The key to deeper friendships isn’t getting better at loving our friends, but rather loving the One who gave them to us. To know and be loved by him – and to love him best in return – enables us to love others rightly. When this happens, deep, rich, meaningful friendships with others will follow.
1 Samuel 20:12-17 was the text for this sermon, preached at Shepherd of the Hills / The Way LC (WELS) on Sunday, May 19, 2019.
Is it really that shocking that a book like the Bible would have what appear to be contradictions?
Have you considered its length? It is made up of 66 books, ranging anywhere from 1 to 150 chapters each.
Have you considered its depth of content? Everything from the account of how the world came to be to how the world will end and everything in-between is covered in a variety of styles and genres, including history, prophesy, prose & poetry, genealogies, letters, etc.
Have you considered the period of time over which it was written? A span of around 1,500 years passed between the writing of the first book and the writing of the last book.
Have you considered the number of different authors? While not every author of each book is identified by name, enough are to reasonably conclude that around 40 different authors penned the Scriptures.
Is it really that shocking that a book like the Bible would have what appear to be contradictions?
Here’s what I think is even more shocking than the alleged number of contradictions: the scale of content that is in agreement (like, all of it!).
Try to find the same scale of agreement today among a sample of tweets, blog posts, academic course books, etc. which claim to cover the same event or subject matter and see what you get.
Through and through, the theme of the Bible is echoed loud and clear:
The Holy Scriptures… are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
(2 Timothy 3:15 NIV)
Jesus himself acknowledged,
These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.”
(John 5:39 NIV)
Oh, and if you’re still wondering about those “contradictions,” you’re just as likely to come across as many plausible explanations for them in the same way you likely discovered the “contradictions” – a simple Google search. But if you’re interested in something that can provide you with even greater results than a Google search, I’d highly recommend a Scripture search.
There is nothing greater than forgiveness.
In and through Jesus Christ, forgiveness is free, it is full, and it is forever. One cannot tire of the practice of reflecting on forgiveness and rejoicing in it every morning and every night. To know and be mindful of forgiveness is to find contentment, freedom, peace, and security in this life that otherwise escape us when we look for them anywhere else.
The question is, do you view this precious and powerful gift of forgiveness in Jesus more like a shield or a security blanket? When we come across a difficult call to action in the Bible that challenges us in our faith (like this or this!), do we quickly crawl under our security blanket of forgiveness, diminishing Jesus’ guidance for our lives because we haven’t/couldn’t/won’t ever be able to do the hard things to which Jesus calls us? Or, is forgiveness a shield that allows us to forge ahead boldly, straining and striving, testing and trying our faith through those challenging calls to action, confident that forgiveness will shield me from my own failures?
Forgiveness is something special. It is something that ought to lead us to exercise our faith instead of excuse it. Why? Because forgiveness frees us from the fear of failure.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:1 (NIV)
Forgiveness doesn’t lead to questioning, but to confidence. I don’t have to ever question my status before God when I fail in trying to carry out the tough stuff, because I am confident of my status before God no matter what. That is the difference forgiveness makes.
To know forgiveness is to begin to grasp what Jesus had in mind when he said “I have come that they may have life…”; to live in that forgiveness is to experience what Jesus meant by adding “… and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Want to have life in Jesus to the full? Then see forgiveness less as a security blanket under which to hide and more as a shield behind which to forge ahead in faith.
Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
On the one hand, I don’t want to come across as insensitive to people who have struggled with this question; on the other, I have to be honest and share that it’s not a question that has ever weighed heavily on me. Why?
I have yet to meet any “good” people.
Now before you dismiss me as having a very low opinion of people in general, let me just say this: I have a very low opinion of people in general. There – glad we got that out of the way.
Let me at least explain why I hold that opinion. See, I have kids. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids, and I think they’re the greatest! However, there’s something I notice about them that I also found to be true about my own childhood (and let’s be honest… my adulthood as well): they/we all need to be taught and trained how to do the right thing.
I haven’t had to teach my children how to lie. I haven’t had to teach them how to say mean things about people. I haven’t had to teach them to be disobedient to me or others in charge. I haven’t had to teach them how to get angry and hit each other. I haven’t had to teach them to be selfish. Somehow they have each had a good handle on how to do and to be all these things without a single how-to lesson.
However, I have had to teach them to tell the truth, to say kind things, to obey, to not lose their temper and keep their hands to themselves, and to think of others first. And I had to be taught all these things as well (and still need to to this day – I think that is why God tends to bless us with saints for spouses!).
Now to me, that says something. Why is there not at least one parent in this world who has had a different experience, whose child never required an ounce of discipline or correction because the child naturally knew only virtue and goodness? I’ve always found that to be rather curious.
So, while I don’t deny that people have carried out countless achievements that we might view as positive, good, noble – phenomenal even – contributions to society, such things don’t whitewash the inherent reality that each of us starts out as something rotten, and throughout our lives we strive to be… less rotten.
That is why I have such a high opinion of God. And, that is why I have always struggled with a different question than the one originally raised: Why does God allow good things to happen to bad people?
He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”
(Psalm 103:10 NIV)
I personally think that’s pretty good news. Wouldn’t you agree?
Abortion is horrible.
So is being the one in the position of having to even consider having such a procedure carried out on her own body, as well as the tiny body given life in her womb. My heart goes out to every expectant mother ever having to wrestle with such a gut-wrenching decision when two lives are at stake.
In this era of “toxic masculinity,” however, I will refrain from telling women what they should do with “their own bodies” (the ones which in reality belong to the gracious God who formed and redeemed them…). Instead, let me steer the conversation in a little different direction and focus on what too often has been too little a part of the discussion: Me.
Men.
After all, lest we forgot how the whole process works and how children are conceived in the first place – men, I think we have a role to play here. Think about that. Men, if we played our part the way we ought to, instead of treating women like scorecards and God’s gift of sex like an itch to scratch, it’s not likely we’d be where we are today, giving so much attention to such an atrocity as abortion. In case I’m not being clear enough, let me put it bluntly: we’re a REALLY big part of the problem. We’ve failed to live up to our noble role of husband-to-wife, head-to-helper, simply because we cannot control ourselves enough to reserve our passions for one woman for life. We’ve allowed the blessing of marriage to become marginalized. We’ve debased, devalued, and degraded sex by tearing it away from the marriage boundary for the purpose of self-gratification, instead of protecting it as the most selfless expression of love by which a spouse is served.
But, there is hope, for what we have been in the past does not need to be who we are today or who we will be in the future.
“Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor… adulterers… will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
(1 Corinthians 6:9–11 NIV)
“Washed.” “Sanctified.” “Justified.” Men, those are powerful realities in Jesus! They are the kind of realities that change a man! They are the kind of realities that free men from being tied to the world’s cluelessly distorted definition of manhood and marriage. They are the kind of realities that free men to embrace and strive for their God-designed role in marriage to sacrificially “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25).
Tell me our society wouldn’t be better for it if every man would “leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Eph. 5:31). Tell me marriages wouldn’t be better for it if they actually lasted “till death do us part” and husbands committed to strengthening their oneness bond with their wife. Tell me women wouldn’t be better for it if they had the
Tell me unborn children wouldn’t be better off if the only thing we ever aborted… was any discussion of abortion in the first place.
Men, we have more power to actually make that a reality than we realize. Let’s do more to own up to our role in this matter and realize that we need to be a bigger part of the conversation. Unborn lives depend on it.
There’s a
If that shocks you, or if you think you are an exception to this statement, that could actually serve as an indicator that you may even be a bigger pharisee than you realize. To clarify, I am not using that term the way you’ll come across it in the Bible, referring to the religious sect who opportunistically opposed Jesus and had an unhealthy infatuation with rule-keeping (though we can at times fall into that category, too!). When I say there’s a Pharisee in all of us, I refer to the root sense of the word, our inclination to separate ourselves from others.
Sometimes we physically do this by avoiding certain types of people, but most often it happens in our head. And here’s why it’s particularly tricky: we may not separate ourselves from others because we think we’re better than they are, but rather… because we think they’re not as good as we are. Sounds like the same thing, doesn’t it?
Essentially it is, but when we spin our perspective, it doesn’t feel so bad to us. See, if in my own mind I don’t make it about me and how highly I think of me, then it becomes that much easier to pinpoint the myriad flaws in others. That way, we’re not hypocrites. We’re not egotistical. We’re not prideful. And we genuinely become blind to our hypocrisy, egotism, and pride, simply because we’ve shifted the focus onto others. When it becomes about others not measuring up or not meeting a standard or not being good enough, I internally justify it because, after all, “I’m not saying I’m better than they are (but really, I am!), I’m just making the same outward observation anyone else could about their shortcoming(s) (which clearly aren’t shortcomings for me – otherwise I wouldn’t so readily notice them in others!).”
Want to try something radical? Shift your perspective. Start with the assumption that others are better than you, and be intentional about looking for evidence in them that supports your assumption.
Finally, at the end of each day, be grateful for the One who truly was better than you, who through faith in him chooses to bless you with his own prideless perfection and wholehearted humility.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who… made himself nothing… humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!”
Philippians 2:3, 6–8 (NIV)
Does faith really “move mountains” or is it “blind”? To describe faith as mountain-moving obviously implies it is able to do things on a magnificently grand scale! To describe faith as blind, on the other hand, well that doesn’t quite paint it in as favorable a light. It implies that it isn’t really founded on anything – some people run with it, and some don’t, but there isn’t really much on which to base it.
Except that there is.
A person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the
Galatians 2:16 (NIV)law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”
Did you catch it? I hope so, because the phrase was repeated three times in just one verse: “faith in Jesus/Christ.” Christian faith isn’t blind at all! It is “in Jesus.” That means it is based on something – someOne – real! This a real person, whose real words and real actions can really be studied and scrutinized. Now you may reject his real words and his real actions, but you can’t claim that a faith in Jesus is “blind,” because that conclusion itself is blind at best, and deliberately deceptive at worst.
As for me, I believe his words and actions wholeheartedly, and am blessed to have the fullest life right here and now – and into eternity – because of them. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some mountains to go move.
I’m ready to die.
I didn’t say that I want to die, but that I’m ready to die. I’m not suicidal. I wasn’t diagnosed with a terminal disease that has given me mere months to live. No, I’m just ready to die.
I am often struck by the energy and effort many put into life… without scarcely a thought about death. Perhaps they (you?) wish to avoid thinking about it. Perhaps they (you?) don’t put much stock in it (that is, what happens after death), so the belief is that if this life is all
But here’s what I have found: my life is so very meaningful and richly fulfilling because I am ready to die. That is because I know what will happen when I exhale for the very last time.
“I know that my
Job 19:25, 27 (NIV)redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. I myself will see him with my own eyes – I and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
I’m ready to die, for I am at peace now with what I know will happen then.
So no, it isn’t the end of the world when hardship hits me in this life. Tragedy doesn’t turn my world upside down.
What’s more, I can give my absolute best in this life, because the life that is coming to me is the kind of gift that prompts one to spend his time here on earth expressing gratitude in every way possible.
I am ready to die.
Therefore… I can really live.
You would be disappointed if you had put a lot of thought, effort, and $$$ into the perfect gift… only to find out that the intended recipient had never received it. What a shame! Who knows what happiness and delight that gift may have brought that person? Who knows how deeply they might have appreciated it? It may have been just what they needed at just the right time.
If you personally know the thought, effort, and ultimately the price – not $$$, but his own Son! – that God put into sending his Gift into the world on Christmas, then imagine how different your life would be if you didn’t! Shudder at the thought of it!
But here’s the thing: you know others who don’t know about this Gift that we celebrate at Christmas. What difference would it make if in the next week, the next 7 days, the next 168 hours, you did whatever was necessary to invite them to hear about this Gift with us this Christmas? Or… do you mistakenly think that God’s gift was just for you?
My wife was devastated.
She had studied intensely to pass a certification test.
She had failed. Miserably.
Or so she thought. See, the original raw score she had received immediately after completing the test reflected numbers that she knew were far below what was required to pass. She texted me right away to let me know she had done poorly. However, after she arrived home and we talked about it a bit, she looked online and saw different scores that were apparently determined by a different grading scale. She had passed! She wasn’t the miserable failure she initially feared she was (which we both already knew)! Her pass/fail was simply determined by a different final grading scale.
I fear a significant number will encounter a similar shock when their life here on earth is over and they have to stand before the Lord. Only the shock will come for a different reason. Many have the impression that they’re passing the test with flying colors. They’re good people. They mean well. They treat others kindly. They don’t steal. They have no track record of domestic violence. They don’t swear. They’ve never even torn the tag off a mattress!
But what happens when they find out that God grades on a different scale? What happens when they turn in their life test that they figured would easily make the grade, only to find that not only is it not good enough – it’s complete trash! The thing is, there won’t be any good people in heaven. Heaven is for perfect people, and perfect people only. Newsflash: you’re not one of them. Neither am I.
That’s where Jesus comes in. Jesus brings a curve to the grading scale. It benefits all who believe in his perfection in their place and his payment (with his life!) for their failing grades. Jesus made the grade for all who believe. He passed the test for us. If you’re not counting on his perfection when the final grades are posted, you’re in for a surprise.
The good news? As long as you’re living and breathing (which I assume you are if you’re reading this!), God allows as many retakes as necessary until you let Jesus pass the test for you.