel brought a blood sacrifice.
Later on there were grain sacrifices by Israelite law, so that was not a wrong thing that Cain did.
We read here that Abel brought of the first fruits of his flock. I think this is key. Abel did not pick the animal that was lame, or the smaller one; no the sacrifice was one of the first born. It was as if Abel was saying, “God, I love you so much, I am making this sacrifice.”
Cain and Abel knew immediately God’s pleasure and displeasure with the sacrifice. That is interesting. How did they know? I read maybe there was fire that came down out of Heaven and consumed Abel’s sacrifice. That did happen in the Old Testament.
ESV Study Note:
Although Cain and Abel have contrasting occupations and present different types of offerings to God, the present episode is not designed to elevate herdsmen over farmers, or animal offerings over plant offerings. One way to explain why God had regard for Abel and his offering, but not for Cain, is to posit that Abel’s offering, being of the firstborn of his flock, is a more costly offering, expressing greater devotion. Another way to explain the difference is first to observe that both offerings are recognizable parts of the later Levitical system: for Cain’s offering of the fruit of the ground (v. 3), cf. Deut. 26:2 (an offering expressing consecration), and for Abel’s offering of the firstborn of his flock, cf. Deut. 15:19–23 (a kind of peace offering, a meal in God’s presence). But at no point does the Bible suggest that offerings work automatically, as if the worshiper’s faith and contrition did not matter; and Cain’s fundamentally bad heart can be seen in his resentment toward his brother and in his uncooperative answers to God in the rest of the passage. Several NT texts derive legitimate inferences from this narrative, namely, that Cain demonstrated an evil heart by his evil deeds, while Abel demonstrated a pious heart by his righteous deeds (1 John 3:12); and that Abel offered his sacrifice by faith and was commended as righteous for that reason (Heb. 11:4). Gen 4:2
They make the sacrifice and Cain was mad that God did not show pleasure in his sacrifice. Cain’s face changed. He was angry. I see this in verse 5.
àI think of how Mercedes can get angry and even obstinate with myself or Meagan. This is true even though we are the obvious two in charge.
àGod is in charge and this is how Cain reacts.
àAdditionally: Was Cain offended?
àWas Cain hurt?
àWas their additional instructions for offerings that Cain disregarded?
And his face fell.” The idiom means that the inner anger is reflected in Cain’s facial expression. The fallen or downcast face expresses anger, dejection, or depression. Conversely, in Num 6 the high priestly blessing speaks of the Lord lifting up his face and giving peace.^{^[1]}
In the next few verses God speaks to Cain.
That is where we have the illustration of sin crouching at the door and the desire of sin is to overtake you.
Cain ignores this and kills his brother.

What is an acceptable sacrifice today?
1. Abel gave an acceptable sacrifice and that begs the question, what is acceptable today?
2. Don’t go slaughtering your pet. Jesus is the only sacrifice.
3. All of our sacrifices missed and that is why Jesus came and died for us.
4. However, we must respond and we must not respond to Jesus out of duty but love and devotion to Him.

Now, let’s talk about religion vs. righteousness. These are applications which I made personal.
1. These must all fall under one major application of religious versus righteous.
2. The religious person goes to God and serves God out of pure duty.
3. The righteous person goes to God and serves Him out of love.
4. The religious person thinks that he/she can earn Heaven by duty.
5. The righteous person accepts Christ’s righteousness, surrendering to Him.
  1. It seems that Abel’s sacrifice was not pure duty, but pure love. I will give a sacrifice out of love not duty.
    1. This means that I must love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, and soul. (Matt. 22:37-40)
    2. I must love the Lord with all my being. I must love the Lord with who I am.
    3. I must give God my love in devotion and sacrifice.
  2. 1 Cor. 10:31 is fitting: eating and drinking, in everything I must do them to the glory of the Lord. I must do them to love the Lord.
  3. Abel gave out of the first fruits. I must not give God my last, but my first.
    1. This applies to money. This means that I must give God my first in money.
    2. This applies to my energy as well. I must not wait until I am tired to read devotions and pray. I must give Him my best time.
    3. I must not stay out late on Saturday night or up late and fall asleep in worship.
    4. I must give God my best.
    5. I must prepare for my time with God and prepare for worship.
  4. Abel seemed to have an attitude that was not only duty but faith in loving God. I must have an attitude of faith in loving and committing to God. I must ask God to take away my constant drive to make my relationship with Him simple duty and not relationship.
  5. Hebrews 12:24: The blood of Abel was a temporary sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice is forever. I must trust Jesus.

Close:

In the film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones, a daring archeologist who travels the world in search of treasures. In this film, Indiana and his father are searching for the Holy Grail, the cup reputed to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper.

Indiana’s father is shot just at the end of their quest. With his father dying, Indiana’s search for the Grail takes on new intensity, because the cup is said to bring healing to those who drink from it.

With his father groaning in the background, Indiana walks ahead, following an ancient book that gives clues to guide him through a maze of obstacles to the place where the Grail is hidden. He comes to the brink of a chasm deeper than the eye can see. There is no visible way for him to cross the chasm.

Indiana is faced with the impossible. All he sees is the sheer cliff edge and the vast gulf beneath him. Then, as he studies his guidebook, his face relaxes in realization, and he says, “It’s a leap of faith.”

With his father whispering, “You must believe, boy, you must believe,” Indiana looks straight ahead, gathers his courage, and slowly raises one foot into the empty air in front of him.

With a thud, his foot lands on solid ground. The camera pans to show Indiana standing on a narrow rock bridge, deceptively carved to match the exact outline of the ravine beneath it.

Overcome with relief, he quickly crosses the chasm and discovers the Grail on the other side.

Elapsed Time: Measured from the beginning of the opening credit, this scene begins at 01:46:50 and ends at 01:48:45.

Content: Rated PG-13 for violence.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Lucasfilm, 1989), rated PG-13, written by Jeffrey Boam, directed by Steven Spielberg; submitted by Bill White, Paramount, California

Hebrews 11:4:

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

Thousands of years later Abel was remembered.

Trust Christ’s righteousness and we will live for eternity with Him in paradise.

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]} Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ge 4:5–6.

Easter Sermon, Does the Resurrection Give You Joy?

Posted on April 6, 2015 by sarhodes

Show the video from Christmas Eve (That I did not show) that traces Christmas to Easter

One of our leaders emailed the minutes of a team meeting and wrote something like: “Put your hands in the air, jump up and down the minutes are attached!” I was excited to see the minutes, but I hope I am more excited about the resurrection.

The definition of “joy.”

a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.

synonyms:		delight, great pleasure, joyfulness,

verb

literary

rejoice.

Let’s think about children and joy. Last summer I was cutting the grass when all of a sudden I see my 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, we have 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 loves to play outside. I love seeing joy on her face. This makes me think of the numerous moments of joy on a child’s face. I have seen it from three, going on four years now. But I think of holidays.

Last Christmas was a memorable one because Mercedes is really able to understand what is going on. 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!”

Connect presents with joy in our salvation.

Did you have the same joy when you received Christ?

Do we have joy about our salvation? (Psalm 51:12)

Theme:

Today, my focus is that I believe the resurrection gave the disciples joy and we need to have joy as well.

Let’s read Mark 1:1-8:

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Rejoice! Have great joy, Jesus lives!
1. So the disciples go from huddling in a room to I think rejoicing.
2. Now, the New Testament never specifically says that they jumped up and down, but I would say they must have. Build on that. Make that contrast as sharp as I can.
  1. One moment they are huddled the next moment they see Jesus.
3. Consider the rest of the New Testament is about them spreading this amazing message, so they must have had some excitement.
4. Verse 8 has the women leaving the tomb with trembling and astonishment. I think they had a type of holy fear. They were amazed. They did not know what to think of this.
  1. Notice that the women go to the tomb first.
5. In John’s Gospel chapter 20 and verse 2 the women run and tell Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved (Probably John) about this. They ran, probably in excitement, in joy.
6. Then in verses 3-4 the two disciples run to the tomb. Their lives are being turned upside down.
7. Thomas responds when he sees Jesus by stating, “My Lord and My God.” He worshipped. (John 20:28)
8. Now, think about the disciples, many of them were fishermen before Jesus called them and then they travel with Jesus for some three years. Now, they thought that they were going to reign with Jesus, but now He is crucified. I bet this was a real downer. I wonder if they were a bit depressed. I wonder if they were wondering what they were going to do.
9. Do you think they were thinking about fishing again? They were not that good at it. Every time they are fishing they did not catch anything until Jesus would come along. Jesus would come along and they would think, “What do you know about fishing?” Yet, they followed His advice and caught fish. (Luke 5; John 21)
10. They were at a loss for their life had revolved around Jesus and then He was gone. But He really was not gone.

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior,

waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain:

Up from the grave he arose;

with a mighty triumph o’er his foes;

he arose a victor from the dark domain,

and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus my Savior,

vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!

(Refrain)

Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior;

he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

So jump, up and down, put your hands in the air, rejoice!
I think we can learn from children such as Mercedes and her joy. We can learn and apply their joy at holidays. Have we lost our joy?
John 15 the vine and the branches: Jesus talks about joy.
Joy can be spontaneous and immediate, “Presents.” We as believers can have joy that is lasting. We have long term joy that sustains us.
Many times, I arrive home and I hear Mercedes say: “Daddy’s home!” as she runs to the door. Jesus is alive, He has risen! Are we rejoicing? Are we excited? Do we have the joy of a child when their parent arrives? How do we look when we arrive at worship to meet with Jesus? I am applying this to myself as well.
You say, “I want the joy, I want to rejoice, but I have lost the joy.” Let me answer that as best as I can.
1. Everyone goes through dry spells spiritually. That does not mean that God is further away. Nor does it mean that the individual has a sin issue.
2. I will encourage you to spend extra time in prayer and extra time in the Scriptures. If you are not connected to God through prayer and the Scriptures you will eventually lose joy.

I will encourage you to spend time with the church. If you are not connected to the church you will eventually lose joy.

I encourage you to further your church involvement. If you think Sunday is your duty and then you’re done, you will eventually lose joy or not gain joy.
I encourage you to listen to Hymns and songs, read Hymns and songs. (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).
I encourage Christian radio and/or podcast.

Ask Jesus to restore the joy of your salvation (Psalm 51:12).
Pray Psalm 42: “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for You.”

Pray the Psalms.
Just some initial suggestions.
1. Share your joy, remember that we never lose it. Jesus keeps filling us up.

Rejoicing has applications:
1. I no longer have to fear death because Jesus rose from the grave. 1 Cor. 15:55 there is no longer a sting in death.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
2. The resurrection separates Christianity from other religions. I must take confidence in that.
3. I must rejoice that my savior lives.
4. Rejoicing must cause me to commit: Luke 9:23; Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 2:20
5. Rejoicing must cause me to share the Gospel. (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15)

Close:

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.

Pray

Jesus Continued… Why the Holy Spirit Inside You is Better than Jesus Beside You.

Posted on April 1, 2015 by sarhodes

I have been reading a book by J.D. Greear, below are some highlights:

If you are going to walk with the Spirit, you have to be going where he is going! And from the moment he came to earth he has been going to the unbelieving world.

[Some traditions believe the Holy Spirit is given] to make you healthy and wealthy; he’s presented as the source of blessing to those who have faith. In more fundamental tribes, the Holy Spirit has two primary ministries: to write the Bible and convict us of sin. Basically, you are a nail, the Bible is a hammer, and the Holy Spirit’s job is to pound you. . . . In Reformed churches, you won’t hear a lot about the Spirit, as they tend to attribute much of his work to the gospel and the sovereignty of God.

He quotes Charles Haddon Spurgeon writing:

If Jesus is precious to you (as he is to the Spirit), you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself; you will be whispering it into your child’s ear; you will be telling it to your husband; you will be earnestly imparting it to your friend; without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent; your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of his sweet love. . . . It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about him. . . . If you really know Christ, you are like one that has found honey; you will call others to taste of its sweetness; you are like the beggar who has discovered an endless supply of food: you must go tell the hungry crowd that you have found Jesus, and you are anxious that they should find him too. Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor.

These are really challenging words. Blessings, Steve

Palm Sunday message

Posted on March 29, 2015 by sarhodes

A lot is going on, do we need a hero? Do we believe our hero has already come? Do we believe that we need a Savior? Look around the world, turn on the news, pick up a Newspaper or go to an internet news site. Things do not look to good to me. Looks like there are a lot of injustices going on.

Do any of you ever wonder, “Where is God?”

Today we look at a passage where the King enters Jerusalem and He is hailed as King. This next week we celebrate the victory of the cross, but sometimes we have to wonder, “Where is God?”

I do not want to let you stew on that too long. I believe that I can honestly say that God is with us in every tragedy and everything we face, yet God will come and make things right. We look at passages like today’s, we remember Palm Sunday, yet, honestly, we usually only focus on Jesus entering Jerusalem at that time. But Jesus is coming back.

Today, we are going to look at a passage in which it is prophesied that Jesus will enter Jerusalem humbly, riding on a donkey. But do not forget the second part of the passage. There is a double prophesy in this passage. Jesus is coming again.

I want us to look at Zechariah 9:9-10 where it is prophesied that Jesus will humbly enter Jerusalem. I want to look at Matthew 21:1-11 where this passage is fulfilled.

The Application:

Surrender and share.

Read with me Matthew 21:1-11:

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Now, let’s read Zechariah 9:9-10:

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
¹⁰I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.

First, notice this passage prophesies that the King will come and the King has come. We see this in verse 9 and we see it’s fulfillment in Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; John 21:4-9; Luke 19:29-38
1. Let me summarize the first eight verses of this passage. It is important that we do not divorce the passage from the context.
2. In the beginning of this chapter there are prophesies against the nations surrounding Jerusalem. Notice verse 8 says that God will protect His house. That is my summary, but the point is that God will protect Jerusalem. Zechariah was likely written around 520 B.C. to Israel, post exilic Israel. This was after they had come back from being exiled to Babylon. But they still were under Persian rule.
3. You ask, what happened with these prophesies of judgment on the surrounding nations? I am glad you asked. Alexander the Great carried out the fulfillment of these prophesies. God used Alexander the Great to carry out the judgment. This was after the battle of Isus in 333 B.C. “He went into Syria and knocked off Syria, came over to the coastline and took Phoenicia which amounted to Tyre and Sidon…moved south and took care of Philistia, all of the cities of Philistia that are named in verse 5, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron. But amazingly enough, after destroying the nations, he saved…whom? Israel. And he spared them. And he absolutely to the tee, fulfilled the prophecy penned hundreds of years before the man was ever born, a prophecy written in a book he never saw. It was God’s way of saying, “When you see Alexander do this, know that just as that part came to pass, so will part two. And if I can use a pagan human being to judge nations and to save My people, wait and see what I’ll do with the God-Man, Jesus Christ in the end of the age.”[1]
4. That is what is going in the first few verses in this passage. We then come to verse 9, which is the verse concerning Jesus.
5. The passage says, “Rejoice.” The passage says to “rejoice, greatly.”
6. Why? Your King is coming to you.
7. Now that is something to be excited about, right?
8. But the next verse might be a downer. Imagine, we are in a war situation and the King is coming in to save us. How do you want the King to arrive? Do you want the King to come in a tank, or a Volkswagen? I would choose the tank any day and twice on Sunday.
9. But the passage says that the King will come Humble and riding on a donkey, really?
10. Now, that is something to motivate the troops.
11. Now early in Israel’s history, very early, it was respectable to ride around on a donkey. But by Solomon’s time, it wasn’t. See, Solomon brought into Israel horses. He had literally…some say 30,000 horses in his private group of horses. He introduced the horse. And from that time on, nobles and soldiers and important people rode horses and the donkey lost its dignity. You were really admitting your poverty by putting around on a donkey.
12. But the passage acknowledges Jesus humility.
13. Could we miss King Jesus because He came in humility?
14. I think we certainly could.

How the “Horse Whisperer” Trains Wild Horses

Long before the “dog whisperer,” Cesar Milan, there was the “horse whisperer.”

Monty Roberts was raised in the horse business. He learned there was one way to train horses: by “breaking” them. Through domination and force, which at times included striking the horse with whips or even tying and suspending the horse’s feet and legs, a trainer would impose his will upon the animal until it reached the conclusion that total submission was the only way to survive.

In his early teen years Roberts began to study the behavior and communication patterns of wild mustangs in the badlands of Nevada. He took note of the nonverbal communication among the horses …. Drawing on this observation and his firsthand experience with horses, Roberts developed a breakthrough training technique he first called “hooking on” as opposed to “breaking down” the horse’s will. This new training method was based on a cornerstone concept he eventually trademarked called JoinUp®. Join-Up not only stopped the “breaking” norms of traditional horse training, it showcased how to cooperate with the horse’s own spirit, innate ways, and means of communicating as a member of the herd.

The personality and full potential of the horse emerge through loving freedom and desire rather than domination …. The Join-Up technique invites an untamed horse that has never been ridden to willingly accept the saddle, bridle, and rider. It is a thing of beauty to watch. Monty Roberts enters a round pen with a wild horse. In as little as half an hour, he’ll be riding the horse.

Roberts creates an atmosphere of mutual respect that communicates, “I’m not going to hurt you, and you don’t have to follow me if you don’t want to.” After a brief period of introducing himself and interacting with the horse … Roberts turns his back to the animal and walks away.

At this point the horse trains her eyes on Monty with all-out intensity and attention. She is asking herself, “Where is he going?” and “Do I want to stay by myself?” The horse must choose: “I want to be with you. I want to join up and follow you on the way.” She quickly decides, “My safe place is with you.” Dropping her head (equine language for “I submit to you”) and trotting to Roberts’s side, the horse says, “I choose to follow. I want to be with you.”

I believe at this point, Jesus wants us to choose Him. But Jesus is coming again.

Second, in verse 10, this passage prophesies judgment, this is still to come.
1. Jesus is coming as the judge. Verse 10: I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
  and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
  and the battle bow will be broken.
  He will proclaim peace to the nations.
  His rule will extend from sea to sea
  and from the River to the ends of the earth.
2. If you turn to Revelation 14:14, it says: I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
3. This is about Jesus coming as judge. We see this also in: Luke 21:27; Phil. 2:9-11
4. See also 2 Peter 3:9-10: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. ¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
5. You see verses 9-10 of Zechariah are a double prophesy. They were fulfilled in Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey, but they will be fulfilled when Jesus comes again as judge and literal King.
6. We could even look at Zechariah 9:1-10 as a triple prophesy since Alexander the Great fulfilled part of the passage.

Close:

Do you ever get discouraged when you turn on the news, or read the paper? It makes sense if you do. Be encouraged today that Jesus will come and make things right. Judgment will come. Justice will come. Why is Jesus waiting? He is waiting so that more people can choose to follow Him. Truth is, some of us want justice and that makes sense, but true justice would send us all to hell. Instead, Jesus came humbly on a donkey and surrendered to the cross so that we can be saved.

The application is to “surrender and share.”

So, today, surrender to Jesus. He is our rightful King. He is the only King.

Share Jesus. Judgment is coming and we need to be covered with the blood of the Lamb. Our friends, family and co-workers need to 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] http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/2165/the-saga-of-two-conquerers-part-2

Today’s sermon: Isaiah 53:12: Jesus is exalted, Bow both knees to Him

Posted on March 22, 2015 by sarhodes

Introduction:

We have been talking about the prophesies from Isaiah 53. Today we come to our last sermon on Isaiah 53. Next week we will look at a prophesy regarding the triumphal entry.

Many times I catch myself knowing that I cannot earn my way into Heaven but almost living as if I can. In other words, I pride myself in living the right life. That is good, but for what purpose? I must live the right and pure life for Jesus, not for me. Do I want my righteousness, which will not get me anywhere? Or, do I want Christ’s righteousness, which is free? I cannot have both. Mercedes is three years old. She wants both apple juice and chocolate milk in the morning. In fact she wants many things. She will think critically of many things. In fact, I do as well. I will weigh things critically in my head. I am not good at quick thinking. But this ought to be a “no brainer.” I need and ought to desire Jesus’ righteousness. Jesus freely gives me right standing with God.

Before we move on, listen to something I read from Ravi Zacharias regarding the cross:

Apologetics Study Bible:

Ravi Zacharius:

I often think back with nostalgia to growing up in India and the late-night conversations we would have about a Hindu play or some event that featured Hindu thought. Now, through the lens of Jesus Christ, I have learned to see how deep-seated culture and religion can be and how only the power of the Holy Spirit can reveal the error of an ingrained way of thinking. Consequently, whenever we speak with someone from another faith, it is essential to remember that we must not attempt to tear down another’s belief system but rather to reveal the hungers of the human heart and the unique way in which Christ addresses them.

For the Hindu, karma—the moral law of cause-and-effect—is a life-defining concept. Life carries its moral bills, and they are paid in the cyclical pattern of rebirth until all dues are paid in full. Hinduism here conveys an inherited sense of wrong, which is lived out in the next life, in vegetable, animal, or human form. This doctrine is nonnegotiable in Hindu philosophy. Repercussions of fatalism (that is, whatever happens will happen) and the indifference to the plight of others are inescapable but are dismissed by philosophical platitudes that do not weigh out the consequences of such reasoning. Thus it is key to bear in mind that although karma is seen as a way of paying back, this payback is never complete; hence life is lived out paying back a debt that one cannot know in total but that must be paid in total. That is why the cross of Christ is so definitive and so complete. It offers forgiveness without minimizing the debt. When we truly understand that forgiveness, we develop a loving heart of gratitude. There is a full restoration—in this life and for eternity.

The Christian should also understand the attraction of pantheism, the Hindu view of seeing the divine in everything. It superficially appears more compatible with scientific theorizing because it presents no definitive theory of origins. Life is cyclical, without a first cause. Pantheism also gives one a moral reasoning, through karmic fatalism, that one is trapped in the cycle until one escapes, without the need to invoke God. But in the final analysis, it is without answers when one needs to talk about the deepest struggles of the soul. Hindu scholars even admit this in their creation of a path of bhakti (love, devotion) to satisfy the inescapable human hunger for worship.

It is here that a keen understanding is needed. Krishna’s coming to earth as an avatar—that is, one of the incarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu—in a way brings “God to man.” But a huge chasm still remains. How does one bring man to God? For this, there is only one way—the way of the cross. A profound and studied presentation of the cross, and what it means, is still the most distinctive aspect of the Christian faith. Even Gandhi said it was the most unexplainable thing to him and was unparalleled. For the Christian, the cross of Jesus Christ is the message “first to the Jew, and also to the Greek” (Rm 2:9)—to the moralist and the pantheist, to the religious and the irreligious. We can communicate this message with a Hindu acquaintance or friend only through a loving relationship. The love of Christ, a patient listening and friendship, and the message of forgiveness provide the path to evangelism.

Let’s talk more about the cross. Let me tell you my theme and the key application:

Great Idea, theme:

Jesus Paid it all, so He is Lifted up. Jesus is exalted.

I hope we are all convicted by this passage. I recently heard that if I am reading the Bible and I do not find something I do not agree with, then I am reading it wrong, then I am lacking understanding. In other words, if when I am reading the Bible I do not come upon a passage where I stop and think: “hmmm, I don’t like that.” Then I am not really understanding what I am reading. The person who shared this was not meaning that I notice errors in the Bible, there are none. What he was talking about is that as I read God’s Word I must be convicted. This was a heavy convicting truth to me. As I read the Bible I must look for God to speak words of conviction into my life.[1]

So, application in this passage:

We all must bow our knee to King Jesus. (Eph. 3:14; Phil. 2:6-11)

Let me now put the Theme and application together:

Theme:

Jesus Paid it all, so He is Lifted up. Jesus is exalted.

Application:

We all must bow our knee to King Jesus. (Eph. 3:14; Phil. 2:6-11)

Read with me Isaiah 53:11-12:

After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
¹²Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus paid it all.
1. How did Jesus pay it all?
2. Jesus took my place and your place on the cross.
3. If you look in your Bibles you will notice that verse ten is in the past tense. But then verse eleven is in the future tense. In fact, from chapter fifty-two verse fourteen through fifty-three verse ten the passage is in the past tense. In that section God is looking down on our salvation as done. But now it changes. Now, all the verbs are in the perfect tense and the pronouns are plural. The verbs are the imperfect tense.
4. Why is that significant? This is showing that Jesus is continuously making intercession for us.
5. Verse 12 at the very end of the verse says that He bore the sin of many and made intercession for us. “Intercession” is an imperfect verb. Jesus is continually interceding for us. 1 Timothy 2:5 says that Jesus is our one Mediator.
6. Hebrews 7:25 and Romans 8:34 are important:
7. Hebrews 7:25:Therefore he is able to savecompletely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
8. Romans 8:34: Who then is the one who condemns?No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
9. Jesus paid our sin debt. Jesus intercedes for us. Amen!
10. In death we have hope.

Death: Our Enemy and Teacher

In Christ and the Meaning of Life, German theologian Helmut Thielicke tells the story of a young [soldier] who reached out to pick a bouquet of lilacs and uncovered the half-decayed body of [another] soldier beneath the bush: “He drew back in horror, not because he had never seen a dead man before—he drew back because of the screaming contradiction between the dead man and the flowering bush.”

Thielicke notes that the soldier’s reaction would have been different if the man had come upon a dead and faded lilac bush instead: “A blooming lilac bush will one day become a withered lilac bush—this is really nothing more than the operation of the rhythm of life—but that a man should be lying there in a decayed condition, this was something that simply did not fit, and that’s why he winced at the sight of it.”

We can only understand the mystery of death if we see it through the lens of Adam’s rebellion against God. We are pilgrims who traverse an “empire of ruins” with death as our fellow traveler. Unable to rid ourselves of this cheerless companion, we attempt to rehabilitate it instead, treating death as if it were a neighbor and not a trespasser.

We clothe it in our best dress and apply make-up to its waxen features. Laid out before us in stiff repose, death looks as if it were merely asleep and if we do not look too carefully, we can almost convince ourselves that it has a beating heart within its breast and warm blood pulsing through its veins. We whisper to ourselves that it is not as alien as it first appeared. But this fool’s dream vanishes the minute we attempt to embrace death, finding that it repays our kiss with only sorrow and loss.

Death is not a natural stage in the cycle of human development. Death is a curse. The presence of death is an intrusion. It is “natural” only to the extent that nature itself suffers from the stroke that fell upon Adam as a consequence for his sin. Nature endures death but not willingly. It groans in protest, loathing the bondage to decay which death has brought upon it and yearning for “the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Death is “the last enemy,” a tyrant who acts on sin’s behalf and whose sway over us was finally broken at the cross but will only be fully realized at the resurrection (Romans 5:21; 1 Corinthians 15:26).

Death is our enemy but, like the law, it is also a schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. Death’s hard lesson exposes the true nature of sin. Indeed, the law and death are strange allies in this mysterious work. In the hands of God both act as a goad, puncturing our denial and prodding us to turn to Christ for relief from death’s sting.[2]

This brings me to the next point. In death Jesus is exalted.

Jesus is lifted up.
1. Verse 12 in the Isaiah passage begins with “Therefore.” This means that because of Jesus’ sacrifice Jesus is given a portion with the great. This is meaning a few things but I only want to focus on one and that is Jesus’ exaltation.
2. The whole focus of the passage we have been studying is in Phil 2:6-11. This is called “the Christ Hymn.”
3. 2:6-11:

⁶Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

⁷rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

⁸And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father. ^{^[3]}

Every knee should bow, now let’s apply this.

Bow our knees, both of them. (Eph. 3:14)
1. When I was a child I would go to my brother’s baseball games and I loved the concession stand. I still do. There was a candy called “now or laters.” They were sweat and took forever to chew up. Question: Are you going to “bow now or later”? Am I going to bow, “Now or later”? I prefer to bow now. I must bow both knees now.
2. Sometimes we only bow one knee. My pun is intended. I must surrender my life to Jesus as Lord. I must live Luke 9:23. I must deny myself and take up my cross and follow Jesus.
3. This means that Jesus is not in my passenger seat, He is driving my life. Then I cannot be in the passenger seat because I may try to give Him directions or steer my life. I also cannot be in the back seat because I will end up as a back seat driver. No, I must be in the trunk or maybe a trailer behind the car of my life. I must let Jesus run my life. I must surrender to Him.
4. I surrender to Him in worship and I surrender to Him in my daily living.
5. I must bow my knees, both of them. Jesus is exalted, He is Lord.
6. He must be Lord of my finances.
7. He must be Lord of my eating.
8. He must be Lord of my pride, transforming that to humility.
9. He must be Lord of my church involvement.
10. He must be Lord of my thought life.
11. He must be Lord of my television viewing.
12. He must be Lord of my reading.
13. He must be Lord of my listening habits.
14. He must be Lord of my relationships.
15. He must be Lord of my occupation.
16. He must be Lord of my hobbies.
17. He must be Lord of my rest.
18. He must be Lord of my driving.
19. He must be Lord of my learning.
20. He must be Lord of my talking.
21. He must be Lord of my, you finish it.

Close:

What More Can God Do to Show He Loves Us?

Author and speaker Brennan Manning has an amazing story about how he got the name “Brennan.” While growing up, his best friend was Ray. The two of them did everything together: bought a car together as teenagers, double-dated together, went to school together and so forth. They even enlisted in the Army together, went to boot camp together and fought on the frontlines together. One night while sitting in a foxhole, Brennan was reminiscing about the old days in Brooklyn while Ray listened and ate a chocolate bar. Suddenly a live grenade came into the foxhole. Ray looked at Brennan, smiled, dropped his chocolate bar and threw himself on the live grenade. It exploded, killing Ray, but Brennan’s life was spared.

When Brennan became a priest he was instructed to take on the name of a saint. He thought of his friend, Ray Brennan. So he took on the name “Brennan.” Years later he went to visit Ray’s mother in Brooklyn. They sat up late one night having tea when Brennan asked her, “Do you think Ray loved me?” Mrs. Brennan got up off the couch, shook her finger in front of Brennan’s face and shouted, “What more could he have done for you?” Brennan said that at that moment he experienced an epiphany. He imagined himself standing before the cross of Jesus wondering, Does God really love me? And Jesus’ mother Mary pointing to her son, saying, “What more could he have done for you?”

The cross of Jesus is God’s way of doing all he could do for us. And yet we often wonder, Does God really love me? Am I important to God? Does God care about me?[4]

Jesus loves us. Jesus died for us, Jesus rose again, Jesus is exalted. Be encouraged by those Truths. Accept those Truths. Let’s bow our knees to Him.

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] Rev. Dr. Russell Moore shared this at Cedarville University’s Chapel on February 26, 2015

[2] John Koessler, “Death: Our Enemy and Teacher,” on his blogA Stranger in the House of God (6-30-10)

^{^[3]} The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Php 2:6–11.

[4] Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois; source: adapted from James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God (IVP, 2009), p. 142

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Posted on March 16, 2015 by sarhodes

Peace Child

In 1962, missionaries named Don and Carol Richardson went to New Guinea to bring the Good News of Christ to a group of people known as the Sawi. The Sawi was a headhunting, cannibalistic tribe who used the skulls of their victims as pillows. He wrote a book about his experience called Peace Child. He began his work among the Sawi by reading through the Gospel of Matthew. But to his consternation when he got to the part of Judas betraying Christ, everyone cheered. He did not realize that their culture was one built around treachery.

The one who was the most devious was the one who had the most respect in their tribe. The missionary searched for every possible means to explain the greatness of God’s gift of truth and pure love to a people whose values were based on deceit. Then one day, he witnessed a solemn ceremony between two warring tribes. One of the chiefs walked over to the other and handed him a child. In fact, it was the chief’s own son. Their custom had been that peace could come between two tribes only if the chief of one of the tribes would give his son over to the people of the other tribe. He was called the “peace child.” The chief would place his own son in the hands of a people who hated him and had been his enemies. It was the only way to bring peace between them. Richardson saw in this act the perfect bridge to help these people understand what God had done.

God had given his “peace child” into the hands of a hostile world in order to bring the hostility between us to an end. The angels said at his birth: “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”
(From a sermon by William D. Brown, “CHRISTMAS” 7/31/2008)

That is humble, isn’t it? But that is the Gospel.

As we continue in Isaiah 53 we come to verse 9. We see a passage where our Savior was willing to be identified with criminals. More than that, our Savior was not a criminal. Our Savior was and is pure and spotless. He was and is sinless. In the story I just read, it is one thing to hand your child over to the enemy. It is another thing to do so when your child is sinless. Your child is perfect. Your child has done no wrong at all.

Turn with me to three passages, the first is a prophesy fulfilled in Jesus:

Isaiah 53:9:

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Mark 15:27:

They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left.

John 19:38:

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.

Let’s talk about these.

My Theme:

Jesus was humiliated in death by being crucified as a common criminal. This was in the crucifixion and in the expected normal burial of someone crucified.

Applications:

Ask yourself, how far will you go in humility for Jesus? (Phil. 2:3-4 and Jesus’ example in verses 6-11)

We’ll unpack that.

Jesus was crucified with criminals and assigned a grave with the wicked.
1. This is because as crucified He would not be entitled to a grave. He would be left on the cross to rot and then thrown in the valley of Hinnom. Listen to what MacArthur says[1]:

Jesus was crucified between two criminals, Luke 23:33; Matthew 27:38. And here would be the normal disposition. They would die on the cross of asphyxiation, and they would leave Him there. Leave Him there dead and rotting, leave Him there for the birds to pluck out their faces. And they would leave them there like road kill for animals that could climb up the cross to chew their flesh. They would leave them there for the purpose of warning everybody who was watching of what happens to people who violate the Roman power and the Roman law. That’s what was planned for Him. Eventually they would have taken the rotted corpses down and thrown them in a dump.

The Jerusalem city dump was in the Valley of Hinnom; you can go there today. It’s not the dump anymore but the Valley of Hinnom on the southeast side of Jerusalem was the city dump, and it was a fire that never went out, a constant fire there. It is a very interesting place, historically. It was the place where apostate Jews and followers of Baal and other Canaanite gods burned their children to the god Molech. You find that back in 2 Chronicles 28:33. Jeremiah talks about it, Jeremiah 7. But this was the place where they offered babies to Molech.

It was there that King Ahaz sacrificed his sons, 2 Chronicles 28. It is the place that Isaiah identifies at the end of his prophecy as the place where the worm never dies. And Jesus said it’s a depiction of hell, in Mark, where the worm never dies…Mark 9. And he says that three times. Horrible place where they threw what was left of the corpses. The rabbis describe it as a perpetual fire to consume the filth and the cadavers that are thrown there. So He was executed with criminals. He would end up like criminals.

But God wasn’t going to let that happen. Psalm 16 says that He would not allow His Holy One to see corruption. God would never let that happen. So verse 9 says there’s an amazing turn. “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death.” How did that happen? He was with a rich man in His death because all along there was a man by the name of Joseph from a place called Arimathea.

This man Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus Christ quietly, and he was very rich. Matthew 27:57, “In the evening there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate, asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate ordered it to be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out in the rock and he rolled a large stone against the entrance to the tomb and went away.” He should have been road kill; He should have been in the dump and He ends up in a brand new tomb owned by a rich man. Just exactly what the Holy Spirit reveals to Isaiah was going to happen.

Why? Why? Why was that important? It tells us at the end of verse 9; this is most interesting. “Because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” That’s just a way of saying He was holy on the inside and the outside. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. There was nothing in His mouth of a sinful thing, sinful nature. There was no behavior of a sinful nature. And because of His holiness, because as Hebrews says He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, because He was the sinless, spotless Lamb without blemish, the Father never allowed Him to end up in the dump.

So why that? It is a small testimony to His…listen…sinless perfection by His Father and the first small step of His exaltation, the first small step. Even before His resurrection the Father is saying, “I will not allow any further humiliation.” There can be no more humiliation. It’s as low as He can go, to give Himself to death, even the death of the cross, and that’s where the humiliation ends. And this is the first small step up. God honors Jesus in His burial because there was no sin inside, no sin outside. And in a few hours on the third day, He comes out of the grave, and, eventually, in His ascension all the way up. A sweet testimony of the fact that the humiliation was over.

So, we can see what was normal about crucifixion and burial. That was what would have been expected of Jesus’ death.
Imagine being a disciple and expecting that of Jesus, your discipler’s burial.
But let’s go to the next part of the passage.

But, Jesus did no wrong so He was given a rich man’s grave.
1. Just know, we already talked about the grave, so I do not want to park there. I want to say that that is the providence of God.
2. God knew what His Son would go through and He knew that His Son, Jesus our Lord was innocent. That is my next focus.
3. Could Jesus have been our sacrifice if He was not innocent? No, He could not. Turn to Exodus 12:5 and see what was expected of the Passover Lamb. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
4. Two things which I did not write:
5. The worth of salvation depends on the worth of the Saviour. If He were sinful like every other man, then His death could pay for no more than His own sins. Just as the Passover lamb had to be proved to be without blemish before it was slain (Ex 12:5–6), so the life of our Lord proved Him to be the perfect and sinless sacrifice for our sins.^{^[2]}
6. In the Old Testament they always had these bulls and goats as sacrifices. They had to be pure without default but they were not good enough. So, God sent His Son.
7. One writes: “it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:4), a better sacrifice is required (Heb. 9:23). Only the blood of Christ, that is, his death, would be able really to take away sins (Heb. 9:25–26). There was no other way for God to save us than for Christ to die in our place.^{^[3]}

How far will you go in humility for Jesus? (Phil. 2:3-4 and Jesus’ example in 6-11) Let’s unpack this, but first let’s read the text.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Am I willing to serve in lower class areas?
Think of all those Saints who have been humbled for Christ. Think of all those Saints who worked in the lowest of the areas, even though they are capable to be in mansions. I must be willing to live that Phil. 2:3-4 attitude.
I must be willing to look out for other’s needs beyond my own even if that means humility on my part.
I must be willing to serve in jails.
I must be willing to serve in food pantries and homeless shelters even if that means dropping my social status and being identified with those I serve.
I must be willing to get dirty for Jesus.
William Borden: “No reserves, no retreats, no regrets.”

His body is no longer buried. Let’s remember as we focus on the cross, Jesus is Risen!

Close:

Video:

I think this video applies:

William Borden: “No reserves, no retreats, no regrets.”

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] MacArthur: http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-442/the-silent-servant-part-2

^{^[2]} Charles Caldwell Ryrie, A Survey of Bible Doctrine (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972).

^{^[3]} Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 569–570.

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