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Below are the text editions of the most recent sermons preached here at Bellevue.  NOTE: The most recent is at the top. Just scroll down for earlier sermons.

COMING BACK
Autobiographical sermon by Kiersten Reed
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 5/11/2013

Hear Kiersten tell the dramatic way in which the Lord reached down into her clubbing, partying, addictive life, got her attention, and drew her back to Him. Click here to listen.)

FAITH OVERCOMES BARRIERS
Expository Sermon by Keith Locke
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 5/4/201

This is  Keith Locke's warm-hearted May 4 sermon. a heartfelt retelling of how Jesus healed a man let down through a roof by his friends. (Click here to listen.)

 

 

THE   DESTINATION
Textual Sermon on Micah 6:8
For the baptism of Micah Meythaler
Bellevue SDA Church 4/27/2013

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Micah chapter 6.

 

I happen to know that Micah Meythaler has been deeply interested in trains since he was a very small boy.

 

When I was a kid, I was intrigued by trains too, though probably not quite as intensely as Micah. As I think back on what fascinated me about them, I can come up with several things.

 

I think that what grabbed me first about trains was their hugeness. No other vehicle was that large. A semi truck, or a farm combine, were big, and noisy, but not on the cosmic scale of a train. When a train came along, it was something you could not take your attention off. Its cars stretched from way over to the left to way over to the right. You couldn’t ignore it. It blocked your way forward. You waited for it—it didn’t wait for you.

 

And then there was the sound. You could be sitting safely in the back seat of your dad’s car at a railroad crossing, and as the train passed, you could feel the steady shudder of the ground through the car. And if you were lucky, the engineer would blow the whistle. The closer you were when he blew it, the less it sounded like a train whistle, and the more it became a heart-shattering calamity in your chest cavity, like the Second Coming trumpet.

 

And as soon as I got old enough to stop being scared of the rumble and the whistle, I wanted to get on that train and ride it, up there in the engine cab. I had always begged my dad to let me drive the car, and he would sit me on his lap and let me pretend to steer. But even at that young age I knew that a car can go frighteningly out of control with a kid driving it. I knew that if I turned the steering wheel the wrong way, we would go down into the ditch. And mis-steering a semi truck would be even more catastrophic.

 

But even though a train was as long as a hundred semi-trucks, it ran on tracks. And that meant that you didn’t have to steer. Somebody else had already decided for you which direction you had to go. And furthermore, you didn’t have to keep your foot on any sort of gas pedal. In my childish fancy I pictured myself as the engineer, watching the tracks ahead for awhile, but then taking a break to stroll around the train cabin, or maybe to creep cautiously out onto the little platform which ran along the side of the engine. There was something irresistible about being in control of a giant machine, but not having to get really stressed about it.

 

So as I say, I can see why Micah is interested in trains, even though I know he’s done far more study on the subject than I ever did, and probably has many more reasons he’s interested in them.

 

And as I was studying the Bible verse which Micah the Old Testament prophet wrote, Micah 6:8, I realized that if you look at that verse a certain way, you can consider it as something like a train trip.

 

In recent years Shelley and I have traveled on Amtrak a few times, and we have always enjoyed those trips. And this experience has made it easier to think of Micah 6:8 as a train journey.

When we ride Amtrak, we are of course heading to a destination. And as it heads toward that destination, the train normally just keeps going. But once in a while there is a stop, and there are even one or two pauses where you can actually get out and walk around a bit.

 

I think that Micah’s verse shows us three stops—three towns we need to travel through—as we head toward the destination God has for us. Let me show you what I mean.

 

And this train thing isn’t simply a cute parable. It’s important, because this verse tells me what the Lord requires of me. Everything else in the Bible undergirds this short verse, like the crosspieces under a railroad bridge, and gives details about how to make this verse come true in our lives.

 

And Micah 6:8 tells me about these requirements against the backdrop of a very passionate prophetic book which was addressed to some people who didn’t really care what the Lord required of them—in fact, they cared so little that when they bothered to think about the Lord’s requirements at all, they got them very wrong.

 

 So let’s board this train and see where it takes us.

 

Micah 6:8 [NKJV]: He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

 

Do you see the three “stops”? To “do justly,” to “love mercy,” and to “walk humbly with your God.”

 

That’s it. Those are the three stops which will get you to the destination. What’s the destination? Well, it’s not like a real train destination. You’ve got to go through them. You can’t take a shortcut. In fact, a real train destination isn’t a destination either. If for example Shelley and I were to go to South Dakota by Amtrak, we couldn’t do it. Amtrak doesn’t go through South Dakota. Instead, the last stop is Fargo, North Dakota.

 

At that point, we don’t stay there and hang around the Fargo Amtrak station, and then head back to Seattle. Instead, we rent a car and head south to my hometown.

 

And it’s the same way with a relationship with God. Just like that Fargo Amtrak station isn’t our final stop, Micah Meythaler knows very well that, now that he’s baptized, he’s not going to bring his sleeping bag and sleep over there by the baptistery. He’s going to continue with his life, and pray that the Lord keeps him safely on the train tracks toward whatever heaven’s plans have in store for him.

 

The prophet Micah, of course, knew nothing about trains. And nobody can be absolutely sure that he listed these stops, or steps, in a particular order. But as I studied this verse this week, it struck me that they may indeed have been listed in this order for a reason. I believe that these are the three basic  steps to Christian growth.

 

So let’s go through them. Remember, the prophet Micah is speaking to some very spiritually dysfunctional people, who need the basics spelled out for them.

 

Micah 6:8 [NKJV]: He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you . . . .

 

A couple of quick points here. First, Micah the prophet tells us that what he’s about to reveal isn’t a deep, dark secret to those who are listening to him. God has very clearly revealed these things to people, if they will just stop and think about what He has told us.
And there’s one other thing to think about before this God-train starts chugging out of the station. This verse asks, “What does the Lord require of you?”

 

“Require” is a loaded word. I just finished paying my income tax, and made the check out to the “United States Treasury.” That’s because my government “requires” that I do this.

 

When I drove up the Lake Hills Connector this morning, I stayed pretty well within the speed limit, because the City of Bellevue requires it, and they have hired some alert men and women who will flash red-and-white lights in my rear-view mirror if they are around when I ignore this requirement.

 

So what about when the Lord “requires” us to do something? Is this the same type of requirement—the hard-and-fast, “you’d better do this or else” kind of command?

 

We’ve got to be really careful here. I know people for whom God is a demander, or a requirer, sort of like a celestial cop. Get out of line, and He will be after you with His red-and-white lights flashing. And I also know that, if these people lock themselves into this mode—regarding God as a requirer and nothing else—this means that they haven’t gotten beyond the first stop on the Micah 6:8 train ride.

 

Because that first stop is the town of “Do Justly.” And there’s nothing wrong with that town. God had it listed as one of the Micah 6:8 steps. Don’t flick on your mobile device and go to CNN.com right now, because this is the Sabbath day, a day God urges us to turn our backs on our planet and gaze in the opposite direction for awhile, but if we did pull up the news, we would see a lot of “doing unjustly,” a lot of tragedy and wretchedness and people harming each other.

 

The Bellevue police are the local “do justly” enforcers. And they do this very vigilantly. Yesterday on the news I heard about Bellevue motorcycle officer Seth Tyler, and how because he was very alert and happened to be in the right places at the right times in two separate incidents within 48 hours, he was able to arrest four burglars, two of them ex-convicts. Those burglars were trying to “do unjustly,” and Officer Tyler made sure they were stopped.

You and I need to make sure we are “do justly” people. If I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian employer, I must be the most “just” employer in my industry. I must not be corrupt. I must be fair to my employees. I must pay them faithfully, and on time.

 

Just recently I spoke with some people not in this congregation but who are interested in becoming Adventists. In another state, one of them went to work for an Adventist employer, an employer who did unjust things and took advantage of the workers. These people I talked to say that the way this employer behaved gave them a very bad taste in their mouths about Adventists. And that bad feeling did not change until another Adventist came along and showed them that not all Adventists are unjust.

 

Part of being a “do justly” person is to be very quick to apologize and make things right if you have to. A “do justly” person must never assume that he or she is always right. We all make mistakes, and we must be willing to admit these mistakes and ask forgiveness.
And we must always remember that doing justly doesn’t come naturally from our sinful hearts. It can’t come from there. Sniffy-nosed, Pharisaic legalism does come from there, but not God’s way of “doing justly.” Philippians 2:13 makes this very clear. Paul says, “ . . . it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” In other words, God gives us the power not only to do what pleases Him, but to want to do it as well.

 

But “doing justly” is only the first stop on our Micah 6:8 train journey. We need to keep going.

 

Micah 6:8 [NKJV]: He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy . . .
 
You see, there are some people who set down roots so firmly at that first train stop, the town of “Do Justly,” that they don’t want to move any further. The Pharisees and other religious leaders who harassed Jesus were “Do Justly” citizens who had refused to sell their houses and get back on the train.

 

Jesus spots a man in a synagogue with a withered hand, and since the religious leaders had also taken it upon themselves to be the rule-makers, to decide the details about what “doing justly” was, they decided that for Jesus to heal on the Sabbath was a sin. They were like that bad Adventist employer. By what they were doing, they were pretending that God didn’t care about sick people, and that His Sabbath was a dreary barrier to sufferers finding relief from their illnesses. When it comes to taking God’s name in vain, this was the most horrific blasphemy of all—putting a mean, cranky, insensitive expression on God’s face when it’s not there. That’s what Satan has been trying to do for thousands of years.

 

Jesus, of course, loved mercy, and was constantly doing merciful things on the Sabbath and on the other six days.

 

And notice carefully how this second ”stop,” this second step, is stated. It doesn’t say that God’s second requirement is to “do mercy,” but to “love mercy.” And the doing will naturally follow. We do what we love. The young people on this platform love playing their instruments.  I know the practicing can get a bit weary sometimes, but it’s all worth it when you can play for appreciative people. Music does for the heart what a 30-minute sermon never can.

 

Have you ever known someone who tries to do merciful things but doesn’t seem to love mercy? There are some folks who do merciful things because in an abstract, driven way, they feel it is their duty, or maybe because they want to be thought of as a doer of merciful deeds. Or maybe thy think this is one way to earn points with God. But their hearts aren’t in it.

 

Jesus’ stomach revolted at such people. In the first few verses of Matthew 6, He insisted that as we do our good deeds, make our generous donations, we do it so stealthily that our right hands won’t know what our left hands are doing, or giving.

 

How can you tell if you’ve traveled the Micah 6:8 train as far as the town of “Love Mercy”? One good way is to think about who or what you pray about. I know for certain that as our Savior listens to our Wednesday night prayer meetings, His heart is warmed by the people who care so deeply for others in their lives that they bring their friends’ sorrows and tragedies to the meeting. Sometimes they will mention to that friend or co-worker that they’ll be going to a prayer meeting, and can they pray for that situation, and the overwhelming majority of those times the answer will be a grateful “yes.”

 

But there’s still one more train stop. And just as the town of “Do Justly” wasn’t a destination, and even the beautiful village of “Love Mercy” wasn’t a destination, the third stop isn’t a destination either—but it’s the perfect place to enter more fully into the life God would love you to experience, and where you will be most happy.

 

Micah 6:8 [NKJV]: He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

 

Take a look at that final phrase one more time: “To walk humbly with your God.” That’s got to be one of the most “loaded” sentences in the entire Bible. Let’s see just how amazing it is.

But remember, as we arrive at this final step, or stop, it means that we have already visited the town of “Do Justly.” We want to do what is right, and we do not want to do what is wrong. We are not abusers or oppressors of others, outside the home or inside the home. We treat people right.

 

And remember also that we’ve visited the village of “Love Mercy.” We know how to balance justice with mercy, as Jesus did with the woman caught in adultery, and as He did as He hung pinned to a cross while the sneers and snarls of those He was dying for sounded in His ears. They murdered Him—and “do justly” justice demanded their death—but in mercy and love He offered them eternal life if they would accept it.

 

Now let’s look at this final phrase, one of the Bible’s most amazing. Remember, this is what God “requires” of us. And remember that the word “require” is at one end of a spectrum. “Require” is used for immature people who don’t yet understand how to naturally love and do God’s will.

 

When Micah Meythaler was little, his parents required him to stay away from danger. As he has grown, they have given him more and more responsibility, and they no longer have to require him to be as careful, because he is discovering how sensible being careful is. He’s doing it on his own.

 

So now, it’s not that Dave and Lois are “requiring” Micah to train for a career he’ll be happy in, and “requiring” him to eventually find a young lady he will be happy with.

No, their “requiring” has turned to “hoping,” and it has always included earnest and desperate praying.

 

And I believe that when God spoke to those obnoxious Old Testament Israelites through the prophet Micah, He knew He must speak in His parental “requiring” mode. But these very Micah 6:8 steps themselves show how—as we ourselves mature and change—God’s mode changes. I remember how surprised and disconcerted I was, in my 20s, when my parents started asking me for advice about things. Part of me was flattered, but another part of me said, “Wait. You’re the mom and dad. You should be giving me advice.”

 

This is where this amazing six-word phrase becomes so wonderful. It’s the third thing God “requires” or hopes for us.

 

“To walk humbly with your God.”

 

Notice that the verse also says, “Walk,” not “Sit.” To arrive at a relationship with God is not to sit serenely—it’s to walk forward. Most of an average day in the life of Jesus was spent in walking, not sitting.

 

Notice that the verse says, “Walk humbly.” Have you ever thought of a walk with God as a humble walk? Sure, you and I will indeed be humble in the presence of our Creator. A couple of days ago, violinist Hilary Hahn gave a concert in Seattle, and any of our young musicians who know about her would I’m sure feel very humble if she walked in here this morning and sat down in the front row.

 

But have you ever thought of God Himself as humble? Think about it. If a humble person thinks of others before he thinks of himself, that’s what God does. If a humble person spends all her time thinking about other people and trying to make their lives better, that’s what God does.

 

And no humble person has gone as far as God and His Son have gone to sacrifice their own convenience, and even Jesus’ own life, for others. That’s true humility. God is not proud, but humble. And the Bible says many times that God’s stomach turns at pride, and proud people.

 

And notice the last two words of the phrase: “Your God.” The prophet Micah could simply have said, “Walk humbly with God.” But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says “Your God.”

 

Jesus spoke in the same way. Many times He referred to God not just as “Father” or “the Father,” but mostly as “Your Father.” God doesn’t want so much to be “God” as He wants to be “our God.”

 

How about you, this morning? Have you been riding that Micah 6:8 train? Would you like to ride it as far as God calls you, all the way to those mutually humble strolls which He would so love to take with you?

 

(Back to the Top)

 

 

LESSONS FROM JESUS’ FAVORITE BIBLE BOOK
Expository Sermon on Deuteronomy 8
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 4/20/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 4.

 

I don’t know if you had a favorite book, besides the Bible, when you were a kid. I had two. The first was The Complete Sherlock Holmes. The second was—and get ready for this-- Christian Similitudes: Being a Series of Emblematic Engravings, with Written Explanations, Miscellaneous Observations, and Religious Reflections, Designed to Illustrate Divine Truth, in Accordance with the Cardinal Principles of Christianity.

 

Christian Similitudes was a thick, ancient book my dad had somehow acquired. He never read it – he spent most of his religious reading time paging through his large-print King James Bible. Mom never read Christian Similitudes, and neither did anyone else in the family, except me.

 

I was fascinated with that old book. Back then, I didn’t know how old it was, because the front cover and a few of the first pages had vanished. But a couple of years ago I found it reprinted on Google Books, and I discovered that it was published in 1866, and it’s just possible that the copy we had was that old.

 

One of the reasons that book fascinated me was that it was one of the few books we owned. We had a copy of Tom Sawyer, and a couple of Nancy Drew books, two or three Bobbsey Twins volumes, and even a couple of old Tom Swift adventures, and later the Sherlock Holmes stories, but that was about it. That meant that Christian Similitudes had a better chance of being read than it might have had in other homes, especially since we never had a TV, either.

 

Christian Similitudes was filled with old-fashioned engraved pictures, and its writing style was very formal. But even back in 1866, the smart author realized that if you want to grip your readership, keep each writing-chunk short. So each time I settled down with Christian Similitudes, I could count on having to read no more than a page and a half. It was actually pretty interesting, sort of a devotional book portraying the sins of mankind and exhorting them to forsake them. It even had a condensed version of Pilgrim’s Progress  in the back, with pictures. Some of those pictures would revisit me in my dreams.

 

I’ve sometimes wondered if Jesus had a favorite Bible book when He was here on earth. We’ll never know for sure, of course. And anyway, since Paul tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed, each Bible book is equally important, and each has a vital purpose to fulfill.

 

Nevertheless, it’s interesting that Jesus quoted the book of Deuteronomy more than any of the other Old Testament books. Here in Matthew chapter 4, as He sprawls famished across the desert rocks listening to the persuasive voice of a fallen angel, He reaches three times into Deuteronomy for Scriptures that will rock the devil back upon his heels.

 

What I’d like to do during this sermon series is to first of all look at a Deuteronomy quote from Jesus, and then go back to Deuteronomy itself and look at the quote in its context. I think as we do that, we will find insights into Jesus’ own heart – and His Father’s heart – which will encourage us and strengthen us for whatever lies ahead.

 

Matthew 4:1 – 4 [NKJV]: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

 

I don’t know about you, but all this week I have found myself alternately horrified by, and fascinated with, the story of the Boston Marathon bombings. Yesterday afternoon Shelley and I were doing errands, and we were listening to radio news coverage of the manhunt. A number of times we heard ordinary Boston citizens tell how amazed they were at the powerful weapons and armored personnel carriers which the various law enforcement agencies were using.

 

When doing battle with the devil there in the desert, Jesus could have called for 12 legions of angels to help Him. But instead He used the Word of God. After all, Hebrews 4:12 says that God’s Word is more powerful than a two-edged sword. Jesus knew His Bible, and He knew it so well that He sensed which verses could ward off strong temptation.

 

And it turns out that His first Scriptural sword-thrust is found in Deuteronomy 8:3. Let’s go back there and look at this verse in its context. Watch very carefully what happens. Because what will immediately become clear is that Jesus didn’t simply reach back into the Old Testament and slice off a verse that seemed to fit His need. No, the entire chapter of Deuteronomy 8 talks about how important it is to respect God’s words, God’s commandments. Let me show you what I mean.

 

Moses is speaking. He’s addressing the nation of Israel before they move across the Jordan River into Canaan.


Deuteronomy 8:1 – 3: “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

 

If you are taking sermon notes, here comes Point One.

 

God’s commandments are important because they keep me alive.

 

That’s what God says back in verse one: “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live . . .” And “ . . . man shall not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

 

From what I heard on the news yesterday, the people of Boston listened to the words of the police, who urged them to stay in their homes and lock the doors. And even the man who drifted into his backyard to get a breath of fresh air, and noticed a smear of blood on his boat, hurried back indoors and immediately called 911.

 

From what I understand, the 19-year-old bombing suspect engaged in a gunbattle with police from the vicinity of that boat. And if the general public had ignored the official warnings and stood around that house watching, some would have been hurt or killed. Again, they obeyed police commandments, and their lives were saved.

 

So, is it true that God’s commandments—not just the Ten but all His Bible advice—can keep me alive today? If so, how?

 

 

Anytime a Christian decides to live by the health habits of the Garden of Eden, God’s perfect world created for His then-perfect human children, that Christian generally lives a lot longer. Study after study has shown that Adventists live at least 6 to 7 or years longer than the general population.

 

And God’s commandments keep us alive in other ways as well. Anytime you have a culture which turns atheist, and refuses to honor the 10 Commandments, you have a culture that eventually turns barbaric. It happened in Stalin’s Russia. It happened in Hitler’s Germany. It happened again and again in idolatrous ancient Israel.

 

And the 10 Commandments keep us alive in other ways besides commanding us not to murder. The first four of those commandments give us some specifics about worshiping God. Some people think that worshiping God is optional, that worship isn’t all that important. But you and I, even if we didn’t know there was a God, or aren’t sure, you and I were built to worship.

 

We are built to look toward a deity, not just to admire that deity like one would admire an athlete, but to expect that that deity will be able to communicate important things to us. That’s how we are built. Every culture that I know of has some sort of wisdom from the beyond, which it tries to discover and then live by.

 

So the Soviet culture may not have actually labeled Karl Marx or Lenin or Stalin as a “God,” but if they were learning those men’s teachings and applying those teachings to their lives, gods were what these leaders truly were. The same thing happened in China with Chairman Mao’s Little red book, and with the teachings of Jim Jones or David Koresh or Muammar Qaddafi.

 

Incidentally, Quaddafi wrote a little “green book,” which expressed his own philosophies, and when he was in power, Libyan children had to spend two hours a week studying it.

 

So the bottom line is, you and I are built to worship. If we don’t worship the true God, we worship someone or something else. Remember Jesus’ insistence that we cannot serve both God and money?

 

There other ways God’s commandments keep us truly alive. The Sabbath commandment keeps us sane, partly because it enforces true rest, and also provides us with the very life-affirming knowledge that we exist not because of squirmings in a primordial swamp but because God’s loving hand created us.

 

And think how beautifully, blissfully bland our newspaper front pages would be if commandments five through 10 were faithfully obeyed.

 

At this point, somebody might say, “Well, this is all very fine, but I consider that I’m keeping the commandments pretty well right now. Is this sermon point really for me?”

 

Thank the Lord for all the moral people who still believe that murder, adultery, stealing and lying are wrong. But there’s more.

 

If you remember the Sermon on the Mount, you remember that Jesus insisted that commandment-keeping is internal before it is external. He said that even though I haven’t murdered anybody, if I hate someone in my heart, that breaks commandments six. He said that even if I haven’t committed adultery outwardly, inward adultery is breaking commandment seven. The final commandment, about coveting, covers a vast territory of internal lawbreaking.

 

At this point in the Boston bombers’ story, people are wondering just what happened within the minds of those two brothers to cause them to do what they did. Again and again this week I heard people who knew them express amazement at how, on the inside, these two young men could be so different from the basically nice guys they seemed outwardly. But something had happened inside them – and this inner lawbreaking spilled over into horrific results.

 

So far we’ve discovered that God’s commandments are important because they keep us alive. Let’s look at another reason they’re important.

 

Verses 6 – 10: “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

 

So not only are God’s commandments important because they keep me alive, but those commandments are also important because they keep me grateful.

 

How can the commandments keep me grateful? It’s easy to think of the commandments as God’s finger-wagging: “Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do the other.”

 

It’s true, nine out of the 10 Commandments begin with the Hebrew word lo, which literally means “don’t” or “no.” One of the first words a child learns is “no,” probably because mom and dad must start saying that word early and often. “No” is a quick and short and attention-getting word, and has saved many a child from many an impulsive, unthinking act which could end in disaster.

 

So, in a way, at least nine of the 10 Commandments are indeed God’s “no-nos” to a thick-skinned, rebellious group of people. But think of the many positive things the commandments teach us.

 

In commandment one, God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” There’s a good chance that you and I will never be able to feel the full force of this commandment in the same way the Israelites might have.

 

The reason is that for hundreds of years they had been held captive by Egypt, a culture with multiple deities. In fact, every culture the Israelites would deal with in their long Old Testament history had multiple gods. Both the Greeks and the Romans had their pantheons, and the average worshiper in these cultures had to worry about keeping the rain god happy so the crops would be good, and the fertility goddess happy so the cattle would reproduce. And everybody had to offer sacrifices to a number of other gods to keep them happy as well. Legend had it that these ancient gods were always squabbling with one another. How could the ordinary mortal keep track of which god was in which mood?

 

So imagine the relief it may have been to hear that “the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” It made things so much simpler.

 

And in commandment two, God refuses to submit His likeness to those who might remake Him into their own image. In commandment three, He shows how crucial it is not to disrespect His name or reputation. Commandment four shows me a God who insists that I take physical and spiritual rest.

 

And you could go through the entire list of commandments, and each one would show a God we can be grateful for – a God who insists that we honor our parents, insists that we value human life and human relationships, who insists we be truthful, and insists that we remember that, because of who He is, we need not covet, but can be content.

 

So what do I do, now that I know God’s commandments are important because they can and should keep me grateful?
One thing I think I need to do more, and I’m trying to do this, is to thank the Lord more than I do. I thank the Lord when I get an idea for a little worship talk for the kindergarten, first, and second-grade students during the time I volunteer at Kirkland Adventist School on Tuesdays.

 

I thank the Lord when a new computer program installs perfectly. I thank the Lord that I have a good Honda repair man. I thank the Lord for lots of other things, including the 10 Commandments. Paul says, “In all things give thanks,” and that’s probably something we all need to do more.

 

Now let’s look at one more reason the commandments – those words which proceeded out of the mouth of God – are so important.

 

Verse 11: “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today . . . .”

 

Isn’t that interesting? Moses says, “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments.”

 

In fact, let’s put that down as sermon point three.

 

Not only are God’s commandments important because they keep me alive (in several ways), and because they keep me grateful, but God’s commandments are important because they keep me remembering Him for who He is.

 

As we’ve seen, Moses has already insisted that commandment keeping helps us stay grateful to God, but here he insists that keeping God’s commandments is a way of remembering Him for who He is. It’s important to remember His blessings, of course. It’s important to show Him gratitude.

 

But here Moses seems to go beyond that. When I was a boy, bringing home report cards from school, I was blessed with a set of parents who loved me for who I was, not for the grades I got. When I came perilously close to failing algebra as an academy freshman, my parents loved me just as much as when I got good grades on writing assignments. They loved me for who I was, not because of what I did.

 

Job seems to have been someone who, no matter what happened to him, remembered God for who He was, not for the blessings He bestowed or withheld.

 

Joseph seems to have been someone who, even hundreds of miles away from home and with no hope of ever getting back again, remembered God for who He was, and was able to look Mrs. Potiphar straight in her adulterous eye and say, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”

 

Again, in the Bible we find several other people who, no matter whether God allowed them blessings, or permitted crises to surround them, were able to remember God for who He was. God reveals Himself to us clearly in the introduction to the Ten. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Here God tells us who He is and what He has done for us. He brought Israel out of Egypt, and since then He has rescued many a person, many a culture from the path to death. God is a loving Parent, a comforter, a rescuer.

 

“Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me . . . .

 

That’s who God is. The same God who spoke the commandments from Sinai, the same God who lovingly formed Adam and Eve from dust, works and lives and loves in His Son Jesus, who died for us, the One who reminded the wilderness angel what Lucifer should have remembered all along: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

 

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MEET YOUR RE-CREATOR!
Expository Sermon on Psalm 51 and Hebrews 12
preached at the baptismal service for
Joshua and Paulina McColm
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 4/13/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(Here's what's on the audio: Pastor Maylan Schurch introduces Josh and Paulina McColm. Paulina and then Josh describe what this day means to them. Shelley Schurch presents the "roll call of welcome," and the McColms are then baptized. Dick Hammen tells the children's story, followed by Pastor Maylan's sermon. For the audio, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles again to Psalm 51.

 

When I first went to college I was studying to be an English teacher. One of the elective classes I took was called “Utopian Literature.” For the entire semester we studied books written by people who– either in their imagination or in reality – had tried to set up perfect societies.

 

One of the books we studied was Thomas More’s Utopia. In Greek, utopia literally means “no place,” or “nowhere.”
Another book we studied was Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, a science fiction story set 600 years in the future at a time when Earth’s population was restricted to 2 billion people, and everybody was programmed to be peaceful and happy.

 

We also studied books about the Amish and the Hutterite communities, and even discussed hippie communes, which were popular right about then.

 

A couple of other books we looked at– which became very influential – were Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity, both by B. F. Skinner. If you have ever heard of “behavior modification,” you know about it because Skinner popularized it. His idea was to train children not so much by punishing them when they did something wrong, as by waiting until they did something right, and immediately rewarding them.

 

While I was going to college I was also working the night shift at a state institution for the developmentally disabled. The residents would go to the institution’s school, and would sit at one end of a table, with an instructor at the other end. During whatever lesson was being taught, if the resident gave a right answer or followed directions correctly, he or she was immediately given an M&M.

 

We night shift people were quite scornful of this idealistic approach. We were well acquainted with the rough-and-tumble of life in the dorms, and we suspected that you can’t really change behavior with positive consequences alone. 
I lost track of what happened to the behavior modification ideas. I suppose, like anything else, the good parts survived and were adapted, and the bad parts were scuttled. (I liked the M&M part, though . . .)

 

I do know that – if we are to judge by the daily news – there are quite a few people out there who desperately need some kind of behavior modification, all the way from a certain North Korean leader we could name, to the Taliban to al Qaeda to corrupt government officials (not only overseas but in this country as well), to the perpetrators of the local monstrous cruelties we hear about every day.

 

And in the “prayer request” part of Wednesday night prayer meeting we sometimes hear stories about people who are behaving in inexplicably selfish ways, and harming weaker people like kids in the process.
 
And every once in a while I catch flashes of immaturity and sinfulness within my own self-centered heart, and this reminds me that I need daily revival.

 

The good news is that Josh and Paulina, in the two Bible passages they provided me for this baptism celebration, have presented us with a “re-creation toolkit.”

 

These Bible verses tell us what God will do for those who are weary of living self-centered lives, and would like to be renewed by their Heavenly Father.

 

Because, after all, God is my Creator. And His love is so great that He offers to become my Re-creator too. And in the verses the McColms have provided me, I can see at least three ways this can happen. (There are certainly more in the surrounding verses, but three is the number of concepts we’ll be able to cover this morning.)

 

Let me show you what I mean.

 

If you’re familiar at all with Psalm 51, you have probably read the little intro to it, which tells the circumstances under which it was written. David fell in love – make that “lust” – with the soldier Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. David got her pregnant, and then cold-bloodedly arranged to have Uriah murdered in battle.

 

This was not David’s usual way of doing things, but it wasn’t until the prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin that David recognized the abominably horrible deed he had done. Normally David was unselfish to a fault, but the very spirit of Satan seems to have possessed him, causing him to ruthlessly steal what he wanted and just as ruthlessly try to destroy the evidence.

 

This is a key moment in David’s life. Even though what he has just done would make anyone looking on very puzzled if they also knew that David was “a man after God’s own heart,” even so, David – though he has a number of blind spots – has one truth he understands with perfect clarity: God is always gracious to even the most horrible sinner who sincerely repents. Though David’s entire nation must have been jolted and repulsed and angry when they heard what their adulterous and murderous king had done, David knew the heart of God. King Saul did not. Saul didn’t care enough to try to understand God’s heart, and therefore lost hope, and finally took his own life.

 

Even in his agony of personal guilt, David could still write this song, Psalm 51,  and allow it to be printed in Israel’s Sabbath morning worship song book. Tears must have stained the parchment on which he wrote these words, but his faith in God’s mercy and grace never wavers.

 

And notice the re-creation he longs for in verse 10:

 

Psalm 51:10 [NKJV]: Create in me a clean heart, O God . . .

 

 Here comes Sermon Point One if you’re taking notes.

 

If I have discovered I need re-creating, and if I give Him permission, God will create a new heart within me.


“Wait a minute,” someone says. “How can I be sure that I really need a new heart? I’ve never done anything near as appalling as David did.”

 

Experienced Christians listening to this, who know their Bibles and know their hearts, are smiling, perhaps with a wince of pain. They know the Bible verses:

 

Jeremiah 17:9 and 10 (a quote from God Himself): “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.”

 

Hebrews 3:12: Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;

 

1 Kings 8:46: . . . there is no one who does not sin . . .

 

Psalm 14:3: . . . There is none who does good, No, not one . . .

 

Psalm 130:3: If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

 

Isaiah 53:6: All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way . . .

 

Romans 3:23: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

 

This can be a shock to discover how universally depraved human nature has become, but it’s a healthy shock.
In fact, speaking of shocks, let’s turn this a different direction. A little after noon this past Thursday I was heading north on 140th Avenue in the Fairwood area. 140th drops down toward the Maple Valley Highway.

 

The only problem was that traffic had stopped. I waited a bit, and discovered that the traffic was not moving at all. For some reason I glanced up above the traffic to the high-voltage power lines that cross 140th at that point, and I saw something I have never seen before. They were too far away for me to get a clear view, but it looked as though strange-shaped bicycles were riding along, attached to the power lines, several of them, all slowly moving west.

 

I did some online checking, and discovered that high-voltage lines like these need to be inspected, and there are various ways to do this. One is for a human being to actually crawl along those lines and look for damage or rust spots. Another method is to use robots with cameras to do the same thing. The robots are built so that when they come to each tower, they can shift themselves over the top of the tower and onto the wires again.

 

As I say, I did not get close to these devices, so I don’t know whether they were robots or some machines which human beings were operating from inside. But whichever it was, these power lines were being inspected to make sure that power kept flowing along them.

 

Maybe that’s one way to think about our connection with God. As David stood watching Bathsheba from his palace, he switched off his connection with God. Joseph, in a similar situation, maintained that connection, and immediately said, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9) whether or not David’s conscience gave out some warning tingles, the Bible doesn’t say. But if it did, David ignored them.

 

And now, having come to his senses, David loathes himself, and begs God, “Create in me a clean heart.”

 

There are two very powerful words in the part of the verse we’ve looked at so far. The first word is “create.” That is the Hebrew word bara, and it’s exactly the word used back in Genesis 1:1 where it says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s that exact same word.

 

There are other Hebrew words for “create” or “make,” but David uses this one. And what he seems to be saying here is, “Lord, use that same creative power which brought matter and life from nothing, and create a clean heart from my dirty, sinful, stained and repulsive one.”

 

The other powerful word is “clean.” That Hebrew word is used very often in the Old Testament, and most of the time is talking about the ceremonial cleanliness which happens when something is prepared for use in the sanctuary. That word is also used when a priest examines a leper and finds that the disease is gone, and the leper is then declared “clean” – that same word used here in Psalm 51:10. This word means really, ceremonially clean. Completely clean.

 

So far, we know from this verse not only that God can create a clean heart within us, but that He requires that we have clean hearts. God does not save us in our sins – He saves us from our sins. A clean heart is not something about which we wistfully say, “Well, it would be nice to have one of those.” No, a clean heart is something we must get. Just like those power lines need to be regularly inspected, and just like my car needs to have a regular oil change and a new oil filter, you and I need to ask the Lord to provide us with clean hearts.

 

Baptism, like the one you just observed, is a symbol of spiritual washing, spiritual cleansing. The communion service, which happens roughly 4 times a year, is what you might call a mini-re-baptism.

 

Well, so far we have discovered that if I give Him permission, God will create a new heart within me. But that’s not all He will do. Let’s keep reading Psalm 51: 10

 

Verse 10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

 

That has just become Sermon Point Two:

 

If I have discovered I need re-creating, and if I give Him permission, God will not only create a new heart within me, but will renew a steadfast spirit within me as well.

 

It’s interesting how again we go back to Creation. You see the word “spirit”? That is the Hebrew word ruach, and it’s the same word used in Genesis 2:7, where it says that God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living “being.” The old King James version use the word “soul.”

 

And here in Psalm 51, David recognizes that he needs God to give him a better kind of ruach. He needs a “steadfast” spirit. The Hebrew word behind “steadfast” means “steady” or “prepared.” In Exodus 19:11, that word is used to describe how the people needed to prepare themselves and be “ready” for the first Passover, the night they left Egypt. And the same word is used in several Bible verses where it says that the throne of David would be “established.” In Psalm 108:1, David sings, “O God, my heart is steadfast.”

 

The longer a Christian lives, the more cautious he or she should become about maintaining a steadfast spirit, a steady, unwavering decision to stay close to the Lord. In his autobiography, US Senate chaplain Barry Black tells of speaking with a high level naval officer who had retired. The officer warned Barry to be careful as he got older. The officer said, “Don’t let yourself be shipwrecked in the shallows.” In other words, as you reach the shore at the end of your career or your ministry or your Christian walk, be careful not to slip up and let your life  and your whole Christian witness be shipwrecked by doing something foolish.

 

So far we’ve seen David beg the Lord to create in him a clean heart, and to renew a steadfast spirit within him. Now let’s turn to the passage Josh chose, which is in Hebrews chapter 12.

 

Josh tells me that he likes this passage – especially in the New International Version – because it speaks of God as a Father. We need to remember that God is not a space alien – God is our Parent. Jesus spoke of God using scarcely any other words besides “Father.”

 

I’m going to read this passage in the version Josh appreciates it in, the NIV:

 

Hebrews 12:7 – 11 [NIV]: Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

 

 You see, it’s wonderful to have God create a clean heart within me. And it’s also necessary for Him to renew a steadfast spirit within me. But discipline, where and when it’s needed, is also vital.

 

In fact, let’s lay down Sermon Point Three.

 

If I have discovered I need re-creating—and who doesn’t?-- and if I give Him permission, God will not only create a new heart within me, and renew a steadfast spirit within me, but God will also discipline me toward holiness.

 

Back when I was attending seminary at Andrews University, we were friends with a family who had just had their first child, a baby boy. The father was a psychologist, and of course was very proud of his infant son.

 

The family attended the big Pioneer Memorial Church on campus, and the way I remember it, the little baby became fussy, and so dad got up and walked him to the back of the church. The boy began to cry, and this Christian father, this Christian psychologist father, was shocked to realize that his little baby was angry. This dad told me he could feel the little boy’s body stiff with rage. And there he realized again something he’d always heard as a Christian – we are all sinners. Our nature is sinful, and we need a loving gracious God to change us.

 

In fact in Josh’s verses, the word “discipline” is the Greek word paideia. It literally means “training children.” It’s where we get the word “pediatrician” and “pedagogy.” In other words, we shouldn’t consider God’s discipline as something strange or unusual – it’s just a Heavenly Father disciplining His children to prepare them to grow up selfless rather than selfish, loving rather than hateful, humble rather than proud.

 

By the way, once that psychologist dad recognized that the heart of his young son was not all sweetness and light, he and mom began the careful, loving process of discipline. And the boy grew up to be marvelously well-adjusted, and from what I understand is now happily married.

 

So, what might God’s discipline look like in my life? I think I can be safe in saying that, if I give Him permission, He will do everything possible to make sure that my heart is fertile soil for the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22 and 23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

 

In order to produce long-suffering or patience in me, God might delay an answer to my prayer, and maybe even denying me something I’ve temporarily set my heart on. Whatever Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was, God refused to take it away from him, and instead told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

 

And I know that the same God is looking down happily on what happened this morning. I have told Josh and Paulina that a baptism is not a graduation service but, in a way, a wedding ceremony. When you’re baptized, it doesn’t mean that you know all the ins and outs and details of every theological fine point. No, your baptism means that you have fallen so deeply in love with your Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus that you want Them to be a part of your life forever.

 

That’s what Josh and Paulina want.

 

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WHAT GOD THINKS
Expository Sermon on Matthew 18:10 - 14
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church April 6, 2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

LISTEN TO JESSICA'S BAPTISMAL SERVICE! 10-year-old Jessica was baptized the morning of April 6, 2013, here at our church. First you'll hear Pastor Maylan Schurch introduce Jessica, and then Jessica tells why this day is important to her. Shelley Schurch does the "roll call" of her family and friends, and then Jessica is baptized. Her father Jesús reads the scripture she chose for this day--and he then sings the chorus of "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" in Spanish. Jessica's mother Lorrie tells the children's story (about the beautiful crystals inside an ordinary-looking geode), and finally Pastor Maylan preaches "What God Thinks," a sermon based on Jessica's scripture passage, Matthew 18:10 - 14. (To hear the audio, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18.

 

I have an iPad, and whenever I want to find out what is going on in the world – or at least what CNN thinks is going on in the world – I press on the little CNN.com icon.

 

During the last week, the top story has been about North Korea’s saber rattling. And most often, at the very start of those Korea stories – even before the news article starts – there is a paragraph from CNN which says something like, “Are you in South Korea or North Korea? Send us your comments.”

 

I know, of course, that in recent years, newspaper reporters have been printing their email addresses at the ends of their articles. Radio station announcers encourage listeners to go to the station’s website and email their comments.

 

For someone like me, who grew up in the era when the CBS news broadcast of the top of the hour simply told you what they thought the news was and didn’t ask your opinion, this is really refreshing. Finally, the media is starting to ask us, “What do you think?”

 

I thought about this as I was studying the Bible passage which Jessica chose for her baptism celebration today. Because squarely in the middle of that passage, at the start of verse 12, Jesus asks that very question – “What do you think?”

 

Of course when Jesus asks that question, it’s not to discover what we think – because in Matthew 9:12 and Matthew 12:25 it says very clearly that Jesus “knew their thoughts,” speaking of Pharisees and others who were doing their best to trap Him. Jesus already knows what we’re thinking about.

 

No, when Jesus asks “What do you think?”, and when His Heavenly Father says things like, “Come now and let us reason together,” it’s not so that Heaven can discover information, but to help us uncover what’s really going on in our own minds. Jesus is urging us to turn on our brains, and take a stand.

 

As we’ll see, Jessica’s passage is a really important one. I was very surprised as I was studying it this week. I hadn’t realized that the story of the good Shepherd and the lost sheep shows up twice in the Gospels. And I was even more surprised to see that in each of these appearances, the story has a different purpose.

 

In the Luke 15 version, which is the one I was most familiar with, Jesus tells it in the context of lost sinners in general. But here in Matthew 18, it’s in the setting of how to treat little children. And it is in this passage, and not in the Luke one, that Jesus asks “What do you think?” In other words, turn on your brain. Start forming opinions.

 

As I studied Matthew 18:10 – 14 this week, I discovered some of God’s opinions as well. I selected three of them, and for the next few minutes this morning I would like us to discover what God thinks about the Bible’s most important topic – salvation, as it relates to kids. Let’s find out what God is thinking.

 

Matthew 18:10 [NKJV]: “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones . . .
Again, when Jesus talks about “little ones,” He’s talking about children. Earlier in this chapter He tells us that unless we are converted and become as little children we will never enter the kingdom of God. Then He grimly describes what should happen to someone who “offends” or “scandalizes” a little child.

 

And here in verse 10, He tells us to “Take heed,” or in the NIV and the English Standard Version it says “See,” that we do not look down on, or despise, one of these little ones.

So, since Jesus and His Father are one, and since anyone who interacts with Jesus has seen the Father, what is God thinking here? If you’re taking sermon notes, here comes point one.

What does God think?

 

God thinks children shouldn’t be looked down on or despised.

 

If you ever wanted to arouse my mother’s anger – and I know this is also true of every mother in this room – just threaten or bully or intimidate or abuse one of her kids. And my dad was the same way. I remember the first time he heard that one of us kids was being bullied at school, he was ready to get in his car and go over to the house of the bully’s parents and confront them about it. Mom – who had been a teacher – had to talk him out of that.

 

The most dreadful thing about Jesus’ millstone-around-the-neck comment a few verses earlier isn’t the horror of that kind of drowning death. No, the dreadful thing is that Jesus said it would be better for a child-abuser or  despiser or scandalizer to be dealt with in that way. The implication is that the real punishment such a person deserves is far, far worse.

 

So now that we’ve discovered one of God’s thoughts – that children shouldn’t be looked down on or despised – what should we do?

 

First, we need to remember that children are not quarter-people or half-people. They are whole people. They are real people. Yesterday Shelley and I were at the Kirkland Adventist School where we presented the chapel program more than a hundred kids. Whenever I see a large group of children like that – and when I happen to think in these terms – chills go down my spine. Because each of these kids is a creation of God, and has marvelous potential packed within him or her. And as we’ve seen, each child is supremely, individually special to God.

 

Another thing we can do now that we know God’s high opinion of children is to pray for our nominating committee process which will begin in a few weeks. As our committee gets together to select people for the various church responsibilities, the very first thing we do is to pack our children’s divisions completely full with people who love working with kids and are good at it. And on that committee, we don’t talk about any other church responsibility until the kids’ divisions contain the people they need. So pray that our Sabbath School divisions will continue to be staffed by the cream of our congregation.

 

Now let’s discover something else God is thinking.

 

Verse 10: “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

 

Not only does God think children shouldn’t be looked down on or despised, but God also thinks children deserve their own personal angels who see the face of God.

 

I think this is tremendously important. The angels God assigns to children aren’t rookie angels, low-level angels who are given the least important work far away from God’s presence. It’s exactly the opposite. If you are a child, your angel is so close to God that even though he is with you, he can turn and glance at the expression on God’s face. If someone is trying to hurt you, God frowns, just like your parents would frown if somebody were trying to hurt you.

 

Several months ago I needed to get something taken care of about our T-Mobile phone service, so I knew I should stop by a T-Mobile store. One day I was on my way home from the church, so I decided to stop at the T-Mobile store in Factoria. I forget what I needed to get taken care of, but it was the type of thing where I knew I would need some very sympathetic customer service.

 

You may or may not know that the North American headquarters of T-Mobile is located right there in Factoria, just a few miles south of here. In fact, in the morning, the little T-Mobile store I was planning to stop at is literally in the shadow cast by the tall headquarters building  just to the east of it.

 

So I figured that with Corporate looking over their shoulders, the people in this particular store would probably be very careful to treat their customers right. And sure enough, that’s what I found. I walked in, and two or three very friendly people gathered around me and quickly solved my problem.

 

So what do I do, now that I know that God provides each child with a personal angel with direct access to Him?

 

I would say that one thing God requires of parents is to make sure that their children become closely acquainted with Him. And that means making sure to get your kids to Sabbath school.

For literally half her lifetime – five years – Jessica has been asking her parents if she could be baptized. And like all conscientious Christian parents, Jesús and Lorrie have carefully waited until they were sure that Jessica was making this decision on her own, and not merely because she saw other children getting baptized.

 

I know that Jessie’s longing to follow Jesus more closely has arisen first of all from the loving Christian home she has been raised in, and it has also come from hearing about Jesus in her Sabbath school classes. It’s at Sabbath School where kids learn, over and over, how wonderful Jesus is, and how much He loves them, and how delighted He would be to spend eternity with them. Talk about an evangelistic series—that what some very dedicated people conduct every single Sabbath morning.

 

Jessica’s Bible verses tell me that God looks very intently at how children are raised, and that He treasures the Sabbath school teachers and Pathfinder leaders who pour their time and energy into the eternal salvation of the kids in their care. At 9:30 each Sabbath morning, the Sabbath schools are open, and the teachers are waiting to talk about the One who created us and later redeemed us. When you think of it, pray for what happens in those sacred rooms.

 

Verse 11 tells us that Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost. (If you are using a Bible version other than the King James or New King James, this verse is missing—mainly because the most ancient Greek manuscripts discovered in the past 200 years don’t seem to contain it at that spot. However, the idea of this verse is emphatically stated numerous times in other parts of the New Testament, including John 3:16.)

 

Now let’s look at just one more of God’s “thoughts” – what He thinks about.

 

Verses 12 - 14: “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

 

What does God think?

 

Well, not only does God think children shouldn’t be looked down on or despised, and that children deserve their own personal angels who see the face of God, but God also finds His greatest joy in rescuing the most desperately lost.

 

Satan wants you to believe that God displays His greatest anger toward the most desperately lost. But in both this chapter, and in the Luke 15 version of this parable, Jesus tells us this is not true. God reserves not His anger but His deepest delight when prodigals return. Sure, God is happy about the 99 sheep who obediently remain close to Him, but once a sheep is lost, He urgently hunts for it. And if the sheep will allow itself to be found, God’s joyful, relieved laughter roars out more loudly than ever.

 

In verse 12, do you see the phrase “goes astray”? In the Greek, that is exactly the same word which other parts of the New Testament use when they talk about someone being “deceived.” In fact, that same Greek word is where we get the English word “planet,” which means “wanderer.” As ancient astronomers looked up in the sky and saw that there were some shiny heavenly bodies who didn’t stay in the same orbits as the stars, they called them “wanderers” or “planets.”

 

Satan the great deceiver enjoys trying to jolt you and me out of the orbits God has planned for us. The devil has had thousands of years’ experience in knowing what can lead us astray, what can deceive us into becoming wanderers from God.

 

But the good news – the literal “gospel” news – is that we have Someone who will come looking for us, calling for us, hoping that we will stop and turn, and let Him carry us back to safety.

 

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Our Story
Topical Sermon by Gayle Woodruff
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church, March 23, 2013
(c)2013 by Gayle Woodruff

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

 (Note from Pastor Maylan: Thanks to Gayle Woodruff, one of our church elders, who graciously agreed to preach a sermon on a Sabbath Shelley and I were gone. Gayle is a thoughtful Bible student who strives to make scripture practical.)

 

My work was taking me to Portland, Oregon, and the thought of driving there suddenly seemed tiring, boring and simply unacceptable.

 

At the suggestion of a much wiser co-worker I came to the brilliant conclusion that it would be way more fun if I made the trip by train.

 

Alan, my quick-to-assist husband, did a careful cost analysis and explained I could save a few dollars if I drove my car instead. After all, I could run into some logistical hassles -- like needing a car while I was down there.

 

But my hubby learns fast. He soon figured out that cost held only a slim margin of significance in the grand scheme of this adventure. Logic was not going to prevail. So laying aside his particular views of the situation, he acquiesced and purchased my train ticket. This included, of course, his providing a complimentary early morning ride to get me to where I'd catch the train in Tukwila.  I remember taking maybe just a bit too long to gather my things -- then I worried along the way that we might not have enough time to get there before the train did. Alan assured me that he had it covered -- but gave our zoom-zoom Mazda a bit more gas for good measure.

 

 When we arrived I felt a bit anxious because I saw that the train was already there and folks were getting lined up to board. Scooping up my things I told Alan goodbye and hurried off.

 

 The train was more crowded than I had anticipated. It was a bit difficult just to find a seat. I started to wonder what it was about this train thing that made me think I was in for a calm and relaxing trip. And why was it that no one had asked for my ticket?

 

 I squeezed into a space, tried to settle in and we were off. After a few minutes I glanced down at my phone. Oh yes, of course I would have a text message from Alan wanting to make sure I was all safe and sound. But....why so many texts .... and missed calls too?

 

 Hmmm....guess I didn't hear the phone with all the racket of this noisy train. Quickly I got Alan on the phone to assure him all was well.

 

 There was no -- how ya' doing? Enjoying the train? How's the weather? No - it was dead serious. "Did you get on the train?" Yes -- I quickly answered. "No," he said, "Did you get on the train that was there when we FIRST arrived at the location?" "Yes," I answered, a bit impatiently. “I got on that train!"

 

 Again -- he said -- "no did you get on that "FIRST train that was already sitting there when we first -- very first pulled up?"
This time I started to wonder why was I getting the same question over and over again. He must not have watched me board the train.

 

 
Once again I assured him I had gotten on the train. I mean, where else would I have gone? Once the full impact of truth hit Alan, he couldn't believe what he had heard. I had slipped from his view after I'd left the car and now he was trying not to panic as he asked, “Did you realize THAT train was going NORTH!?!”

 

 
Instinctively I looked out the windows and furrowed my brow. I quickly surveyed my surroundings. It did seem that I was in a bit of a fix. Taking a deep breath I assured Alan I'd get off the train as soon as it stopped some place. And, of course Alan --- since he had confirmed his fears now set his energies towards determining the wrong train's destination. We hoped to meet up again in the near future.  I had to laugh a bit at myself. I had been so anxious to ride the train I hadn't paid any attention to what train I had gotten on.  And certainly now I had no ticket for the train that I was on. I looked around at my traveling companions and wondered where we were all going!

 

 
We went to someplace in Seattle and I got off and looked for Alan. Of course, we couldn't find each other.  Alan drove right up to this building under construction and, of course, was in the right place to get my ticket changed. But I couldn't get to where he was because where I was felt like a whole block higher than where he was.

 

 
And, well it was just weird. Its not like I could just drop myself over the edge of a huge concrete block. Yet he needed me down at the lower level so he could to be assisted by the nice ticket lady who had done her best to understand this crazy train story she had been told.

 

 
How we finally reconnected is a story for another day. But, given the choice I'm sure the task of bathing our 3 cats all at once would have been a cakewalk comparatively speaking!  At last -- when I had my new ticket and was in the lower level at the train station in Seattle, in the right place -- Alan had one last bit of insurance to add before he could feel safe leaving me there. To this room full of people he asked, "Is anybody here going to Portland?"

 

 
I'm pretty sure they were all going to Portland ... A few folks glanced up at this frustrated man who had thrown on some blue sweats and tennis shoes and stood by a lady all dressed up nice, but looked somewhat frazzled. Finally one grandmotherly sort smiled warmly up at him and said, "I'm going to Portland."

 

 Relieved, Alan said -- "Could you please make sure my wife gets on the right train... The one to Portland!"

 

 
I've reflected on this experience often, including all sorts of spiritual ramifications that could apply.  True, I did get to Portland, but because I overlooked just one important detail, I had to backtrack, reschedule appointments, inconvenience other people, and one of my appointments had to be cancelled. So yes, I got there...even enjoyed my "right" train ride, but my what a detour I took!

 

 
This morning I would like to look at 3 Biblical characters that have made an impression on me, including their detours or even lack of detours.

 

 
Ever since I was little -- just a few years back of course --- I 've heard that we need to read our Bibles. And while I know this to be true, the fact remains that I am not a very good "reader."  Yes, when I was 11 or 12, I read my Bible all the way through -- but it was a struggle -- a grit determination of will.

 

 
However with modern technology a way has opened up that has made the Bible come alive. This in no way diminishes reading, rather, it's a great help to some of us who may struggle with words on a page.

 

 
There is a Bible app for mobile devices called YouVersion.  Maybe you know about it. One of the features, besides having multiple Bible versions available and all kinds of Bible reading plans is that you can also listen to the Bible, in any number of versions.

 

 
So -- I have been on this particular plan that I really like called the Life Journal Plan. It has readings from the Old Testament and New Testament each day and then, theoretically within a year you would have gotten through the whole BIble.

 

 
I say theoretically because that is only if you actually keep up. But there is a little icon thing to fix things when you get behind; it's a simple "Catch Me Up" feature that just adjusts the dates to where you are. This is great because that way you don’t get discouraged by where you "should" be. After all, there are simply times my brain needs more time to grasp certain themes before I move on.

 

 
This connecting with the Bible is vital to my faith, your faith, our faith. Why? Because I believe the Bible contains our story. For as we read or hear the Bible we realize that we may be like this or that person -- only, if we don't like how their story went we can make sure our story has a different ending. The Bible is for us.

 

 
When Pastor Maylan asked me if I would speak for this Sabbath I thought about the most recent passages I'd been listening too, and ones that had caused me to pause and reflect on my own walk. This morning I'd like to share just a few highlights, snippets, if you will, of these stories; ones that contain little bits of "wow" for my own spiritual journey.

 

 
I hope that by doing this you may find encouragement to continue to study or listen to your Bible and watch for the surprises that are there - and the applications that are for today -- and things that just make you say "wow." I'd like to start with the story of Elijah. Actually -- only a small part of the story of Elijah. Please turn with me to 1 Kings 17 2- 6:

 

Then the word of The Lord came to him saying. "Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the "ravens to feed you there."  So he went and did according to the word of The Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.

 

 
There is much to the story of Elijah -- with the drought, Ahab, Jezebel, the showdown with the prophets of Baal. But the "Wow" for me was God's simple direction for Elijah to get up and go -- and he got up and went. No detours here for Elijah-- well, at least not in this part of his story.

 

 
And I wonder -- how do I get so that I have that sort of relationship with God? If He tells me to go here or there -- how much do I trust Him to have those life-necessary details covered? If He tells me, "things are going to get rough -- go to this place" could I go -- or would I argue about details and logistics that I didn’t trust The Lord to have handled?

 

 
Or, equally as important, maybe God says "stay right here and don't fret. I have things under control."

 

 
I'm rather fond of the notion of security -- something I became quite tuned in to as a child.  See, there was a time when my big brother set a date that he was going to "run away." This meant, of course, that I was running away too -- because quite frankly my brother and I were inseparable.  I can still remember the perplexity I felt when I asked him where we'd be going. He simply pointed determinedly down the road. "Oh," I nodded. So, besides no clear destination, he had a 10 speed bike and I had a little 3 speed banana-seat StingRay. Mine did sport a fancy little white wicker basket on the front end, but seriously - how much could I pack into that! And what were we going to eat, where would we sleep? It was a sure bet that we had less than $3.00 between us. Yet, my loyalty to my brother was stronger than my fear.

 

 
Then came the day for our departure. I can remember looking at my Dad just a bit longer at breakfast that morning. Inside I wished things were different, but we just hadn't learned to talk our problems through.

 

 However, as the day inched along, and I watched my brother and his actions, there was nothing that gave any inkling that he intended to vacate the comfort of his warm bed for the evening --- or for any other evening for that matter!!

 

 
My relief was kept private though, as I hoped we could both just forget about the run away trip that thankfully just wasn't to be.  My trust still has its training wheels on. When I listened to the Elijah story and how he just did things I thought about how much I'd like to be like that and how far from that I still feel. See, I feel more secure with a minimum number of curve balls tossed my way.

 

 
I don't feel ready to go sit by the creek and wait for the ravens. I've seen ravens. They are in my back yard. They don't seem that smart. How do I know? Because we have 3 cats and the ravens still come!

 

 
But I'm glad the ravens are there -- and I want to become comfortable enough in my relationship with Jesus that if He tells me the ravens are serving up dinner I will simply be on my way to where He says dinner will be served. I won't be worried if the destination isn't crystal clear -- or fret about having enough money. That's because Jesus actually does know what He's doing. And spending more time with Him is what helps build that trust. This was my "take away" from my brief visit with Elijah.

 

 
The next place that I would like to stop in is 1 Kings 20.

 

 
Ahab wasn't one of the good kings in Israel. Actually, there really weren't that many good kings period -- so it's a bit disheartening to read or listen to these parts of the Bible. Yet, there are still lots of Wow places.

 

 
See, Ahab was being threatened by Ben-Hadad, King of Syria, who had said he was coming for his gold, silver, wives, children, and his and his servants’ household belongings. It's an interesting chapter to read. Particularly in that Ahab was fine about giving up his gold and silver, wives and children but not his household belongings. Really??  Then again, Ahab is not one I've been able to figure out. To the last of these demands Ahab says “No way,” and Ben-Hadad comes out for battle.

 

 
So Ahab seeks The Lord, right?  No, but that's what he should have done!

 

 
However, that's not how Ahab operates. He simply is in big trouble. Reading in 1 Kings 20:13           Suddenly a prophet approached Ahab, king of Israel, saying, "Thus says The Lord: 'Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today and you shall know that I am The Lord.'" And The Lord gave Ahab a mighty victory.

 

 
Ben-Hadad wasn't done yet though. He came back against Ahab and Israel again in the spring. Reading in 1 Kings 20:26-28:      

 

 
So it was, in the spring of the year, that Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Isreal.  And the children of Isreal were mustered and given provisions, and they went against them. Now the children of Isreal encamped before them like two little flocks of goats while the Syrians filled the countryside.

 

 
(That's a visual, isn't?)

 

 
Then a man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, "Thus says The Lord: 'Because the Syrians have said, "The Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys,’ therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am The Lord.'"

 

 
There are two "Wows" that jump out at me from this story.  The first one is that this is AHAB. Ahab is in trouble. From all external evidences he isn't seeking God. Yet God is still reaching out to him -- sending His prophets to him. One may argue the greater good of Israel, yet the prophet ended the pronouncements with "and you shall know that I am The Lord."

 

 
Think how odd those words would have been if spoken to Elijah. Go to the brook, the ravens will feed you, then you shall know that I am The Lord.

 

 
I can imagine a perplexed expression on Elijah's face as he pondered such words. "What? he'd say -- I already KNOW You are The Lord!"

 

 
But Ahab has a different relationship with God and it doesn't center around trust, faith or obedience. Still God is trying to work with him. He hasn't given up on him. That to me is a big "Wow.”

 

 
So what does Ahab do with this extravagant grace he's been shown--the dramatic miraculous battlefield rescues he has had multiple times due only to God's saving mighty power?

 

 
Does he have a loyalty shift? Does he pledge his undying allegiance and forever obedience from now on? Does he, in fact, now know that The Lord is The Lord -- and rightfully acknowledge Him -- and give Him first place in his life?

 

 
No. Not actually.

 

 
The Lord even totally handed Ben-Hadad over to Ahab. This is the same Ben Hadad that wanted Ahab's gold, silver, wives, children and household belongings -- yet Ahab foolishly allowed the enemy God had saved him to survive--Ahab even went right back and made "friends" with him so to speak. This was a horrible mistake, and the Lord sent his prophet to rebuke Ahab. Let's look at I Kings 20: 42-43.

 

Then he said to him, Thus says The Lord: Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people. So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and displeased, and came to Samaria.

 

 
My take away from the Ahab story is a fresh look at God's amazing grace. Because of his story we know that God is reaching out to those who have gone off track. He loves us all. Jesus doesn't just throw in the towel.  Yet He doesn't save us from evil only to have us go cuddle up to it again either.

 

 
There could have been a different ending to the Ahab story.  For those who see, listen, hear and understand the Ahab story - their own story can have a much happier ending.

 

 
There is one more place that I would like to visit on our little Bible journey this morning. There is an interesting story about Jehoshaphat found in I Kings 22 and in 2 Chronicles 18. This story intrigues me. To start with we have Jehoshaphat, a good king of Judah, teaming up with Ahab, a troubled, not so good king of Isreal. 1 Kings 22:1-5

 

 
Now 3 years passed without war between Syria and Israel. Then it came to pass, in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went down to visit the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, "Do you know that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, but we hesitate to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?" So he said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight at Ramoth Gilead?" Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." Also, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Please inquire for the word of The Lord today."

 

 
Hooray for Jehoshaphat! He thought to inquire of The Lord before engaging in battle. But wouldn't it have been better if he had inquired of The Lord BEFORE committing his people and horses? So this is where the story gets good.

 

 
Ahab gets together his prophets -- there are about four hundred that tell him the kinds of things he likes to hear. And sure enough -- they tell him in verse 6 "Go up, for The Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king."

 

 
Jehoshaphat says, “Not so fast.” He asks, in verse 7, "Is there not still a prophet of The Lord here, that we may inquire of him?"

 

 
As it turns out, there IS ONE prophet of The Lord but Ahab doesn't like him because he doesn't prophesy good things about him. Nonetheless this Micaiah fella comes out, takes abuse from the other prophets, warns about going ahead with the battle, and ends up being tossed into prison for his efforts.

 

 
Jehoshaphat takes all this in. He hears the testimony of the false prophets. He heard what God's prophet said -- the one HE had requested. And he STILL went into battle with Ahab, against the direct word of the prophet.  Really, Jehoshaphat? What were you doing?!? Whose side were you on? And Ahab. What a lot of prophet power was spent on you, but you just wouldn't listen. Ahab told Jehoshaphat to dress in his kingly attire and he himself would go to battle in disguise. I'm not sure what that strategy was all about, but Ahab ended up getting killed. The enemy thought Jehoshaphat was Ahab so they went after him. But Jehoshaphat cried out to The Lord and The Lord in His mercy delivered him.

 

 
Yes, The Lord saved Jehoshaphat's life, even though he was at least partially responsible for the fact that one God's faithful servants was doing "time." But God had a message for Jehoshaphat.

2 Chronicles 19:1-3         Then Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah returned safely to his house in Jerusalem. And Jehu, the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate The Lord? Therefore the wrath of The Lord is upon you. Nevertheless good things are found in you, in that you have removed the wooden images from the land, and have prepared your heart to seek God."

 

 
My take away from the story of Jehoshaphat is that there is hope for humanity. There is encouragement for my bad days and for the times when there is simply no excuse for what has happened. The fact remains that despite how things look on the outside God knows our hearts. He's not going to bail on us when we make mistakes.

 

 
There's also the sobering reminder not to seek God's will about something when I haven't the slightest intention of following it. But what an amazing God we serve!

 

 
This concludes our Bible journey this morning.  Earlier I said that connecting with the Bible is vital to my faith, your faith and our faith. My prayer for all of us is that we will seek that connection, find Our Story and share His Story.             

 

 
(Back to the Top)

 

GOD NEEDS NATION-BUILDERS – Part 2
Expository Sermon on Genesis 12
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 3/16/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(Sorry, due to technical problems, the audio is not available for this sermon.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12.

 

This sermon is the second in a series called “God Needs Nation-builders.” We’re looking at the life of Abraham, who was literally a nation-builder for God, but since Jesus insists that you and I are to be lights in the world, and the salt of the earth, and that we are to help gather people into the Kingdom of God, that means that Jesus considers you and I as “nation-builders” too. So as we study the life of Abraham, we are studying how he did it, so we can pick up some ideas.

 

Last week we discovered that (like Abraham) God’s nation-builders listen for – and listen to – God, and that they also do exactly what God says to do. And of course these are two very important things to put into practice if we are interested in influencing other people into God’s kingdom.

 

As I was thinking again about “nation-building” this week, it struck me that we are all literal nation-builders. My ancestors arrived from Switzerland in the 1880s, and came out to South Dakota to take possession of big squares of land. If you and yours have arrived more recently, you also have a stake in nation-building. Your presence in your neighborhood, and the work you do, are somehow stitching this nation together and keeping it from falling apart.

 

Many years ago I experienced a very powerful and emotional moment. I was flying over the lower right-hand part of South Dakota, in a small commuter-size plane going from Sioux Falls to the capital city, Pierre. I have totally forgotten why I was making that particular flight, because it is something I had never done before and have never done since. But for some reason it was necessary for me to go from Sioux Falls to Pierre.

 

The plane took off westward just after the summer twilight had descended. I have always found it fascinating to look down on the prairie from a jetliner, but this little flew a lot lower. Therefore I could easily see the quarter-mile square patches of land. I could look down and see the tiny yellow splashes cast on the highways by the headlights of cars.

 

But there was one moment I’ll never forget. After a while, the  darkness deepened, swallowing up the land-squares into blackness. There were still cars driving on those country roads, but now they looked like fireflies.

 

Then suddenly I saw the softball games. Scattered all across the dark prairie were bright little rings of light. I lifted my eyes to the horizon, and all around me, even in the distance, 20 or 30 miles away, I could see the softball games.

 

And I got a lump in my throat as I realize that each of those rings of light signalled that people had gathered, some to play softball, and most to watch. Kids were playing under the bleachers, or tossing baseballs to each other off to the side. Moms wearing baseball caps were brushing mosquitos off babies wearing little baseball caps.

 

And under each of those rings of light, the people were focused on their own game, and their own conversations. But I was above it all and could see a score or so of softball games going on all at the same time across the black prairie floor.

 

I wonder if God feels similar emotions when He looks down, not just upon 30 square miles of Great Plains flatland, but upon the nations of the entire planet. We certainly know from God’s actions in calling Abraham that nation-building is crucial to God’s plan. I mentioned last week how God called Abraham to create a nation which would straddle the well-traveled land-bridge between Syria and Turkey to the north, and Egypt and Libya and Nubia to the south. God wanted to populate that land-bridge with people who lived their lives the way their Creator knows is best for them, so that all the other nations would return to Him.

 

And God must’ve looked far and wide for someone who could have the faith it took to begin to build a nation for Him. God didn’t find this man in the Hittite region to the north, or in Turkey, or in Egypt. No, God had to go all the way to Iraq. And He had to cajole this childless cattle-and-sheep farmer to travel all the way to that land-bridge.

 

And Abraham said yes. And as we discovered last week, he listened for – and listened to – God, and he also did exactly what God said to do. And this morning we will discover three other nation-builder qualities Abraham had. And I think we’ll see that you and I need to sharpen these skills too.

 

Genesis 12:1 – 4 [NKJV]: Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

 

Let’s lay down the first point of today’s sermon.

 

God’s nation-builders know that age doesn’t matter.

 

We don’t really know, of course, how a 75-year-old in Abraham’s time compares to a 75-year-old today. After all, it wasn’t too long before Abraham’s time that the pre-flood people were still living to 600 to 800 years old. Abraham himself would live to be 175.

 

But we do know that within 20 years, he and Sarah would reach the age well beyond which  a woman was normally able to bear children.

 

Abraham and Sarah don’t have children yet. But at an age long past when women were able to have kids, Sarah would eventually give birth to Isaac.

 

The bottom line is that age makes absolutely no difference to God. Age or youth. God loves everybody, and God needs everybody – and God can put anybody to work. In our congregation we are privileged to have a couple – Bob and Carrol Grady – who with Bob’s leadership and Carrol’s newsletter- writing skills transformed Washington Conference Adventist seniors from a few folks who gathered to watch slide travelogues four times a year to a suntanned and wiry bunch of men and women who have traveled to continents they never thought they’d see, to build schools and churches and hold evangelistic meetings to add people to God’s nation.

One of my fondest memories of our Capital Improvement Projects program was when on a Sunday morning, several of us gathered to dismantle the old circular wood, carpet-covered platform. We had mostly guys, but some women. And we had people of all ages. Young boys were whacking away at board-braces, and yanking away at nails.

 

I got too macho for my own good that morning, and put my back out for several weeks. (In fact, Bob Grady was there too, and a couple of times this gentleman who celebrated his 80th birthday this year came up to me in grave concern, and gave me better tools than the ones I was using. Bob was worried that I would hurt myself!)

 

There we were, all of us, together. Nobody said, “You’re too young,” or “You’re too old.” And somehow, miraculously, we were able to stay out of the way of each other’s swinging hammers and jabbing crowbars.

 

Let me tell you one more story which proves that age doesn’t matter. Last Sabbath afternoon, several of us did another of our monthly gospel sing-alongs at the Evergreen Court retirement center not far from here. The hour we spend there is often very lively. We’ll have a group song with everybody taking part, and then we’ll listen as one of the kids plays a violin solo, or a recorder solo, or sings a special number with their family.

 

Last week’s sing-along was great, and afterward people were standing around chatting, kids were laughing, everybody was having a good time.

 

One of the Evergreen Court residents had not been present during the sing-along, but had walked in and sat down just after we finished. She just sat there, watching all of the fun, smiling at what the kids were up to, and later she mentioned to someone how much enjoyment this gave her.

 

This means that, without even knowing it, a group of happy people, just by being naturally happy, had encouraged someone who must’ve needed it at that point.

 

Satan doesn’t like it when we buy into the idea that age doesn’t matter to God. Satan wants us to be dissatisfied with who we are. Satan wants us to believe all the advertising that says to older people, “Stay young! Look young! Act young! And buy lots of products which help you pretend you’re young!”

 

The bottom line is that no matter how old or how young you are, you can be a nation-builder for God. God used the boy Samuel to communicate straight truth to Eli the priest. God used the teenage David to scare the Philistine army into scrambling to their feet and runing for their lives. God used Captain Naaman’s little servant girl to get him in touch with a prophet of God who could heal him.

 

God used old Simeon and Anna in the temple to testify that the baby Jesus was the Messiah of prophecy. God used a little boy with five loaves of bread and two fish to provide the material to feed thousands of people.

 

At our prayer meeting Wednesday nights we hear the stories of people who, carefully, gently, tactfully lend their prayers and their listening ears to people in their lives who are really hurting.

 

By the way, here is a little commercial for our nominating committee time. That is coming up in the next couple of months, and soon you will be receiving a nominating committee survey.
Now – this is key. You will only receive this survey if you are an on-the-books member of the Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist church, or if your membership transfer is in process. This is just a nudge to people who’ve been attending here for a while, and who would like to get involved in these areas.

 

There are ways you can be involved without being a member, of course, but if you’ve been thinking about transferring into our congregation, now is a great time. Fill out the details on your communication card and get it to me soon.

 

Now let’s discover another crucial nation-builder skill which Abraham demonstrates for us. (His name, of course, is still Abram.)

 

Verses 4 – 7:  So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

 

Notice what Abram did? He built an altar to the Lord – the Lord who appeared to him.

“Very good,” we say. “A very appropriate thing to do, to make a memorial to where God appeared.”

 

But notice what happens a bit later.

 

Verse 8: And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

 

So here we have Abram building a second altar, in a different place. But this time, the Lord did not appear to him first. Instead, Abram builds that altar, and it is he who calls upon the name of the Lord.

 

A little later, in chapter 13, after spending some time in Egypt, Abram comes back to this very altar, and again calls on the name of the Lord.

 

Do you see a pattern emerging? I think I do – and here comes our next nation-builder principle.

 

Not only do God’s nation-builders know that age doesn’t matter, but God’s nation-builders build a place for God into their lives.

 

In those days, of course, alters had a specific purpose – to sacrifice animals to God. Since Jesus became the once-for-all sacrifice which had been pointed forward to by all those animals, we don’t need to sacrifice animals anymore.

 

But we do need to build a place for God into our lives. And that place needs to be as solid and as present as one of those ancient altars.

 

Jim Ayer is the public relations person for Adventist World Radio. But he didn’t grow up a Christian, and was actually one of the hippie drug dealers who got his drugs from the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco during the late 60s.

 

This is a long and very interesting story we can’t go into right now, but as Jim was moving toward Christianity, an Adventist literature evangelist came to the pet shop Jim operated, and sold him a set of Arthur Maxwell’s Bible Story books. Jim took those books home, and he actually built an altar in his living room, and placed those books on the altar. And as he read those books one by one, they led him to the Bible, and to the God of the Bible.

 

Jim knew it was so important to keep God central in your life that he actually built a literal altar. I have never built an altar in my life, and wouldn’t know how to do it. But I know that I need to make sure to create a place for God in my life so that I won’t forget Him.

 

How do I do this? A place for God could be a segment of morning time when you get up before everybody else in the house and read the Bible and pray. A place for God could be a Bible reading plan you are following on your computer tablet.

 

A place for God could be a real-paper notebook you are using to write letters to God, and recording your prayer requests. Christian author Gordon MacDonald suggested to start writing a prayer journal at the front of the notebook, and write down your prayer requests starting with the back page and coming forward. When the journals material meets the prayer requests, it’s time to start a new notebook.

 

One of the pastors in our conference does something interesting whenever he sends an email. Once he has completed the main part of the message, he actually concludes it with a little prayer which is specific to the situation. At one point he sent out an email to me and a few other pastors to come to a committee meeting. At the end of that email, he wrote something like this: “Lord, please be with us as we serve on this committee, and may its results give You glory.”

 

The key thing about this special “place” you build for God – whether it’s an amount of time you carve out for morning devotions, or a Bible on CD to play in the car on the way to work, or whatever it is, it needs to be as solidly positioned in your life as Abram’s altars were.

 

Let’s look at one more of Abram’s very crucial nation-building practices.

 

Verses 9 – 13: So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”

 

I remember reading this story as a boy, and thinking, “Abram, that’s a lie! You’re not supposed to lie!”

 

Actually, in a later occurrence of this very same fib with another ruler who is hosting Abram, we are told that technically, Sarai was Abram’s half-sister as well as his wife.

But the point is that Abram had let his faith flicker. God had told him, with God’s own personal mouth, that Abram would be the father of a great nation. Abram would be a nation-builder. Abram had no children yet, so 2020 hindsight/Monday morning quarterbacking tells us that Abram should have said to himself, “What am I worried about? Nobody’s going to hurt me, because God has not yet provided me with children. Therefore, Pharaoh will not kill me, and therefore I will call Sarai what she is, my wife.”

 

But Abram tells his half-truth about his half-sister, and sure enough, Pharaoh the king of Egypt is very charmed by Sarai, and takes her to his palace.

 

Now the Lord, looking down on this situation, would have greatly preferred that Abram be absolutely truthful, and thus reflect well on the honest God he serves. However, Abram’s half-truth is what God has to work with. So God decides to get Pharaoh’s attention and respect another way. Somehow this ruler must get the idea that there is a God, and that this God has a man He has commissioned to do an important work for Him.

 

Verses 17-20: But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.

 

Every once in a while in the Bible you find a situation where God’s representatives are more shady and shifty then the “heathen” are. And this is one of those cases.

 

And I don’t know if a sun-baked Middle Eastern sheep farmer can actually turn red with blushes, but I can imagine that Abram might’ve felt a little foolish there.

 

But Abram doesn’t let this discourage him into giving up on God’s mission. Let’s lay down today’s third nation-building principal:

 

God’s nation-builders know that age doesn’t matter, and  God’s nation-builders build a place for God into their lives, and not only that—God’s nation-builders don’t let faith-flickers derail them.

 

This is a very important thing to keep in mind. Satan wants you to believe that if you make one slip-up, it’s useless to try to imagine that God would take you back and let you try again. Satan, of course, is a liar, so don’t believe that.

 

When you come to think of it, most of the Bible people we name our kids after had at least one major faith-flicker, and sometimes many. Listen to these very familiar names:

 

Eve, Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Gideon, David, Peter, James, John, Andrew, and so on. These are people whose faith flickered badly from time to time.

 

But each of the people who bore these household names didn’t slink shamefully into oblivion. Instead, they trusted God to be willing and able to forgive them, and when they had confessed their sins, God let them be nation-builders again.

 

Sometimes, of course, because of a specific kind of sin, people need to serve the Lord in other ways and other places. A child-abuser, for example, must no longer work with children. A former embezzler should not be asked to be church treasurer, and so on.

 

If you’re wondering if this can really apply to you, just remember the Old Testament sanctuary. This was a daily drama of how willing God is to forgive. There on the desert floor, family tents were spread out in all directions from the beautiful wilderness tabernacle. And from those family tents there was always a constant stream of fathers leading little lambs to the door of the courtyard.

 

Because God’s sanctuary lesson was, “When you sin, don’t try to punish yourself to atone for it. Don’t run away and hide with it. Instead, bring that sin – small or large  – to Me. Bring it into My presence. Because I can handle that sin. If you are sorry for it, and repent of it, and confess it, I will cause it to vanish. And it will not be remembered anymore.”

 

A lot of people have times when their faith flickers. You and I need to be fortifying ourselves against such times, by reading our Bibles, by calling upon the name of the Lord as Abraham did.

 

But  just remember how merciful God is. Remember how He wants to make our sinful hearts as white as snow, and cast them into the depths of the sea.

 

And He can do this because of what His Son did for us. As it says on our reader board message out by the street, “His empty tomb – salvation’s womb.”

 

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GOD NEEDS NATION-BUILDERS (PART 1)
Expository Sermon on Genesis 12
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 3/9/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12.

 

When I was a boy, I was often puzzled about things my sisters did which they considered to be enjoyable. Our family didn’t grow up with a lot of money – dad brought home enough to feed us and clothe us, but he was very frightened of debt. This meant that he rarely took out loans, and this meant that we kids lived quite a bit more frugally than our friends did. They always seemed to have many more toys. Our toy-famine was also due to our parents’ firm belief that kids don’t need everything they pester you for.

 

This is, of course, an excellent way to raise children. When a protective poverty does not permit you toys, you look around for cardboard boxes and make some. And then you discover one of life’s wonderful little secrets: cardboard-box toys (in other words, toys you creat yourself) are far, far more satisfying than the plastic ones, and don’t need batteries.

 

And when, like my sisters, you did not have regular access to a new set of paper dolls whenever you wanted them, the kind of dolls which had paper dresses which fit perfectly over them, and which were secured by those little tabs that you bent back, if you did not have store-bought paper dolls, you hunted around for the Sears catalog.

 

In the Sears catalog my sisters found the pictures of many fashionable women. The girls would take scissors and carefully cut those women out, and would also cut out additional dresses for them, and little purses. The cutout dresses, of course, were often posed in different positions than the fashionable women were, and therefore would not fit them, but the girls cut them out just the same.

 

My sisters would give these fashionable women lovely names. They never chose names of people they knew, but always went for exotic, movie-star names, like “Gloria” or “Melinda.”

 

My dad had found a bargain somewhere on little rugs like the ones you put just inside an exterior door. We had an oversupply of these, some of them which had never been used. So the girls would get a couple of the clean rugs, and they would place those rugs on the living room floor near each other.

 

One of these rugs was Gloria’s home. The sister who had chosen Gloria would place Gloria on a rug, and stack beside her all her beautiful dresses. The other sister would position Melinda on the other rug, along with Melinda’s arsenal of dresses, and then the play-time would begin.

 

While passing through the living room on some quest of my own, I would sometimes pause to listen as the girls played with their paper dolls. My attention span usually would last about 20 seconds, because all that was happening was that Melinda and Gloria were talking.
A chief topic of conversation would be plans they were making to visit each other’s houses, and occasionally Gloria was lifted from her rug and positioned over on Melinda’s rug, sometimes accompanied by all her dresses. These dresses would then be discussed with much congratulatory enthusiasm. And then Melinda would come over to Gloria’s house and gush over her wardrobe. And then the two paper ladies would make vague plans to go shopping for more dresses, or to go visit other fashionable women who were yet to be released from the catalog pages.

 

For the life of me, I did not understand where the fun was in all this. As far as I could tell, neither Gloria nor Melinda possessed any firearms. In the closets of these delicate ladies were no combat fatigues, no hand grenades, no machine guns. They seemed totally oblivious to the German Nazi army which lurked just over my own mental horizon.

 

I thought about those paper dolls this week as I was working on today’s sermon. In fact, this will be at least a two-part sermon series, called “God Needs Nation-builders.” Because as I think back to the play-times of my youth, it seemed that my sisters and I (and later my younger brother) enjoyed creating imaginary scenes where there were people. You might say we were building little nations, little cultures.

 

Gloria and Melinda, of course, would never meet the combat-hardened American soldiers who existed in my own mind. My soldiers had no time for women, fashionable or not. All they thought about was keeping enough ammunition on hand to destroy the Nazi battalion just around the corner of the barn.

 

If you’ve attended church here recently, you might remember that I’ve been doing several sermons which began with the word “Caution!” That series finished last week, but as I kept reading through Genesis, I discovered that there were other interesting and important topics to cover, though it’s not always necessary to cast them in a “caution” mode.

 

Take the life of Abraham, for example. Abraham was a nation-builder. And as I was reading through his story, it suddenly struck me that Abraham was not supposed to be the only nation-builder. When you back off and look at the entire Bible, you discover that God wants each of us – you and me – to be nation-builders too.

 

Okay, what do I mean by nation-builder? Obviously neither you nor I are called upon to do exactly what Abraham did. But think of it for a moment. God told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply.” Jesus told His Sermon on the Mount audience, “you are the light of the world,” and “a city which cannot be hidden.” He urged His listeners to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

 

Later, He told His disciples to go into all the world and teach and baptize, and to gather people into what He called the “kingdom of God.” And the disciples and other Christians spread out across Turkey, Greece, Italy, and down into Egypt, and further out than that, adding to the kingdom of God. Groups of people – Christian churches – formed and grew in each of those areas, growing into a kind of “nation” which soon caused the Roman empire to feel threatened.

 

And when Revelation 21:24 speaks of the new Jerusalem, it prophesies a time in which “. . . the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.”

 

So eventually, “the nations of those who are saved” will gather in that Holy City. And the way they are saved will be the way people have always been saved – other people introduce them to the wonderful love of the Heavenly Father, revealed most clearly in the life and death and resurrection of His Son Jesus.

 

So who are going to build those nations of those who are saved? You and I and other Christians. Therefore, if we truly are supposed to be not merely spectators but nation-builders, then we need to find out how nation-builders do it.

 

And I believe we can learn some really encouraging principles from the life of God’s great nation-builder Abraham. So let’s take a look.

 

Here in Genesis 12 we pick up the story after Abraham’s father has moved the family north from Iraq to the town of Haran, right around the area of southern Turkey. So this is a family who has already made a major relocation. But God has more plans for this farmer. God doesn’t think of Abraham primarily as a sheep herder, but as a nation-builder.

 

Genesis 12:1 – 4 [NKJV]: Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him . . . .

 

Here comes Sermon Point One, in case you’re taking notes. What’s one thing God’s nation-builders do?

 

God’s nation-builders listen for – and listen to – God.

 

One thing that struck me as interesting as I was reading this chapter this week was the way God approached Abraham (who at this point, of course, was still called Abram). God did not look around Him and call out, “Who wants to be a nation-builder? Any volunteers? Raise your hand!”

 

And neither did God come to Abram and say, “Abram, I have a proposition I would like to put to you. You don’t have to answer right now, but just let Me talk you through it and I’ll give you some time to mull it over.”

 

God doesn’t ask for volunteers, and He doesn’t even ask Abram if he is willing to become a nation builder. Instead, God simply says, “This is what you’re going to do.”

 

And God’s Son Jesus was similarly direct. Striding along the beach on the sea of Galilee, Jesus didn’t call out, “Any volunteers to be My disciples? Let’s see your hands!” And He didn’t try to cajole or sweet-talk those fishermen one by one into becoming His disciples. He just walks up to them, looks them in the eye, and says, “Follow Me.” (Jesus less direct, of course, with people like the Samaritan woman and with the invalid beside the pool. But those disciples were ready, or He knew He could get them ready, for nation-building.)

 

And when you think about Jesus’ disciples, it seems as though each of them – except possibly Judas – were people who were already potential nation-builders, because they had been listening for – and listening to – God, long before they met His Son.

 

Well, since this same Jesus insists in Matthew chapter 5 that you and I are to be the salt of the earth and lights in the world – in other words, builders of His nation, the Kingdom of God – since this is the case, we need to know how we can listen for, and to, God, the way Abraham did.

 

There’s a slight difference, I believe, in listening for God, and listening to God. Shelley works into the evening the first four weekdays, and if I don’t have an evening meeting I sometimes get home before she does. As I wait for her to arrive, I’m listening for her, listening for the slight racing of the engine as she comes up over the curb into our driveway. And then I’ll go out to the car and help her carry stuff in, and as I do that, I am listening to her – actually hearing her voice, and what she is saying.

 

When it comes to God, it’s probably not so cut-and-dried as when Shelley arrives home. The clearest way to listen  to God, of course, is by reading and properly interpreting the Bible. I think we can listen for God by keeping our eyes and ears open for evidence that He is at work.

 

My parents were very experienced at praying and trying to discover the Lord’s will on this or that issue. I would often hear them use phrases like, “Well, I’ve been praying about this, and I just don’t feel a peace about it.” I believe that Mom and Dad prayed so frequently, and were so utterly willing to allow God to work out His will, that after a while they could almost sense what His thinking was on an issue.

 

Here is where we have to be really careful, of course, that we don’t imagine that our own ideas and opinions and wishes are God speaking to us. Just yesterday I received a mass email from someone somewhere in Oregon. This man has emailed me before –along with hundreds of other pastors – and always makes grand and rambly pronouncements. At the bottom of yesterday’s email, he signed his name, and underneath he called himself “The Son of Man.”
 

During my three decades of pastoring I have spoken to quite a few people who firmly believe that the Lord speaks to them, but whose conclusions are ‘way off base. Years ago at a potluck, one man – who also thought of himself as divine –asked me which of the potluck dishes contained wheat. He didn’t want to eat wheat, because Jesus had watched a large group of Samaritan people emerging from their village to come and see Him, and Jesus had told His disciples, “Behold, the fields are white with harvest!”

 

This man, who has mental problems, insisted that since Jesus had called the Samaritans a “harvest,” this meant that none of us should eat any more wheat, otherwise we would be cannibals.

 

For this reason, experienced pastors tend to look with narrowed eyes upon someone who claims to have heard a message from God. But since nation-builders like Abraham listen closely for God, and listen closely to God, we must do the same thing. And therefore, it must be possible.

 

How do you do this? First, you will need to become a regular pray-er, and a regular, thoughtful Bible reader. You will also need to cultivate friendship with other truly Christian people who pray and read their Bibles, so you can get a balanced view of God and His plans. Many times God gives us wisdom through our friends, if those friends are in tune with God as well.

 

I value Shelley’s wisdom and guidance above any other human being’s, because I know she prays and reads her Bible. In early June of 1991, less than a month after we arrived at the  Bellevue church, I received a call to be an assistant editor at Ministry magazine. I was kind of excited about the call, and I figured that since the Bellevue folks wouldn’t have gotten acquainted with us yet, this might be the time to make a move.

 

So I let the Ministry people fly me out to the DC area, and their staff voted unanimously to ask me to take the position, and I told them yes. And in the hotel room that night I phoned Shelley and told her the news.

 

Shelley told me, “But you wouldn’t be happy doing that. Think of all the variety of things you do as a pastor. You’d miss that, wouldn’t you?”

 

As I was flying home, I gave what she had said some very serious thought. I had seen the little cubicle which would be my office at Ministry, and I had seen the computer screen with bright green letters on it. And I begin to wonder if I would really enjoy sitting in front of that screen day after day after day, editing articles. Some people do it, and like it. But I suddenly realized that this was not for me.

 

So, once I got back out here, I called the Ministry people and told them I had reconsidered, and would have to say no. And I am so glad I did. And I am glad I had a wife who gave me the Lord’s counsel when I needed it.

 

I think this whole matter of listening for God, and listening to God, most often happens not through dramatic revelations or through actually hearing His voice, but through the Holy Spirit’s careful and continuous guidance, if we will keep asking for it.

 

And when it comes to deciding what is the will of God, there’s actually a two-part answer to that question.

 

One answer is that the Bible contains God’s will. God will not send me any message or revelation that contradicts what the Bible says. And the more familiar I become with my Bible, the more familiar I become with the way God handles this or that issue.

 

It’s like being married to someone for a long time. We get to know each other’s likes and dislikes. The more I read my Bible, the more I discover what annoys God – and what overjoys Him.

 

Wouldn’t it be a great gift to God if we all decided to do nothing this week but that which would make Him overjoyed?

 

In fact, let’s lay down another sermon point, something else that God’s nation-builders do:


God’s nation-builders not only listen for – and listen to – God, but they also do exactly what God says to do.

 

There’s nothing wrong, of course, with asking God for clarification. Gideon did. Samuel did. Abraham did. Peter on a rooftop in Joppa did. Jesus’ disciples often asked Him to clarify this or that obscure parable.

 

But when the will of God is clear – such as what is revealed in clear Bible passages – we need to do exactly what God says to do.

 

And when, through godly people – such as a godly spouse -- God guides you toward His will, you need to follow through on it. For several years after my decision to pass up the Ministry position, I would occasionally get phone calls from this or that Adventist publishing company, putting out a feeler to see if I would be interested in doing that kind of work. I would always graciously tell them no, that I believed that Shelley and I were where the Lord wanted us to be.

 

I believe the Lord wants to get through to us. I don’t think He wants to leave us in the dark about the direction our lives should take. Sometimes He may allow us to wait while conditions become just right, before He opens doors for us. For example, it was nine or 10 months after Shelley and I were married that I began to feel the call to the ministry. I believe the Lord didn’t want me to be a pastor until I grew up a little, and until He linked my life with someone who would become a superb pastor’s wife. Only then did He send us down that road.

 

Next week we’ll learn other important guidelines from Abraham about how to be a nation-builder for God. But for now, let’s resolve to do some thoughtful listening this week, through our Bibles and in our prayers.

 

(Back to the Top)

CAUTION! GOD AT JUDGMENT
Expository Sermon on Genesis 6
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 3/2/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 6.

 

Ever since almost the start of the year we have been looking closely at the first few chapters of Genesis, in a sermon series whose titles all start with the word “caution!” We started with Genesis 1, “Caution – God at Work,” then came Genesis 2 – “Caution – God at Rest.” Genesis 3 brought us “Caution – God at War,” and for the last two weeks we’ve talked about “Caution! God at Reconciliation.”

 

Today’s Genesis 6 sermon is called “Caution! God at Judgment.”

 

As I’ve mentioned before in this series, the “caution” doesn’t mean that we need to be afraid of God – it means that we need to be afraid of getting the wrong ideas about God. Because the most important question in the universe is not “Will I be saved?” but “What is God really like?”

 

And there’s no doubt about it – Genesis 6 is one Bible chapter which, if you don’t read it slowly and carefully and completely in context, can portray God in quite a puzzling light.

Before we go any further, let me do a bit of reminiscing. Some of my South Dakota farm boy acquaintances were drafted into the Vietnam War. Now, these were kids who, ever since boyhood, had been “playing” war with toy rifles, and acting out cowboy-Indian battles with cap pistols.

 

And now, all of a sudden, they are halfway around the globe fighting a real war. But it wasn’t a conventional, World War II war, the kind of war they saw unrealistically portrayed in the comic books they read, or on the TV shows they watched. Instead, the Vietnam War was a complicated, messy, and brutal horror. And when these guys came back, there was a different look on their faces. Like their dads who’d fought in World War II, they didn’t like to talk about what they’d been through. But unlike their dads’ war, America hadn’t won.

 

What happened to those Vietnam vets, and I’m sure to every other real warrior who enters into real battle, even in what we like to think of as the “clean” or fairly straightforward wars, is that nothing had prepared them for what they would really experience. The average citizen back home would discuss the war, and speculate earnestly about how it should be fought, but they didn’t know what they were talking about. They’d never been there.

 

I thought about those Vietnam vets as I was reading through the first part of Genesis 6. As we read these verses, you and I need to remember – before we start passing any sort of judgment on God – that we were not there. You and I have the very fallacious human habit of judging every other era of history by standards which have arisen during our own. And we have another very normal – but equally fallacious – habit of assuming that, when He is faced with a crisis, God should always respond in the way we would respond to the minor, day-to-day type of crises which we normally face.

 

Instead, what you and I need to do whenever we study the Bible crises is to read prayerfully and carefully. That’s what we’ll try to do today as well.

 

This is such an important Bible story that I was able to discover no less than five “cautions” in it, and there are probably more. What I hope is that each of these cautions will cause us to examine what God says and does very carefully, so that we will see Him in the clearest light possible.

 

Let’s start with verse 1 of Genesis chapter 6.

 

Genesis 6:1 – 2 [NKJV]: Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

 

If we wanted, we could allow ourselves to be led down an interesting but pretty inconclusive sidetrack here. Who were the “sons of God,” and who were the “daughters of men”? All sorts of speculative theories have been dreamed up over the years, but the bottom line is that this seems to be a way of describing what happened when people who followed God married people who didn’t follow God.

 

As I read this during the past few days, I was struck by something I hadn’t seen before. If you glance back at Chapter 5, you see that it is entirely filled with the record of people being born, living a long time, giving birth to children, and so on.

 

And then, when you read the verses we just read, and you see these people continuing to multiply, here’s the conclusion I came to. In fact, this could be our first “Caution.” If you’re taking sermon notes, this would be point one.

 

CAUTION: God is on the side of life.

 

Why is it important to get firmly in our mind this very correct idea that God is on the side of life, that God is in favor of life?

 

It’s because later in this chapter God will instruct Noah to build a cruise ship, because the Creator is going to send a flood to destroy every living thing, human or animal or bird, who is not on that boat. If God is truly on the side of life – in other words, if He did indeed tell Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and if He did indeed care enough about births and deaths to record some of them in chapter 5, we will need to cautiously ask ourselves, “What happened? What happened to the God who is on the side of life? Why did He send the flood?”

 

I think that if we continue to read slowly and carefully, this will be more understandable than it might ever have been before.

 

So – “Caution! God is on the side of life.” Why is this a caution? Isn’t it a good, safe thing for God to be on the side of life? Well, I think it’s a “caution” because it’s something we need to get firmly in mind before we read further in the story. We need to remember that God is not only on the side of life, but He created life in such explosive abundance that it’s obvious that He loves life to the fullest.

 

So, what do I do now that I have discovered that God is on the side of life? Well, for one thing, I need to stay alive! If I am depressed, or if you are depressed – and it’s not just the temporary glooms or “blues” – but if it’s a serious depression, we need to seek medical help.

 

Don’t ever be ashamed to take the modern, prescribed, extremely fine-tuned medications that will bring the brain’s chemicals back into balance. Without my prescription progressive lenses here, you would be nothing but a blur, and I wouldn’t even be able to see my sermon notes clearly. These glasses bring my vision back into balance, which is what modern carefully-designed prescription medications can do for the mind.

 

And knowing that God is on the side of life, I should not only stay alive, but I need to thank Him again and again for being a life giver and a life lover. And I also need to remember that God creates no throwaway people. We are all His beloved children, no matter what our ancestors have done. When Jesus Himself became a human being, He came from a genealogy which contained murderers and prostitutes.

 

Now let’s look at the next “caution,” because it is another key puzzle-piece to understanding God’s true nature. Start with verse three.

 

Verses 3 – 4: And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

 

The New King James Version calls them “giants,” but more recent translations call them by the Hebrew word Nephilim, which can mean either “notable” or even “fallen.”

 

Again, here are some little rabbit trails we could scamper down – but again, we would end up just doing a lot of useless speculating. The bottom line seems to be that when these sons of God intermarried with these daughters of men, their kids were pretty special. These verses call them “the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” And we are presuming that the women were equally mighty and influential.

 

But if indeed the “sons of God” is a metaphorical way of describing the people who followed God’s ways, and the “daughters of men” describes those who were unfaithful to Him, then the same thing happen that often happens when people become unequally yoked together today – the evil influences, the selfish influences, gained more ground than the righteous influences.
Because look at what the next verse says – verse five.

 

Verse 5: Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
 
This has got to be one of the Bible’s most bloodcurdling verses. I have German blood in me, and if my ancestors hadn’t relocated to America in the late 1800s, my dad might have been a young soldier in Hitler’s army.

 

I’ve often wondered how it was like to be a German and to gradually realize – though you wouldn’t know the full extent of the horror until after the war – to gradually realize that your Jewish neighbors were being taken away, and that they would never come back. I mean, how could a supposedly civilized people build and fill concentration camps which were also chillingly efficient death chambers?

 

But even the most brutal Nazi SS officer was not in a class with these pre-flood people. Let’s look at verse five again.

 

Verse 5: Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

 

Before we study into that verse, let’s lay down our second “caution.”

 

CAUTION: Not only is God on the side of life, but CAUTION!  God sees to the very heart of evil.

 

What do I mean by that? It seems like every day the news we hear is filled with stories of judges and juries who have to make important decisions about what to do with criminals. Even the wisest judge, however, cannot look into the hearts and minds of the people in the orange jumpsuits. So along with looking at both physical and circumstantial evidence, every judge has to operate on his or her best guess as to what the criminal’s real motives were.

 

But notice how the Lord can clearly see both the external acts and the internal motives. He could see that the wickedness of man was great in the earth – this was very evident from what they were doing – but He could also see that every intent (not the occasional intent or the well-I-got-drunk-last-night-and-didn’t-know-what-I-was-doing slip-up, but every intent) of the thoughts of those pre-flood people’s hearts was only evil continually.

 

That is a devastatingly blanket statement. It means that as Noah and his family walked through the land, everybody they met was so thoroughly possessed by wickedness that sadism and masochism and rape and torture and anything else you have nightmares about must have happened as frequently as the daily meals. Imagine powerful mothers and fathers treating their kids cruelly, and those kids going out and brutally bullying younger kids, and the younger kids mistreating animals. Every intent of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually.

 

Glance down at verse 11, because the next couple of verses will tell us what it looks like when this universally evil mentality is allowed to continue.

 

Verses 11 - 12: The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

 

Why is it a “caution” that God can see to the very heart of evil? Well, we should never make the mistake that some Bible people did – and many people do today – of believing that we can pull the wool over God’s eyes, or the God will somehow wink His eye at what we do. All you have to do is read large chunks of your Bible, especially the Old Testament prophets, and you will see that God does not like violence.

 

I was interested this week to read the part of verse four where it says that these wicked people were “mighty men . . . men of renown.” I mean, these were the celebrities of that day. I am a customer of America Online, and whoever puts together their rotating news features seem to imagine that I am the type of person who wants nothing more than to keep up with a huge cluster of celebrities which I couldn’t care less about. I keep having to click out of that “Welcome” window which comes up every time I sign on.

 

Jesus said that there will come a time when “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”  (Matthew 24:37 – 38) and if the last days are to be like Noah’s days, there will probably be a huge number of trend-setting, powerful, influential, good-looking people whose hairstyles and lifestyles many will copy, but who mostly ignore God or don’t believe in Him, or who if they claim to believe in Him, have re-created Him in their own image, so that HE can be said to condone what they do.

 

Well, what do I do, now that I know that God can see to the very heart of evil? With David in Psalm 51:6, we need to understand that God desires truth in our “inward parts,” and with David in Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24, we need to pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”

 

Now onto the very crucial third “caution.” Let’s start with verse five again.

 

Verses 5 – 6: Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

 

I remember, a few years back, when the impact of verse six hit me. My first thought was, “Wait a minute. God is ‘sorry’ that He made man on the earth? He was ‘grieved in His heart’? I thought sin of this ghastly intensity would make Him angry, make Him froth at the mouth. Doesn’t God get angry?”

 

I believe this is very important, right here. At no other time in the Old Testament, or in the New Testament, except when the New Testament describes the last days, which are to be like Noah’s days, at no other time in the Bible do I remember sinfulness this bad being described. Yet here, at the very appalling vortex of satanic triumph, God doesn’t get mad, but gets sad. He becomes grieved in His heart.

 

Let’s make that into Caution Number Three.

 

CAUTION: Not only is God on the side of life, and not only does God sees to the very heart of evil, but CAUTION! God responds to sin with grief and pain.

 

What’s the “caution” here? It’s a reminder that we need to not get the wrong idea about how God responds to even the ugliest sins.

 

Sure, the Old Testament, and the New Testament talk about the “wrath” of God. Sure, there are times that the Lord gets truly frustrated. But we need to remember that when Jesus spoke of God, He spoke of Him only as Father – never as Sovereign of the universe (though He is), never as the Almighty (though He is) – only as Father. Jesus taught us to pray not “Almighty Potentate of Time and Eternity,” but “Our Father.”

 

Some dads aren’t perfect, of course. Mine wasn’t. My dad did the best he could with what he had, and was a tender-hearted and very loving father. But he was a workaholic dad as well, like so many men of his generation. He often seemed remote.

 

But Jesus calls God Father. And if the word “father” causes our stomachs to twist because of our own dads, we need to give God the privilege of redefining that emotion-laden parental title for us. We do God the deepest disservice, and pay Him the supreme insult, when we refuse to open our hearts to Him and not allow our Heavenly Father to be the one to teach us what true fatherhood, true parenthood really is.

 

Now we come to another very serious “caution.” Let’s start at verse six.

 

Verses 6 – 7: And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

 

Here’s the next “caution”:

 

CAUTION: Not only is God on the side of life, and not only does God see to the very heart of evil, and not only does God respond to sin with grief and pain—but CAUTION! Sometimes, God must destroy.

 

And this was evidently one of those times. This, of course, was the only time in past history that the entire planet was cleansed of sin and sinners. That entire generation of pre-flood people must have been shockingly incorrigible.

 

What’s so surprising is how they got to be that evil. Many of the people alive at that point were old enough to have personally known Adam and Eve. Even more knew Adam and Eve’s righteous son Seth.

 

So most of these pre-flood people were in a position to have been able to personally interview the very first human beings from the hand of God. But Satan’s selfishness and rebellion had been allowed to inhabit their hearts, and they were probably like the Israelites in the wilderness, who were able to scream rebelliously up at the supernatural cloud hanging 500 feet above the tabernacle. In the very presence of God, rebellion is possible – as heaven discovered when the beautiful Angel Lucifer began to worship himself.

 

Caution: sometimes God must destroy. And it is always because He has absolutely no other option. He gave us free choice, which means that He will, in the end, give us what we really choose. If we wholeheartedly choose to live life in His happy presence forever, He will give us that privilege, and the Bible tells us how to receive it.

 

But if instead, we choose to separate ourselves entirely from Him, then He will sadly give us that wish as well. And since total separation from God means total separation from God’s life support, we will cease to exist. Remember how, in Revelation 6:16, when the Lord comes, many will cry for the rocks and mountains to fall on them? They will want to be separated from the presence of God.

 

But let’s quickly move to our encouraging final “caution.”

 

Verse 8: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

 

And we know the rest of the story, how God told Noah to build an ark. Peter says that Noah was building that ark for 120 years, and finally, after all those years of building, Noah the preacher of righteousness was able to save only his family.

 

Here’s the caution:

 

CAUTION: Not only is God on the side of life, and not only does God see to the very heart of evil, and not only does God respond to sin with grief and pain, and not only are there times when God must destroy—but CAUTION: God will rescue His Noahs.

 

So, why the caution? It’s a caution to me that, if I want to be rescued as Noah was, I must become like Noah was. How did Noah become the kind of person God felt safe to transport into a new, start-over-again earth?

 

The next verse, verse 9, tells us.

 

Verse 9: This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.

 

First, Noah was a “just man.” He behaved honestly and with principles. All over our planet today there are leaders, even religious leaders, who should be behaving justly, yet who instead are doing hypocritical things in secret. Noah was not perfect, but he was not like that.

 

You and I need to live as though there are two or three reality-TV cameras following us around. Because there are—in the hands of the recording angels. At work, at home, in stores we stop at, and on the internet, we need to be righteous people.

 

Second, the verse says that Noah “walked with God.” You remember that back in the previous chapter, Enoch “walked with God.” I looked it up in the Hebrew, and the same words are used for both men. They both walked with God.

 

So – caution! Since God will rescue His Noahs, and since Noah walked with God, God’s modern-day Noahs must be walking with God too.

 

How do you walk with God? Well, that Hebrew word “walk” was not a “spiritual” or theological word. It was the word you used when you told somebody you were going to take a literal walk.

When you walk with someone, you and that other person are going in the same direction, going to the same destination. If you wander off in some other direction, you are no longer walking with that person. So you and I need to find out where God is going, and walk with Him so that we will get there.

 

When you walk with someone you talk together, and learn more about each other. As we’ve seen in the verse above, God already knows us outside and inside. And the more we study His Holy Scriptures, the more we will learn about Him.

 

Which brings me to this sermon’s most important question: what about you? Would you like to walk more closely with your Creator as the days go along? Enoch walked with God, and God rescued him from an utterly sinful world. Noah walked with God, and the days are close upon us, those “days of Noah,” when Jesus will come, when Jesus will return to rescue the faithful people who’ve been longing for His arrival.

 

And I want to be among that group. Do you?

 

Would you like to resolve to spend more time in prayer this coming week, more time reading your Bibles? Would you like to raise your hand if that is your desire?

 

(Back to the Top)

 

CAUTION: GOD AT RECONCILIATION (PART 2)
Expository Sermon on Genesis 3
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 2/23/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Genesis 3.

 

Today’s sermon is number five in a series I’ve been preaching since the beginning of the year. It’s a series called “Caution!” It started with Genesis 1 – “Caution – God at Work.” Then came Genesis 2 – “Caution – God at Rest.” Then came Genesis 3 – “Caution – God at War,” and last week was Part 1 of “Caution – God at Reconciliation.” Today’s sermon will be Part 2.

 

As I’ve mentioned in past sermons, the “caution” part isn’t because we need to be afraid of God – it’s because we need to be cautious that we don’t allow the devil’s insidious propaganda about God to replace the truth about our Creator.

 

Last week we broke off in the middle of the story of how Adam and Eve chose to distrust their Creator, and chose instead to trust Satan, speaking through the mouth of a beautiful serpent. We watched as God walked sadly toward the hiding couple, and begin to speak with them.

 

The two “cautions” we introduced last week were: “Caution! Don’t misunderstand when God pursues you,” and “Caution! No matter how guilty you are, don’t be afraid to talk to God.”

As we pick up the story this week, I’m reminded about something I saw in a Barnes & Noble bookstore last October. I’ve noticed that bookstores are branching out more and more from strictly books, and the downtown Bellevue’s Barnes & Noble now has a whole central section of toys and games and puzzles, as well as other non-book items.

 

Last October I was walking through that section and I saw a package with a plastic doll-like figure in it. This figure was about 10 inches high, and it was called a “pocket god.” It had a large round head with big eyes and wild hair. Its mouth was wide open, showing a lot of teeth. Its hands were reaching out as though it were about to grab you.

 

Nearby was a poster which informed you that there were actually four different kinds of pocket gods, and showed you pictures of them. One of them did not have wild eyes and a teeth-baring mouth and outstretched fingers, and it looked rather cute.

 

But the other three looked frightening—with the big eyes and the howling mouth and the grasping fingers. One pocket-god was colored gray, and looked like it represented a zombie. Another had half a human skull on the top of its head, and seemed to represent a witch doctor.

 

I got the impression that there was some sort of cartoony mythology behind these “gods,” and I found out that they star in a humorously gruesome online cartoon series. But whatever the intention of the “pocket gods’” creators -- and I imagine they were doing it in rather weird fun – they had very definitely joined the word “god” to some pretty ugly images.

 

Which is what Satan had done in the Garden of Eden, but he had definitely not done it in fun, but to truly try to wreck God’s reputation. These days it seems like the news is always full of stories about public figures who are being accused of secretly doing some pretty evil things – all the way from a county executive to a pastor to a college president.


Unfortunately, these accusations are often the result of investigative journalism, and often turn out to be true or partly true. But the evil genius of the fallen archangel was to be able to pin accusations on the spotless character of God, and persuade a lot of angels, then a lot of people, to believe them.

 

I’d like to pick up the story in Genesis 3 by following up on last week’s final “caution” – “Caution! No matter how guilty you are, don’t be afraid to talk to God.” Because, if you are hesitant or fearful to open communication with God, this indicates that somehow the devil has gotten to you with his propaganda.

 

But the best way to demonstrate that God is safe to talk to is to watch Him in conversation with His first two children, who have single-handedly – or double handedly – destroyed God’s wonderful plans for this planet and its people. This is no small sin. This is the worst kind of sin. It’s the sin that says, “With my eyes wide open, and having known only the goodness and love of God, I have hereby chosen to distrust something my Creator has told me, and instead believe an opposite idea that I have become fascinated with.”

 

So how does God react, in this hour of great sorrow for Him? Can He control His emotions? Let’s find out:

 

Genesis 3:8 – 12 [NKJV]: And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

 

Look at the page of your Bible right here. Do you see the little white space between verse 12 and verse 13? That space is tiny, but it is extremely important. What happens on the far side of that little white bridge of paper will make all the difference.

 

Because if God is like a Marine drill sergeant, as verse 13 begins He is going to sneer and scream at Adam. “Stop passing the buck!” He will roar. And then He will follow up with some hot and well-chosen words which will cut Adam down to size. (And, of course, make Adam far less likely to want to have any sort of conversation with God in the future.)

 

Or, if God is instead a cool, impersonal scientist doing an experiment with lab rats, and this particular experiment didn’t work out, He will shrug his shoulders, pull the plug on the experiment, turn out the lab lights, and go home to supper.

 

But watch the wonderful thing that happens instead.

 

Verses 12 – 13: Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” . . . .”

 

Notice what God has done. He has allowed one of His children to guide the discussion. He overlooks, for the time being, Adam’s buck-passing maneuver. He even overlooks Adam’s implied accusation that God has given him a deceptive wife, and that therefore to some extent God Himself is responsible for this mess.

 

But God lets that roll off His shoulders, and keeps the conversation going. He turns to Eve.


Verse 13: And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

 

Again, here’s the old familiar buck-passing maneuver. But at least Eve does not accuse God of creating that beautiful serpent and therefore, again, being partly responsible.

 

And once again, God temporarily lets humanity guide the conversation. He turns to the serpent. But notice that He does not ask the serpent what he has done. And the serpent says absolutely nothing at all. I was wondering this week why Satan remained silent. After all, New Testament demons sometimes became quite vocal in the presence of Jesus – unless Jesus specifically ordered them to keep quiet.

 

The answer is that we do not know why the snake says nothing. God does not engage the snake in conversation, and the snake does not start one himself. Maybe Satan knows he doesn’t dare. Or maybe it’s a pity-ploy, to try to persuade Eve that God is a bully. We don’t know.

 

Before we go any further, let me introduce this week’s first “caution.” If you’re taking sermon notes, this would be point one.

 

CAUTION! Don’t obsess about God’s “curses.”

 

Why do I say that? Because if you know the story, you know that, beginning with the serpent, God is going to start talking about consequences. God will use the word “cursed” twice – once referring to the snake, and once referring to the ground which Adam will have to laborious till in the sweat of his brow.

 

As we read through these consequences again, I think we’ll see just how mysterious some of them are. We don’t know the full story. But we should not obsess about these curses or consequences. Because there are some things God does allows that we cannot figure out. Sometimes, later developments show just how wonderfully wise His ways are. Sometimes we just have to wait until even later for explanations.

 

It’s kind of like that poor cruise ship which lost power on the ocean. Everybody likes to be a Monday morning quarterback, and some people have asked, “Why didn’t another ship just come alongside and transfer the passengers over?”

 

Well, immediately, anybody who’s had any experience at all with large ships on the ocean knows that transferring 4000 people from one boat to another across heaving ocean waves would be an incredibly dangerous task.

 

So as we listen to God listing consequences, let’s be reverently curious, but not obsess about the predictions or decisions He makes. We don’t have all the facts.

 

Verse 14: So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

 

This is really interesting. God tells the serpent that he is cursed more than all cattle or every beast of the field. This indicates that, before this curse went into effect, the serpent must have been considered in some way to be higher than other animals. And sure enough, verse 1 does say that.

 

And God says to the serpent that he would now crawl on his belly – which indicates that, before this curse went into effect, the serpent used some other means of movement, which did not involve slithering along the ground.

 

Up until I studied this more closely in the last week or so, I’d always been a bit puzzled as to why the snake was literally lowered like this, lowered to the very dust. If it was Satan speaking through the serpent, which it was, why penalize an entire species of reptiles?

 

But this week I got to thinking, “What if God had not done this? What if He had allowed the serpent to remain the evidently upright, intelligent creature he had been?”

 

One possible answer could be that, if God had not humbled the serpent’s status – and if He had not placed what seems to be a natural loathing of snakes in most human hearts – then maybe Satan might still have been able to use serpents as his ventriloquist dummies, and continue to beguile future generations. Maybe if God hadn’t provided a natural revulsion to serpents, maybe they would have been widely worshiped. But it’s not quite as easy to worship a belly-crawler who is lower than you are, and who also makes you uneasy.

 

And then notice what God says to the snake:

 

Verse 15: And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

 

This has been called the first “gospel” verse in the Bible. Over in Revelation 12:9, Satan is called “that old serpent,” and sure enough, though he would strike viciously at Jesus, Jesus will eventually seal the devil’s doom.

 

Then God turns to Eve.

 

Verse 16: To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”

 

I’m not sure that I understand these three “curses.” For one thing, which of them are curses and which are consequences? Certainly, in a sinful, selfish world, the gender with the stronger muscles does tend to rule over the weaker. In her book Patriarchs and Prophets, Ellen White suggests that this was indeed not so much a curse as a sad natural consequence of sin.

 

And finally the Lord turns to Adam.

 

Verses 17 – 19: Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

 

One of the things you learn growing up on a farm, as I did, is that in this fallen world, survival is serious business. As I trudged, under the summer sun, down the rows of carrots or green beans which my mom had planted in weary abundance, even though I hated hoeing, I knew that every chopped weed would no longer be able to suck up precious water which was needed by those carrots or beans or peas or sweet corn which needed to and feed us. Why mom planted beets or squash, I did not know, because I hated both. But they were food, and food – grown with patient labor -- keeps you alive.

 

So let’s not obsess about these curses. God had His reasons for imposing them, or permitting them. Leaning on my hoe handle and staring down a long row of radishes plants, I learned the valuable lessons that are repeated in the Bible:

 

Proverbs 6:6: “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no overseer or ruler, provides for supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.”

 

Proverbs 12:11  “He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but he who follows frivolity is devoid of understanding.”

 

Proverbs 13:11  “Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.”

 

Ecclesiastes 5:12  “The sleep of the laboring man is sweet.”

 

So, what do I do, now that I know that I don’t need to obsess about those “curses” or “consequences” we’ve been reading about?

 

Well, for one thing, I should continue give God permission to do things His way. I should indeed pray for the things I need, as well as for the people in my life who need prayer. But I should not take it personally if God chooses to delay His answers, or to opt for different answers than I’m hoping for.

 

Another thing I should do is to keep an eye out for Bible stories where people urgently believe that God should handle something a certain way, but He ended up doing something different which turned out to be better in the long term. There are many such stories, including the Jews’ humiliating Babylonian captivity – which cured them of idol-worship, Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” which God refused to remove so that Paul would continue to depend on God’s grace, and Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer: “Please take this cup – yet not My will but Your will.”

 

There may be other “cautions” in this Genesis 3 story, but the final one I’d like to look at could be expressed this way:

 

If the first one is, CAUTION! Don’t obsess about God’s “curses,”  the second one could go like this: CAUTION! Don’t miss the reconciliation!

 

After all, the whole point of this quiet Eden conversation is for God to reconcile the human race to Himself. We’ve already seen His gospel promise that one of Eve’s offspring will deal a death-blow to the Satan behind the snake. But this chapter’s “reconciliation event” happens with such little fanfare that we might miss it if we’re not careful.

 

Verse 21: Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

 

Tunics of skin? Why not clothe His children in garments made of cotton, or woven flax? Why not skirts made of long grass? Couldn’t certain kinds of flowers be twined together? And if animals must be used, why not garments of wool, or goat hair? Why skin?

 

Because this is another gospel verse. In the next chapter, chapter 4, we watch as God approves Abel’s firstborn animal sacrifices instead of Cain’s fruits and vegetables.

 

Because there on that sad Eden meadow, God made it possible to fulfill His word that in the very day someone ate of the forbidden tree, that person would die. Adam and Eve did die that very day – they died through a substitute. Animals – perhaps even lambs – were sacrificed so that God’s two children could be clothed. And perhaps as Adam and Eve watched this happen, and felt those skins surround them, still warm and wet from their previous owners, perhaps then they began to understand not only the horror of sin but the infinite lengths to which God would go to save them from its final consequences.

 

And that’s what I need to do as I think back on this story. I need to remember how God handles sin. If I have discovered how dreadfully sinful I am, my human instinct might impel me to run and hide from the face of a holy God. I might be tempted to punish myself to try to pay for my misdeeds.

 

But even after that very first sin, that very first ugly spasm of selfish distrust, God’s message has always been, “Don’t be afraid. Bring your sins to Me.” That was the entire point of the beautiful wilderness tabernacle, the portable structure on which God lavished such personal attention and construction detail.

 

That sanctuary was an acted drama toward which, from family dwellings from every direction, fathers would lead little lambs, or goats, or bulls which symbolically bore the sins of their family. Dad would lead those animals to the doorway of the sanctuary courtyard. There, the sins of each family member would be confessed, and by the blood would be carried into the very tabernacle itself, to the very presence of God, where on the Day of Atonement they eventually would be totally wiped away.

 

Here’s a poem I discovered this week. Listen to how well it expresses the gospel.

 

The wonders of redeeming love
Our highest thoughts exceed;
The Son of God comes from above
For sinful man to bleed.

 

He gives Himself, His life, His all,
A sinless sacrifice.
For man He drains the cup of gall,
For man the victim dies.

 

And now before His Father’s face
His precious blood He pleads;
For those who seek the throne of grace
His love still intercedes.

 

He knows the frailties of our frame,
For He has borne our grief;
Our great High Priest once felt the same,
And He can send relief.

 

His love will not be satisfied,
Till He in glory sees
The faithful ones for whom He died
From sin forever free.

             --Roswell F. Cottrell

 

How about you? Would you like to let Him know that you love Him for all He has done to save you? Would you like to raise your hand and thank Him for that? Would you like to ask Him to renew His Holy Spirit within you so you can live as a forgiven person?

 

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CAUTION: GOD AT RECONCILIATION—Part 1 of 2
Expository Sermon on Genesis 3
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 2/16/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3.

 

This is the fourth in a series of sermons I’ve been preaching over the last few weeks. The first was called “Caution! God at Work!” Then came “God at Rest,” and “God at War.” And today’s sermon is called “Caution! God at Reconciliation.”

 

So why do we have to exercise caution when we think about God as a reconciler? It’s for the same reason that we needed to exercise caution when we watched God at work, and at rest, and at war. It’s not because we need to be afraid of God – it’s because we need to be afraid of believing the devil’s propaganda about Him.

 

Last week we talked about how Satan did a masterful job of convincing Eve to trust his lies rather than a clear statement God had made. It’s like Satan was carrying a rifle, a weapon designed to destroy God’s reputation.

 

I mentioned that Satan’s God-defaming rifle used a low-capacity ammunition clip which contained only four bullets. But these are all the bullets Satan has ever needed when shooting holes in God’s credibility.

 

The first bullet from Satan’s distrust-inducing rifle was to accuse God of saying something He didn’t say (“Has God said you can’t eat from any of the trees in the garden?”) The second bullet was to accuse God of lying (“You will not surely die!”). The third bullet was to accuse God of selfishness (“God knows that in the day you eat of this fruit, you will become like God.”) And the fourth bullet was to offer Eve something bad as though it were good. (Satan promised that if Eve ate the fruit she would be able to understand evil.)

 

And Eve takes the bait. She eats the fruit, and gives some to Adam, and he eats. And somehow, through their dreadful loss of innocence, they discover that they are unclothed, and they run and get some leaves to sew together to put on.

 

And imagine how God felt to watch this happen. I would think that His agony would be multiplied because He knows the end from the beginning, and foresaw this sad event. And now He is being forced to watch it as it happens.

 

Now, if God had been created in Satan’s image – in other words, if God were the type of God which Satan convinced Eve He was, things would have turned out very differently. God would have destroyed Adam and Eve in a selfish fit of anger, and maybe the planet along with them, and would have stormed angrily out of this part of the universe. And then, of course, not just one third of the angels, but maybe two thirds, would have begun to distrust Him.

 

But God is not like that. And here is where we need to exercise caution. Because some of the things God does in the next few verses are not easy to explain, because the Bible does not explain them, maybe because we wouldn’t be able to understand them yet.

 

So this morning we are going to cautiously look at two of four “Cautions” we need to keep in mind as God does what He can to resolve this problem. (We’ll talk about the first two cautions this week, and the other two next week.) And as we watch this story unfold, we’ll see that what God will be doing here – in addition to reconciling His children to Himself – will be proving how wrong Satan’s portrayal of Him is. Let’s watch this happen.

 

We pick up the story at the point where Adam and Eve are trying to get used to their fig leaf garments. There on that Eden afternoon, with shadows lengthening along the meadows, Adam and Eve have separated themselves from their Creator, both figuratively and literally.
God has some choices here, of course. He could have said to Himself, “I know what I’ll do. I’ll creep invisibly up on them, right there in front of that bush they’re hiding behind, and suddenly I’ll unveil all my majesty and glory and power. I will also make a sound like the shockwave of a meteor passing through the atmosphere. Maybe that will scare them so badly they’ll never dare disobey me again.”

 

Or God could have said to Himself, “Well, maybe a blaze of glory and a sonic boom might go a bit too far. Maybe instead I’ll just let them stew in their own juices a little bit. Maybe I’ll give them a week, or a month, to cower in the woods wondering what I’m thinking. Maybe that will teach them.”

 

But of course God doesn’t do either of these things.

 

Genesis 3:8 [NKJV]: And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

 

What sound would God make walking in the garden? Actually, if you look up the Hebrew word which is translated “sound,” it’s literally the word for “voice.” The old King James actually uses “voice” in this verse. But since the word can also mean “sound”, most modern translations will use “sound.”

 

But what sound would God make as He walked through the garden? Would the grass rustle? Would the birds began to sing joyously at His approach? Would cows moo in welcome, monkeys chatter, elephants trumpet? Whatever sound God made, Adam and Eve heard it, and they hid.

Can you imagine how terrible God must feel? He knows very well that this isn’t the same as two little kids playing giggly hide and seek from Mom or Dad. What on earth these two human beings have to fear from their Heavenly Father, God can scarcely fathom. But somewhere between the first syllable of the serpent’s persuasion, and the last bite off those fruit-cores, at some point a sense of terrible shame has come over them, as well as a terror at the thought of God coming close.

 

I have an idea that sin – disobeying God – affects us a lot more viscerally than if we were simply doing something naughty. Sin separates us from God. That’s what Isaiah 59:2 says: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you . . . .”

 

But that is not the end of the story. Those Isaiah words were spoken to hardened rebels, spoken to jolt them out of their hard heartedness. Crouching behind that Eden bush you don’t really have rebels, at least not any more. You have a very fearful and sorrowful and worried couple.

 

And now they hear God coming toward them.

 

This would be a good place to insert our first caution. If you’re taking sermon notes, this would be Point One.

 

CAUTION! Don’t misunderstand when God pursues you.

 

God is not striding through that Eden meadow to get vengeance. God is not coming to shout at His children. Satan has been portraying God as a selfish miser, and therefore a potential vengeance-getter, an angry shouter, but God is none of these things.

 

Two days ago, Valentine’s Day, I saw a powerful illustration of the fear which pursuit can cause when the one being pursued doesn’t really know the pursuer.

 

Thursday afternoon – it must’ve been about five or five thirty – I was taking a brisk walk up the sidewalk on 140th Avenue north of the church. I reached the intersection at Northeast 8th, and when the light changed I kept walking. I was heading over to the Staples store to see if they had a certain kind of notebook.

 

If you’re familiar with 140th Avenue at evening rush hour, you know that the southbound traffic between Bel-Red Road and Northeast 8th is terrible. That’s because just south of Bel-Red the traffic loses a lane, and everybody driving south has to bottleneck in together.
So I’m walking on the sidewalk, heading north, lots of cars beside me crawling south. I still have about three blocks to go before I reach Bel-Red. All of a sudden I see in front of me a little white dog. I can’t tell you what breed he is. I checked on some Google pictures of dog breeds, and this little white dog had the ears and the build of a boxer, but he wasn’t much larger than a largeish Chihuahua.

 

Whatever kind of dog this was, it had one of the most expressive faces I have ever seen on a dog. And the expression that showed very clearly was extreme worry. This dog wasn’t much older than a puppy. I could see he had a collar on.

 

But what was so frightening was that he was pattering along just off the curb, actually in the street. Sometimes he would weave out into the path of a nearby car, and that car would step on its brakes, and then the little dog would come back and walk closer to the curb. And then he would stop, and look around him in a very puzzled and worried way, and would start pattering along again.

 

I took a couple of steps in his direction, but then stopped. This dog did not know me – in fact, since we’re in Genesis 3, you could say that he did not know me from Adam – and I knew what might happen when a tall, strange man approaches a very small and jumpy dog. He might dive desperately into the traffic again.

 

I didn’t worry very much about him at that point, because the traffic wasn’t going fast, people were noticing him and stopping for him. He disappeared from sight, and I turned northward again and kept moving toward the Bel-Red intersection.

 

I had almost reached the intersection when I glanced back, and lo and behold, here was this little white dog about 15 feet behind me! At first I thought that he had sensed in me a kindly soul and had decided to follow me, and maybe I could get hold of him and get a look at his collar. But instead, he jumped off the curb and ran along in the gutter past me, heading north toward the intersection.

 

Almost immediately a car horn started beeping. Somebody in a northbound vehicle had stopped at the light, and had noticed the dog. Suddenly, the driver’s door opened, and a young woman got out of the car and hurried across the street to where I was waiting for the Walk signal. The little dog at this point was still on our side of the street.

 

The woman kept calling “Somebody get that dog! Somebody get that dog!” At this point, the dog actually darted north across the street, in front of the cars. The woman impulsively dashed after him into the intersection. This alarmed the little dog and he ran from her. He misunderstood her pursuit. Cars beeped, people shouted, and I honestly do not understand how that little dog didn’t get run over. The woman hurried back to safety on my side of the street. She kept calling out “Somebody get that dog!”

 

I never saw the dog again. When it came time for me to cross the street, I looked anxiously up 140th, but saw no little animal lying there. But I still remember the agony of the young woman who so desperately wanted to save that dog, but couldn’t, because the dog didn’t know her, and didn’t understand what she was doing.

 

So when God moved through Eden to rescue His children, He knew they were afraid. He knew they had misunderstood His pursuit.  He knew that at that point they were probably hoping that He would stay away. They didn’t know how badly they needed a God who would pursue them.

 
You see, rather than expecting us to come to Him, God has always pursued us. He paid a visit to the tent of Abraham. He stood at the top of a heavenly ladder and spoke to the sleeping Jacob. He came to an Egyptian Pharaoh one night with dreams of withered cattle and corn. He visited Moses in a burning bush, and after Moses’ death He dressed as a military commander and visited Joshua.

 

He visited us in His Son, and His Son later visited a Pharisee terrorist named Saul of Tarsus. And through both Jesus and Paul He promised to visit us again, after Earth’s history winds down.

 

So what do I do, now that I know this? Rather than misunderstanding God’s pursuit, how can I respond?

 

I know many of you in this room, and I know the stories some of you have to tell of God’s pursuing you, how He wouldn’t let you alone, but kept impressing you to turn in His direction. I would say that if any of you are sensing His pursuit today, it would be incredibly foolish to resist it. Turn to face Him. Come toward Him. And remember that He was the main character in Jesus’ story of the Waiting Father, the dad who kept His eyes on the horizon in hopes of seeing his lost, ashamed, remorseful son finally trudging toward home.

 

And you remember what the father did. Dropping all his oriental dignity, he ran down that road, thumping up dust behind his sandals, so he could wrap his arms around those shoulders he’d been so lonely for, and welcome his baby boy back home.

 

So if you sense that God is calling you back, just move in His direction. All He needs is your permission to proceed, and He will do the rest.

 

As God moves close, Adam and Eve know He is coming. They hear His footsteps drawing near. They know He knows where they are. And they are wondering what will happen next.

 

Verse 9: Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

 

Notice how – to use a modern word – “interactive” God is? God could have walked straight up to that bush and pointed a magisterial finger and barked, “There you are! I see you! Come out from behind there and listen reverently to the lecture I’m going to give you!”

 

Instead, God immediately engages His children in conversation. In fact, let’s make that the second “Caution.”

 

If the first “Caution” is to not misunderstand when God pursues you, then the second could go like this: CAUTION! No matter how guilty you are, don’t be afraid to talk to God.

 

Some people think God is like Old Cooper. When I was a boy in South Dakota, one of the humble pleasures of my young life was to go along with dad when he took trash to the city dump. Those were the days before dumps became landfills and the trash was properly dealt with. The Redfield, South Dakota dump was untrammeled by governmental regulation, and was therefore a place of wonderful opportunity. You drove into the dump, and all around you found yourself in a maze of little curving streets separated by mountains of trash, some of them smoldering, some of them with their fires still blazing. And oh, the treasures you might find!

 

Since your dad worked during the daytime, trips to the dump often happened at twilight, when the dump’s dark mysteries were only partially revealed.

 

But what dampened my dump-diving expeditions was the presence of Old Cooper. Dad simply alluded to him as Cooper, but we kids thought of him as Old Cooper. Old Cooper was the dump master, or dump keeper – I never did know his true title. Anyway, he was in charge of the dump. He probably pulled a modest weekly paycheck from the City of Redfield, but to me – though he wore ordinary denim farmer’s overalls -- he was the demon of the dump. No doubt from stoking all those fires, his face seemed reddened by the heat, and also blackened from the soot.

 

His expression was frightful – deep creases ran down from his nostrils past the corners of his mouth. His eyes were wide and wild. But even more fearful than his expression was that, if you and your dad had just arrived with a pickup-full of trash, and your dad was backing that pickup up to what seemed to be a suitable trash pile, you would suddenly hear the sound of hoarse screaming. Old Cooper, waving a three-pointed pitchfork, would be lumbering toward you, shouting incoherently.

 

I never could understand what Cooper was saying, but Dad could. The message Cooper tried to convey on these occasions was, no, Henry Schurch, you idiot, that is not where you should be dumping that kind of trash. You dump it over there, beyond that mound. Over there, not here.
Dad would amiably apologize, and we would get back in the truck and drive around to where we thought Cooper wanted us to dump the trash. Sometimes he would follow us around the corner and scream at us again if we weren’t exactly at the right place.

 

Some people think that’s what God is like. Cartoonists will most often draw God as looking like Old Cooper with white hair and a beard, and dressed in a wrinkly white robe. Maybe Adam and Eve thought that God, when He finally located them, would be a hoarsely incoherent Old Cooper.

 

But the conversation that follows shows that God is not anything like Cooper. Cooper was a screamer and a waver of pitchforks. God is a thoughtful conversationalist. Cooper thought the end of the world had come if an elderly refrigerator were dumped onto the wrong trash-pile. In a way, God’s Eden world had come to an end because of the crucial act of deep distrust committed by those who had every reason to implicitly trust Him.

 

If you want to see how God reacts, at what must have been a moment of incredibly deep sorrow and disappointment, listen to the next few words.

 

Verses 9 – 11: Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

 

Notice how different God’s approach is from Satan’s? Speaking through the serpent, Satan asked only one question – and it wasn’t asked for the purpose of gaining information or to open dialogue, but to cause a seed of distrust to be planted in Eve’s mind. Satan asked, “Has God said you can’t eat any of this garden’s fruit?” That was a lie-planting question.
But when God pursues, and then speaks to, Adam and Eve, He mainly asks questions—real questions. He wants to draw them into the discussion. Like any parent who is trying to help a child own up to personal responsibility, God already knows the answers to the questions He is asking. But He understands that conversation is better than sullen, rebellious silence.
And that is the way God has always worked. His Isaiah 1:18 plea, “Come now and let us reason together” holds true all through the Bible. God has always deeply appreciated those of His children who take the time to talk with him.

 

So what do I do, now that I know that I needn’t be afraid to talk with God? I need to go ahead and talk to Him. I have made a habit of pausing to thank the Lord for such things as computers, and email, and my digital camera. Any time something happens the way I had hoped it would, I try to remember to thank the Lord. And of course I pray for many complicated issues I hear about.

 

And since conversation should be two-way, we need to listen to God as well. The first and most important way to listen is through the pages of the Bible. By looking at this Genesis 3 story, slowly and carefully, over the last few weeks, I have learned more about God than I might otherwise have learned. As you read through the Bible, pause and absorb those stories where God talks with people. You will find that He has a very interesting personality, and the more you read about what we have put Him through, the more your heart will hurt for Him, and the greater will be your love.

 

But the greatness of your love will pale in comparison with the greatness of His. After all, it was He who took responsibility for the sin of Adam and Eve, that sin which otherwise would indeed have caused their death that very same day. Instead, God offered a substitute, His Son, the Lamb of God who would take away their sin.

 

How is it with you and your Lord this morning? Would you like to surrender to His great love again, or for the first time? Would you raise your hand if that is your desire?

 

(Back to the Top)

 

CAUTION! GOD AT WAR!
Expository Sermon on Genesis 3:1-6
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 2/9/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles again to Genesis chapter 3.

 

While you’re turning there, I’ll mention that this is the third sermon in a series I’ve been working through for the past few weeks. On January 12 I preached the first sermon in the series, called “Caution! God at Work,” about creation week in Genesis 1. Then last Sabbath I preached “Caution! God at Rest,” about the Sabbath day He instituted at the end of that first week.

 

Today’s sermon will cover the first few verses of Genesis 3, and I’ve called it “Caution! God at War!”

 

I have a nephew named Christopher, the youngest son of my brother and his wife. Christopher is deeply interested in the American Civil War, especially the Battle of Gettysburg. I didn’t get a chance to call him to ask him what he thought the Civil War’s most important battle was. Maybe he would say it was the Battle of Gettysburg, and if he thought it was, he would probably give me many detailed reasons to prove this.

 

I hadn’t thought of it until this week, but in the war known as the “great controversy between Christ and Satan,” I think that the second most important battle in that war (the first would be Gethsemane) was fought in the first six verses of Genesis chapter 3.

 

Now if you’re hoping for an action-movie kind of battle, you won’t get it in this chapter. No swords are raised, no spears flung, no catapult-stones launched. No armies glare each other in the face. In fact, in this battle I can detect no intimidation at all.

 

But even though no helicopters thump over Eden’s quiet lawns, even though no brilliant orange explosions blossom from behind its bushes, this is the quiet, desperate battle which has set the great controversy back several millennia. 

 

I don’t know that much about the American Civil War. I do know that its results began to break the back of slavery, and that’s a good thing. But when it comes to its individual battles, I would imagine that their outcomes probably have mainly an academic interest, and mainly to people like my nephew.

 

However, the Battle of Genesis 3 is not just a couple of paragraphs in a history book. You and I need to study this battle in great detail, because the Bible clearly says that this battle has been fought over and over again since that first Eden afternoon, and will continue to be fought until the sky goes bright with the Savior’s arrival.

 

This morning, let’s review who the combatants are, what this battle is about, and what weapons are used. In other words, for the next few minutes we will be engaging in something like military basic training or police academy classes. Because this coming week, you and I will be called upon to use what we know in order to protect our souls.

 

First of all, let’s get acquainted or reacquainted with the combatants. This truly intrigued me this week. This battle is one of the key skirmishes in the great controversy between Christ and Satan, but Christ remains invisible, and so does Satan.

 

Eve is the one who does battle – or should have done battle – on God’s side.

 

Last night as I was putting this sermon into words, I was using a Bible software program. On this software program’s homepage, it advertised a book by a well-known theologian. The book was about the devil, and was simply titled “Satan.” I got a kick out of the special offer which said “All month long you can download ‘Satan’ free!”

 

Somehow I think that Satan doesn’t need anyone to download him! I think he hovers close already – and I think he constantly positions himself to fight other Eden-style battles against us.

 

Which is why we are studying the Eden battle so carefully this morning. Eve is the combatant who should be defending God, and Satan – speaking through the serpent – is going to try to win this round, just as he is going to try to win over you and me this coming week.

 

Let’s take a closer look at the combatants. First, glance back at Genesis 2.

 

Genesis 2:8 – 9 [NKJV]: The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

And this last tree and its fruit, of course, will be the physical focus of the battle. And notice how carefully God prepares those on His side of the battle:

 

Verses 15 – 17: Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

 

Notice that God specifically communicated this command to “the man,” Adam. But Adam faithfully transmits this command to Eve, because she later repeats it to the serpent.

 

Now let’s look at chapter 3, verse one. Here we meet the other combatant.

 

Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made . . .

 

We’ve heard this story so many times that it’s easy to take it for granted. But why did Satan choose to use a serpent as his ventriloquist dummy? (We do know that this was Satan, because Revelation 12:9 calls him “that serpent of old,” obviously referring to this incident.)

 

Why didn’t Satan simply show up as an angel of light? Wouldn’t that have been more impressive? Well, if God gave Adam and Eve any sort of synopsis at all of Lucifer’s rebellion, Eve would instantly know not to necessarily trust someone who shows up as a brilliant angel.

 

But a beautiful serpent is different. Verse one tells us that the serpent was already known to be a very intelligent reptile.

 

Not too long ago Shelley brought home a book from the library which talked about an African Grey parrot named Alex who knew a lot of words. And not only did he know a lot of words, but he seemed to be able to use phrases very intelligently. We got on YouTube and watched Alex the parrot in action, and he was truly amazing.

 

And as Satan was casting about in his mind for a way to get his temptation across to Eve without intimidating her or making her suspicious, he probably said to himself, “I could speak through an animal. Maybe a puppy? Puppies are cute, but not necessarily super-intelligent. I know! I’ll use the serpent. Eve will be impressed by its intelligence, but won’t be intimidated by something which could potentially become her pet. And to demonstrate to her that an intelligent animal could achieve the power of speech by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge – this might cause her to wonder how far she herself could advance if she ate the same fruit.”

 

After all, cartoon creators know that talking animals can get away with saying things which human beings can’t. Back in the 1950s, during Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s overbearing harassment of people he suspected of being Communists, Walt Kelly’s cartoon strip “Pogo” leveled some devastating satire at the issue. In 1953 Kelly introduced into the strip a Communist-hunting wildcat named Simple J. Malarky (Sen. Joe McCarthy).

 

So now we’ve met our two combatants, the beautiful and curious Eve, and the beautiful and charmingly talkative serpent. And we need to make very sure, as we project this scene on the screen in our mind, that the snake’s voice does not come off as too harsh or challenging. I’m sure that his voice was so gentle and respectful that it aroused no suspicion.

 

And now it’s time to ask the question, what is this battle about? The battle of Gettysburg was fought to capture territory and establish possession over it. Other earthly battles are fought to get revenge, or to destroy people who hold ideas which the attackers don’t agree with.

 

But this quiet garden battle – this first battle in human history – was fought over trust. Whom do you trust? This week in the news, quite a number of stories dealt with trust. Because of a public outcry, the Seattle Police Department is returning to their manufacturers two little drones it had been planning to use for surveillance. People who objected to these drones felt that there had not been enough public input about them, and they wanted to be sure that they could trust the police to use them fairly.

 

And of course the drones issue is part of a larger discussion as well. Does a nation have the right to target its own citizens with drone strikes, if it assumes these citizens could potentially be dangerous?

 

And even killer Christopher Jordan Dorner, the ex-policeman authorities are searching for all over California, says that he’s taking revenge because nobody trusted him when he accused a fellow officer of abuse. He says he is taking revenge on those who ruined his career.

 

And now, as we watch Satan trying to undermine Eve’s trust in God, we’re going to be introduced to the weapons that are used in this battle.

 

We’ve already seen the weapon God gave to Adam, who passed it on to Eve. Back in chapter 2, starting with verse 16, we see the handover of this weapon.

 

Verses 16 – 17: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

 

So the weapon that Eve is carrying with her to this battle is a specific command of God. In this case, it’s a “don’t” command. Don’t eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God could not have been clearer. Very serious consequences will happen if Eve or Adam eat of that fruit, so don’t eat it.

 

And when you think down through Bible history, this is the same kind of weapon any faithful believer has carried. When young Joseph in Egypt was tempted toward adultery by Mrs. Potiphar, he told her, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Joseph knew that adultery was something God had forbidden. That “don’t” command would later show up on a stone slab, written with the very finger of God.

 

Young Daniel, and even old Daniel, carried God’s commands with him, and stayed true to them.


And Jesus Himself, barely 30 years old, carried God’s statements with Him, carried them even into the wilderness where after 40 days of fasting, He saw Satan approaching Him. And, sprawling weak and weary on the desert dirt, Jesus met the devil’s temptations not with human wisdom but with three well-aimed statements of God, all from the book of Deuteronomy.

 

In fact, even the very Son of God refused to argue or reason or dicker with the devil. Whether it was dealing with the Tempter in the wilderness, or casting out demons all through Palestine, Jesus did not carry on long conversations with the Prince of Darkness.

 

I have fortunately not had to be involved in casting out demons, and don’t want to be, but once in a while when I read about accounts of people who have, I read how long conversations are carried on. Jesus kept His unavoidable interactions with the devil short.

 

And we must never forget that powerful weapon we should use – God’s statements. In Ephesians 6:17, at the end of the list of the Christian’s armor items, Paul mentions the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”

 

And Hebrews 4:12 says that, “ . . . the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

And that’s the weapon you and I need to train with. It is the only effective weapon against the deceptions of the devil. In 2 Timothy 3:16 – 17, Paul writes, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

And, of course, thoroughly equipped for every evil temptation.

 

So we found that Eve came armed to this battle with a weapon she should have kept a firm grip on – a clear command of God. What was the weapon the devil used so effectively?

 

Again, the issue is trust. So Satan’s weaponry tries to get us to distrust God. Speaking in what must have been a gentle, humble, gracious voice through the mouth of a beautiful snake, Satan plants his distrust in a jaw-droppingly effective way. Watch this:

 

Verse 1: Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

 

So picture in your mind Eve standing there listening to the serpent. First, she is intensely surprised to find a snake that can actually talk, and now she hears the snake ask a question. And the poor thing hasn’t got his facts right. He’s asking, “Is it true that God is not allowing you to eat of any of these beautiful trees?”

 

Eve hastens helpfully to correct this false impression.

 

Verses 2 – 3: And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

 

Very good, Eve. Nice work. You have pulled out God’s statement, your most powerful weapon, and you are now aiming it. You are, of course, tweaking it slightly. Technically God didn’t say not to touch the fruit, just don’t eat it. But the point is clear, God has said do not eat this fruit or you will die.

 

So what was Satan’s weapon? It’s the weapon of God-defamation. It’s a weapon that tries to ruin God’s credibility. In modern terms you could consider it a deadly weapon—maybe one of those assault rifles. Chrisopher Dorner, the murderous ex-cop, claims to have a 50-caliber rifle which can cut through armor.

 

Nowadays people are discussing high-capacity ammunition clips versus low-capacity ones. The devil’s weapon has a low-capacity clip—just four bullets. But four bullets are all he has ever needed.

 

The first bullet we have already seen him fire – Satan accuses God of saying something He didn’t say. God did not forbid Adam and Eve from eating all of the fruit of the trees, just from that one tree.

Now we’re going to see Satan fire his second bullet. Let’s pick the story up with verse 3.

Verses 3 – 4: . . . but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

 

So if the first bullet from Satan’s distrust-inducing, God-defaming rifle is to accuse God of saying something He didn’t say, the second bullet is accusing God of lying.

 

And here is the pivot-point of this whole battle. Eve was armed with God’s statement: Don’t eat the fruit of this tree or you will die. What she should have done, after firing her weapon, was to leave the scene. Because here was someone trying to get her to distrust her Creator, the Father who had given her life.

 

But since the serpent is continuing to speak, she waits around to hear what he has to say. This of course is where a lot of people get trapped into soul-destroying deceptions. They don’t remember – or may not know – that conversation with the devil or with those he inspires is staggeringly dangerous. Because here is someone who is vastly experienced in persuading people to distrust God. He knows all the buttons to push. He knows push-buttons we don’t even know we have.

 

And he knows how to deceive extraterrestrial beings as well. After all, one out of three of the heavenly angels, in a perfect and sinless heaven, believed Lucifer rather than their Lifegiver.

 

But Eve stops to listen, and the devil fires his third bullet.

 

Verses 4 – 5: Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God . . .

 

So if the first bullet from Satan’s distrust-inducing rifle is to accuse God of saying something He didn’t say, and the second bullet is accusing God of lying, the third bullet is to accuse God of selfishness.

 

Do you notice how, bit by bit, the devil is trashing God’s credibility? And with this third bullet, he is asserting that God – rather than being a loving and generous Creator who wants to lavish all the best on His children – instead, Satan is asserting that God is a grasping miser who doesn’t want to share, but who wants to keep the best for Himself.

 

Now watch the fourth bullet from the devil’s distrust-weapon.

 

Verses 4 – 5: Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

 

So if the first bullet from Satan’s distrust-inducing rifle is to accuse God of saying something He didn’t say, and the second bullet is accusing God of lying, and the third bullet is to accuse God of selfishness, the fourth bullet is to offer Eve something bad as though it were good.

 

Satan is doing his best to convince Eve that it is a good thing to become your own God – Satan himself has always longed to rule in God’s place – but not only that, it is a good thing to know both good and evil.

 

It’s not clear at the moment just exactly how much Eve knows about evil. If God talked her and Adam through Lucifer’s rebellion, she probably knows about evil in an abstract way. But she has never committed sin. She doesn’t know evil from personal experience. But she doesn’t question the serpent’s assumption that knowing evil is good. What she should have done was to way, “Wait. Hold on. I need to go ask God what evil is.”

 

Instead, what Eve probably thinks is, “Wow. Evil – that sounds fascinating. Right now, as a human being, all I know is good. I would like to expand my knowledge-horizons and know everything God knows!”

 

So now, Satan has made his case. And like a good salesman, he knows when to go silent and allow his customer to do some thinking. And sure enough, the wheels are turning in her mind. Rather than standing firm on the word of God, she is applying what she considers to be excellent human reasoning to think this whole matter out. Rather than trusting in God alone, she is going to lay aside God’s clear command, and wing it on her own.

 

Verse 6: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

 

Notice how she’s making up her own rules? She looks at the tree, and sees that it is good for food. Maybe it was. Maybe the fruit was indeed nourishing. But that’s not the point. God has said not to eat it, and we go by what God says and not by what our own analysis says.
And she sees that the tree was pleasant to the eyes. A lot of sinful things are pleasant to the eyes, but that doesn’t make them good for us.

 

And she sees that the tree was desirable to make her wise. Again, she is depending on what the devil says for her definition of wisdom. But Psalm 111:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.” (In other words, you are wise if you obey God’s words.)

 

Again, it all comes down to trust. Whom do you trust? Eve had every reason to trust her Creator. The only reasons not to trust God had emerged from the mouth of the serpent. And her mistake was to trust the serpent, who urged her to trust her senses and her reasoning rather than the words of God.

 

Eve will later, of course, learn to trust God in a deeper way than she ever thought she would. She will discover that He will die for her sins, and Adam’s sins, and for the sins of all their billions of children, so that if they wish to, they may inhabit Eden again.

 

She will discover that Satan, after all, was a liar – Jesus would later call him the “father of lies.” We are going to pick up this story again next week, but Eve will eventually learn the truth our closing song teaches us. Let stand and sing it together: "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"

 

(Back to the Top)

 

 

CAUTION! GOD AT REST!
Expository Sermon on Genesis 2
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 2/2/2013]
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2.

 

Back on January 12 I preached a sermon called “Caution! God at Work!” I actually had to scrounge around to find a piece of “Caution” tape to hold up and show you at the start of that sermon. But this morning, this whole new platform of ours is awash in caution tape.
This platform was poured this past Tuesday morning, and the interesting aroma you are noticing is the sealer which was applied the next day. The caution tape is up because the concrete people suggest that we stay off the platform this Sabbath, but by next Sabbath, the pulpit will be on top of it, and things will be getting back to normal.

 

And then, of course, the new carpet and pew-upholstering will happen. Earlier this week someone asked me uneasily, “When they upholster the pews, will they use new padding?” I assured that person that yes indeed there will be new padding underneath that new fabric. By the way, you can see samples the new carpet and the new pew fabric on the easel in the foyer.

 

By the way, if you have not yet pledged or donated to our capital improvements projects, this would be a great time to do so. I mentioned a couple of weeks back that we are about to take out a revolving loan to continue funding these projects, but that loan will not need to be as large if you help out right up front. Thanks to those of you who have already joined Shelley and me in adding your support.

 

Anyway, as I was saying, my January 12 sermon was based on Genesis chapter 1, and was called “Caution! God at Work!”

 

Why should we be cautious because God is at work? It’s not because God is necessarily dangerous. God is a heavenly Parent, and loves His children. John 3:16 says that God loved the world enough to give His Son to die for its inhabitants.

 

No, you and I need to be cautious not because we need to be frightened by God, but because God is a God of surprises. What we need to be cautious about is limiting or misunderstanding God.

 

In that sermon I suggested that Genesis 1 presents three cautions about God. The first one is, “Caution! God plans, and executes, big!” In other words, we need to remember that God has done, and can do some extremely powerful and amazing things, and this means that we should always be prepared to “pray big.”

 

The second caution went like this: “Caution! The Holy Spirit helped with our planet’s creation.” In other words, we need to remember not to try to compartmentalize the Holy Spirit into some artificial “spiritual box” in our lives. If the Holy Spirit helped with creation, which He did, He needs to be invited into every area of our life.

 

The third caution in that sermon was, “Caution! God often does perfectly possible things we can’t yet figure out.” A lot of people have gotten into the chilling habit of assuming that if the Bible speaks of God as doing something that I can’t understand with my current level of knowledge, therefore that Bible statement must be mythological. In other words, if I can’t figure out something the Bible says, it’s the Bible which is wrong and not me.

 

One illustration I used to show how silly this fallacy is was to pretend that, through some science-fiction time-travel ability, you could write a letter from here in 2013 to me back in 1986. Back then I had just bought my first computer, which featured a black screen with green letters shining on it. I thought it was wonderful – and back then, it was.

 

However, in our time-travel fantasy, I go out to my 1986 mailbox one day and receive a letter from you here in 2013. You describe a device you own which is a sheet of glass framed in silver. If you touch that glass, a photograph appears, and the photograph moves and speaks. And using that sheet of glass, which you can carry with you wherever you go, you can speak to someone on the other side of the planet, live.

 

Back in 1986, I would read that letter and wonder if you had gone crazy. Such wonders could never possibly happen. But you would be right, and I would be wrong – simply because you are using technology which I in 1986 did not believe could ever be possible.

 

You and I need to approach the Bible with at least the same level of humility. As I mentioned in that sermon, just because I cannot understand most of an algebra textbook doesn’t make that algebra textbook wrong – it means that I don’t have the current mental equipment to understand it.

 

Carrying on this “Caution” idea, I discovered some equally important cautions within the first few verses of Genesis 2. My January 12 sermon was called “Caution! God at Work!” And today’s sermon is called “Caution! God at Rest!”

 

So why do we need to be so cautious about God at rest? Let’s get into these verses and I’ll show you what I mean.

 

Genesis 2:1 – 2 [NKJV]: Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done,  and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

 

I think that for the first time in my life I have really taken a close look at that statement. It says, “God ended His work which He had done.”

 

And sure enough, Genesis 1 talks us through Creation Week. It shows us God creating light, and birds, and vegetation, and animals, and then finally Adam – and maybe Eve that same day. The impression we get is that all of the basic lifeforms came into being during those six days. Several times during that week God gives a satisfied smile and says, “It is good.”

 

In a way, that first Friday, God had ended His work. But in another way, His work has only begun. He needs to sustain this wonderful creation with His power. He needs to train His human children. And since, by this point, Lucifer almost certainly has rebelled in heaven, God must exercise vigilance to defend His credibility in this great controversy.

 

And we also know that God can see into the future. God knows that part of His duties in the weeks ahead – or however long it will be before Adam and Eve decide to trust Lucifer’s lies rather than their loving Lord – God knows that He will eventually need to trudge sadly through the evening garden, calling His cowering children’s names.

 

So when we read the verse which says God “ended” or “finished” His work, we realize that this is true in one sense but not in another. God did not simply create our planet, wind it up, and leave it ticking while He moved to another universe to start another project.

 

So here could be our first caution in Genesis 2. Let me tell you what I think it is, and then we’ll break it down. If you’re taking sermon notes, this would be Point One.

 

CAUTION! God knows how to end His work and rest from it.

 

Okay, very nice, but what does that have to do with me? And why is this a “caution”?

Ever since about 1984, I have been taking our Hondas to a Honda repair shop in North Seattle. Greg, the owner of the shop, had actually worked as a teenager at a gas station owned by Nick, an Adventist who attended the Shoreline church. And when my Honda needed work, Nick recommended Greg, who by now had his own repair shop.

 

Greg runs a very honest operation. I know him so well that when I drop the car off for service, I tell him, “Greg, if you see something else that needs to be done on the car, don’t bother calling me for approval. Just do it.”

 

Greg doesn’t seem to have hardly any turnover amongst his mechanics. And probably one reason is that he treats them fairly and consistently. He insists on giving his guys an hour and a half lunch break every day. I get the impression that, no matter what crisis a car owner might be struggling with over the noon hour, Greg will just calmly tell the customer, “Our guys are on lunch break until 1:30.” He’s told me that a few times.

 

In other words, Greg knows how to bring his shop’s work to a halt in order to give his mechanics a proper break. He is inflexible in this. There may be 15 cars waiting for everything from oil service to major engine work, but Greg never budges on his daily “Sabbath hours,” the rest period he has prescribed for his workers. And therefore, Greg’s mechanics know that he respects them and values them.

 

Now – here’s where the caution comes in. If God is like Greg, and God truly knows how to put a pause in His own work, that means that you and I need to sit up and take notice. Because as you probably know, this is not merely an academic subject. In a verse or two we will see that God wants you and me to learn how to “finish” or “bring to an end” our work as the Sabbath hours approach.

 

It’s a caution, a warning, because if we don’t learn how to do this, we will forever remain at the mercy of the week’s first six days. If Greg obsessed about all those cars on his lot which need work – or if he said to himself, “Wow, if I could get my guys to work faster, maybe I’d make more money” – if Greg approached his business that way, then his Honda repair operation would start to fall apart. His guys’ work would become less trustworthy, and I would stop taking my car there and would take it to another shop closer to where I live.

 

So – how does this relate to me? How can I put this to work, now that I know this? How can I learn to put a good, firm bookmark in my week’s work as the Sabbath hours approach? How can I step away from a high-profile, extremely important project, and truly allow myself to rest from it during the Sabbath hours?

 

I think that maybe we can pick up a hint or two from God Himself. And that hint comes from something else which was decided as the earth was being created. You won’t find it mentioned in Genesis 1 during Creation Week, but it happened just the same.

 

Revelation 13:8 talks about the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Jesus of course was literally slain in A.D. 31, but evidently some time around the actual creation of this planet – the “foundation of the world” -- He and His Father and the Holy Spirit decided on the great sacrifice which would make a happy eternity possible for those who would accept it.

 

So maybe this was one reason, as that first Friday afternoon sun set, that God could look tranquilly into His first Sabbath and realize that, in the end, all would be well. When His children eventually chose to distrust Him, there would already be a plan in place to restore this broken relationship to those of His children who wanted it restored.

 

Isn’t that the most important reason yet for welcoming the Sabbath with open arms, and relaxing completely within its promises?

 

After all, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world said, in Matthew 18: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls . . .” (Matthew 11:28 – 30)

 

I’ve been pastoring for three decades, and I have met quite a number of people who greet the Sabbath with a vast relief, because they have found that their Creator will take care of them and whatever work they relinquish during those sacred hours.

 

Now let’s look at another caution in these verses.

 

Verse 3: Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

 

Here’s the second caution:

 

If the first caution is, CAUTION! God knows how to end His work and rest from it, the second goes like this: CAUTION: God considers the Sabbath non-negotiable.

 

When you stop and think of it, the gift of the Sabbath could not have been made more universal. God could have chosen to make the Sabbath a special place rather than a special time.

 

God could have said, “I am going to choose a major centrally-located city on each continent, and I’m going to have you build a shrine to Me near that city. Once a year, you are to pack your family into the car and drive to that shrine, and worship Me.”

 

And that would have been fine. It would’ve been like the pilgrimages to Jerusalem in Palestine. That’s a good system, sort of like the annual campmeeting in Auburn.

 

But God knew that a once-a-year pilgrimage wasn’t enough. God knew that maybe not everybody would always have the financial resources to take such a vacation.

 

You see, God felt so strongly about the importance of the Sabbath that He decided that, rather than asking us to travel to His Sabbath, He would deliver His Sabbath to our doorsteps.

 

So, every seven days as Friday twilight begins, a great restful band of darkness wraps around the planet while we sleep, and then the sun rises, and God’s two-part, glorious dark-and-light Sabbath reaches down into every city, every farmhouse, every pagoda, across every desert sand-dune, into every jungle, onto every ship at sea.

 

Take a breath today, and you are breathing Sabbath air. Outside, holy Sabbath sunshine brightens the city of Bellevue, whether Bellevue recognizes it or not.

 

A couple of weeks ago I spent the entire Martin Luther King day weekend – Friday through Monday – in the hospital. Attached to my right arm was an IV needle. I did not like that needle. Every time I bent my arm at a certain angle, the IV unit would start to beep. And it would beep until a nurse came cheerfully in and pushed a button.

 

Not once did any of the staff say to me, “You don’t like that IV needle? Would you like me to take it out? It’s your choice.” No, that IV needle was non-negotiable. And that was because it fed me some nutrients that kept me from getting dehydrated. Part of the time it was pumping powerful antibiotics into me so that my infection would disappear.

 

It is quite possible that God might be wincing and rolling His eyes a bit to hear His beloved Sabbath compared to an IV line. But there is absolutely no doubt how important He considers the Sabbath to be. Remember that He created the Sabbath long before there was a Jewish people. He created the Sabbath before there was earthly sin.

 

God had created a race of people with restless, creative minds, and He knew that – even if they had never sinned – they would still need this weekly reorientation toward the One who had given them life and intelligence.

 

The Sabbath is for the people in this building who understand something about it. The Sabbath is for the people in the cars stopped at the intersection outside, wondering why there are so many cars in this church parking lot today. The Sabbath is for the people in the Bellevue Square Mall.

 

The Sabbath is for the people in the Northwest Christian church up by the Walgreen drugstore, and for the Lake Hills Baptist church people just south of the high school.  The Sabbath is for the folks in the Mormon church four blocks east of here, and for the worshipers in the Islamic Center just beyond it. The Sabbath is a holy, nonnegotiable appointment with our Creator, a day He delivers to our doorsteps each Friday evening.

 

What is so very touching, of course, is that God simply didn’t sit on His throne and command us to observe the Sabbath. He Himself showed us how to do it.

 

Verses 2 – 3: And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

 

One of the things that kept me in the hospital so long was that on that Sunday morning I suddenly went into atrial fibrillation, which is when the two upper chambers of the heart start to flutter. I didn’t know anything was happening – I felt no different – but when someone took my vital signs and listened to my heart, they called in a “rapid response team.”

 

Suddenly I was surrounded by a lot of very interested people who spoke soothingly to me. And the next thing I knew I had a lot of wires hooked up to me, and I was being trundled over to the cardiac unit. I discovered that what is so worrisome about atrial fibrillation is that all of that rapid fluttering may churn your blood into froth, and that’s when blood clots might form, and you definitely do not want a blood clot nosing its way through your system looking for a place to land.

 

Well, all’s well that ends well. And it did end well for me. They gave me a big daily dose of aspirin, and all the EKGs and echocardiograms show that I am back to normal.

 

The reason I mention this is that I was visited by a very kindly cardiologist there in the hospital, and earlier this week I had a follow-up appointment with him. I told him that I would dearly love to get off the heart medication which starts with M and which I didn’t take the trouble to learn how to pronounce, which they had started me on in the hospital to steady my heartbeat.

 

He gave me a thoughtful glance, and then began to stare fixedly at my tummy. And then he told me that I was certaly heart-healthy enough to phase that “M” medicine out. But he also said that if I didn’t start doing some more aerobic exercise and lose about 15 pounds, I might eventually find myself back on that medication again.

 

And you know what I did as I heard his words? I stared fixedly at his tummy. And I discovered that, even though he and I are probably about the same age, he had less of a tummy than I did. I happened to mentioned that I was vegetarian, and he said he was vegetarian too.

 

And I discovered that, sitting in that doctor’s office across from me, was someone who was practicing what he was preaching. He knew what to do to keep his heart healthy, and he was doing it. He was listening to his own advice.

 

And that is what is so heartwarming about the God of Heaven. Does He really need the Sabbath? Psalm 121: “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber or sleep.” Isaiah 40:28: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary.”

 

Does God need the Sabbath? The quick answer is, “Probably not.” But maybe that is not the right answer, but the wrong answer. Maybe God does not only covet but need that opportunity to spend quality time with people who have discovered how delightful the Sabbath can be, and how much comfort it provides. Maybe His soul needs our fellowship as much as ours need His.

And maybe God’s delight in the Sabbath is proven most completely by how utterly He embraced it Himself.

 

Exodus 20, verses 8 through 11, the longest commandment of the Ten, the one with the most detail, the one which begins “Remember,” as though God knew how easily the devil could lure us toward forgetting this weekly reminder that it is God who made us, and not we ourselves – Exodus 20 says this:

 

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

 

Maybe joining God within His treasured day is something like when I was a kid. My parents would take us for rides once in a while in the evening. Gradually as the sky darkened, I would get weary, and I would curl up in a corner of the back seat and go to sleep.

 

I still remember the rumble of the tires on the highway, and the warmth of the car heater, and the muffled conversation of my parents drifting back from the front seat.

 

I never considered that I was hurtling down the road in a metal machine that weighed nearly 2 tons, and that one careless twitch of the steering wheel could send us headlong into another car racing toward us at the same speed.

 

I didn’t think of that, and if the thought did happen to flit across my mind, I discarded it. I knew that my father had hold of that steering wheel, and that he loved me, and that he would bring me safely home. Maybe that’s what the Sabbath is like, riding in a car with God at the wheel.

(Back to the Top)

CAUTION! GOD AT WORK
Expository Sermon on Genesis 1
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 1/12/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1.

 

I was in my mid teens when my dad quit the job he’d held for 14 years, working in a creamery. An opportunity had opened up for him to do outdoor work, and he loved the outdoors. He was now part of a crew who worked for the County Highway Department.

 

This meant that when there was a road-smoothing or black-topping project to be done, Dad was one of the workers who stood out on the highway and did the smoothing or the black topping.


One day he and the rest of the crew had put out their “caution” signs and were toiling away on one lane of a two-lane highway. A woman approached them in her car. Those were the days before cell phones or texting. The only distraction available was the radio, and she may have been listening to an especially gripping country song. Because the next thing my dad knew, this woman’s car was bearing straight down on him about 10 or 15 miles an hour faster than it should have been going.

 

The way I remember dad describing the story was that, just before she hit him, he had the presence of mind to jump up. He apparently jumped just high enough so that her car hit his airborne legs and not his torso. Dad thumped against her windshield, and rolled off the car to one side. Amazingly, providentially, none of his bones was broken, and he emerged from this accident badly shaken but otherwise unharmed.

 

Nowadays (even in sparse-traffic areas like South Dakota) workers are required to put up a whole lot more “caution” signs than my dad’s crew did. In those days, there might have been one sign for each direction, and it might say, “Caution: Men Working,” but nowadays these signs say “Work Crew Ahead,” and it’s often a woman who is holding the pole with the Stop sign on top. I don’t think there was ever a flagger on Dad’s crew.

 

This year, as I was thinking about what sermon series I could preach, I suddenly thought of the word “Caution!” You don’t have to listen to local and national news very much to become a much more cautious person then I ever had to be back in South Dakota.

 

Back there, 1600 miles east of here, you never locked your car, and rarely ever locked your house, whereas out here in the Puget Sound area I had to learn to do both. One time a few years back, Shelley and I drove back to South Dakota, and my brother-in-law happen to be in my mom’s farmhouse driveway when we arrived.

 

As I got out of the car, out of habit I locked the door. My brother-in-law stared at me in disbelief. “What did you do that for?” he asked.

 

“It’s a habit I picked up in Seattle,” I said. “And I don’t want to get out of that habit.”

 

The more I hear about home-invasion robberies and that kind of thing, the more cautious I become. I’ve gotten into the habit of looking around me carefully as I walk from my car to a store, and the same thing when I go back to my car.

 

Maybe it was the start of a new year which made me think of caution. Or maybe it was the “Caution” tape I’ve seen the last few weeks, pasted over the creases in our sanctuary carpet. Yesterday I stopped by here, and Kirk Robinson was doing some work. I asked him if there was some extra caution tape I could have to show you. But he and others have been so tidy, that the only strip that could be safely spared was one from right over there leading to the rooms behind the platform. So here it is – it says both “Caution” and “Cuidado.” You all stepped over another strip of caution tape as you entered the sanctuary this morning.

 

I think “Caution!” is a good way to start the new year. But as I thought about Bible passages I might speak on for a series on this subject, I suddenly realized that the caution we should feel might go another direction. The types of caution I’m talking about are not the kinds we have to be afraid of, but ones we can be excited about.

 

Jesus, you remember, approached life with fearlessness, and urged us to do the same. He said things like, “Fear not,” and “Don’t worry about tomorrow.” He said, “Do not fear those who can kill the body.”

 

He wasn’t suggesting foolhardiness, of course. In fact, He told His disciples that when they went out to share the startling and at first unpopular news about who Jesus was and what He had come to do, they should not hesitate to leave a town they were visiting in case things got too dangerous for them. All through the book of Acts, the apostle Paul would stay in a town only long enough to preach until the religious leaders started throwing stones at him, and then he would escape to the next town.

 

I’ve called this sermon, and this sermon series, “Caution! God at Work!”

 

So why should we be cautious because God is at work?

 

It’s not because God is dangerous. God is a heavenly Parent, and loves His children. John 3:16 says that God loved the world enough to give His Son to die for its inhabitants.

 

No, you and I need to be cautious not because we need to be frightened by God, but because God is a God of surprises. What we need to be cautious about is misunderstanding God.

 

Let me give you some examples, right here in Genesis 1. These verses reveal several cautions we should keep in mind in our relationship with our Creator. And, unlike the scary kind of cautions, these cautions are encouraging ones.

 

Genesis 1:1 [NKJV]: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 

Believe it or not, the Bible’s very first verse contains the very first “caution” I need to keep in mind in my relationship with my Creator. What’s that caution? Here it is (and this is Sermon Point One if you’re taking notes):

 

CAUTION! God plans, and executes, BIG!

 

(By “executing,” I don’t mean capital punishment. I mean “execute” in the sense of “carrying out” those big plans in a big way.)

 

So why is this a caution?

 

I think it’s a caution because you and I need to beware lest we limit God and His abilities. I’m sure that I’m not alone in often limiting God by assuming that in a dilemma I’m facing, He is realistically able to do not much more than I myself might be able to do if luck fell my way. I mean, miracles don’t happen that much today, do they?

 

However, I have a feeling that if I were to ask those of you who have experienced at least one event in your life where you truly understood that it was God and not luck or human ingenuity or something else which had solved a staggering problem for you, if I would ask you to come and gather around me up here at the pulpit, I would imagine that there might be only a few of you left there in the pews. And if I made this same request a year from now, maybe all of the people who had stayed in their pews today would have experience God working in a way which would bring them up to the front too.

 

You see, the Bible’s first verse says that God created the heavens and the earth. The first few verses of the gospel of John say that Jesus was involved in creation, and that if something was made, our Savior was involved in making it. My heart beats steadily without my having to think about it, and I have Jesus to thank for that. I am very nearsighted, but the lenses of these glasses are clear enough, and an optician – and that optician’s computer – are accurate enough so that I can see you all clearly. I have Jesus to thank, not for my defective vision (caused by the degeneration of the race), but for people God has given wisdom and talent to correct that vision.

 

And of course we could keep going. If you and I were to make a list of every facet of God’s magnificent creation regarding only what takes up space between our two ears, we would use up a good chunk of the millennium just doing that.

 

I hope nobody in this room is still in the grip of the macro-evolution idea. We could maybe forgive Charles Darwin for, in his era of limited scientific understanding, for thinking that humanity could have struggled up from lower life-forms. But modern science has discovered (for those humble and open-minded enough to accept it) that we are too thrillingly, too chillingly complicated for any reasonable person to believe that we are nothing but the latest in a long line of upwardly-squirming organisms.

 

I had to shake my head, a couple of days ago, as I listened to a radio interview. The interviewer was talking with a college professor who was also a researcher. You know how when you soak your hand in bathwater or dishwater long enough, wrinkles start to form?

 

Well, this professor and his students have done studies on these finger-wrinkles, and have discovered that those wrinkles are wrinkling in the right direction so that your fingers can firmly grip objects while your hands are under water.

 

And what made me roll my eyes was that this researcher went on to say that this correct wrinkling was probably the result of evolution. So, along with all the other wonderful parts of the human body – the eyeball, the retina, the clear fluid inside the eyeball, the way muscles pull on the edges of the lens to focus it, the stunning miracle which happens when a beam of light carrying a picture comes through the lens, turns upside down, lands on the back of the retina, and using all of those sensory nerves in all of those rods and cones, is then transmitted to the brain and is reassembled, right side up, into a picture, a picture which has meaning, sometimes emotional meaning – according to this researcher, all of this had to be slowly, sludgily evolved, with all the hordes of useless eyes and their owners wasting away and dying.

 

And this researcher says that in addition to all of that delicate, careful evolution, there also was finger-wrinkle-evolution going on. All of the people with wrinkles going the wrong way died off, and the correctly-wrinkled fingers and their owners survived.

 

I mean, when will this foolishness stop? When will people realize that we are just too stunningly well-made for macro-evolution to be true? When will people just acknowledge that there really is an Intelligent Designer, one who plans and executes BIG?

 

Okay. What should I do now that I know this first caution, that God plans and executes big? Well, I need to make sure that I never limit God and His abilities. I must never assume that any problem is too small for God. I must start praying, and keep praying, for even what I consider the most difficult miracles – even the ones which depend on someone having to change his or her mind in order for a miracle to happen. Let’s not ever limit God. Just as He plans and executes big, let’s pray big!

 

Now let’s look at the second caution in this chapter. It’s found in the very next verse.

Verse 2: The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

 

What’s the second caution in this chapter?

 

Well, if the first one says “CAUTION! God plans, and executes, BIG!”, the second says “CAUTION! The Holy Spirit helped with our planet’s creation.”

 

I’ve been reading Verse 2 for decades, and know these words well, but they never struck me the way they did this week. The Holy Spirit was present at creation, and no doubt deeply and significantly involved in some way.

 

So why is this a “caution”?

 

Well, as we know, we often think of the Holy Spirit as being active only in spiritual matters. He is our Comforter and Counselor; He guides us into all truth; He helps us share that truth, as He did with the disciples in Acts 2.

 

But verse 2 reminds me to be cautious – because you and I need to beware of putting the created world into one box in our life, and our spiritual life in a separate box, when the two should not be separated. Let me give you an example of how I made this mistake when I was a kid, and even into my teens.

 

Let’s say Dad and Mom would take us kids to the Dairy Queen. I would get a chocolate malted milk in a tall cup, and I would stick a large straw into that soft ice cream and suck that malt dry. And once I had scoured all that chocolate ice cream out of that cup, I would roll down my window and I would toss that cup and that straw out into the ditch beside the highway.

 

You are all cringing in your pews, I know, and I am cringing to even talk about this. But it wasn’t until I went to college that I discovered the new science of ecology. People in the secular world began putting Christians to shame when it came to taking care of our planet. I was so convicted by the environmentalists that I immediately stopped throwing malt cups and paper napkins and M&M wrappers out the window, and haven’t done so since.

 

Even though Jesus said there was a kingdom of God, and even though He said that this kingdom “was not of this world,” still He created the world we live in, and He wants us to take care of it. Several times in Genesis 1, God looks back on what He has just created and says, “That’s good.”

 

And the implication is that He has never wanted anything to be wasted, but used responsibly. The last couple of verses of Genesis 1 show that God’s ideal diet for both humans and animals was a vegetarian diet, and Isaiah promises that in the New Earth, “they shall not hurt nor destroy in all [God’s] holy mountain.” In other words, take care of the treasure God has given us. Use it prudently.

 

So what do I do, now that I know this? I need to remember that, since the Holy Spirit was involved in the physical creation of this earth, how I relate to the creation around me is a spiritual issue. I must not be merely a user and discarder – I must be a caretaker. I must not be wasteful. I must be careful with my money – and faithfully follow God’s clear prescriptions about returning my tithe and giving my offerings as part of that stewardship.

 

By the way, thank you so much for your faithfulness in this area. Over the next few months we will see more changes as a result of our church’s Capital Improvement Projects, and if you haven’t either pledged or donated, this would be a good time for you to join others in this congregation who are already doing this. Out in the foyer on the little round table coming out of the wall, and also on the counter over beside the stairways in the education wing, you will find a couple of donation boxes for that purpose.

 

Maybe a good New Year’s resolution would be to examine your life this week with the idea that what you own, and what you do with what you own, is a spiritual issue.

 

Now let’s take a look at a third “caution” in this chapter.

 

Verses 3 – 5: Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

So what’s the third caution?

 

Well, if the first one says “CAUTION! God plans, and executes, BIG!”, the second says “CAUTION! The Holy Spirit helped with our planet’s creation,” the third goes like this: “CAUTION! God often does perfectly possible things we can’t yet figure out.”

 

That is a very good caution to remember. Why? Because you and I are severely tempted to put God’s mind into a box which is pretty much the same size as our minds.

 

For example, we have just read how on Day One of creation week, God created light.  “Let there be light, and there was light.” Very good. But what does that mean? The sun and the moon won’t come along until Day Four, so where did that light from? Was it the light of God’s presence? Or some other light? And it also says, “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Without the sun, what made the evening part become the morning?

 

This is where a lot of smart and well-meeting people ignore the “caution” sign that reminds us that God sometimes does perfectly possible things we can’t yet figure out. These people say, “Well, maybe creation didn’t take place in six days after all. Maybe this is a metaphor or a parable or something.”

 

This is a dreadfully slippery slope to put our heels onto. We need to remember that years later, on top of Mount Sinai, God’s very finger engraved the following statement into stone: “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth.” So this isn’t a parable or a metaphor. According to Genesis, each of those creation-week days had an evening and a morning (whatever it was that caused those evenings to change into mornings during the first half of that first week). And Day Seven was to be a 24-hour Sabbath rest day.

 

A lot of people – even some Christians – are thinking with a dreadful fallacy. The fallacy goes something like this: “If a Bible passage does not make sense to me, with the information I have right now, that passage is therefore unreliable.”

 

But that is one of the feeblest fallacies in all the realm of logic. Let’s go back in our minds to a little blue bungalow on 9th Avenue, about halfway between Bothell and Mill Creek. The year is 1986, and Shelley and I have just paid over $3000 for our first computer and printer. The computer is an IBM PC XT, and it has a 10 MB hard drive. I am absolutely certain that I will never need any more memory storage then that, even with a lifetime of sermon-preparation. The reason is that the letters on my black computer screen are green, and computer graphics – which eat up a lot more memory – are only in the earliest stages of development, and are something I never believe I will ever have on a personal computer.

 

And if you are grinning at how short-sighted I was, consider this statement from the lips of the young Bill Gates, five years earlier, in 1981. He said, “640 K [of memory] should be enough for anybody.”

 

Okay. Let’s say that through some science-fiction fantasy, you could write a letter from right here in 2013 and send it to me back in 1986. So back in 1986, I go out to my mailbox, and lo and behold, here is a letter from you. I open it up, and start to read. And as I read, my mouth twists in an incredulous grin. Because you write:

 

“I own a thin piece of glass about the size of a sheet of typing paper. That glass is framed in silver. When I touch my finger to that glass, a photograph appears, and the photograph begins to move, and speak. Using this piece of glass, I can send messages to, or even talk live with, someone on the other side of the planet.”

 

By this time I am rolling my eyes, wondering who on earth dreamed up this fantasy. Even the people on Star Trek didn’t have anything this amazing. And, using my old IBM PC, I might quote part of that letter into my next sermon, using it as an illustration of someone whose mind has clearly left its moorings.

 

But of course I would be wrong. In 1986 I had no way of knowing that a thin piece of glass could have a moving picture on it – because everybody knew that in order to have a moving picture on a piece of glass, there had to be a big, warm TV tube behind it, which shot a continuous stream of electrons against the back of that glass. And if I touched my finger to a color TV, nothing happened. Nothing could happen, because in order to make something happen electronically, you needed to push a button, a rubber or plastic button which clicked down and created an electrical connection. And there aren’t any buttons on a piece of glass. You can’t put buttons on a piece of glass.

 

You get the point, right? God sometimes – make that often – does things we can’t figure out with our current level of understanding. But we must never dare to assume that just because we can’t understand something, it cannot be true.

 

So what should I do, now that I know this? The more I read my Bible, and I strongly suggest that you read large portions of yours this year, the more questions we will have. But the fact that I cannot immediately, with knowledge I currently have, resolve each Bible puzzle, doesn’t make the Bible false.

 

When I was a high school freshman, I received a D-minus in my algebra class, and that was due only to the graciousness of my teacher, because I deserved worse. But just because I must have had a mental block against algebra didn’t make that algebra textbook false. The fault was with me and not with my textbook.

 

In fact, if I insist on disbelieving the Bible when I find something puzzling in it, I am actually dethroning God, and making myself God in His place. I am saying, “God, if I cannot understand everything You have put in the Bible, then I and not You am the final arbiter of what makes sense. And if I finally decide that You, God, do not exist, then You may as well conveniently vanish. Because I have joined my mind to the thinking pattern of the fallen archangel, and have set my throne above Yours.”

 

And that’s a pretty dangerous idea, which should immediately start “caution” signs flashing in our minds.

 

So what do I need to do? I need to get into the habit not only of reading large portions of my Bible, but having a little shelf in my mind on which I place the puzzling things I find. I must never let these slow me down, but just keep reading. And gradually, over time, a lot of these puzzling things – though perhaps never all until eternity – will become clear.

 

So there are our three cautions which can keep us humble this coming year.

 

CAUTION! God plans, and executes, BIG!

 

CAUTION! The Holy Spirit helped with our planet’s creation. So our caretakership and stewardship are spiritual issues.

 

CAUTION! God often does things we can’t figure out. So don’t insist that He “dumb down” His purposes to our limited understanding.

 

So with these cautions ringing in our ears, let’s sing our closing song, which in musical form reminds us of what we’ve been reading from Bible print. God is our Creator, and what He created was good. And one day—just as we will finally be able to discard that strip of caution tape on our sanctuary threshold, we will be able to enter joyfully into an eternity where the word “Caution” and “Cuidado” will never be needed.

 

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THE BLANKET
Expository Sermon on 1 John 4 and Psalm 37:16
For the Baptism of Annabel and Randy Rodriguez
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 1/5/2013
©2013 by Maylan Schurch

(We're working on the audio for this service, and will eventually have it uploaded.)

 

Please open your Bibles to First John chapter 4.

 

How many of you remember your baby blanket? Do you remember what color it was? How many of you had a blue blanket? How about a pink blanket? Or was it another color?

 

I think I remember my baby blanket. I have this mental image of a faded blue blanket with a three-inch-wide satin edge. It must’ve been mine, because the two kids born after me were both girls, and back in those days you gave girls pink things rather than blue.

 

I don’t remember it as an entire blanket, but as part of one. Either that, or the silk edging had come off part of it. But it was pretty threadbare. As I think about it now, I don’t remember the affection I had for it. I just see a piece of cloth in my mind, but from what I understand, it was really important to me.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I asked both Annabel and Randy to choose Scripture passages for me to base my sermon on today. And as I was studying Annabel’s passage, I immediately thought of baby blankets.

 

What I was doing was actually looking at the sentence in the original Greek. John wrote by far the easiest Greek in the New Testament, which is why Greek teachers start their students out with his writings. The vocabulary has lots of easy words – just like Jesus’ vocabulary does. Both Jesus and John spoke and wrote so that ordinary people could understand them.


And if you count the number of times the word “love” (which is the Greek word agape) is used in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you find that the gospel of John uses more twice the total amount of the first three Gospels. And when it comes to the New Testament’s letters, like the ones Paul and Peter and James wrote, First John uses “love” multiple times more. For example, the verb “love” is used twice in first Corinthians, three times in second Corinthians, twice in Galatians, and twice in Colossians. But just in First John, it is used 26 times! And that’s just the verb – this doesn’t count the noun form.

 

Here’s what made me think of baby blankets. Look at Annabel’s verse, First John 4:7.

 

1 John 4:7 [NKJV]: Beloved, let us love one another . . . .

 

Do you see those two words “let us”? In English, they separate the words “beloved” and” love.” But not in the Greek. In the Greek it says Agapetoi agapomen. First you have the noun form of love, then the verb form. In both refer to more than one person. The first word is “Beloved,” and it’s plural. The second word is “let us love” (the “let us” is wrapped up in the form of the word).

 

So how does this make me think of baby blankets? As I looked at that first word, “Beloved,” and I realized that that was the same “love” word John used when he was urging us to “love one another,” I suddenly thought, “Before John tells us to love one another, he calls us ‘beloved.’ It’s like all of us are wrapped up snugly and cozily in God’s baby-blanket of love.”

 

The Holy Spirit could have inspired John to start this verse by saying, “You people understand, don’t you, that if you do the right things and don’t mess up, you will eventually earn God’s love?”

 

Or he could’ve started this verse like this: “Some of you are beloved, but the rest of you aren’t, and you know who you are! Better get with the program!”

 

But John doesn’t do this. Instead he just flatly calls everybody who might set eyes on this verse, “Beloved.” After all, John was the same gospel writer who wrote, “For God so loved the world – [and that word “love” is exactly that same Greek word agape] -- that He gave His only begotten Son . . .” (John 3:16). So anybody in this room who happens to live on this planet comes under that “love umbrella,” or if you want to use the blanket metaphor, everybody in this world is already wrapped securely in God’s baby blanket of love.

 

Okay, but what does that mean? What does it mean that we are “beloved” by God?

 

Unfortunately, a lot of human beings use the word “love” in very strange ways. People may tell one another that they love each other, but it might be a selfish kind of love. Their “love” might be lust, or it might be glassy-eyed infatuation.

 

If you are as old as I am, you might remember a teen singer named Fabian. Back in the late 1950s, after Elvis Presley had been drafted into the Army, a record producer realized he needed another teen idol to fill the gap. Somehow he found Fabiano Anthony Forte, not because of his musical talent (which was average) but because of his good looks.

 

This record producer convinced Fabiano at age 15 to allow them to make him into a star, and that’s what they did. They electronically altered his recordings to make his voice sound better than it did. Another thing they did in those days – and they did this with the Beatles too -- was to at first hire lots of teenage girls to show up when Fabian’s bus arrived and scream and swoon, and once word got around, they didn’t have to hire any more teenagers, because lots and lots of other girls fell in “love”—and that’s in quote marks--with Fabian, just as lots of teen guys fell in “love” with the teen girl singers.

 

But at age 18, Fabian got out of the music business. He says, “I felt controlled. I felt like a puppet.” Even though he was the focus of a lot of swoony kind of love, Fabian backed away from it.

 

So – when it comes to being “beloved” by God, what does that mean? We’re assuming that it’s a good thing, but it’s always helpful to have some more details.

 

And that’s what the next few verses in this chapter do for us – they give us details about what kind of love it is that God has wrapped cozily around us. And into these verses, Randy’s Psalm 37 verse will fit perfectly.

 

So now that John has mentioned that we are “beloved” by God, let’s ask, “Okay, John, tell us more. Tell us more about what God’s love is really like.”

 

Verse 7: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God . . . “

 

What’s the first thing John tells us about God’s love?

 

This love is “from God.”

 

This is really important. This is extremely important. Why is it so important? Because if love is “from God,” then this means that love is God’s nature. Love is not something God has to be taught. Love is not something Jesus had to convince God to show toward us. Love is not something that somebody else invented, and came to God with a PowerPoint presentation to “pitch” it to Him and try to convince Him that it was a good idea.

 

In America – and maybe in other places – back in the 1920s and 1930s there was a type of child psychology which insisted that fathers should not express affection to their sons. The idea was that this is a tough world, and you need to raise tough boys to deal with it. So fathers were actually encouraged not to tell their sons they loved them, not to hug them, but instead to be brusque with them so that they would be able to deal with life.

 

This would of course be very logical if we had all evolved from a prehistoric swamp struck by lightning. If survival of the fittest is how we made it this far, we would do well to make the next generation even fitter than we were able to be.

 

But we did not evolve from swamp gas struck by lightning. Instead of ascending from grunting, glassy-eyed cave people, we have descended from a beautiful couple who were created intelligent and perfect from God’s very hand. Therefore, since we were designed by God and not by natural selection, we should let God and not Darwin’s disciples tell us what to do with our children.

 

And at the end of verse 8, John clinches it by saying that God “is love.” This is a very key point. It’s not that God has love as part of His toolkit. No, love infuses God’s entire nature. Whomever God looks at, He looks at fondly. Like any parent, He will become quite emotional over something that hurts or destroys those He loves, and He will do His level best to convince people not to do these things, but He loves us all.

 

The Savior who urged us to “love our enemies” practiced what He preached – as nails were being pounded into His palms, He begged His heavenly Father to forgive those who were persecuting Him. Because He loved them.

 

John’s next fact about God’s love is truly intriguing.

 

Verse 7: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

 

So John not only tells us that love is from God, but that anytime we show selfless love, we have insights into God’s heart.

 

On the news, we’re hearing more and more about terrible tragedies. And often, there is usually at least one person who is a hero. This man or woman or boy or girl hurries to help, in spite of danger. And afterward, when they’re interviewed, they often seem bewildered by the attention. “It’s what anybody would have done,” they say humbly. And maybe so—if, like the hero, other folks were able to act on the agape, other-centered love which God has placed somewhere in each of our hearts.

 

And now, just make sure we get the point, John switches it around.

 

Verse 8: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

 

Now that is a pretty chilling thought. I may preach a weekly sermon, I may teach a weekly Sabbath school class, I may shepherd my children’s division kids through their weekly songs and stories, but if I am not a loving person I am outside the pearly gates.

 

Which really isn’t surprising, if you know First Corinthians 13. Paul says the same thing John is saying here. I may have talents, abilities, even prophetic abilities, but if I don’t have love – and that is that same word agape --  then I am nothing more than the noise made from a badly-played cymbal.

 

Now at this point, it might be tempting to say to myself, “Okay. I’m in the clear. I think I have a loving nature. And if having loving nature means that I know God, that must mean I’m safe for eternity already. So why go to church? Why study the Bible?”

 

What’s missing in what we’ve read so far – and what John is going to tell us right now – is another key answer to the question, what is God’s love like?

 

Verse 9: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

 

So John not only tells us that love is from God, and that anytime we show selfless love, we have insights into God’s heart, but he also tells us that God’s love had to offer His Son to save us.

 

And this, too, is key to remember. Selfless love may be an echo of God’s nature in our hearts, but all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. The wages of sin is death. And only the death of Jesus Christ could redeem us and legitimately give us a chance to live forever in a happy eternity.

 

And this is where we turn to Randy’s verse. It’s found in Psalm 37. Psalm 37 was written by David, and it’s one of those Psalms where he talks about the wicked and the righteous. One of the main purposes of Psalm 37 is to encourage righteous people to remember that those who are wicked – yet who seem to be doing so well in earthly terms, even as they harass the righteous – will eventually be destroyed, and the righteous will be rewarded for their faithfulness.

 

So let’s go to Psalm 37:16, and read the verse which spoke so deeply to Randy.

 

Psalm 37:16: A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.


Randy tells me that, like me, he did not grow up with a lot of this world’s goods. “All you really have,” he told me, are your emotions and your relationships.”

 

That’s really profound. Because it’s true. Everything you see around you, either here at church or at your house or apartment, or what you will drive in between here and there, will eventually become charcoal, and then a fine-grained ash, and then will disappear.

 

But if that seems like a terribly distressing idea, remember Who it is we’ve just been reading about. Remember all the resources He has. Remember God’s Son, who – probably wearing a mischievous grin – cloned loaves of bread and perfectly-cooked fish for as long as it took to feed 5000 men plus the women and the kids.

 

John Chapter  1 says that Jesus was the Creator. “All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made.” In other words, here is someone with the power to fulfill every heart’s desire which He placed within me, either now or in the happy, leisurely golden streets and sunny meadows of eternity.

 

And Annabel and Randy know this. That’s why they chose the verses they did. That’s why they said what they said earlier in this service. They have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

 

I told them that when people who love Jesus are baptized, it always stirs the hearts of those who are watching. When John the Baptist stood waist-deep in the Jordan River and baptized people, it stirred even the Pharisees to step down into the water.

 

So if you are feeling that stirring in your heart, I would like to give you a chance to respond to it.

 

 

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SOUL STABILITY
Expository Sermon on Ephesians 4
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 12/29/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4.

 

At Christmas season I sometimes think back to the types of gifts my childhood friends and I would receive back when I was a kid in South Dakota.

 

I don’t think that anybody in my family ever got this particular gift, but I remember that once in awhile another kid would receive one of those inflatable clowns, shaped like a huge bowling ball, maybe about 3 feet high, which would stand grinning at you on its owner’s bedroom floor, or maybe in the living room.

 

The sole purpose of this clown was to be struck with the young fist. If the kid had been given a slightly more expensive clown, it might have a round red rubber nose which, if you smote it there, would emit a quick squeak.

 

But the chief fascination of this clown was that its base was not only round but weighted. That meant that no matter how hard you hit that clown, or from which direction, it rolled back to an upright position, again and again.

 

I don’t think it ever crossed my parents’ mind that a Christmas present like this should even be considered for their family of four kids. My dad was a charter member of the “a soft answer turneth away wrath” and the “turn the other cheek” philosophies, and he probably felt that any toy that would allow his children to punch it again and again would build up undesirable muscle-memories which might get used on school playgrounds.

 

The reason I got to thinking about the boppable clown this week was that I also got to thinking about “soul stability.” I don’t know what statistical analysis would have to say about this, but it seems to me that we are passing through a period in which a distressingly large number of unstable people are deciding to do as much damage to other people as possible before taking their own lives.

 

I realize that the instability which might cause someone to commit these horrors probably has more to do with the mind than with the soul. But you can’t achieve as many silver pastoral hairs as I have achieved without realizing that there is such a thing as soul instability as well.

 

What is “soul instability”? The Bible never calls it by that name, but it certainly discusses it. Scripture gives us a number of symptoms for this condition. For example, Jesus most often tends to describe His Second Coming as an exciting and joyful time when Heaven reunites with humanity.

 

However, in Luke 21:25 – 26 Jesus describes people whose souls aren’t ready for this event:
“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

 

Now, if some people will look up toward the returning Savior with joy, and others with confusion and fear, the latter group lacks soul stability. So Jesus spends a good bit of His teaching ministry instructing us how to develop stable souls, souls that will bounce back no matter how often they are “bopped.”

 

And Paul, and other New Testament writers, continue this tradition of soul-preparation. In 1 Timothy 3:1 – 5, Paul gives a dramatic description of people who have allowed their souls to destabilize to a dangerous degree:

 

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

 

There is probably an excellent chance that nobody in this room is ever going to act out murderous mind-instability horrors like the ones we’ve heard about over the past few months. But from what Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, soul instability can be eternally deadly.

 

So this morning let’s pretend that the apostle Paul is giving a news conference right here, and we are reporters asking him questions. Our first question to him is, “Paul, if you’re so concerned about soul instability, what does a stable soul look like?”

 

Here’s his answer, starting in verse one.

 

Ephesians 4:1 – 6 [NKJV]: I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

 

So, in a nutshell, what does a stable soul look like? It seems to me that Paul might define a stabilized soul as one who is humble and gentle and patient, and works for unity.

 

Our next press-conference question for Paul is, “Can you be more specific about what an unstable soul is?”

 

And he might answer by quoting verse 14. We’re picking up his thought mid-sentence, as we so often have to do with Paul’s writings. He wrote long sentences. Anyway, listen as he lists some of the symptoms of an unstable soul:

 

Verse 14: that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

 

So if a stable soul is one which is humble and gentle and patient and works for unity, an unstable soul is someone who is childish, and is susceptible to being carried along from one crazy idea to another, at the mercy of tricky and deceitful people.

 

But wait a minute. Jesus said that it’s a good thing for us to “become as little children.” So why is Paul’s comparison to children a negative one, and Jesus’ comparison a positive one?

 

By the way, I have been privileged to know quite a number of children who are definitely not “childish” when it comes to being very cautious about who they listen to and believe. There are grown-ups out there who are concerned about guiding kids in the right way, and there are grown-ups out there who care only about your money or how they can use you. Smart kids – those who read their Bibles and listen to their parents and their Sabbath School teachers and church school teachers – these are the kids who don’t let themselves be yanked this way and that way by somebody with a fascinating appearance and a smooth tongue.

 

To me, one of the most sobering phrase in verse 14 is the word “we no longer.” Paul isn’t talking about somebody else – he’s talking about his readers at Ephesus. And he’s talking about you and me. Which of us has not succumbed to some erroneous, un-Christlike idea or activity at some point?

 

As I mentioned, when you are a pastor with the amount of silver in your hair that I have, you can tell stories about unstable souls. I could tell you about a man (who has never attended this particular church), I who at one point was a church leader, but who allowed himself to be talked into the idea that since Christians are members of God’s kingdom, we do not need to pay taxes to earthly governments.

 

This person conveniently chose to ignore both Paul and Peter when they said to be subject to human governing authorities, but instead he followed his own idea to alarming lengths. I don’t know where he is today.

 

When Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi published his book on the change of the Sabbath, called From Sabbath to Sunday, and personally mailed it to hundreds of Christian pastors in North America, this got a lot of these pastors wondering if maybe Saturday was God’s holy day after all. They started calling their seminaries and denominational leaders,  and eventually a group of evangelical scholars got together and published a compilation of articles in which they did their best to refute Bacchiocchi’s clear Bible statements about the Sabbath. I have that book, and it made my jaw drop to watch these well-meaning Christian professors try as hard as they could to argue against God’s holy Sabbath, while ignoring clear Bible teaching. That was when I realized that well-meaning Christians could be willfully wrong.

 

You see, Paul tells us that it’s not just kids who might be tempted to let themselves be led away down fascinating but fallacious paths. Within the last couple of days I’ve been reading a book by a well-known literature teacher and critic. The book is about what a wonderful literary work the King James Bible is. I grew up on the King James Bible, and I do think it’s a wonderful literary work, so I am enjoying this book.

 

There’s just one problem – this book’s author does not believe in God. He talks about how he knows Greek well enough to read the Greek New Testament, and how he has been reading it over and over for decades. He knows Hebrew well enough to truly enjoy reading the Hebrew Bible.

 

But he does not believe in God. He considers the King James Bible a wonderful piece of writing, but as far as I can tell, he believes that it was totally a human creation.

 

Now. Here is where it can get really dangerous for the unstable soul. The unstable soul is someone who is susceptible of being carried along from one crazy idea to another, at the mercy of persuasive but tricky and deceitful people. I don’t think our literary critic is necessarily a deceitful person, but he has not allowed himself to be open to the possibility that there is a loving God.

 

Now if I am an unstable soul, this means that I have not stabilized myself in ways we will talk about in a moment. I have not studied my Bible with an open, prayerful heart, and I have not accepted Jesus as my Savior. I therefore am not able to view the world’s ideas with the perspective of a God who created me, a Savior who redeemed me, and a Holy Spirit who works within my heart to give me greater humility and spiritual wisdom.

 

So, what happens to my unstable soul when I read this well-written, articulate book by this great literary expert? Since I have no solid ideas of my own on this topic, who’s to say that I will not be drawn into the thinking-patterns of this great author who has much more learning than I do? It’s like Jesus’ Luke 11 parable of the empty house. An evil spirit was driven out of that house (which symbolized a human being who had gotten rid of Satan’s influence), but didn’t replace him with – evidently – the Holy Spirit’s presence. And that evil spirit, along with several others, came back and took possession again, and things were worse than before.

 

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Because Paul is just hoping someone at this press conference will ask him the big question: “Paul, what can I do to stabilize my soul?”

 

In other words, Paul is about to list for us not simply some interesting and helpful gifts which God gives to people in His church, but a list of soul-stabilizers, so that we will not turn out to be like the easily-deceived person in verse 14. Instead, we can be something like that little clown toy, which stabilizes no matter what somebody tries to hit him with.
So let’s take a look at these soul-stabilizers, one by one.

 

Verses 11 - 15: And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—

 

Do you notice how all these gifts flow directly into their purpose – to stabilize our souls and gather us into unity with Jesus?

 

Let’s take a look at these gifts one by one. They’re all stated in that one verse, verse 11.
First there are the apostles. What is an apostle? It comes from the Greek word apostolos, which means someone who is “sent forth” or “sent away.” Only a few people in the New Testament were called apostles – mainly those who had directly been sent by Christ. Paul claimed to be an apostle.

 

But the context of this verse indicates that this is one of the spiritual gifts, so perhaps the nearest thing to an apostle these days would be a missionary, someone who goes to peoples who have not heard the gospel message, and tells them about it.

 

Probably the way that you and I can benefit most immediately from this gift is to read the writings of those who were sent out – in other words the New Testament. Each of the New Testament books was written by an apostle. Pastor Kevin Wilfley, who is our conference’s part-time prayer ministry leader, is challenging pastors and other church leaders and everyone else to read through the New Testament during the month of January. I’m going to try to do that. I think it will be a wonderful and much-needed review of these important apostolic writings.

 

The next gift Paul mentions here in verse 11 is the gift of prophecy. Barclay Newman’s Greek-English dictionary defines the Greek word prophetes this way: “one who has insight into the divine will and possesses the power of inspired utterance.” In the Old Testament and New Testaments, prophets were called by God. And the overwhelming majority of these prophets were called to speak to God’s people who were straying from His clearly revealed words, and most of these prophets were called to give their messages before some great crisis was about to happen, such as before Judah and Israel were taken into enemy captivity.

 

So, how is the gift of prophecy going to help me become a more stable soul? Well, the first and most important thing to do is to read what the Bible prophets wrote. That’s everything from Genesis through Revelation. The Seventh-day Adventist church believes that Ellen White, who died in 1915, was a prophet. Her writings were designed to not add to the Bible, but to turn people back in the direction of the Bible. She would prefer that you immerse yourself in the Bible far more than in her own writings.

 

In fact, listen to what she says in the second volume of her Testimonies, page 605:

“If you had made God’s word your study, with a desire to reach the Bible standard and attain to Christian perfection, you would not have needed the Testimonies. It is because you have neglected to acquaint yourselves with God’s inspired Book that He has sought to reach you by simple, direct testimonies, calling your attention to the words of inspiration which you had neglected to obey, and urging you to fashion your lives in accordance with its pure and elevated teachings.” Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 605

 

So it’s clear where this divinely-inspired little lady wanted you to focus your attention. By all means read her writings, starting with Steps to Christ, The Desire of Ages, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, Christ’s Object Lessons  and so on, but remember her primary prophetic advice: read the Bible and read a lot of it. Read it more than you read her writings.

 

The next soul-stabilizer Paul mentions in verse 11 is that of the evangelist. This is from the Greek word euangelistes, which literally means a “good-newser,” someone who brings good news. An evangelist is someone who presents the gospel and what it means to people today, and calls for a response. Next week I will have the privilege of baptizing a couple who attended Understand Prophecy here in October, and who also attended another evangelistic series in Spanish. They heard the call, and they responded, and they will follow Jesus’ example and enter the waters of baptism a week from this morning.

 

Paul’s final two soul-stabilizers are “pastors” and “teachers.” People who exercise these gifts are most often found in the local church.

 

A couple of days ago, the Seattle Times carried an intriguing story about the railroad chapel cars of the old West. Back in the 1800s, a lot of men came West to be miners or to make their fortune in other ways. As the Times article says, these men wanted to “get in, get rich, and get out,” and they had little time for religion.

 

So a number of religious organizations decided that, since building and attending churches was such a low priority, they would bring the church to these towns by railroad. One of these “chapel cars” was called the Messenger of Peace. The Times article says, “The Messenger was one of 13 such chapel cars that spread the gospel. From 1898 to 1948, it rolled through places like Spokane, Pasco, Arlington, North Bend and Chehalis. Of the 50 years it was used to preach, the Messenger visited 11 states, but half of its time was in Washington.” Of the 13 cars, seven were Baptist, three were Catholic and three were Episcopalian.

 

According to the article,  “A traveling minister was welcome to come and preach at a tavern, as long as he got on the next train and left . . . . The saloon owners didn't want permanent religion.” Because if religion really took hold in one of those towns, the next thing you would have would be little old ladies with axes, chopping down the saloons!

 

This chapel car contained 17 rows of pews that could seat 85 people. It had a lectern, an organ, and a phonograph donated by Thomas Edison. A pastor and his wife would travel with the car, and would live in a nine-by-nine foot room at one end.
 
(Here’s a link to this article.)

 

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019996234_chapelcar27m.html

 

Even though in Paul’s “gift list,” the two that most closely involve the local church are mentioned last, the local church is the most important factor in soul stabilization. During one Sabbath morning visit to a Bible-preaching church, you can get a complete soul-stabilizing experience. And it’s not a railroad-car, here-today-and-tomorrow-in-Wenatchee experience.

 

In the children’s divisions, the kids will be taught those faith-building Bible stories they will never forget. Upstairs, their parents and others will discuss the words of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles. The pastor will preach from some part of the Bible, and will call for some kind of response. And the listener’s soul will be stabilized for another week.

 

If you are a regular Sabbath School and church attender, and many of you are, congratulations on your stabilizing souls. (Notice that I mentioned Sabbath School as well as church. Sabbath School is the church at study. Sabbath School is where your faith – and your kids’ faith, especially if you get them there on time, at 9:30, which is when their teachers are ready for them – are truly stabilized.)

 

If you haven’t made coming to Sabbath School and church a regular habit, the apostle Paul would like to encourage you to make this a New Year’s resolution. You and I need to fortify our minds – and our children’s minds -- with truths that will block out enticing fallacies from very impressive but deceptive sources, and help us spring back to a stable posture.

 

What do you say to that? Would you like to resolve to take advantage of Paul’s soul-stabilizers in a deeper and stronger way this coming year? Would you like to raise your hand and vote for that?

 

(Back to the Top)

BATTLE IN BABYLON
Expository Sermon on Daniel 3
For the Baptism of Aaron Jin
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 12/8/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(You can listen to the audio of this baptismal service. You'll hear Pastor Maylan's introduction of Aaron, then Aaron shares what this day means to him. Shelley leads the congregation in a "roll call" welcome, after which you will hear Aaron's baptism. Aaron's father Ronghua tells the children's story, and Pastor Maylan preaches on Daniel 3, including verses 16-18, the passage which Aaron chose. Following the sermon, Aaron's brother Jaron plays a piano solo. To hear the audio, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 3, which contains Aaron’s Scripture passage for this morning.

As I was studying Daniel 3 this week, I thought about how it takes place in the Babylonian kingdom. That reminded me how in the New Testament, Babylon is often used as a symbol of those who are persecuting God’s faithful people. “Babylon” was probably first of all a code word for the Roman Empire, but Revelation is very clear that the “Babylon spirit” will last all the way down to the end of time.

Along about 600 BC, Babylon invaded the kingdom of Judah and destroyed Solomon’s Temple and deported a lot of the people back to what is Iraq today. Daniel himself, along with three of his friends, were deported also, and ended up being trained in the king’s special university for political and advisory service.

But from the very first, Daniel and his friends are forced to decide whether or not to be faithful to God. Keep in mind that the temple of God had been destroyed. And the thinking in those days was that if one nation conquered another nation, then the victorious nation’s gods were stronger than the vanquished nation’s gods. Therefore, by that logic, the God of Judah was weak and unable to protect His people, and therefore nobody need pay Him much attention anymore.

But Daniel and his friends knew otherwise. They knew that God had allowed this captivity because of the people’s sins, to teach them a lesson. Therefore, Daniel’s God was not only powerful, but cared enough to discipline His people so they would learn what idolatry was like in a country which was permeated by it.

The book of Daniel has always been a great encourager to people who are doing battle with spiritual Babylon down through the centuries. But as I studied this chapter this week, I found that right within these verses is a surprisingly complete tutorial on what spiritual Babylon is all about. I mean, you see these same “Babylon” patterns happening again and again through Jesus’ time, in the book of Acts, in warnings Paul and other New Testament writers make.

And I think that a good close look at Daniel chapter 3 will do a lot to prepare Aaron and you and me for what might lie ahead for us very soon. Because no doubt about it – we are living in spiritual Babylon today, and we need to prepare to resist it.

I think that one question to ask is, when Aaron and I and you are battling Babylon, whom are we facing? Ultimately, of course, it is Satan himself whose fingers are manipulating the puppet strings, but let’s get specific. Whom are we facing in our Babylonian battles? And what can we do in response?

 Daniel 3:1 [NKJV]: Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

Who are we facing in our Babylonian battles? (If you’re taking sermon notes, here comes point one.)

In my battles in Babylon, I am facing those who create false gods for me to worship.

One of the interesting news items which is coming out of Egypt these days is that people who are protesting what they think are the President Morsi’s power-grabs are saying (and I heard them say this more than once on the radio), “He is going beyond making himself a pharaoh – he is making himself God.” And since this was not what a lot of the Egyptian people bargained for when they took part in the Arab Spring protests, they are returning to Tahrir Square to resume the revolution.

The Bible doesn’t specifically say what got into Nebuchadnezzar’s head to make him want to create this gold image. In the previous chapter, Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about an image, but after Daniel interpreted that dream, Nebuchadnezzar praised Daniel’s God. In Daniel 2:47, the king said to Daniel, “Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.”

But evidently Nebuchadnezzar’s understanding about God evaporated pretty quickly, because now he is about to insist that representatives of his entire empire worship not the God of heaven but an image of gold. In the Daniel 2 image, Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian kingdom is represented by the head of gold, but here Nebuchadnezzar builds an entire image of gold. It’s like he’s saying, “No, my kingdom will not be replaced by another kingdom after all. My kingdom is going to last forever.”

So, if Aaron and you and I are moving through spiritual Babylon six days out of the week, what are some of the gods which Babylon might be erecting for us to worship?

Well, in Matthew chapter 6, verse 24, Jesus suggests that “mammon,” or money, is one of those gods. Jesus also told stories about people who worship their possessions – like the rich man his overloaded grain-barns – rather than follow God’s will and share with the poor.

In Matthew 10:37, Jesus suggests that members of our families can be the small-G gods which can take the Heavenly Father’s place. He warns us against allowing even our mother or father to turn us away from following Him.

The bottom line is that a false God can be whatever tempts us into, or scares us into, denying Jesus as our Lord. Peter denied Jesus because of fear. Judas betrayed Jesus evidently because he thought this might force Christ into asserting Himself as the kind of Messiah Judas had always hoped He would become. So Peter’s false god was fear, and Judas’ was greed or ambition.

Other human beings can also become gods for us if we let them. Hitler was a god to many for awhile, as were Stalin and Lenin and Karl Marx.

And of course whoever or whatever causes us to break one or more of the Ten Commandments has become our god, dethroning the true Author of those commandments. That’s because we have decided to ignore the laws handwritten in stone by the true God.

Let’s continue with our Babylon tutorial. What else are Aaron and you and I facing from modern-day spiritual Babylon?

Verses 2 – 3: Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered together for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Who else do we as believers sometimes face in modern-day Babylon?

In my battles in Babylon, I am facing not only those who create false gods for me to worship, but those who seek to control whom I worship.

It’s one thing to dangle enticing false deities in front of me, but it’s another thing to force me into serving them.

All around the world tonight, Christians are being persecuted by those who don’t like Christianity. In Egypt, Muslim mosques have been vandalized by those who don’t like Muslims.

But will that ever happen in America? Prophecy indicates that it will. If we ever let our grip on religious freedom relax, this kind of thing can happen.

Back in the South Dakota county I grew up in there were at least two Hutterite colonies. When dad and mom needed some garden produce, he and I would drive over to a Hutterite colony, and while dad dickered about prices for tomatoes or sweet corn or cabbage, I would look around and see the neat dormitory housing for the single men and single women, and the small and well-built houses for families.

Women wore long dresses made out of bright print colors, and the men wore white shirts and black pants with suspenders and black hats, even when working the fields.

The Hutterites are German-speaking Protestants who firmly believe that they should not enter the military, nor even wear a soldier’s uniform, or even a policeman’s uniform. They are in favor of absolute pacifism.

This has caused great problems for them. In the early 1800s they farmed in Russia, but as soon as a compulsory military service law went into effect, they sent scouts to America in the 1870s, and about 1200 Hutterites moved to the USA.

However, in World War I, when we were fighting Germany, the German-speaking Hutterites were instantly suspected. If you are at war with Germany, and in your midst are German-speaking people who refuse to fight, you naturally assume that they are supporting the German side.

So during World War I, the Hutterites were so severely persecuted because of their beliefs that they fled to Canada, and only returned when the laws were changed.

So persecution can happen, either from fear or from fanaticism. On Sabbath, January 19, North Pacific Union religious liberty director Greg Hamilton will be here to update us on the status of religious liberty here in America and around the world.

Now, here’s where I noticed some very interesting things in Daniel 3, things which hadn’t really clicked in my mind before. This chapter tells us some methods that Babylon has used to control us. Notice verse 4.

Verses 4 - 5: Then a herald cried aloud: “To you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up;

I’ve read this chapter many times, and it didn’t hit me till this week – why the music? I suppose it’s natural to get together an orchestra for entertainment purposes with all these officials in town, but why tie music to the worship of the image?

The Bible doesn’t say, but we do see one very interesting fact. There is music of all different kinds being performed there on the plain of Dura. I don’t know if there was anybody there from India, or if there was such a thing as a sitar back then, but if India had been represented there, and sitars did exist, they would probably have heard that sitar music loud and clear.

As you know, music has great power over the emotions. My brother Chester, who is also a pastor, loved the American popular songs of the 1970s. Back then, he and I and our two sisters had a country-Western-gospel singing group.

Several years ago my brother had the chance to go to India a couple of times to preach evangelistic series there. He says that while he was sitting on the platform waiting to speak, somebody would perform special music, and it would often be loudly-amplified sitar music, or electric guitar played to sound like a sitar. And the tunes would be about as far from John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot and Glen Campbell as you could get.

Yet my brother tells me that, while the music was over his head, the crowd really loved it, because it had emotional ties for them.

Maybe the reason all those instruments from all those cultures were part of that strange orchestra was that, as each person from each culture heard music from his culture, even possibly played in an instrument from his land, maybe this would touch his heart and weaken his knees so that he would bow to the image.

After all, military forces have thrilling brass bands to cause both pulse and patriotism to quicken. Protesters have protest songs. These days, Egyptian protesters are making up their own melodies to comment on their crisis, just as Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger wrote songs against our own country’s involvement in war.

Now it would’ve been one thing if Nebuchadnezzar had simply used music alone as an incentive to worship that image. But he uses something else as well. Look at verse 6.

Verse 6: . . . and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.”

So it’s like Nebuchadnezzar was using the carrot and the stick. The music was designed to soften hearts, but if anybody was still wavering, the threats would give them a final incentive to obey.

Imagine being Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, standing there listening to that announcement, first about the music, and then about the fiery furnace. Imagine deciding to resist this coercion from two directions.

And notice another challenge the three men faced – and it’s a challenge that you and I sometimes face as we do battle with Babylon.

Verse 7: So at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, harp, and lyre, in symphony with all kinds of music, all the people, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the gold image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Here comes sermon point three:

In my battles in Babylon, I am facing not only those who create false gods for me to worship, and those who seek to control whom I worship, but also those who mindlessly allow themselves to knuckle under to these pressures.

I mean, there wasn’t any privacy at all. Everybody was all gathered together in one place, and everybody was watching to see whether or not you bowed the knee. And everybody else was doing what God had forbidden you to do. This created tremendous pressure.

But as you know, this kind of pressure is just a fact of Christian living. Aaron has felt it at his school. Everybody feels it at school, whether or not the school is a Christian one or a public one. Do you go along with what everybody else is doing, or do you evaluate what they are suggesting in light of God’s will, and choose to follow God?

What struck me as so interesting as I read about all these national representatives quickly flattening themselves in the Dura dirt was this: These people had come from many different cultures. Each of those cultures had at least one deity which the people of that culture considered important. I’m sure that each of these representatives had been taught at his mother’s knee to be faithful to their particular god or gods.

Yet here in the presence of the king of Babylon, and of that tall golden image (and that burning fiery furnace), not a single one of those representatives stayed true to his own god. None of them felt an overwhelming loyalty to what they had been trained to worship. They evidently did not consider their gods worth dying for.

But the three Hebrew men behaved in a totally different way. I wonder how many foreign heads turned, how many foreign eyes stared at these three men. One thing that Christians need to remember, and experienced Christians already understand – is that when you choose to believe in God, and in His Son Jesus, and if you behave like you believe in them, you will stand out. And you must stand out.

Because even though your standing out, even though your being different, can sometimes feel very uncomfortable, it is exactly that decision to buck the trend, to stand up for principle, it is exactly that decision which causes admiration and commitment to grow in the hearts of the quiet ones to whom you are an influence even though you may never suspect it or they may never tell you.

Now, let’s move toward the verses Aaron chose. Because those verses show how Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego responded to Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian persecution. Let’s pick up the story in verse eight.

Verses 8 - 13: Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews. They spoke and said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! You, O king, have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the gold image; and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego; these men, O king, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have set up.” Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. So they brought these men before the king.

I think here we have one of the most chilling revelations in this chapter. Notice that the king is not mildly concerned. He is not thoughtfully puzzled by this disobedience. Instead, he is enraged and furious. His emotions heat up.

And remember what Jesus faced from the religious leaders of His time. Except in rare cases like the relatively open-minded Nicodemus, Pharisees and scribes did not calmly disagree with Jesus. They did not seek Him out and gently and lovingly try to win Him to their side.

No, like Nebuchadnezzar, they showed the spirit of Satan when they got angry, when they plotted to trap Him into saying something damaging, when they shouted “Crucify Him!”, when they mocked Him on the cross. And it’s the same way today. Anyone – of whatever faith, Christian or non-Christian – who lets anger take over is not doing the work of Jesus.

Paul makes exactly this point in Ephesians 4. He says, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”  Ephesians 4:31 – 32  In other words, Jesus’ way is to win with kindness rather than criticism, affection rather than anger, gentleness rather than grouchiness.

Well. Let’s find out how Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego deal with the persecution they are facing. Nebuchadnezzar gives the three men a chance to change their minds. But notice what they say in response:

Verses 16 – 18: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

How do these three men handle this persecution?

First, they showed up. It was their responsibility as leaders to be present at this event which their king had called them to. It probably wasn’t on a Sabbath, otherwise they wouldn’t have come. Remember their great care to obey God even in dietary matters, in chapter 1? They would certainly not have violated God’s holy Sabbath.

So evidently the king’s request to gather did not violate God’s law, so they joined the group on the Plain of Dura. It probably came as a surprise when the king gave the command to worship the image. But whether or not they knew ahead of time the challenge the king would make, they made the decision to stay true to God.

The next thing these three men did was to refuse to bow. They could have tried to rationalize within their minds. They could’ve said to themselves, “We are faithful to God in our hearts –  we’ll just go along with the crowd so we don’t make waves. We won’t really mean it when we bow the knee. We’ll bow down with our fingers crossed.”

But just as in a later chapter Daniel refused to close his bedroom window to pray, these three men understood than they needed to act out their faith and not be hypocrites.

Another thing these three men did in response to persecution was to remain calm and courteous. Nebuchadnezzar’s fury would cause him to heat that furnace seven times hotter – a totally unnecessary move. But the  three representatives of the God of Heaven were gracious and calm.

Finally, when they were challenged, these three men gave the same three-part response that many persecuted believers have given since then. First they declare that God is powerful enough to protect them. Second, they acknowledge that God might have other plans rather than to rescue them, and they understand this. Third, they respectfully insist that either way, they will not worship anyone but God.

And whatever happens, Jesus will be with them.

Verses 19 – 26: Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

Aren’t Aaron’s verses a thrilling challenge to us? Neither Aaron nor I know the situations you are facing right now. Maybe it’s a workplace challenge to do something immoral or illegal, or to work on God’s Sabbath day. Maybe it’s a school challenge to join your peers in doing something that God forbids. Maybe it’s something else which you are being tempted to worship instead of God and His wishes.

Whatever the challenges we face in the week ahead, I have heard the clear and courageous challenge that Aaron’s verses have provided for us this morning.

What about you – would you like to resolve to be true to your Creator this coming week?

 

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SETTLING UP—THE THREE T’S (Part 1)
Topical Sermon
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 12/1/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Luke chapter 10.

I don’t know if the phrase “settling up” means anything to anybody else besides me. (Normally, you might tell someone to “settle down.”) Has anybody ever heard or used that phrase, “settling up”?

I would hear it once in a while when I was kid. It basically meant paying someone for a product or service. But settling up was not used for simple transactions like buying gas or groceries. Settling up was more complicated. It always had to do with important, very major transactions where you didn’t necessarily see price tags.

For example, one year the lowlands where our South Dakota farmhouse stood were flooded. So the next year, dad had the house moved across the road to a higher part of our land. But before he moved the house, he got one of the Adventist church members named Dan to prepare the foundation, which included a full basement.

Now, Dan would never have agreed to a specific hourly rate, and would never have kept exact to-the-minute track of his time. After all, Dad was his friend. But it was also understood that a friend who uses his skills for another friend deserves remuneration, because Dan was an expert in block-laying and foundation-measuring, and dad wasn’t.

I wasn’t present during the “settling up” time, but I imagine that it involved some careful, genial, diplomatic discussion, both Dad and Dan musing about the cost of concrete blocks and cement for the floor, and the plumbing supplies. And then, after a decision was made about material costs, would come the gentle haggling about how much Dad should pay Dan for his labor. Dad would insist on an amount which was more than Dan actually deserved. Dan would suggest an amount much lower. And finally they would arrive at a mutually agreeable amount, and they would still be friends.

This week as I was thinking about what to preach on, I thought about “settling up.” And I think that our relationship with God might be just a tiny bit like Dad’s relationship with Dan.

You see, God isn’t a vending machine. He isn’t one of those self-checkout machines at Fred Meyer. He doesn’t charge us for the perfectly-mixed atmosphere we breathe. If it were up to Him, He wouldn’t charge us for water either. He doesn’t charge us an hourly rate to keep the switch for the nourishing sunshine turned on. He doesn’t bill us for the magic that causes tiny seeds to grow into fat orange carrots. And neither does He charge us a monthly rental for our babies.

But neither is God a “set-it-and-forget-it” Creator. Since He created you and me in His image, He has at least as deep an interest in us as any parent has in his or her child. And God is, of course, as shocked and as puzzled as any parent would be when His children try to earn or buy His goodwill in various ways, as many well-meaning people do.

Yet God built us in such a way that we are eager to be accountable. We want to do a good job. We like worthwhile challenges, and enjoy the fulfillment of meeting them. We are happiest when we know we are changing people’s lives for the better.

But since sin (which is selfishness flowered into ugly fruit) has such a chokehold on our souls, God continually calls us to accountability. From Genesis 3, where God took an evening walk and called “Adam, where are you?” all the way to Revelation 22:11 where He says, “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still,” all the way from Genesis to Revelation, and many, many times in between, God calls us to “settle up” with Him, to come and reason together about our souls, to come and be accountable.

And fortunately, Jesus gets very specific about some ways we can do this.

In Luke chapter 10 we have a story which makes all naturally hospitable people who want to give their guests the best experience possible narrow their eyes a little. It’s the story of Mary and Martha, Martha is doing all the work and Mary is just sitting around doing nothing. Sure, Mary is listening to Jesus, and that’s important, but who is going to get the food ready? It’s not going to prepare itself.

I mean, Jesus and whoever else came with Him are bound to be hungry. He is honoring us with His presence, and according to every rule of Middle Eastern hospitality, He deserves the best. Two thousand years earlier, when the Lord visited Abraham at his tent, Abraham immediately slaughtered a calf and prepared it – and he probably didn’t do this all by himself.

All very good points, of course. But let’s review the story and find out what was really happening.

Luke 10:38 – 42 [NKJV]: Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

If you are taking sermon notes, here comes point one. What’s one way Jesus calls us to accountability?

Jesus insists that we “settle up” with God about how we use our time.

Take a look again at verse 40.

Verse 40: But Martha was distracted with much serving . . .

I think this is a key sentence. Let’s break it down.

First of all, look at the phrase “much serving.” In Greek, it’s pollen diakonian. If you’re a deacon, or deaconess, that second words is where your office got its name. Diakonos means “servant,” and what Martha was doing out there in her steamy kitchen was definitely servant work.

And out there in her living room was a Man who was doing exactly the same thing. Over in Mark 10:45, Jesus tells his disciples that He came not to be ministered to, but to “minister.” That’s the verb form of that same Greek word diakonos. In Luke 22:27, Jesus said, “I am among you as He who serves.” Again, that same Greek word.

So Jesus has no problem at all with “serving,” and He also doesn’t have a problem with “much serving.” How do you suppose the muscles over Jesus’ shoulder blades felt back in Luke 9 when He personally catered a miraculous meal for 5000 men, plus wives and kids? Jesus has absolutely nothing against “much serving.”

So what was Martha’s problem? If her House Guest was the ultimate Servant, then why isn’t He taking Martha’s side rather than the side of her lazy sister?

Maybe part of the answer is found in another word in that sentence.

Verse 40: But Martha was distracted with much serving . . .

So we’ve ruled out “serving” and “much serving” as the problem. But look at that word “distracted.” That is the Greek word periespato, and this is absolutely the only time this word occurs in the New Testament. It literally means to “draw around” or “draw off” or “draw away.” It doesn’t mean the pencil kind of drawing but the kind of drawing when you pull something, like a horse drawing a wagon.

But like most words in any language, this word came to have a metaphorical meaning. It’s like the English phrase “knock it off.” If somebody were to say to somebody else, “Knock it off,” that doesn’t mean “strike something so hard that it falls from where it is perched.” “Knock it off” means “stop what you’re doing.”

Over the last couple of centuries, archaeologists have been digging in the sands of Egypt and other dry areas. And every once in a while, they have come up with large amounts of papyrus documents. The dry sand preserves that ancient paper, and this means that the archaeologists can read personal letters, business documents, and all sorts of other writings in the Greek language. And studying these sheets of papyrus, archaeologists and Bible scholars can get a deeper understanding of words that are used in the New Testament.

And that’s what happened with this word, periespato. The old King James translates this word “cumbered,” and the New King James translates it “distracted,” and so do the New International Version and the English Standard Version.

But some of those old papyrus letters let us in on the secret of how intense that word really was. In one earlier papyrus letter, someone wrote that he was hoping he would be able to pay off his debts and not have to “worry” anymore. Another, milder Greek word for “worry” is used several times in the New Testament, but periespato is what you might call “worry on steroids.”

As usual, Ellen White provides some wonderful insights into stories like this – insights which clearly echo the entire Bible teaching on our relationship to Christ and what we should or should not worry about. Here’s what she says, on page 525 of her biography of Christ, The Desire of Ages:

“As Christ gave His wonderful lessons, Mary sat at His feet, a reverent and devoted listener. On one occasion, Martha, perplexed with the care of preparing the meal, went to Christ, saying, ‘Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.’ This was the time of Christ’s first visit to Bethany. The Saviour and His disciples had just made the toilsome journey on foot from Jericho. Martha was anxious to provide for their comfort, and in her anxiety she forgot the courtesy due to her Guest. Jesus answered her with mild and patient words, ‘Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’ Mary was storing her mind with the precious words falling from the Saviour’s lips, words that were more precious to her than earth’s most costly jewels. {DA 525.1}

Ellen White continues: “The ‘one thing’ that Martha needed was a calm, devotional spirit, a deeper anxiety for knowledge concerning the future, immortal life, and the graces necessary for spiritual advancement. She needed less anxiety for the things which pass away, and more for those things which endure forever.” (The Desire of Ages, p. 525)

In our ministry together, Shelley and I have seen wonderful things happen when – facing a stressful or worrisome or distracting crisis, people have first taken Mary’s position at Jesus’ feet, and listened to His words through Scripture, and have asked for His help.
Then, when they finally rise to face whatever lies ahead, it is amazing how serene they feel, even though the crisis may be no less difficult than they expected.

And that’s what I need to do more of. In true “guy” fashion, I sometimes resist prayer in favor of plowing ahead and trying to solve things myself. But Shelley has taught me that in probably every puzzling situation, prayer should come first. I could tell you stories, and you could probably tell me stories, about how prayer does change things – and better yet, prayer changes people!

As I mentioned, nobody worked or “served” harder than Jesus did, as He walked and taught and avoided the Pharisees’ verbal traps for 3 ½ years. Jesus served with intensity, but He knew how to prioritize His time, and what to put first. After all, in Matthew 6:31 – 34 He says:

“Therefore do not worry [and this is the milder Greek “worry” words], saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things . . . “

In other words, Martha, go ahead and plan for that gracious and perfectly-cooked meal, but first spend the time with Jesus. And that time with Him might just help keep all of your own worries and hopes (and personal expectations) in perspective.

Now let’s turn to another kind of “settling up” or accounting we need to do with God. Turn to John chapter 1. In John 1, John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, and the next day John is standing with a couple of his disciples, watching Jesus walk by. Let’s pick up the story in verse 35:

John 1:35 – 42: Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus . . .

What’s another area in which we need to “settle up” and give an accounting to God?

Jesus insists that we “settle up” with God not only about our time, but also about our talents.

Now, I don’t know what Andrew would have done if somebody had walked up to him with a wooden flute and asked him, “Play us a tune, Andrew.”

We don’t know whether or not Andrew did have the talent of music. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. As you know, on Sabbath, the talents of music or speaking or teaching get the most visibility. And that’s great, because these are definitely talents God can use, and has used many times.

However, we need to remember the talents Jesus considered most important. True, He sang a hymn with His disciples after the Last Supper. He probably knew all the tunes and the words of each one of the Psalms by heart. And as the Lord of the Old Testament, He certainly was the one who directed  the Levites to form choral and instrumental groups for the worship times.

But when Jesus walked on this earth, He deeply appreciated people with all kinds of talents. And from what we know about Andrew, Andrew seems to have had the talent of introducing people to Jesus. In the verses we just read, he introduces his own brother Peter to the Savior. And later, Peter would become one of the most powerful Christian preachers.

Now turn to John 6 for another look at Andrew’s talent.

John 6:1 - 11: After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.

Once again, Andrew introduces someone to Jesus. And once again, the result is powerful. How did Andrew have the courage to introduce his own brother to the Savior? How could he summon up the audacity, with 5000 hungry people waiting for lunch, to risk the other disciples’ hoots of laughter by introducing to Jesus a small boy with a small lunch?

I think the reason Andrew had such courage was that He knew Jesus very well. He had evidently allowed the Holy Spirit to so thoroughly possess him, that he was able to truly understand how wonderful and powerful Jesus was.

Now let’s move over to John 12, where we will see Andrew in action once more.

John 12:20 – 22: Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

We ask ourselves, “Why didn’t Philip bypass Andrew and introduce these Greeks to Jesus himself?” The Bible doesn’t say. After all, most if not all of the disciples held deep prejudices against the Samaritans, and the Samaritans were closer kinfolk then the Greeks were.

But whatever reservations Philip may have had, Andrew went right ahead and did what he did so well -- he encouraged Philip enough so that the two of them informed Jesus. The Bible doesn’t say that Jesus talked to these Greeks, but at least they had been brought to Jesus’ attention.

So what was Andrew’s talent? It seems to have been the natural ability to introduce someone to the Savior. Later, Jesus would insist to His disciples that they all should develop this talent. “Go and teach all nations,” He would say in the final verses of Matthew. “Baptize them, and teach them to observe everything I have told you.”

And then He said something else which was truly significant: “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

You see, even after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples were so afraid for their lives that they assembled in the upper room “for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19). But in Acts 2, Jesus’ Holy Spirit came to them and fulfilled His promise about being with them. And this gave them incredible courge to be able to persuasively interest other people in Jesus and who He was.

This week I heard a radio interview with a couple of soldiers who had served tours of duty in Afghanistan. They returned a few years ago, and were discharged from the army—and they discovered that life for young veterans can be kind of difficult.

One of these young men heard about the earthquake in Haiti, and he called up the other soldier and said, “Let’s go down there and help them out.” After all, these two men had become experts in dealing with crisis and injury and trauma.

A third friend paid for their tickets, and the two soldiers flew down to Haiti. They traveled until they came to a place where people were in need—in fact, for several days there were absolutely no other foreign aid workers besides them. The injured had gone for days with broken bones and bleeding wounds, so these soldiers patched them up the way they would their wounded buddies on the battlefield.

These two soldiers founded an organization of veterans called “Team Rubicon,” and their website says that Team Rubicon has deployed all over the world, including three times to the Thai-Burma border, sending small training teams to remote villages, and teaching advanced trauma medicine to local medics.

This is a great example of using skills you have developed in service to humanity.
 
So far we’ve covered just two ways in which we can come face to face with God, and “settle up” our accounts with Him—with our time and with our talents. The third “T” stands for “treasure,” and I’m going to cover that in a later sermon.

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WHY DAVID SAID THANK-YOU
Expository Sermon on Psalm 65
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 11/24/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Psalm 65.

My sermon last week was called “Why Paul Said Thank You.” This week I’m doing something similar with David’s Psalm 65. Because even though Paul was an almost compulsive “thanker,” David was a far more widely-published gratitude-giver. David wrote “Praise the Lord” (which in Hebrew is halleluia) more tiems that Paul wrote “Thank You, Lord.”

David’s praise songs are, of course, kind of a mixed bag. In one breath he can give great glory to God, and in the next breath he can scream for God to dash David’s enemies against a stone. However, Psalm 65 is one of those Psalms where David doesn’t actively thirst for vengeance. Instead, as I read it, Psalm 65  does nothing else but open our eyes to how incredibly loving and caring God is. And I believe that as we discover what is in this Psalm, we will be able to join David in not only thanking God with greater fervency, but in trusting Him more completely.

Psalm 65:1 – 4 [NKJV]: Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come. Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them. Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple.

Are you catching something of a theme so far? Verse two: “To You all flesh will come.” Verse four: “Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts.”

What’s the first reason David tells me to be grateful to God?  If you’re taking down sermon notes, here comes point one.

David reminds me to give thanks to God because God wants me close.

Yesterday, as you know, was Black Friday. It’s called Black Friday, not because it appears in a horror film – although there were some news stories which told about combat between shoppers over the last of a particular item which was put on sale.

No, Black Friday is the day when merchants hope to sell enough goods so that their accounts will go out of the red and into the black – in other words, they hope they will begin to make an actual profit for the year. So a lot of merchants hoped you would come close to them yesterday.

When I was a boy back in my hometown of Redfield, South Dakota, Black Friday hadn’t been invented yet. But we did have Thursday, and it happened every week! Even though all of the stores were open every weekday, Thursday was the busiest shopping day of the week.

I’m sure this tradition must’ve been passed down from pioneer days, when people didn’t have cars, and a trip to a town 10 miles away was a journey you didn’t take very often. So for whatever reason, Thursday became the day that farmers would load the family into the buggy, or the wagon, and head for the county seat, the great metropolis of Redfield, population 2800.

By the time I came along, of course, everybody had cars (and Redfield’s population was still about 2800), but Thursday was still considered the shopping day. If you were a livestock farmer, you went to the Redfield Livestock Auction (we simply called it the “sale barn,”) to watch – and maybe participate in – the auction which featured cattle and pigs and sheep and the occasional goat.

While you were listening to the rattle of the auctioneer’s lingo, your wife and kids were strolling along Main Street, looking in at the Ben Franklin store for envelopes and pencils and notebook paper. Or mom might go to the Red Owl grocery store and make notes for what to pick up when dad got through at the sale barn and drove the buggy over.

And of course every one of those merchants was hoping that you would stop in and buy something. The café owners were hoping you would be there for lunch. And once a year – and I think it’s still happening in Redfield -- there is actually something a little like Black Friday. It’s called “Moonlight Madness,” a summer Thursday when the stores place tables of merchandise on the sidewalks, and stay open until midnight or beyond.

Those merchants hungered for our presence on Thursdays and every other day, but their reasons for wanting us to come close were very different from God’s reasons. God has nothing to sell us – what He has to offer cost a lot, but He gives it to us free.

And even in verse four, where David says, “Blessed is the man You choose,” speaking of God’s choice, even there we can see how wonderful God is. At first, this verse might seem to say that God chooses some people and doesn’t choose other people. And this might make me wonder, “Am I one of the chosen?”

How many people does God choose? A few quick Bible verses will clear this up. And if you don’t have time to copy down the references, they’ll be in the text version of this sermon on our church website, and you can find its address on the back of the bulletin. But listen to these verses:

Isaiah 45:22: “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”

Isaiah 55:1: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.”

Matthew 22:9: Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’

John 7:37: On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

Romans 10:12 – 13: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

1 Timothy 2:3 - 4 says that “God our Savior” “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

So even though God reserves the right to choose who He wants to come close to Him, He chooses everybody, and would be delighted if everybody would in turn choose Him. Why does He use the word “choose,” then? Maybe it’s to emphasize that He doesn’t just tolerate our presence, with a weary sigh, but really does want us with Him.

So why is this so important? I think a major reason it’s important to know that God wants all of us to come close to Him is that this must mean He loves all of us with equal warmth and intensity. God doesn’t just love the relatively sinless people. He loves the most viciously sinful as well, the most spiritually careless. (Remember Jesus’ parable of the 99 “found” sheep and the one lost one?) God wants me close because He loves me, and if I allow myself to be drawn to Him, the Holy Spirit will change me to become more like Him.

So, what do I do now that I know this?

First, I need to take steps to come closer to God. How do I do this? Verse two says that God hears our prayers, so I should pray to him. Verse three says that God will provide atonement for our transgressions, so I should ask God to make me more sensitive to to my sinfulness, and to forgive my sins.

And since verse four says that the ones God chooses to approach Him are blessed, and since we’ve seen lots of Bible evidence that this is talking about everybody in this room, I need to thank Him for choosing me. The more tender my conscience becomes, the greater my horror will be as I look back on my past.

But even though I do need to make right, as much as possible, the wrongs I have done -- and apologize wholeheartedly to those I have hurt, and not perpetrate those hurts any more -- once my sins have been forgiven by God, I must not look backward, but forward. In light of God’s total forgiveness, it is actually an insult to Him to keep dwelling on what He has already forgiven.

And this leads naturally to something else which David was thankful for. Let’s start with verse five.

Verses 5 – 8: By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us, O God of our salvation, You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, And of the far-off seas; Who established the mountains by His strength, Being clothed with power; You who still the noise of the seas, The noise of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples. They also who dwell in the farthest parts are afraid of Your signs; You make the outgoings of the morning and evening rejoice.
 
Why else is David grateful to God?

David reminds me to give thanks to God not only because God wants me close, but because God’s power calms formidable forces.

Verse five tells us that God does “awesome deeds.” Verse six says that He established the mountains by His strength. And look at verse seven again:

Verses 7 – 8: You who still the noise of the seas, The noise of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples. They also who dwell in the farthest parts are afraid of Your signs; You make the outgoings of the morning and evening rejoice.
 
Notice God’s twin powers? He can calm the waves of the sea (and so could His Son),  and He can also calm the “tumult of the peoples.”
 
Just this past week on the news we have heard about a lot of people in tumult. Not only are there the usual wars and rumors of wars, but Egyptian citizens were back in Cairo’s Tahrir Square this week, protesting because the president had granted himself sweeping powers. Even the Renton Walmart store had demonstrators in front of it, asking for better working conditions for Walmart employees.

I was a teenager in the late 1960s, and I can remember the waves of student rebellion that swept across college campuses. Kids rebelled not only against the Vietnam War but also against “the establishment,” the systems put in place and controlled by their elders.

In fact, in a late-60s interview with a reporter, a young activist named Jack Weinberg said, “We have a saying in this movement that we don’t trust anyone over 30.” That statement was picked up and broadcast nationally. I remember hearing that when I was in college. Jack Weinberg, who went on to live well beyond age 30, and is 72 if he is still alive, says that he merely made that comment to get the reporter off his back.

Many a college president in those days wished desperately for some way to “still the tumult of the peoples.” And several world leaders today whose citizens have caught “Arab Spring Fever” are also wishing for quiet.

But this psalm tells us that God has the power to calm the waters and calm restless people.
Why is this so important? You see, God is not a power-rationer. Those who have won elections earlier this month are now in a position to give power to those who worked to elect them, putting these helpers in positions which will give them greater influence. And some campaign staffers get the plum positions, and others get left out.

But God doesn’t work this way. God promises power to anyone who will allow himself or herself to be used by God for God’s purposes. In Acts 1:8, Jesus told His disciples, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

So what do I do, now that I know this? Well, if I am facing situations of tumult, from nature or from people, I can call out to God for help, and claim this promise. Verse five says, “By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us.”

Syria’s leader is using his military power against his own people, which most of the rest of the world believes is an unrighteous thing to do. But God’s power is exerted in righteous ways. Whatever the Lord does is right, and will be proved right when we get a chance to understand this from the perspective of eternity.

And besides calling out to God for help, I can do something else. I can refuse to be afraid of nature or of humanity. If God has power over both, I need not be afraid. I should, of course, take proper precautions. I should not snowboard or ski in avalanche-prone areas beyond the borders of the ski slopes. I should not leave valuables in my car, especially not in view of the passing car prowler.

But when circumstances beyond my control alarm me, I should remember Psalm 65 and God’s wonderful power. I need to pray, “Lord, I need to see some of Your awesome, righteous deeds right about now.”

The final verses of this psalm were surprising to me, in a way. And I believe they show us a third reason for being grateful to God.

Verses 9 – 13: You visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it; The river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, For so You have prepared it. You water its ridges abundantly, You settle its furrows; You make it soft with showers, You bless its growth. You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, And the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; The valleys also are covered with grain; They shout for joy, they also sing.

Let me give you the third sermon point, and then I’ll tell you why I thought these verses were so surprising.

Why is David thankful to God?

David reminds me to give thanks to God not only because God wants me close, and not only because God’s power calms formidable forces, but because God cares for all of His creation.

“So what’s so surprising about that?” somebody asks.

I think what surprised me so much was that if you read through the verses I have just read, you will discover that nowhere does God say that He is caring for all of these created things because they will directly benefit humanity.

Other verses, of course, promise that if we are faithful to God in tithes and offerings, He will open the windows of heaven and pour blessings on us that will overwhelm us. Bible stories tell how God used ravens to feed a fugitive prophet, or used five loaves of bread and two fish to feed at least twice the current population of Redfield, South Dakota.

But here, David describes God as caring for all His creation without any ulterior motive. It doesn’t specifically say that He is watering the land and helping the grain to grow in order to fill human barns with food for the winter (although that of course would happen). No, God seems to be caring for the natural world because He loves it too.

So why is this important? What difference does this make? Well, I think it says something very important about God.

Several years ago another church couple invited Shelley and me to take a tour of a Kirkland “art walk.” A quick check online tells me that this art walk is still happening on the second Friday of each month, from noon to 8 PM. And if you go to the art walk you will tour through 15 galleries of various kinds.

Anyway, years ago Shelley and I were invited to go on the art walk. We enjoyed looking at the various galleries, but what I remember most clearly was a wood arts gallery. Everything those craftspeople had made looked beautiful – well-polished, hand-rubbed, perfectly constructed.

I happened to spot an ordinary-looking wooden chair in the center of the floor. It was not a rocking chair, it didn’t have adornment of any kind, it was simply a well-polished wooden chair.

But when I sat down in that chair, I was amazed. That chair perfectly fitted me. It was as though someone had taken measurements of my lower slopes, and had custom-made a chair just for me. I felt as though I were sitting on a personalized throne, a comfortable one – so comfortable that I did not want to get out of that chair.

But I did get out of that chair, because I wanted to see the price tag. I went around to the back of the chair and found a little handprinted tag dangling from a piece of string. The tag said $2000. (Not quite in the family budget . . .)

And that’s when I realized that it wasn’t luck that made this chair so comfortable. It wasn’t just me that this chair was designed for. Whoever had made it perfectly understood the human frame, and perfectly adjusted that chair to the way the human body sits. Whoever made this chair truly cared, not only for human beings but also for the wonderful varieties of wood. I mean, this artist-in-wood could have made the chair out of plastic or fiberglass. But he or she cared too much.

And that’s what I think of, when I read verses like the ones we’ve just read, verses that show the wonderful care which God has taken to create and sustain not only human beings, but everything else He has made.

Just as God is not a power-rationer, He is also not a caring-rationer. God’s caring spreads far beyond humanity.

So what should I do now that I know this?

First of all, I need to look at God’s creation through God’s eyes. If He cares so much for this great blue-and-white organism which He placed so lovingly in its orbit, I need to take care of the contents of this planet. And I need to allow this to remind me how much more God loves you and me. Jesus’ comments about you and me being more valuable than many sparrows should remind us that God loves us utterly.

Second, I should make it a habit to look for evidence of God’s grand design. If you can get in the habit of looking at nature’s wonders, you will soon – even through the distortions of sin – see God’s wonderful caring.

True, wolves currently devour lambs. Lions attack cattle. But it wasn’t always this way, and won’t always be this way. Here’s how Isaiah 11 describes the New Earth:

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox . . . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6 – 7. 9)

So I need to look beyond the temporary predation which sin has brought upon the earth. I need to treasure God’s creation as much for what it once was, and will be again, as for what it is now.

And also, since God loves His creation so fondly, I need to remember and observe the day which the 10 Commandments tell me is the memorial of that wonderful creation.

If I’m not currently observing the Sabbath, I need to start doing that. The Sabbath has many wonderful blessings which a lot of people are missing out on.

What about you? Has this psalm inspired you the way it has me, to express my gratitude to God in ways I know He appreciates? How many of you would like to resolve to keep your eyes open for ways to show God you are thankful for His love?

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WHY PAUL SAID THANK-YOU
Topical Thanksgiving Sermon on Paul’s Writings
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 11/17/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Romans Chapter 1.

I heard on the news this week that, after years and years of working on it, filmmaker Ken Burns is coming out with a documentary called “Dust Bowl,” about the 1930s Great Depression era.

This was a dreadful time in our nation’s history. For several years, up until 1930, in the Great Plains states, there had been an unusually wet and fertile climate. With everything so green, this encouraged a lot of people to settle in states like the Dakotas and Kansas and Oklahoma, and farm there.

So that’s what they did. They plowed under all that prairie grass, exposed that fine and slightly sandy prairie soil, and started planting crops. But in 1930, the rains stopped. And that bare dirt just lay there waiting for the winds to come.

And the winds came. On November 11, 1933, a very strong dust storm stripped soil from South Dakota farm lands. Then, beginning on May 9, 1934, a dust storm which lasted two days blew Great Plains dust from several states all the way to Chicago, dropping 12 million pounds of dust on that city. And on April 14, 1935, there were 20 separate dust storms across the nation’s midsection. In some places the day turned black, which was why it was known as “Black Sunday.”

My parents were kids aged around 11 and 12 during those dust storms. I find it really interesting that the two of them hardly mentioned those storms. I’ve often wondered why they didn’t say more about them. But maybe it was for the same reason that many World War II veterans didn’t like to talk about the experiences they had gone through. Maybe the trauma was too great.

And maybe a lot of my parents’ trauma came not because as children they understood the full implications of what was happening, because of course they couldn’t. Maybe they were traumatized by the emotions of their own parents. My great-grandfather was a proud Swiss man who had come to America determined to carve out a great estate on all the free land he would be given.

But during some of those terrible Depression days, his son, my dad’s father, was paid a tiny wage to sit beside a prairie bridge counting how many cars went west, and how many cars went east. And of course the people driving those cars and trucks were your neighbors, and they saw that even though you were an able-bodied man, you were not able to support your family. And this must have brought a blush of shame to grandpa’s sunburned cheeks. But of course, as my dad put it, “Everybody else was in the same boat.”

My parents were not only kids who had a front row seat at the Dust Bowl, but they were also devout Christians. Mom and Dad met for the first time at a Wesleyan Methodist Campmeeting in Redfield, South Dakota. And their Bible beliefs reminded them that their God, who had helped in ages past, would be their help in years to come, and that they should be thankful to Him for their very survival.

And they were thankful. And they raised their kids to be thankful. I think that’s one reason our family didn’t make that much of the Thanksgiving holidays. We kids brought home from school our construction-paper turkeys, but our meals didn’t expand. We were already grateful, always desperately thankful, every day of the year. We did not feel that God owed us anything. When any of us kids was going through a disappointment of some kind, my parents would gently remind us that things could be a lot worse, and this was when we heard the few Great Depression stories they told.

Several years ago I preached a Thanksgiving sermon called “Why Jesus Said Thank-you.” Earlier this week I remembered that Paul also had a lot to say about gratitude, so today I’d like us to look at some of what caused Paul to say thank-you.

Because this apostle was intensely grateful. Again and again in his letters he would say things like, “I thank my God for you all,” and then would give the reason. I doubt that, before his conversion, Paul was very grateful at all – unless it would have been the “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men” kind of gratitude. Paul admits that he was a “Pharisee of the Pharisees” – in other words, the most pharisaic of them all. So he may indeed have had more pride, more self-righteousness, more of the “God owes me” attitude than most of the other Pharisees did.

But once he was converted, Paul turned into almost a compulsive thank-er. And I thought it would be interesting, and more importantly helpful, to find out what aroused Paul’s gratitude. Because this gratitude shows up just eight verses into the first of his New Testament letters. In fact, thanking is the very first thing he does after he finishes his courteous greeting.

Romans 1:8 [NKJV]: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Why did Paul say thank-you?
 
First, Paul was grateful to Rome’s Christians for showing such awesome faith.

By now you’ve probably heard about Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who on October 9 of this year was wounded during a Taliban assassination attempt while she was coming home from school on a school bus.

Malala had been no ordinary student. She lived in an area where the Taliban were trying to take control, and were trying to get girls not to attend school. When she was 11, Malala started writing a blog for the BBC under an assumed name, telling what life was like for girls under Taliban rule. Then, when the government began to drive the Taliban out, a documentary filmmaker told Malala’s story.

Once Malala was wounded, of course, her own voice was temporarily silenced. (She is actually recovering, and is now able to communicate by writing.) But her father immediately began to speak out for her. He is an educator as well, and he also champions the rights of women to be educated. At one point he said, and I’m paraphrasing, “If they want to kill us, they know where we are. I’m willing to die for this cause.”

In other words, this brave girl and her equally brave father are willing to put their lives on the line for what they believe is right.

And that is what those Christians at Rome were doing as well. Back in those days, one of the main ways you demonstrated an awesome Christian faith was by standing up to persecution. If a squad of Roman soldiers came up to you and commanded you to burn a pinch of incense to an image of the Emperor, which signified that you were worshiping him, as a Christian you looked that squad of soldiers in the eye and you said, “No, I cannot do that. I worship only one God, the true God.”

Okay, what does this have to do with me? If Paul were writing an Epistle to the Bellevueites, what would he be thankful for in “Bellevue chapter 1, verse eight”? What could I do to evoke this kind of gratitude in him?

Well, first of all – just like those early Christians – I would need to make sure that my faith was rock solid.

Do I know what I believe? How well do I know crucial Bible teachings? That’s one of the reasons we present prophecy meetings like Understand Prophecy back in October. We invite interested community people to come, and we ourselves get a refresher course on what Bible print really says.

But there’s a second step also. Not only do I need to make sure that my faith, my belief, is rock solid, by prayerfully reviewing and studying more deeply into Scripture, but I need to uncompromisingly put that faith into action no matter what.

What that means is that if the Lord says that our bodies are the temples of His Spirit, and whatever we eat or drink or whatever we do, we should do for the glory of God, that means I need to follow through on this in my own lifestyle. Whether or not the use of marijuana has now become legal, I won’t use it, because – like alcohol and like tobacco and like other recreational drugs – it befuddles and destroys God’s temple.

And if, at work or at school, I am tempted to lie or cheat or defraud, I refrain from doing that. If I am asked to work during the Sabbath hours – and if my work is not related to work Christ did on the Sabbath – I should not work on the Sabbath.

Just as those Roman Christians sometimes found it difficult to display the awesome faith which aroused Paul’s gratitude, we occasionally find it hard to decide for Christ and against the culture. But that’s what Christians do. That’s what Jesus insists we do.

What’s another reason that Paul said thank you? Turn a few chapters further into Romans, to Romans chapter 7. This is the famous chapter where Paul agonizes about his sinful human nature, and finally cries out in desperation in verse 24:

Romans 7:24: O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

And immediately he answers his own question, along with another burst of thankfulness.

Verse 25: I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So what else causes Paul to say thank-you?

First, Paul was grateful to Rome’s Christians for showing such awesome faith. Second, he’s grateful to Jesus for delivering us from sin’s captivity.

This week’s news reported that President Obama is planning a trip to Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. This trip is causing quite a stir, and is turning out to be fairly controversial. Myanmar is just emerging from nearly 50 years of military rule, and during that time there have been many reports of human rights violations.

But the country is inching cautiously toward democracy, and evidently our president wants to encourage this progress by visiting there. Some of the country’s human rights activists, however, believe that this presidential trip is rewarding the country for too little progress. The fear is that the president’s visit will legitimize Myanmar before it really deserves it.

On the other hand, this trip is greatly anticipated by especially the younger people. I heard a radio interview with several of them. They have been studying American democracy, and they believe that they should model their country on the American governmental system. One young man has gotten his hopes up to an incredible height. He said, and I’m paraphrasing, “America is the greatest country in the world, and Obama’s visit will change everything for the better!”

I saw an online photo of the front page of an English-language Myanmar newspaper. There was a huge picture of President Obama, and above him was the word “O-Burma!”

Now, you and I – and the president – know that his visit is going to have far less of an effect than his most ardent admirers hope it will. One visit by one world leader cannot reverse a half-century of human rights crimes.

But long ago another Leader came to visit, and He had the power and the authority and everything else it took to liberate human beings from the captivity of sin. The sad thing is, His arrival wasn’t anywhere near as wildly anticipated as Obama’s will be in Burma.

When Jesus arrived, few people truly understood who He was and what He was doing. They had allowed clear Old Testament Bible print to be obscured by their own foolish hopes.

So now that we’ve found this second reason for Paul’s gratitude, what should we do about it. How can I take advantage of the fact that Jesus delivers us from sin’s captivity?

One answer is found in the first couple versus of the very next chapter, Romans 8.

Romans 8:1 – 2: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Did you spot one thing we need to do? When I get up tomorrow morning – or when I leave this sanctuary and go to the potluck table – and whatever else I do during the week, I need to continually decide to walk according to the Spirit rather than according to the flesh.
This means making moment-by-moment decisions. It means asking, “Would this action, these words, these thoughts be pleasing to the Holy Spirit or not?”

Because this is really an issue of the mind. Glance down at verse five.

Verse 5: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Malala Yousafzai has her mind set on the right of girls her age to get an education. The Myanmar activists have their minds set on making their country truly free.

And with at least the same single-minded zeal, you and I need to keep our minds on what the Holy Spirit wants us to. Jesus has delivered us from sin’s captivity, and His Holy Spirit stands ready to change us from the inside out.

For one more thing which causes Paul to say thank you, turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
Paul spends almost this entire chapter talking about the resurrection. Then, starting in verse 50, come those famous verses which have given such courage to grieving loved ones, and they include another of Paul’s thank-you’s.

1 Corinthians 15:50 – 57: Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice the double victory there? Through Jesus, God gives us victory over sin – and also victory over death!

And that is a third thing Paul is grateful for:

First, Paul was grateful to Rome’s Christians for showing such awesome faith. Second, he’s grateful to Jesus for delivering us from sin’s captivity. And third, he is grateful to God for giving us victory not only over sin but over death.

This past Sunday morning I was privileged to have a part in a memorial service for Karen Garcia. When Shelley and I arrived at the Shoreline church in 1983, Karen was probably 17. We were there a little over seven years, and by the time we left, I had married Karen to her husband Emil, and had even dedicated their little daughter Karalee.

But then, since we were now at Bellevue, and the Garcias had moved to Marysville and soon began attending the Everett church, I lost track of what they were doing. But last Sunday morning I discovered that Karen’s life (though cut short in her late 40s by cancer) was a life filled with clear-eyed, practical faith, a faith which worked itself out in love to others.

Yesterday I spoke about Karen at a chapel talk I gave to the Puget Sound Adventist Academy students. I told them that when I went to visit Karen in the Everett hospital just a few days before her death, her mind was crystal clear, and she had absolutely no worries about what would happen beyond death.

And she had no worries because of the first point I mentioned to the academy students – Karen had made her faith rock-solid. Like Job, Karen knew that her Redeemer lived. Like Paul, Karen knew that her Savior was able to keep that which she had committed to Him against that day. Karen believed Jesus when He said that He was going to prepare a place for her, and would come again and receive her to Himself.

To Karen, this faith was not anything extraordinary. To her, belief in a loving God who would rescue her from this planet and finally provide her with a happy eternity, this faith was a no-brainer. And that’s because she knew her Bible so well.

How can you and I have Karen’s faith?

For one thing, we can do what she did, something that is described back in verses 3 and 4 of this chapter.

Verses 3 – 4: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

And the ceremony Christians take part in to join themselves to Jesus in these acts is the ceremony of baptism. Two Sabbaths ago Victoria Nabua followed these steps, and many others in this room have already done this. And I know there are others who want to do this as well. If you would like to be baptized, I encourage you to get in touch with me, or with your own pastor if you attend another congregation.

And all the way down at the other end of this chapter, 1 Corinthians 15:58, is a very practical verse which we can put to use immediately.

Verse 58: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

That’s a great verse to take with us into this Thanksgiving week, isn’t it? And let’s remember to echo Paul’s gratitude with our own, as we thank God and His Son and His Holy Spirit for strengthening our faith, for delivering us from sin’s captivity, and for defeating death.

 

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LET YOURSELF BE LOVED
Expository Baptismal Sermon on Ephesians 2
For the Baptism of Victoria Nabua
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 11/3/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear Pastor Maylan introduce Victoria, and her own comments on what this day meant to her, and Shelley's leading the congregation in a "roll call" welcome, click here. To hear the sermon, based on a Scripture passage Victoria herself chose, click here.)

 

Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 2, the chapter which contains Victoria’s Scripture passage.

When I was a boy, I know that I frustrated my mother from time to time. It wasn't something I did as much is something I resisted doing.

My dad, who was a very humble and gentle person, was rather non-demonstrative when it came to expressing affection. When one’s grandparents emigrate to the United States from Switzerland rather than from sunny Italy, one is more inclined to sober behavior  rather than animated conversation. You are not accustomed to grabbing someone and joyfully kissing them repeatedly on both cheeks. One is content instead with a simple handshake.

Dad loved us kids just as much as any other father.  Dad adored being in the same room with us, but was mostly shy when it came to showing affection, or talking about it.
 
My mother, though she was not from sunny Italy either, was a reacher-out and grabber of her kids when they passed by. She was a great tickler as well, and she was fun to tease. The only time Mom was ever stern was when we kids were trying to damage each other, or when we were doing anything else which could be dangerous.

But as I grew older, I began to take after my father's ways. I loved mom, but if she were to sneak up on me and grab me in a hug, it probably felt to her like she was grabbing three or four two-by-fours which happened to be leaning up against a wall. And, if I saw her approaching with a hug-light in her eyes, I would dodge back in self defense. She wanted to express her love for me, but although I did deeply love my mother, I tended to resist letting myself be loved by a hug from her.

One of the truths I discovered about Ephesians 2 is that – even though he doesn't put it exactly in these words – Paul seems to be saying to us, "Come on! God loves you! Let yourself be loved!"

I firmly believe that this chapter shows us a God who would be delighted to give us a literal hug if He could. And I believe that God's hugs are far more enveloping and enabling in any human parent's hugs could ever be. I know that by Mom’s hugs, she was saying not only, "Hey, you're a cute kid, and I’m gonna give you a squeeze.” Those hugs also meant, "You came from me, and I love you deeply. I would throw myself in front of a train to save your life. And I long to surround you with my parental protection for ever and ever."

Which seems to me to me a pretty accurate description of God's love for Victoria and for you and for me. And it certainly shows through in this chapter, as Paul will make very clear.
And what Victoria and you and I need to ask ourselves as we move through these verses, is this: "How can I let myself be loved by God?" Because it’s not a very easy or automatic thing to do.

Let's start at the top of Ephesians 2, and find out.

But what's interesting is how Paul leads into talking about God's love. And this isn't the only place in his writings he does this. Notice what happens:

Ephesians 2:1 [NKJV]: And you He made alive . . .

Just a quick note about those three words, "He made alive." If you're using the New King James Version, you'll see those words. If you're using the old King James, you'll see the more ancient way of saying it: "hath he quickened." More modern translations don't have those words – and you'll notice that they are italicized in both the old and new King James versions, which means that they were not present in the original Greek.

What the King James translators did was to reach further down a few verses, where it really does say that God made us alive, and copy-and-paste those words into verse 1 to help with the grammar of Paul’s long, long sentences. But the original Greek doesn't have those words at that exact point.

So when modern translations leave those three words out, as the Greek does, they let the first three verses of Ephesians 2 be the way they really are--pretty grim.

Verses 1 – 3: And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Like I say – pretty grim.

If you're taking sermon notes, here comes Point One.

How can Victoria and you and I let ourselves be loved by God?

First, I need to admit the truth about my soul.

Again and again in his writings, Paul pounds this point home. "There is none righteous, no not one." "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Paul knew, you see, that it is perfectly possible for a dedicated young Jewish man to so discipline himself that he can become an influential Pharisee, deeply acquainted with all the rabbis’ teachings, keeping the law with exacting literalism, and still be utterly oblivious to the love of God.

Paul – while he was still called Saul – had the soul of a fundamentalist fanatic terrorist. No Christian was safe from his one-man Holocaust. And Paul learned, firsthand, the intense surprise of discovering that no, he was not doing God's will when he thought he was, that, no, all his well-trained, well-disciplined righteousnesses were just so many filthy rags.

No wonder Paul emphasizes our natural sinfulness with such insistence. Paul was the poster boy for those who think they have it all together, but whose souls are grossly unclean, and callously proud and selfish.

You see, the first step in allowing God to love us is to admit that we are often very unlovable. We compare ourselves with others – like the Pharisee praying in the Temple – and we say, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people." It's so easy to exalt ourselves. It's so easy to develop blind spots about morality. It's easy to excuse some of our sins, and just not think about them.

So what do I do, now that I have watched Paul search my soul with his Scripture spotlight?
One thing I need to do is to pray for a more sensitive conscience. I need to pray that I will be bothered far more than I am about what I'm doing that's wrong. It’s not going to be easy to pray this prayer, but I’ve got to do it.

Another thing I need to do is to pray that Jesus' mind will become my own. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5. Only then can we automatically recoil from the bad, and hunger for the good.

 

For the next step in letting ourselves be loved by God, let's keep reading.

Verse 4: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

If you had a chance to come to some of our Understand Prophecy meetings during October, you'll remember that we focused a lot on the character of God. Because the most important question in the universe is, "What is God like?" Is He safe to be around? Does He love me, and what does that mean? Is His love an alien love rather than a human love? Do I dare trust my eternity to him?

I'm sure that entire sermons have been preached on just verse 4. There is so much in it. In just the first two words, "But God," we see that, even though we have been horribly infected by sin, God moves into our life and gets to work. We may have sinned and come short of the glory of God, "But God" has a plan.

And look at the phrase, "rich in mercy." In the Greek, that word "rich" is the word used for money-rich people. God not only owns the cattle on thousand hills, but He is rich in mercy. He has whole storehouses full of mercy. He will never have a national "mercy deficit." We can't use up his mercy, because He will always make more of it. That's what this verse says.

And verse 4 also says that God is rich in mercy because of His “great love.” And it's not just "great love" in general – it's “His great love with which He loved us.” That's right – God loves us. He loves the same depraved, sinful, wretched people Paul talks about in the first three verses. And that’s us.

So now, finally, let's get to sermon point two. What’s another way Victoria and you and I can let ourselves be loved by God?

First, I need to admit the truth about my soul. Second, I need to believe in God’s great mercy and love.

So belief is important here. Down in verse 8, Victoria’s chosen verses start, “By grace you have been saved through faith.”

I've mentioned from this pulpit before how one of my hobbies is keeping an eye out for evidence of how wonderful and carefully-planned God's creation is. I remember when I was pastoring the Shoreline church. I was one of those who led out in the stop-smoking classes. We had a three-inch-thick manual which we studied in order to teach the class, and I think it was there that I learned about the cilia in the lungs. Cilia are little hair-like projections from certain kinds of cells, and when dust or other particles get into the lungs, the cilia immediately get to work trying to brush those particles back up the bronchial tubes.

Now if you are going to try to convince me that this complicated mechanism just sort of evolved itself over millions of years, you are going to have to talk fast, because while you are talking, I will be thinking about the wonderful complexity of your brain, your vocal cords, my own ear canals, the miracles that happen to transform sound vibrations into meaning within my head, and the even more wonderful miracle that neither you nor I were manufactured in an assembly line but came into being through the process of birth and growth.

How do we come to believe in God's great love and mercy? I believe this is one way. I believe that the more you and I contemplate the heavens, which declare the glory of God, and the firmament, which shows His handiwork, and think once in awhile about how fearfully and wonderfully you and I are made, I believe that having faith becomes vastly easier.

That's one of the blessings of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, God calls you and me away from the distractions of the other six days of the week. He calls us from the mournful news of disaster. He calls us for that day from the assertions of desperate political campaigners. He commands us to turn our eyes upon His Word, and His works, and allow our faith to grow in ways it otherwise never could have grown.

 

Well, so far, as we march through this chapter toward Victoria’s verses, we have discovered two ways to let ourselves be loved by God.
 
The next few verses are so amazing that I am going to give you the sermon point ahead of time, and then we can watch for it in those verses. How can we let ourselves be loved by God?

First, I need to admit the truth about my soul. Second, I need to believe in God’s great mercy and love. Third, I need to accept God’s three wonderful “withs.”

What am I talking about? What is a "with"?

Often in the Greek of the New Testament, the word "with" will be attached to another word. The same thing happens in English, with the word "Symphony." The “sym” part means “with,” and the “phony” part doesn't mean falseness or fakiness-- it means "sound." So a "symphony" is what happens when people play sounds “with” each other. The word "sympathetic" means feeling emotion "with" someone.

In the next couple of verses, we will see three such “with” words. In each of those words, the “with” word is firmly attached to the rest of the word. And, to me, these are three really exciting “withs.”

Verses 4 – 7: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Now, as you try to pick out these "with" words, you won't always see the English word "with." Instead, the cue word is "together."

Do you see the phrase "made us alive together"? That's just one word in the Greek. It’s the word sunezoopoiesen, and is actually three words super-glued together: “with,” “life” and “made.” What Paul is saying is that God "made us alive together with" Jesus.

The second "with" word is sunegieren, which has the words “with” and “raised up” glued together. Here Paul tells us that not only did God make us alive together with Christ, but He raised us up together with Christ.

So far, we have been describing the ceremony Victoria has taken part in this morning. As Paul tells us in Romans 6, by baptism we are following Jesus into a symbolic grave, then are being raised symbolically with Him to a new life.

The third “with” word is right here in verse 6 as well. It’s the word sunekathisen, and means "sit together with." God loves us so much that He refused to let us simply come back to life with Jesus. Instead, we are now symbolically "sitting with" Jesus in heaven!

And if that doesn't help us relax and allow God to love us, what else would? God's love must be so generous and so unforced that He opens the doors of His heavenly generosity and almost smothers us with His treasures. Because Jesus came to show us God's love, and die the death we should have died, God can legitimately elevate us into His very presence, along with His Son, which is exactly where He wants us.

So what should Victoria do, now that she knows this? What should you and I do, now that we have heard this good news?

One thing we can do is to no longer read our Bibles as spectators but as partners. Yesterday when Shelley was cooking our evening meal, I came downstairs, and she asked me to read a recipe to her. And then she set me to work fixing part of the food. And suddenly, I was reading that the cookbook as a partner rather than as a spectator!

So let's begin to read our Bibles as God's partners. After all, He considers that we are elevated with Jesus into heavenly places!

Now we're ready to look at Victoria's chosen verses. Because these verses tell us how to work out what we have been hearing "where the rubber meets the road." These verses summarize what we’ve heard so far, and make it practical.

Verses 8 – 10: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Notice how Paul carefully goes back over the ground he has covered. We are not saved because we are good people – we are saved because salvation is the gift of God, and like Victoria we have said “yes” to it. We are not saved because of the good things we have done. We are saved because salvation is the gift of God, and we have accepted it.

And what follows is crucial. Sometimes you will hear Christians say that "works" aren't important. "We are saved by faith in Jesus," they say. The implication is that focusing too much on doing good deeds might deny our Savior’s sacrifice, and drag us back into legalism.

But Paul steers us correctly in these verses. Look at verse 10.

Verse 10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So are works important? No, not for salvation, but yes, works are important because as we become new creations in Christ Jesus, we naturally go forward and do good works, just as Jesus went forward from His baptism and did good works. We keep the commandments, and we go beyond the commandments into the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, which describes how God’s law must be internalized, working from the inside out.

So here comes our final sermon point. How can Victoria and you and I learn to let God love us?

First, I need to admit the truth about my soul. Second, I need to believe in God’s great mercy and love. Third, I need to accept God’s three wonderful “withs.” And fourth, I need to surrender to what God can do in and through me.

When we open our hearts to His powerful love, God changes us from the way we are to the way He originally created human beings to be. This is beautifully demonstrated in one more little Greek word I’d like to show you in these verses. I used to be an English teacher, and this word caught my attention right away. Look at verse 10.

Verse 10: For we are His workmanship . . .

Do you see that word "workmanship”? That’s the Greek word poima, and it's the exact same Greek word from which we get the word “poem.” The word "poem” actually means something that is constructed or crafted, something built.

So literally, this word does mean that we are God's workmanship. He has built us, physically, mentally, and now also spiritually.

But we are also His “poem.” A poem is a memorable piece of writing, carefully written so that its meaning will shine through in powerful ways. In a good poem, every word means something, and every word is carefully placed in just the right position.

I know that as Victoria moves through her life, she wants to be a beautiful, powerful “poem” for her Savior. And I want the same thing too. And I have a feeling you do as well.

 

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HOW FAR WILL YOU FOLLOW? – Part 2
Topical Sermon on Jesus’ Life
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 9/22/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to John chapter 5.

This is part two of last week's sermon. Last week I started answering from Jesus’ own life the question, "Does the Seventh day Adventist church really have anything significant to say to people who might come to our Understand Prophecy meetings, having read our large brochure which they will have received in their mailboxes in a little over a week?”

Last week I mentioned how, when you come right down to it, it’s a matter of simply following Jesus.

For example, the story about the 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple challenges us with something He later challenged His disciples and everyone else – to be about our Father's business. In other words, no matter what we do for our work – and Jesus was a carpenter during his teens and 20s – we need to remember that He wants our chief purpose on earth to be the same as His, to fulfill God's will. "Not My will," He prayed in His Gethsemane agony, “but Thy will.”

Also, last week, we watched as Jesus challenged us to follow Him down into the waters of baptism, in total commitment to the Heavenly Father. How far will we follow Him here?

And as we watched Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, we learned that as we follow Him, we will observe a "great controversy" raging around us. Because there is a devil, and even though we need not fear him because he is a defeated foe, 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that we must resist him. And knowing how Satan operates answers many otherwise baffling questions about life on this planet.

In that same wildnerness-temptation setting, Jesus also challenges us to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, including the longest and most detailed of the 10 Commandments, which is the fourth commandment, about God's holy seventh-day Sabbath. Jesus assumed lordship over that day, so if we follow our Lord, we must follow Him every week into the sacred hours of the Sabbath which it was His custom to observe. And by doing so, we will abundantly reap its wonderful physical and mental and spiritual benefits.

And it seems like every few days, I hear of someone who needs this kind of truth, this kind of assurance, plus the two additional truths I'm going to mention in a moment.

About a week and a half ago, I got an e-mail from someone I do not know. This happens every once in a while, because our church website gives my personal e-mail address as the main way to get in touch with us.

This person had a young-sounding first name, a male one, and the vocabulary he used as he put his question sounded young as well. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like "I am feeling some dark feelings, and I wonder if you have any advice."

He didn’t mention whether he was Adventist or not, so I told him that if he had an Adventist background he might want to read the book Steps to Christ out loud, and I even included a direct link to it. I also told him to get back in touch with me if he needed to.

Let's not take for granted that most people have it all together. There's been a lot of PR buzz this week about a soon-to-be-released movie called “The Master.” It is set in the 1950s, and though the names are different, it's closely based on the story of how a cult leader very like L. Ron Hubbard founded a new religion very like Scientology. One of the main parts of the plot tells about a young man who was someone who was drifting through life, unsuccessfully at whatever he tried. Then he stumbled upon this faith leader and decided to buy into his ideas, even though simple common sense showed how silly they were.

And I believe – and anybody who reads the Bible and who keeps an eye on current events probably has come to this conclusion too. I believe that the worse that world events become, the more men's hearts will fail them for fear, and therefore the more susceptible they will be to whoever can get to them first with something even vaguely reassuring. In the absence of solid truth, many people will simply believe whatever a confident-sounding and confidence-inspiring person tells them.

Back in September of 2001, an Adventist pastor in this conference had scheduled an evangelistic series, and then 9/11 happened. As I remember, he had something like 600 people that first night.

This is why we need to study our Bibles, and that's why we need to present for our community’s examination Bible truths that will not only help people think more confidently about the future, but will introduce them to the real God (not the God of distorted Christian myths), the God who created them and would love to reunite with them.

With that in mind, let’s listen to two more challenges Jesus has for us. One Sabbath afternoon, He takes a walk down beside a Jerusalem pool.

John 5: 1 – 3 [NKJV]:  After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

Jesus sees a man who has been paralyzed for 38 years, and approaches him.

Verses 5 – 9: Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.

But that's not the end of the story. Later in the chapter, Jesus meets the same man again. Notice what the Healer says.

Verse 14: Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

Now, you could take that command at least two ways. One paraphrase could go like this: "Don't sin anymore, because a vengeful God might punish you." Or another paraphrase could go this way: "Don't sin anymore, because that lifestyle could bring your former disease – or a worse one – back into your system.”

Jesus has already gone on record as asserting that God isn't like the first paraphrase. Jesus mentioned a tower which fell on several people and killed them, and insisted that the tower didn't fall because these people were worse sinners than anybody else. Things normally happen because of bad choices – like bad tower-construction choices – and effects follow from causes.

But I think the point we should focus on here is Jesus' extreme interest in good health. After all, the first thing He ever did when entering a city or town was to heal those who came to him asking for it. He could have done exactly the opposite.

He could have entered a city, and saw the sick people, and said, "I'm not here to make you healthy. I'm here to give you spiritual guidance. Allow your illness, your pain, allow the results of your bad lifestyle choices to train you toward a purer and loftier spirituality. The body is just a shell—it’s the spirit that counts."

Suffering can make us humble, and it can also make us spiritually stronger. But Jesus resolutely resisted the Greek idea that the body was a rattletrap piece of throwaway equipment, Stage One of a space rocket. Instead, Jesus healed people and made them healthy again.

You and I don't have Jesus' miraculous healing powers today, but I am certain that He would challenge us to position ourselves to be as healthy as possible.

How far will we follow Him in this? One of the startling and rather embarrassing things that the longtime Adventist discovers is that the rest of the world is catching up to us when it comes to healthy living. Too many of us, I think, developed the habit of looking back those “don't-drink-coffee,” “don't-eat-meat” injunctions as just so much backward legalism we needed to break free from.

Meanwhile, all around us, others are taking better care of their bodies than we are. They are jogging past us with trimmer tummies, sipping on their water bottles. Every once in a while, when Shelley and I eat out, and we mention that Shelley is basically vegan and I am almost there, a waiter or waitress will nod understandingly, and either say that they are currently vegan, or tried it for a while.

You and I have the best possible motivation to be and stay in good health. Other people who don't know their Bibles well might be making lifestyle changes to feel better or live longer, but you and I have an even more important reason – our bodies and our minds are the temples of the Holy Spirit. We are bought with a price. Therefore we need to glorify God in our bodies, as Jesus constantly did. How far will we follow?

Let's take a look at just one more distinctive and mind boggling and finally soul-satisfying Bible truth we’ll be teaching during our "Understand Prophecy" series.  To do that we need to go to John chapter 11.

John eleven tells the story of Jesus' friend Lazarus who, while Jesus was a long distance away, became very sick and finally dies. Notice what Jesus tells His disciples when He decides to head back toward Bethany.

John 11:11: These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”

The disciples hadn’t yet caught on that Lazarus had died, so if you know the story, you'll remember that when they heard Jesus’ words they gave a sigh of relief, imagining that Lazarus has finally slipped into a restful, restorative slumber, which meant that he would be better soon. But Jesus sets them straight.

Verses 12 - 14: Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
 
Can you sense Jesus' challenge, far across the centuries? Jesus considers death a sleep, and He challenges us to do the same. And He tells the disciples that He is going to go wake Lazarus up, not summon him back down from celestial glory.

Think how different Christianity would have turned out if we had believed Jesus' simple statement here, and in the many other Bible passages which clearly state that death is like a sleep. Not only would there be no need to worry about dead people coming back to haunt us, but there wouldn't be any smoldering  grudges against a God who "took someone away to be with Him.”

When I was a kid, I heard on a Christian radio program one of the most horrible and God-defaming songs I've ever come across. It wasn't written by an atheist, but by a Christian who really believed that when little children die they go consciously into the presence of God. The song spoke of children as flowers:

Death is an angel sent down from above
Sent for the buds and the flowers we love
Truly 'tis so, for in heaven's own way
Each soul is a flower in the Master's bouquet

Gathering flowers for the Master’s bouquet
Beautiful flowers that will never decay
Gathered by angels and carried away
Forever to bloom in the Master’s bouquet.

Now there’s a little well-meaning melody which could just as well be the theme song for the course-curriculum of “How to Become an Agnostic – 101.” I don't have children, but I wonder how I would feel about a God who sends His Angels among the children, gathering flowers for the Master’s bouquet. What kind of a Heavenly Father would get His kicks from snatching children from the arms of their earthly fathers and mothers, to put on display in heaven?

How much better, and simpler, and more humane, to just see what the Bible says about death? Death isn’t a heavenly flower-picking expedition. Death is an enemy, and it will be the last enemy to be destroyed. The truth is that when our mortality overtakes a loved one, a merciful God allows that person to simply fall asleep, to wake to the resurrection as if no time had elapsed at all.

One of the privileges of an Adventist pastor is to participate in memorial services and funerals of Seventh-day Adventists who have passed to their rest. Even though Adventist families feel grief as others do, there is a piece and a serenity in knowing that no, their loved one will not have to peer over the walls of heaven and gaze down on the grief and agony and loneliness their departure has brought. No, a humane Heavenly Father, who "doeth all things well," does what is best for His children.

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HOW FAR WILL YOU FOLLOW?
Topical Sermon
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 9/15/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here. First you'll hear Carolyn Howson tell a wonderful, true, recent story about Winnie, her neighbor's cat. Then we'll find out what Jesus says--from His own example as well as from His words--about what following Him really means.)

Please open your Bibles to Luke chapter 2. By the way, this is the first sermon in a two-part series. A week from today I'll preach the second part.

How many of you have ever played the game "Follow the Leader"? The general idea is that one kid is the "leader" (most often, it's the kid who suggested the game in the first place), and he or she starts off walking or running, and doing all sorts of crazy and increasingly difficult things.

Everybody else follows in single file, doing their best to mimic what the leader has done. If the leader did a cartwheel, and you couldn’t do a cartwheel, you had to drop out. As soon as there was just one kid left following the leader, that kid became the leader of the next game.

What brought "Follow the Leader" to my mind in the last few days was the knowledge that in just a couple of weeks, 40,000 "Understand Prophecy" handbills will be carried into houses from mailboxes in the three zip codes closest to our church. The brochure is big enough so it won't get lost in the rest of the householder’s mail stack, so a lot of folks will probably glance at the front, and then open it up to see what's inside. (Once they see my picture, of course, they will promptly close it again with a slight shudder!)

Seriously, the "Understand Prophecy" handbill will assert that if our neighbors wish to find hope in uncertain times, they should come to this room on Friday night, October 5, at 7 PM, where they will learn the truth about the end of the world, why a good God allows this planet to suffer so much, and other topics.

It's tempting to ask ourselves, "Do we really have anything to offer our community that they don't, in a way, already have? After all, they have the same Bible we have. Who, really, do we think we are, to claim to be the people to come to for certain important truths? How is what we have to offer really all that different from the other churches in our neighborhood?"

And of course this question goes far deeper than what will be preached in a month-long evangelistic series. Why are there so many denominations, after all? Why can't we all just merge together and average out our religious differences? Why do there have to be these distinctive differences?  

I think the answer can be found in the biblical version of the game "follow the leader." Jesus, of course, had no problem with creating “distinctive differences” as He went around on His teaching tours. He stood resolutely before crowds of people, systematically destroying their human traditions, saying things like, "You have heard that it has been said . . . but I say to you."
 
Jesus constantly confronted His religious culture with the news that even though there may have been a lot of good things being taught in those surrounding synagogues, there was more crucial truth to learn. And almost always, these “new” truths were actually ancient Bible principles and practices which people had gotten into the habit of ignoring, but which could make their lives far happier and more fulfilling.
 
And Jesus insisted that once you learned each of these new/old truths, you needed to follow it. And that’s exactly the mission the Lord gave to those who followed Him – go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them to observe everything He had commanded. In other words, teach them to follow the Leader.

Tomorrow morning at 9 AM, quite a number of our congregation will be down at Kelsey Creek Park getting ready to launch out on a three-mile walk-run fitness event. (Shelley and I would be there too, except that I will be officiating at a wedding.)

And this morning, for the next few minutes, I would like you to join me in the first part of a rather rapid walk through Jesus' life, as we learn more about the challenges and joys of following our Leader—and why it’s so important that we encourage others to do the same. That’s what we’ll be doing during “Understand Prophecy.”

Our first stop is at Jerusalem, at the Temple, where we’ll be looking in on what the 12-year-old Jesus is doing as the yearly Passover feast comes to an end. Watch what happens.

Luke 2:41 – 44 [NKJV]: His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it; but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day’s journey, and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances.

These days, of course, parents would have to keep far closer track of their kids. But back then, you had families and their extended families, and neighbors and their extended families all together, and everybody knew everybody, and everybody looked after everybody. Back then, there wasn't the faceless anonymity which makes crime so easy these days. Mary and Joseph, of course, should have remembered who their Son was, and how desperately the devil wanted to destroy Him.

Yet Mary and Joseph had learned that their 12-year-old Son  was completely trustworthy. He wasn't one to follow some other leader, some little gang of kids who would run off and do daringly dangerous things. Even as a boy, Jesus knew who His real Leader was.  And even though other kids probably enjoyed being with Him the way grownups would enjoy being with Him later, Jesus' first priority was to follow His Leader.

Verses 45 – 49:  So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

I guess we could consider this our first "follow the leader" challenge. If you're taking sermon notes, here comes Point One.

By His example, Jesus challenges us to be about our Father’s business. How far will we follow?

Because Jesus always insisted that He is not the only one who was supposed to be about His Father's business, while the rest of us look on approvingly from the sidelines. If you signed up for the "Let's Move Day" three-mile run or walk tomorrow, you're probably going to be out there huffing and puffing along those trails, not just waiting at the finish line.

Over and over again, Jesus insisted to His disciples that they needed to forsake everything and follow Him, take up their cross and follow Him, not allow the influence of mother or father or children to deter them from following Him.

And today, we must do this same “following” in the midst of our jobs and our job-hunting and our schooling and our retirement activities. The apostle Paul made tents during the daytime, but his main priority was being about the business of his Leader, and urging others to follow Jesus too.

One of the delights of being a part of this congregation is that quite a few of you are doing this as well. You have your daily routine – places to go, things to do, kids to drop off here and pick up there, yet you hold yourself ready to do what your Leader might do, say what your Leader might say, when it's appropriate.
 
You pray for people. Some of you come to prayer meeting and pray for people. You pray that those who don't know the Lord will come to know Him, and that you will be able to help them do this. You invite your friends and neighbors to evangelistic events like Understand Prophecy.

And not only that, but you hold yourself open to the specifics of what it means to "be about the business" of our Heavenly Father. Watch as Jesus gives us some specific examples. Here’s one, in the very next chapter, Luke 3:

Luke 3:21 – 22: When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

By His example, Jesus wants us not only to be about the Father’s business, but to follow the Savior into the waters of baptism. And the question to ask ourselves is, How far will we follow?

We know that Jesus wanted others besides Himself to be baptized, because in John chapter 4 it says that He conducted baptismal services, and in the last few verses of Matthew 28 He tells his disciples to go all over the world and to baptize.

Over the past few months I've had the privilege of studying with children and teens and grown-ups, all desiring to be baptized or rebaptized. These people have decided to follow the Leader, who leads by His own example.

Baptism is a joyful way to enter into Jesus' life and death and resurrection. It's a way of identifying with Him. Every once in a while I catch sight of an older brother and a younger brother walking along a sidewalk. And it's almost comical the way the younger brother tries to imitate the swagger of the older one. He's not only following his brother, he's trying to be like him.

In a way, Jesus is our older Brother, even though He is also God in the flesh. We need to talk and act and pray like Him. And when He sees someone following His example and being baptized, it fills Him with great joy. In fact, He once said that all heaven rejoices when one “lost sheep” is found.

During our "Understand Prophecy" seminar, we will be introducing the subject of baptism, and inviting people to take that step. And one way you can follow Jesus is to be present here during those 16 meetings, because this is where Jesus will be. You can invite a friend to this series, and accompany them, and you can pray for that person and for others to want to follow Him too.

And what about you? Have you taken part in this symbolic representation of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection? If you haven't, and would like me to help you do this, talk to me afterward, or fill out one of those communication cards in your bulletin.

Another way to follow our Leader comes in the very next chapter.

Luke 4:1 – 2: Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil . . .

By His example, Jesus urges us to be about the Father’s business, and to follow Him into the waters of baptism. And now He reminds us that there is indeed a great controversy between Christ and Satan. How far will we follow Him into this battle?

Why is an understanding of the “great controversy” so vital? From the very first year of His life, Jesus was pursued by His arch-enemy, a murderous fallen angel. Herod’s soldiers descended on Bethlehem with their swords. Later the Savior would be hounded by spies and accusers, who would finally murder Him.

I tend to keep a fairly close eye on what happens in the news, both nationally and internationally. I hear truly well-meaning people, who really want to change the world for the better, puzzle and lament and agonize over the way things are.

Right now we are grieving the death of four Americans, one of them our highly respected ambassador to Libya, a man who had stood with the Libyan rebels when it wasn't even certain they would win. Yet now this ambassador is dead along with three others, as a result of what seems to have been a planned attack.

Unless people understand that not only is there a God, but there is also a fallen angel who detests Him and who for thousands of years has been producing an unending stream of negative campaign ads against Him, unless people understand this, it is probably impossible to make at least a little sense out of the otherwise senseless wickedness that they see. Satan would like us to believe that God is a Taliban leader—but God refuses to use Taliban methods. Love takes longer than cruel force.

Knowing that there is a cruel, vindictive, scheming Satan in the picture doesn't help solve the world’s problems, but it does make for greater understanding, and for a better ability to pray focused prayers.

And the same Jesus who has informed us that there is a devil, has also informed us that that devil is a defeated enemy, and that he will finally be destroyed.
 
How far will we follow our Savior here? We don't need to obsess about the devil, but we do need to recognize that he does indeed exist, and that he is working craftily in every way he can to damage God's reputation and His agenda, and to entice us into other, soul-savaging rather than soul-saving paths.

We need to be really vigilant -- as Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 5:8 and beyond – to resist the devil, so that we don’t go in directions which will cause hurt and shame to our loved ones, and embarrassment to God's reputation. Every time I read about a pastor (and I read about another just yesterday) who has taken advantage of his position of trust to abuse people, it makes me angry – because it gives the devil's campaign a bump in the polling.

You and I have the responsibility to do whatever we can to enhance God’s reputation – in other words, go on a credible campaign to let people know how trustworthy and friendly and self-sacrificing God really is.

Just within the last day or so, Tacoma native Jason Puracal was released from a Nicaragua prison after serving two years of a 22-year sentence. He’d been convicted of drug charges and money-laundering. But his friends and family knew he wasn’t the kind of person who would do things like that, and they fought for his innocence. The case finally got to the point where it  caught the attention of members of Congress, and Puracal has been freed from prison.

But as of yesterday afternoon, he still isn’t home. According to yesterday’s online KOMO News, he’s out of Nicaragua, but there’s no way to predict when he might actually be able to come back to the USA. A spokesman said that the fight won’t be over until he lands on US soil.

Isn’t that kind of how it is with God? God’s family and friends know that He is absolutely innocent of the charges the devil has tried to convict Him of. Yet for many people, the jury is still out. This means that God’s family and friends still have a lot of work to do. Incidentally, the character of God will be the subject of the Sunday night meeting during the first weekend of Understand Prophecy.

Let's take a look at just one more way we can "follow the leader.”

Luke 4:1 – 4: Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”

The Matthew 4 version of this story says, “every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.”

You see, by His example, Jesus challenges us to be about His Father’s business, and follow Him into the waters of baptism, and to remember that there is indeed a great controversy between Christ and Satan.  Now Jesus challenges us to follow His example and live by every spoken word of God. How far will we follow?

And this is where some kind of public proclamation has to happen. My baptism is a public proclamation of my desire to follow my Leader, and evangelistic messages like the ones we’ll be presenting in Understand Prophecy proclaim Jesus' desire that we take the words of His Father seriously.

In other words, people need to clearly understand that we should not have any other gods besides the true God. They need to understand that we should do nothing to defame or detract from His reputation.

People need to be reminded that God wants us to honor our parents, and to commit neither physical nor mental murder. People also need to know that God placed the “Do not commit adultery" command right next to the "Do not murder" command. Both are equal abominations in His eyes.

People need to know that prohibitions against thievery and lying and covetousness are also words which thundered forth from God's very lips. Think how many trees the newspaper publishers would save if people obeyed just those three laws.

And these days, who besides the Seventh-day Adventist church is proclaiming the vital necessity (for health and happiness and sanity) of following through on the longest and most detailed of those spoken Sinai commandments – the Sabbath commandment?

There are 321 words in the New King James version of the Ten Commandments, and the Sabbath commandment makes up 98 of them, longer than any other commandment. 30% of the commandments’ words are made up of details about the Sabbath. It's interesting that the commandment with the next highest number of words – the "don't make yourself carved images" commandment – was the one that was repeatedly broken all through Israel's history until the return from Babylonian captivity. It's as though God devoted a lot of words to the idolatry and Sabbath commandments because He sensed that both would be frequently and woefully forgotten, and a lot of needless suffering would come as a result.

Did Jesus Himself keep the Sabbath? As He went about His Father's business, did He follow through on this commandment as well?

Luke 4:16: So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

Notice that it was Jesus' "custom" to go to church on the Sabbath. He had made it a habit. And not only that, but He took an active part in the worship service.

And since one of His personal mission statements was to live not by bread alone but by every word which proceeds from God's mouth, Jesus of course did not abolish the Sabbath. Instead, He identified himself as the "Lord of the Sabbath." He claimed it as His personal property, and He lends it to us once a week and hopes we’ll enjoy it and take good care of it.
 
That’s what He did. He even rested during those hours in the tomb. And His followers – recognizing His reverence for that day even in death – refused even to care for His wounded body until after those sacred hours were over.

You see, by His example, Jesus challenges us to be about His Father’s business, and to follow Him into the waters of baptism, and to remember that a great controversy rages around us, and to live by every spoken word of God, including God’s command to honor His holy Sabbath. How far will we follow?

Who else besides the Adventist church is promoting the seventh-day Sabbath on a large scale? Christians of several denominations are beginning to recognize the value of the Sabbath, and are even writing books about it, though they normally apply its guidelines to the Sunday day of rest. But who else is speaking for God regarding the special gift He gave us on Day Seven of creation week? Who is reminding His 21st-century children about this special birthday present to Adam and Eve on their very first full day of life?

I'll tell you who's doing this. It's the Seventh-day Adventist families  who on Saturday morning follow their  Leader’s example and dress up in their good clothes, and go out to their car, and drive away. And then when they come back home they don't mow the lawn or wash the car or trim the hedge, but treasure the gift of God. Instead, they turn their attention to their Creator and His creation.

And then, as they follow their Leader into the new week, these Adventists show by their graciousness and sensitivity and tact that their Sabbath -- and their Sabbath's God -- has made them overwhelmingly safe and enjoyable and redemptive to be around.

Neighbors pick up on this. Coworkers pickup on this. I recently heard of one of our members who discovered that a coworker had grown up Adventist. He said, "I'm Adventist too," and she said, "I know." He’d never mentioned it, but she knew.

How far will you follow your Leader this week?

Next week we’ll learn about other satisfying ways we can follow Him, but now it's sing a song about how important it is not only to follow but to resemble our Savior as closely as possible -- “I Would Be Like Jesus.”

 

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“NEW WITH YOU”
Expository Sermon on Matthew 26
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 9/8/2012]
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Matthew 26.

One of the really incredible things about the Bible is that if you keep reading it, you discover new ideas to think about, even in what you thought were very familiar passages. This week, as I was studying Matthew's version of the communion service, my attention was caught by a phrase I hadn't focused on before. I'd known it was there, but this time it took on a deeper meaning for me. Let me show you what I mean.

Matthew 26: 26 - 29 [NKJV]: And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

Now these are all very amazing phrases—phrases I’m sure we take too much for granted. But to me, they were familiar phrases too—except for one. As I say, I’d known it was there, but I hadn’t stopped to ask questions about it. Here it is.

Verse 29: But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

What really touched me this week was that phrase “new with you.”

The first word is “new,” and that was a bit puzzling to me. What did Jesus mean when He said He would eventually drink His first glass of grape juice in at least two millennia “new with” His disciples?

I mean, He could have simply said, "I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it with you." Why include the "new"? Does he mean that the glass of grape wine will be new? It probably will be.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Jesus Himself is "newness" in action. Back during Creation Week He and His Father and the Holy Spirit created a brand new biosystem, culminating with evidently a brand-new race of people. And more amazingly, the Heavenly Three gave people the ability to create brand-new little people themselves.

Then when Jesus arrived on this planet, He spent his time overturning old ideas and replacing them with new ones. No, you don't have to crouch beside a bubbling water-pool and tumble in first in order to be healed. No you don't have to cringe forlornly beside a road, begging for coins, convinced that God has forsaken you. No, you don’t have to sag disconsolately on a cross, thinking that your murderous thievery has driven you from God’s love.

And here on that very Passover evening, Jesus continued to ring out the old and bring in the new. If you go online, as I did last night, and search the Internet for Passover symbolism, you will find a fascinating group of items on the “seder plate.”

I don't know how many of these symbols were used during that Thursday night Passover service we've just read about, and how many were introduced later. But even the ones we know were there for sure were ignored when Jesus created His new celebration. The bitter herbs were ignored, the lamb was ignored. After all, in less than 24 hours, no lamb sacrifice would mean anything anymore.

No, Jesus ignored the old, and introduced two new symbols, and rather than representing this or that aspect of Israelite history, both symbols represented Him. "This is My body . . . This is My blood."

"New with you." Jesus is the God of the new. Jesus is also the God of the "with." Even though God and His Son had to back away from our sin-crusted souls for our own safety, They have constantly visited us when Their plans or our needs required it.

And finally, when Jesus compressed Himself into an embryo and grew up among us, He didn't remain aloof. He relished the chance to finally be with us. He gathered disciples around Him. He spoke to thousands of people on a hillside, and to one person in a midnight conversation. When He rose from the tomb on that Sunday morning, after a quick journey past billions of galaxies to the center of the universe, He was back again before evening to meet with His friends again.

And then there are those John 14 words which have comforted many a bereaved spouse or parent or child or friend, "In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
 
"New with you.” In Revelation 21:5, God promises "Behold, I make all things new." And a couple of verses earlier, He echoes His own personal desire to be with us. Notice how often He repeats the word “with.” “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.”

“New with you.”

 There at that Passover table, lamps flickering in wall-niches, Jesus promised that the next time He drank of this pure grape wine would be with the same group of friends who followed Him, sometimes doubted Him, who would finally run from Him, and eventually knelt before Him. When Jesus said He would drink the wine “new with you,” He was saying, “I’m not switching friends. It’s you I love.”

And in Jesus' heartfelt John 17 prayer, He widened that "you" circle to include you and me, right here, this morning. And what is most touching, He asks us to take part in that same Last Supper ceremony of remembrance which He taught His first disciples. “This do in remembrance of Me.”

"New with you." Remember that the symbols of that Last Supper, that first Communion, were not to be gazed at, not to be placed in a frame to be bowed to, but to be absorbed within each of us. "Take, eat . . . Drink of it, all of you." Doubting Thomas, drink of it. Hotheaded James and John, drink of it. Simon Peter the Denier, drink of it. And Judas, the betrayer, drink of it. That must have been breathtakingly new – the idea that God Himself would care to enter our hearts and our natures and hope to transform them.

Because one of this planet's best-kept secrets--and the devil has been working energetically to stifle it so that it won't get about--is that God is the ultimate Servant. His Son proved it when He pressed His knees against a hard floor again and again as He washed the disciples' feet. God is a “you-centered” God.

In a moment you and I will be kneeling before one person and washing his or her feet – not 12 people. But Jesus washed the feet of the Sons of Thunder, the feet of the doubter, the feet of the betrayer, and finally the feet of the denier. It was a "new with you" revelation that left His friends with their jaws agape.

And suddenly it all came clear. "If this Man loves us so much, and if He has come down from God, could it be true that God loves us this much?"

I don't know about you, but when I lift the little piece of bread to my lips, and later the little cup of tangy grape juice, I will be thinking about a future banquet when the Man who went to His knees for us, and then to the cross for us, will welcome us forever into His heart.

 

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PRAYERMASTERS – NEHEMIAH (Part 3 of 3)
Expository Sermon on Nehemiah, various chapters
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 8/25/2012

(To listen to the audio of this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Nehemiah Chapter 4.

While you're turning there I'll mention that this is the third and final sermon in a series about the prayers of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was one of the Bible's great pray-ers, what you might call a "prayer master," and he prayed many kinds of interesting prayers.

What's so intriguing about Nehemiah is that he wasn’t some mountaintop mystic. Instead, he was an energetic organizer and administrator and really hard worker, but also a prayer master. He didn't let himself be seduced into thinking that his brains, his speechifying, his ability to motivate and delegate, or any of his other talents would accomplish the Lord’s work alone.

No, Nehemiah was a frequent and creative pray-er. As I mentioned, over the past two sermons we've been looking at the different kinds of prayers he prayed. First, he prayed what we could call the "proposal prayer.” That’s a prayer which is proposing a course of action to God, asking Him to get involved in something that the pray-er is concerned about.

Nehemiah also prayed the "emergency silent prayer," a prayer you pray when you don’t have time for a longer prayer. And Nehemiah also understood that you can pray better "emergency prayers" when you have spent a lot of time praying detailed "proposal prayers."

Today we'll be looking at three more kinds of prayers Nehemiah prayed. They are not as common as those first two kinds, but I think that they can truly deepen our own prayer lives. Let me show you what I mean.

To set the stage for this next prayer – a very interesting one but a very common one in the Bible – it is the mid-400’s BC, and Nehemiah has taken it upon himself to return from Persia to Palestine to help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

However, there are local rulers of other nearby cultures who don't like the idea of Jerusalem becoming strong again. One of these is Sanballat, a governor in Samaria, just to the north. Let me give you an idea of the kind of trouble he caused Nehemiah by this quote from the SDA Bible Commentary:

“Sanballat, with the Ammonite Tobiah and the Arabian Geshem, tried by ridicule, intimidation, and threats to prevent Nehemiah from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. He accused Nehemiah of rebellion against the Persian government, invited him to the plain of Ono for a conference, planning to have him waylaid and assassinated, and even made preparations for an armed attack upon Jerusalem.” (SDA Bible Commentary, p. 978)

But Nehemiah was smart, and didn't fall into any of these traps. And it's during one of these tussles with Governor Sanballat that Nehemiah prays his third kind of prayer.

Nehemiah 4:1 – 5 [NKJV]: But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.” Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity! Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

Here comes Nehemiah’s third kind of prayer, in case you're taking notes.

Nehemiah’s third kind of prayer is the “Lord, Befuddle Your Enemies” prayer.

(To “befuddle” means to baffle or confuse.)

When I was a kid in South Dakota, my favorite baseball team was the Minnesota Twins. They were a relatively new team, and they were not very good. They weren’t all that bad—they were rarely in last place. Mostly they were in second or third place in the league – but we prairie fans had high standards, and it was always a source of great discouragement that they did not even win the league pennant during those years.

Onilee, the oldest of my two sisters, was an even more rabid Twins fan than I was, and once in a while we asked each other if it was permissible for us to pray against the Twins’ opponents, especially the hated Yankees. Eventually we decided that we’d probably better not, since young Yankee fans would probably be on their own knees as well.

But here, Nehemiah is very clearly praying a prayer against Governor Sanballat and his henchmen. Is that okay? Didn't Jesus say, "Love your enemies"? He certainly did, yet the Bible is very clear that loving God's enemies doesn't mean that it's all right for them to continue their enemy activities. They need to be befuddled, baffled, backed off.

If you've been keeping up with the news, you know that a congressman who is running for a Senate seat has gotten into a lot of trouble for certain things he has said. Even the leaders of his own party have been turning their backs on him, and calling for him to step out of the race. Those in the party who feel strongly about this have decided that this congressman is an enemy to the party's reputation. And maybe some of those party leaders are literally praying that God will befuddle this congressman and cause to stop running.

But is it okay to pray this “God, Befuddle Your Enemies” kind of prayer? I believe it is, if we make very sure we can tell the difference between our enemies and God's enemies. Sometimes they are the same. But sometimes, especially if I have a personality, or a way of doing things, which rubs people the wrong way (totally aside from anything spiritual), I need to take personal responsibility for that. First Peter chapter 2 has several verses on knowing the difference between suffering for your own faults and suffering for the cause of God.

One reason I believe these prayers are legitimate is that Nehemiah wasn't the only Bible person to pray the "Lord, Befuddle Your Enemies" prayer. David prayed these prayers all the time, and wrote some pretty militant “Lord, smite the wicked” Psalms. So therefore, this kind of prayer must be just as valid as the proposal prayer or the emergency silent prayer.
 
I think that when we pray this prayer, this means that we have so thoroughly accepted God's will and His agenda that what displeases Him displeases us. I believe that when we care enough to pray that God's enemies will turn and run, and stop hurting His people, this means we are truly coming nearer to the heart of God. We have stopped being fans in the upper bleachers, and we have run down to the main level and jumped over the railing and joined the game.

There is a little postscript to this part of Nehemiah's story. But first of all, let's look once again at just what his "Lord, befuddle your enemies" prayer really contains.
 
Verses 4 -5: Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity! Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

Did you notice how Nehemiah focuses his prayer on God, especially there at the end? Nehemiah does not spend his prayer complaining about his own personal inconvenience, his own emotional trauma, as a result of what Sanballat has been doing. Instead, he keeps the focus on the fact that these enemies are interfering with God's highest hopes, in this case, keeping the Jewish people motivated to finish building that city wall.

So, what do we do with this prayer, now that we know it? Well, it might be good to practice it this week. If you hear on the news – as I have heard recently – about Christians being persecuted for their faith, you can pray that the persecutors stop doing that, and be shown Whom it is that they are really persecuting, as Paul was.

Bullies need to be prayed against in this way. People who enslave children in prostitution need to be prayed against, maybe with the occasional mention of millstones tied to necks.

I'm not saying that we need to develop a vindictive spirit--not at all. But we do need to become so passionately close to God's heart that His indignation will become ours, but also that His patient love will balance out our sinful human desire for raw vengeance.

I mentioned that there was a little postscript to this part of the Nehemiah story. It's found in verse six – it shows how God answered this prayer.

Verse 6: So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

Governor Sanballat and his crew were trying to harass and discourage the Jewish people. But because of Nehemiah's personal encouragement, and his prayers, the minds of the people were not befuddled by this intimidation. Instead, the people "had a mind to work." That’s one of the delightful features of our Bellevue congregation—the people “have a mind to work.” And I know that this focused energy is the result of our prayers.

So let's add the "Lord, Befuddle Your Enemies” prayer to our arsenal this week, so that the Lord can continue to work His miracles.

There's another kind of prayer which Nehemiah prays, and it might even be more interesting than the one we just looked at. In chapter 5, Nehemiah records how he tried to get people to stop charging interest on the loans they made to each other. And then he mentions how very careful he is being with the resources that people are giving him and his staff.

Now notice what he prays in the last verse in chapter 5.

Nehemiah 5:19: Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.

Nehemiah’s fourth kind of prayer is the “God, Remember Me” prayer.

When I first saw this prayer, I thought, "Wait a minute. Isn't this is sort of self-exalting prayer? Isn't this sort of a “what’s in it for me?” prayer? I don't think it is, when you look at it closely.

According to my online Bible concordance, Nehemiah uses the word “remember” five times in his book. The first time is in chapter 1, when Nehemiah urges God to remember His own promises. In chapter 4, he urges the people to remember the Lord who is great and awesome. And then we have this Chapter 5 "Remember me, O God" prayer. In chapter 6 he urges God to "remember" Sanballat and his henchmen, and not let them off the hook. Then in chapter 13 he prays another "God, remember me,” prayer.

When I was in my late teens I got hold of a book on memory training. The book was called Stop Forgetting! It had all sorts of tips and tricks for remembering everything from the order of a pack of playing cards to a passage from Shakespeare.

The only part of the book I really used was as part of a magic show. After doing a few regular tricks, I would stand with my back to a blackboard and have somebody blindfold me. Somebody would stand at the board and write the numbers from 1 to 20 or 30.

Then I would ask people to call out the names of objects. They would name things like pencil, lampshade, bicycle, and so on, and the person at the board would write them down after the numbers.

Once the list was full, while still blindfolded, I would repeat the list in order, then backward. Then I would ask people to call out numbers, and I would immediately tell the item that matched the number.

People were amazed by this, but the secret was that I had simply followed the techniques in the book. Anybody can do it, with a little practice. You simply change the numbers into letters and then make words out of the letters. For example, if you tip the number 2 over on its face, is sort of looks like an “n.” So you simply add vowels, and the number 2 would then stand for the Bible character Noah. 22 would be the word "noon," and you would picture the sun blazing down on a clock face which was set to 12:00. Then, when someone mentioned an object, you just pictured that object in that scene.

I still remember being fascinated by that book. Wouldn't it be great to be able to remember whatever you wanted to remember?

I believe that Nehemiah prayed this "God, Remember Me" prayer because he was such a fervent and devoted partner to his Creator. As Shelley and I leave the house when we’re going somewhere, she might ask me if I remembered to shut the windows. I might ask her if she remembered to turn off the stove, or unplug her curling iron.

Actually, when Nehemiah asks God to remember him, that's a pretty awesome thing. Because every day you and I walk among people who would rather God did not remember them. Every once in a while I will read an interview with scientists who are Christians, and they will talk about how they have discovered that some of their atheist colleagues, who don't believe in God, hold this belief partly because they would rather not have to be accountable to a Creator. They prefer not to even have a God who remembers them.

Nehemiah, of course, was exactly the opposite. Everything he did, he did for God, whether it was rebuilding the wall, rebuking the people for charging each other interest on personal loans, dodging the traps that Sanballat set for him, everything Nehemiah did was to advance God's mission. Nehemiah knew very well that God never forgot anything, but I think his “God, Remember Me” prayer was simply a way of staying in touch with the God who made covenants with people, and remembered them even when people forgot them.

I think it would deeply please God if we prayed more "remember" prayers. After all, we know that we need have no fear for the future unless we forget the way God has led us in the past. "Lord, remember that miraculous way You found me the used car which has served me so well? Would you mind doing the same for that friend of mine who needs one too?" "Lord, You’re remembering, aren't You, that difficult conversation I need to have it work today? Please help me to remember to treat this person wisely and graciously.”

Now we come to the very last of Nehemiah’s prayer types, at least the last I could find. Turn to chapter 9. Actually, it was a group of Levites who prayed this prayer, so maybe Nehemiah had nothing to do with writing it. But since he has often mentioned its ideas throughout his book, he could've actually suggested the basic theme to the Levites and let them work on the lyrics.

What's happening in this chapter is that the people have assembled for a spiritual rededication service. As part of that service, the Levites speak (or maybe sing) a prayer.

Nehemiah 9:4 – 15: Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God Forever and ever! “Blessed be Your glorious name, Which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You. “You are the Lord God, Who chose Abram, And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, And gave him the name Abraham; You found his heart faithful before You, And made a covenant with him To give the land of the Canaanites, The Hittites, the Amorites, The Perizzites, the Jebusites, And the Girgashites— To give it to his descendants. You have performed Your words, For You are righteous. “You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, And heard their cry by the Red Sea. You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, Against all his servants, And against all the people of his land. For You knew that they acted proudly against them. So You made a name for Yourself, as it is this day. And You divided the sea before them, So that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; And their persecutors You threw into the deep, As a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover You led them by day with a cloudy pillar, And by night with a pillar of fire, To give them light on the road Which they should travel. “You came down also on Mount Sinai, And spoke with them from heaven, And gave them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments. You made known to them Your holy Sabbath, And commanded them precepts, statutes and laws, By the hand of Moses Your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, And told them to go in to possess the land Which You had sworn to give them.

I believe that Nehemiah's fifth prayer could be called the "God, I Remember You" prayer.

First we had the "Lord, Befuddle Your Enemies" prayer, then we had the "God, Remember Me" prayer, and now finally we have the "God, I Remember you" prayer.

This is such an extremely important prayer that you will find it prayed many times in the Bible. Any time there is a celebration of God's power or guidance, you'll find this kind of prayer. This is not a prayer which is prayed from a posture of looking back on our own accomplishments, and giving a gracious and somewhat condescending nod to God for permitting us to be so wildly successful.

No, instead, this is a prayer which remembers God's staggeringly, overwhelmingly generous deeds. A century or so earlier, as Nebuchadnezzar walked through his palace (in Daniel chapter 4) and murmured, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?" – Nebuchadnezzar should instead have been praying the "God, I remember You" prayer. “God, I remember all that You have done for me.”

After all, Nebuchadnezzar had already experienced God's wisdom, as Daniel explained to him the great image he dreamed about. And the king had personally seen the very Son of God walking in the furnace flames along with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. But instead of praying, "God, I remember You," Nebuchadnezzar prayed to himself, about himself.

Notice what happens back here in Nehemiah 9. Let's pick it up with verse 15.

Verses 15 – 16: You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, And told them to go in to possess the land Which You had sworn to give them. “But they and our fathers acted proudly, Hardened their necks, And did not heed Your commandments.

And in the rest of this prayer, the Levites tell a story that moves from God's great generosity to the people's repeated ungratefulness and rebellion.

I believe that if we only praise God, in our songs and however else we do this, I believe that if we only praise God, we are doing merely half our prayer work. The other half is to recognize and admit our shameful memory-loss. Because if we don't keep reminding ourselves how much we have ignored God, then we are probably in as much danger as any Old Testament rebel could ever be.

Let's not flinch back from recognizing our sinfulness. Sure, it's not pleasant to dwell on our faults and failings, and it might even cause us to worry about God's true feelings about us.

But every prayer like this needs to come back around to how wonderfully we are loved. John 3:16 doesn't say "For God so tolerated the world," or "For God so ignored the world until things got bad enough," but "For God so loved the world."

 God loves me enough to pour blessings upon me which I can really use. And God loves me enough to give me warnings in much the same way that a mother or father will have serious talks with their children. And finally, God loves me enough to allow His Son to die for me on a cross.

And that love, expressed in so many magnanimous ways, gives me courage—and impels me to respond to the Lover who is my Savior.

How can we do this? Maybe we should start with Nehemiah’s prayers. Write God a letter on your computer, or in a notebook. Take a long walk, and reconnect with Him. And don’t forget to read His Bible every day.

  

 

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LISTEN TO "YOUTH RUSH SUMMER," an interview with Seth Jurgensen about his summer of knocking on 10,000 Puget Sound area doors introducing people to helpful spiritual literature. Seth had many encouraging and occasionally hair-raising adventures--don't miss his final story!  First you'll hear Seth tell a story to the children, and then he will be interviewed by Pastor Maylan Schurch. (To listen, click here.)


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LISTEN TO "BRIGHT HOPE," the August 11 sermon coordinated by Jesús Bervis. Sharing their experience to their recent visits to the Hope, BC, Seventh-day Adventist Camp Meeting are Jesús Bervis, Cheryl Boardman, Jeanette and Gary Salsman, and Willman Rojas. Elsa Rojas led us in the song "Make Me a Servant." (To hear the audio for this sermon, click here. Sorry, no text version is available. To hear other sermons, go to the Media Library link on the menu to the left of the main home page.)

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PRAYERMASTERS – NEHEMIAH (Part 2)
Topical Sermon on Nehemiah
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 8/3/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

 

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 2.

This is another sermon in a series I’ve been preaching this year called "Prayermasters." We’ve been looking at some of the Bible's most powerful prayer people, trying to learn from them how to be better pray-ers ourselves.

Today's sermon is Part 2 of our look at Nehemiah, and even after today's sermon there will still be enough left for a Part 3.

Last week we spent a lot of time looking at what kind of person Nehemiah was. He held a very trusted position which put him into nearly daily contact with the Persian king Artaxerxes. But Nehemiah’s career wasn't his main focus.

What was really troubling Nehemiah was the sad state of the people back in his homeland of Judah. Even though the Jews had started to return home 70 years after the Babylonian captivity, the work of restoration had come to a standstill. Last week we looked at his prayer in Chapter 1, a prayer which seems to have been based on the same pattern as Daniel's prayer of over a century earlier.

I mentioned last week that Nehemiah is, aside from Jesus, probably my favorite Bible character. I think the reason is that he seems to be the type of person I grew up among. Back in South Dakota we were all descended from mostly German or Russian immigrants. In other words, like Nehemiah, we were strangers in a strange land.

Most of my friends' fathers had fought in World War II, and the only reason my dad wasn't drafted was that his own father had been killed in an accident when Dad was something like 19, and Dad had to stay on the farm and drag it out of the Depression-era debt it had accumulated.

My dad and mom, and the people on the farms around ours, were kids during that Depression, and knew how to work very hard. Nobody had a lot of money, and it was firmly ingrained into our childhood minds that if you wanted to accomplish something, you had to work for it. The true stories I heard that filled me with the greatest admiration were the "rags to riches" stories – the ones where, even though very poor, men and women set their sights on a goal, and kept patiently plugging away at it, being ready for opportunities when they arose. I wasn’t attracted by the “riches” idea—what inspired me was that with persistence, you could go places.

And of course my parents, being devout Christians, told me that first of all – before setting my goals – I should ask the Lord to guide me to what He wanted me to do.

I remember growing up with a firm idea that I could do anything I wanted to do, if I wanted to do it badly enough and worked hard at it. That's the benefit of prairie living – you don't have a whole lot of other kids swarming around you, putting you down. Out there in those vast pastures you stood alone, and it was easier to imagine that you could accomplish some pretty exciting and important things.

The Bible tells us nothing about Nehemiah's childhood. But something had prepared him to step forward into some pretty major responsibilities. And that same dedication which made him the king’s cupbearer – the one who made sure that no assassin's poison was slipped into the king’s beverages – that same dedication drove Nehemiah to take the risk of annoying the king in order to ask him if he, Nehemiah, could go back to Jerusalem and help get the rebuilding efforts back on track.

And aside from – and above – all these qualities, Nehemiah prayed. He didn't just work hard and assume that his hard work would automatically lead to success. Nehemiah knw better. He was a "prayermaster.”

So this morning we’re going to take a look at the kinds of prayers he actually prayed. Before I re-read Nehemiah in the past couple of weeks I had not realized the size of his prayer arsenal.

Nehemiah's first prayer, of course, is the one we looked at last week. As we looked at that prayer pattern, we discovered that first of all Nehemiah praised God for his goodness, then he confessed his own sin and the sin of his people, and then he claimed God's Bible promises, and finally he puts himself in the prayer, asking God to work through him.

So that is Nehemiah's first prayer pattern. In fact, here comes Sermon Point One if you're taking this down. What kinds of prayers did Nehemiah pray?

Nehemiah’s first prayer pattern is the “proposal” prayer.

What do I mean by "proposal prayer"? I mean the kind of prayer which follows the pattern above. It's a prayer which is proposing a course of action to God, asking Him to get involved in something that the pray-er is concerned about.

And as we mentioned last week, Nehemiah knew very well that he was praying according to God's will. God had predicted that the Babylonian captivity would last only 70 years, so it was God's will that His people go back to the land of Judah and pick up where they left off.

Somebody might say, "Okay, that's great for Nehemiah. He could put his finger on Jeremiah's 70-year prophecy, and remind God about that. But since it's not so easy to discover God's will in my own life, how can I pray as vigorous a ‘proposal prayer’ as Nehemiah could?"

Somewhere – I think it's in the writings of Ellen White's grandson Arthur White – there's this delightful story about the young Ellen. She had already started receiving visions from the Lord, and one day an earnest and admiring young man came up to her and said, "Sister Ellen, the Lord has shown me that you and I are to be married." Ellen, who was nobody’s fool, looked him in the eye and said, "Brother, the Lord has shown me no such thing."

So how do we know the Lord’s will? We can’t depend on our own impressions, as that young suitor may have. Some years back there was an Adventist man in California who claimed that the Lord had given him a vision which told him that all the books in the Adventist Book Center should be taken out to the dumpster except the King James Bible and Joe Crews’ book Creeping Compromise.

Obviously not a vision from the Lord. This guy had just been stewing this idea around in his brain for so long that no wonder he eventually had a dream about it.

The safest way by far to discover God's will is to hunt up Bible verses which specifically say what His will is. The Jews did return successfully from captivity, and thanks to Nehemiah, the Jerusalem wall was eventually rebuilt, so that doesn't need to be God's will for us anymore. But God has other “wills” for us.

Jesus considered God's will very important. In Matthew 6:10, in his Lord's Prayer, Jesus prayed to His Father, "Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." One chapter later, in Matthew 7:21, He says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” In Luke 22:42, Jesus knelt in the garden of Gethsemane and totally submitted His will to His Father.  “Father," He prayed, “if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

So what does God's will look like? Jesus was very clear about this. He said, “ . . .  this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40) So a major element of God's will is the salvation of His human children.

Over in Romans 12:2, we find that Paul is deeply concerned with God's will too. He says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” And then Paul immediately introduces the spiritual gifts God has given. In other words, it is God's will that we use the gifts He has given us to influence others in His direction. That’s another part of the will of God.

And every phrase, every concept in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5 through 7, is God's will relayed to us by God's Son. And as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says,  “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Every time I hear one of you tell me that you have gently, tactfully shared your faith with someone at work, or someone who's a neighbor, or someone who is a family member who doesn't yet know the Lord, I am thrilled – and the thrill I feel is only a faint one compared to what God must feel. Because that faith-sharing is the will of God.

Yesterday a friend of mine who goes to a congregation I used to pastor called me and told me how he delights in reasoning with people to demonstrate that God did indeed create the heavens and the earth. My friend does this in and earnest but good-humored way, never getting angry, and he always seems to be sensitive to just how far he should push the topic. But he is using his gifts to help adjust presuppositions people maybe haven't taken the time to evaluate.

The "proposal" prayer is a very important one. Several years ago I had the chance to work with a major Adventist leader who led the Russian church during the last couple of decades of the Soviet era. Dr. Mikhail Kulakov wrote the story of his life, and I smoothed its prose into more readable English, and the book was called Though the Heavens Fall.
 
A year or so ago an Adventist filmmaker who has produced a lot of work for the church read that book, and he wants to make a PBS-style documentary about that story. Documentary-makers are most often not rich people. They need to prepare a proposal to give to potential donors. This proposal, or “pitch,” needs to show very clearly that the filmmaker has a thorough grasp of the subject – in this case Dr. Kulakov and his life work -- and the proposal also needs to show that this will be a deeply interesting and worthwhile documentary.

I was very impressed as I read this is filmmaker's proposal. He had done an immense amount of work, and probably knows at least as much about the story as I do.

I believe this is the kind of "proposal prayer" which Nehemiah prayed. Nehemiah didn't simply have a free Sunday afternoon, and impulsively decided to develop a plan to help the people in broken-down Jerusalem. No, Nehemiah had been obsessing (and praying) about his home country for quite a while, and the recent news from there had caused his ideas to crystallize.

And when we look at his second kind of prayer, we will see how the first kind – the "proposal prayer" – is so important. Now we enter the very presence of King Artaxerxes. This is probably the most important, the most pivotal point of Nehemiah's entire story.

Nehemiah 2:1 – 2 [NKJV]: And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.” So I became dreadfully afraid . . . .,

Nehemiah may have been one of the Bible's prayermasters, but he could still get dreadfully afraid. Those were the days when if the king suspected that you were disloyal, or maybe even plotting something against him, he could have you executed immediately.

How do you react when you become dreadfully afraid? I'm sure that many parents in this room have felt dreadful fear at some point, about the health of their children, or maybe when the child got lost.

What did Nehemiah do when he felt this dreadful fear? He immediately put into practice the second kind of prayer he prayed.

Verses 2 – 4: Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.” So I became dreadfully afraid, and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?” Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.

But if you glance down through the next few verses, you aren't going to find that prayer written out like the one in the first chapter. There is no record that Nehemiah said to the king, "Hold that thought your Majesty. Just let me take a break for a half-hour, and then I'll be right back."

No, everything points to the fact that this was a different kind of prayer than the one he prayed in chapter 1.

Nehemiah’s first prayer pattern is the “proposal” prayer, and the second pattern is the "emergency silent prayer."

Let me see your hands if you have ever prayed an "emergency silent prayer" at some point in your life. I have done so many times. People who come to prayer meeting tell of desperate emergency silent prayers they have prayed.

But the most powerful Bible “prayermasters” were the ones who didn't only pray emergency prayers. These Bible prayer people had often prayed very thorough "proposal prayers, prayers in which they laid out their "case," you might say, before God.

I don't think we will ever understand, until heaven, how deeply God appreciates and enjoys these thoughtful proposal-prayers. He is instantly alert to the emergency prayers, of course, just as Jesus immediately reacted to Peter’s three-word emergency prayer as he was sinking below the waves. But I believe that you and I can pray our quick emergency prayers, whether they’re silent or aloud, with greater courage if we have spent time praying the longer prayers. Remember how in Gethsemane, Jesus was discouraged when His disciples couldn’t support Him in a longer prayer session?

Those of us who really enjoyed reading Stephen Covey's best-selling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People were sad to hear of his death recently. I read that entire book aloud to Shelley on a drive back to the Midwest a year so after it had been published.

One of Covey’s groundbreaking ideas was to divide a to-do list into what he called "four quadrants." Each task is either important or not important, and also urgent or not urgent. For example, if your car suddenly gets a flat tire, that is urgent and important. But if you get an e-mail advertisement about a product you do not need and are absolutely not interested in, that is a non-important, non-urgent task.

Covey had discovered in his research that most people who face a lot of urgent and important crises will, when they get a chance, retreat to doing non-urgent, non-important things like spending a lot of time watching TV, or nowadays surfing the Internet.

What Covey suggested – and this is what reminds me of Nehemiah – was to spend as much non-crisis time as you can dealing with tasks which are important but not yet urgent.
 
For example, firefighters often deal with urgent and important matters – fighting fires and rescuing people from them. However, these firefighters become far more effective when they spend time with important but non-urgent matters, such as learning their skills better, or learning how to teach the general public about fire prevention methods. Once a month, outside the fire station near our home, the firefighters place a large sandwich board sign which urges people to attend a free CPR class, in the hopes that more people's lives will be saved before the fire truck or aid car has a chance to arrive.

I believe that because Nehemiah had spent so much time in prayer – and in thinking which was helped by that prayer – that as he prayed his emergency silent prayer before replying to the king, he could do so with far greater confidence and courage. Let's watch what happens.

Verses 4 – 5: Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”

I would imagine that the more you learn about the volatile nature of royal politics at that time, the more Nehemiah's matter-of-fact, audacious request might make your jaw drop. I mean, even Queen Esther led up to her request to her king with a couple of banquets.

But here, instead of shrinking under his king’s curious stare, instead of shrinking back to the safe level of merely a palace servant, Nehemiah mentally whispers a silent emergency prayer, takes a deep breath, and plows ahead with his request: “May I, your cupbearer, go and rebuild my ancestral city?”

You see, the chances are very good – in fact, it's almost certain – that during those previous times of prayer, Nehemiah and the Holy Spirit had been processing some ways in which Nehemiah himself might be able to be a part of these prayers’ answer. Famous actors or comedians will often say that, in their professions, luck is a matter of being carefully prepared for when the big break suddenly arises. Nehemiah was prepared for his pivotal moment, and he had become prepared by many an hour of prayer.

I think it's a good idea for us to not only pray the "proposal" or "pitch" prayers to God. I think we need to practice the emergency silent prayer as well. I keep an eye out for people to pray for as I'm driving around. I think we should get in the habit of praying for people we may never meet. That’s what happens at prayer meeting each week. People bring prayer notebooks, and most of those names are people they have never gotten acquainted with.

Why pray? Think of the Bible's powerful prayermasters, and you will see people who have become very close to God – close to His heart, close enough to want what He wants, close enough so that His will is their will. And those who pray have discovered that, no matter how much trauma and turmoil and turbulence life flings at them, not only can God help in these situations, but there is indeed a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God.

 

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PRAYERMASTERS – NEHEMIAH (Part 1 of 2)
Expository Sermon on Nehemiah 1
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 7/28/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 1.

A couple of months after Shelley and I arrived at Bellevue to begin our pastoral work here, we became briefly acquainted with a family who was just in the process of moving to another state. The wife was a very creative and energetic person, and even though she knew she would be moving, she caught me after church and gave me a lot of cheerful, energetic, creative suggestions about programs the new pastor should get going here at Bellevue.

I listened carefully and patiently, but she must have caught the rather dazed look in my eye, along with the grin I was trying to conceal, because she suddenly stopped talking and apologized. "I'm sorry, pastor," she said. “I'm pushy."

I chuckled, and assured her that I appreciated pushy people. "Keep being pushy," I said. "We might not be able to do everything you're suggesting, but don't stop being pushy."

I do appreciate pushy people, especially when they combine a great sense of humor, and a lot of understanding, with their pushiness, and when they’re just as much of a leader as they are a pusher. If you're pushy, pace yourself, and laugh a lot, and get consensus, and you'll be able to push a lot more effectively.

This morning we are going to start looking at a Bible story about a man who turned out to be an extremely pushy person. But not only was he pushing in the right direction, he was able to gather people around him to help him push.

This sermon is part of a series I have been preaching since the beginning of the year, called "Prayermasters." In this series we've been looking at Bible people who really knew how to pray, and we've been studying these people, and their prayers, to help improve our own intercession.

In fact, if you were to get me into a corner and ask me who my favorite Bible person is (aside from Jesus), I think I would say that it's Nehemiah. Some Sabbath afternoon if you want a lot of drama and suspense and intrigue and flat-out fun, read the book of Nehemiah. It's not very long, and I think by the time you finish it, you'll see why I enjoy him so much.

I think one of the reasons I like Nehemiah is that he's one of those Bible characters who didn't really have any special advantages which you often see in the lives of the really major Bible people.

What I mean is that Nehemiah, for example, never seems to have heard God's voice speaking directly to him. He worked no miracles, raised no dead person to life, called no fire down upon a Mount Carmel altar. The sun did not stand still at his command, and he saw no visions with beasts in them.

Yet Nehemiah was not only a pushy person who could inspire people to push with him, but Nehemiah was also a master pray-er. His prayers were not only the "now I lay me down to sleep" kind, or the "Lord, please help me find my car keys" kind – and there's nothing wrong with those prayers at all. But Nehemiah's prayers were God-level prayers.

Why was Nehemiah such a master of prayer? It was because of how much he really cared for what God cared for. God, of course, also takes a gracious interest in car keys, but a lost planet is quite a bit closer to the center of His heart. And I believe that this week and next week, as we watch Nehemiah at work and at prayer, we will find ways to translate this kind of prayerful caring into our own lives.

So let's discover just how much Nehemiah cared.

First let's give a bit of background. The year is 444 or 445 BC. Nehemiah is in the city of Shushan, or Susa, which is about 100 miles straight north of the top of the Persian Gulf, and roughly the same distance east of Babylon. Nehemiah is a Jew, but he has probably never been back to Jerusalem, because it's been roughly 150 years since that nation was defeated by the Babylonians. The Persians then conquered the Babylonians, and Nehemiah has somehow achieved the position of cupbearer to King Artaxerxes.

A cupbearer was a very important but a very dangerous job. First of all, the cupbearer himself had to be extremely trustworthy, because it was his job to not only serve drinks to the king, but to make absolutely sure that no poison could be introduced into the cup. When it came to royal beverage security, the buck stopped at Nehemiah.

However, we don't learn about Nehemiah's cupbearer role until the very end of chapter 1. Nehemiah was one of Persia’s most influential Jews, if not the most influential, but that's not where he starts his story. Instead, Nehemiah has far deeper concerns than that – or you might say, higher priorities – which we will find out in a few seconds.

Nehemiah 1:1 - 2 [NKJV]: The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel . . .

As I mentioned, Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer, but he's not going to mention this for a whole chapter. Being the most trusted member of this monarch's court isn't something that he is putting on this particular document's letterhead. Instead, in true Jewish fashion, he tells who his father is. And even when he mentions that he's in Shushan, where it would be the logical place to slip in the fact that he is the royal cupbearer, he doesn't mention it.

No, what's most important to Nehemiah, what occupies his mind more than anything else at the moment, he will describe for us in the next few verses.

Verses 1 – 3: The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

This probably isn't the Babylonian captivity they’re talking about, because that happened a little over 140 years before, and wouldn’t be “new news” to Nehemiah. Evidently this must be some recent calamity, maybe when there was a local battle to prevent the Jews from continuing work on rebuilding Jerusalem.

Whatever happened, Nehemiah is devastated by this news.

Verse 4: So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Right here is where we start to see just what kind of a person – and what kind of a master pray-er --Nehemiah is. In fact, just before he begins his prayer, let's lay down Sermon Point One, in case you're taking notes.

I mentioned that Nehemiah cares. How much did he care?

Nehemiah cared enough to enlist in God's "special forces" team.

What I mean is that Nehemiah was not content to sit on the sidelines. He was not a “spectator” pray-er. We don't know how he got that cupbearer job, or why he would have wanted it in the first place. As one Bible commentary put it, in that role, he put his life on the line every day. Somebody who wanted to assassinate the king would probably feel it necessary to assassinate the king's most trusted confidant as well.

There's a good possibility that Nehemiah, with the assistance of God, sought this position so he might be able to influence the king in favor of the Jewish people. And probably his active mind is already turning over some plans and possibilities. And it won't be long before he stands before the king, his heart in his mouth, hoping the king will have mercy on his request.

But first he prays. And here is where we see how much of a "prayer master" Nehemiah is. The prayer he prays right now is strikingly similar to the prayer Daniel prayed in Daniel chapter 9. In fact some Bible scholars think that Nehemiah may have actually been looking at those Daniel verses, or at least remembering them, because he prays using exactly the same outline.

In fact, before we get into the prayer, I'm going to give you Sermon Point Two.

How much does Nehemiah care?

Nehemiah cares enough not only to enlist in God's "special forces" team, but he also cares enough to pray a "grown-up" prayer.

This is nothing against how children pray, because you know and I know that there are children who sometimes pray prayers that are far more faith-filled and "grown-up" than prayers prayed by older people.

What do I mean by a "grown-up" prayer? Well I believe that you can divide most prayers into two basic categories: the "grown-up" prayer and the "gimme” prayer.

What do I mean by that? Well, in the "gimme" prayer, you start with "Lord, please give me what I'm asking for as soon as possible." But in the "grown-up” prayer, you lay the groundwork – you tell the Lord you know who He is and what He has done in the past.

Another thing the "gimme" prayer implies is that "I deserve" what I'm asking for. But the "grown-up" prayer says, "I am a sinner, and I deserve nothing, Lord, but I claim Your promises."

And often, the final thing that the "gimme" pray-er often does, once the prayer is done, is to relax and do nothing. But the "grown-up" pray-er’s final phrases often say something like, "Help me be part of the answer to this prayer."

And that's exactly the kind of grown-up prayer we will see Nehemiah praying right here. Let's listen to his prayer, and then see what we can take from it and use in our own prayers.

Verse 5:  And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments,

Notice that what Nehemiah does first in his prayer – he reminds God that he, Nehemiah, knows who He, God, is and what He does. Rather than simply say, "Dear Lord, please help," Nehemiah says, "Lord, You are great and awesome, and You have been very trustworthy to those who care about You."

This might be a good first step in prayers we ourselves pray. Reminding God that we know who He is and what He does is not news to God, of course. But maybe it is a good reminder to us pray-ers about the One we’re praying to, and how powerfully He has worked for us in the past.

My parents both modeled and taught my brother and sisters and methat when you pray, the first thing you should do is to express your gratitude to God. That habit has never left me, and I have noticed in my prayers that when I do this, when I take the time to thank the Lord about specific ways He has helped me through past puzzles, then the problem or issue directly in front of me actually seems to shrink to a more manageable size.

Anyway, that's what Daniel did in Daniel 9, and it’s what Nehemiah does here.

Now notice the next thing he does – exactly as Daniel did.

Verses 5 – 7: And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.

In the first part of his prayer, Nehemiah assures God that he, Nehemiah, knows who He, God, is and what He can do. And in this second part of his prayer, Nehemiah confesses the sins of the nation. Nehemiah is making sure he’s bringing himself into the proper prayer posture—he is elevating Gode to where He should be, and humbling himself to where he should be. That’s why Satan can’t pray, and doesn’t want to—he thinks of himself as higher than God.

And what's so interesting is that Nehemiah personally claims to have sinned the sins that got the nation exiled. As I mentioned, it's been a century and a half since the idolatrous Jewish nation was taken captive to Babylon. And there's a good chance that neither Nehemiah himself, nor his family, has ever bowed the knee to an idol. Yet as he prays, Nehemiah puts himself on the level of the other sinners he describes, and corporately confesses this sin. Which is exactly what Daniel did in his prayer.

And this is probably a good prayer principle for us to remember as well. God's greatest prayer masters were those who didn't consider themselves more righteous than those they were praying for. God's greatest prayer masters identify fully with those they pray for. (Remember Moses, who urged the Lord to blot his name out of the Book of Life if his people couldn’t be saved?) After all, Jesus Himself came down to be one of us, and then took our sin upon Him, and then took that sin to the cross and paid its penalty. Talk about “identifying fully . . . .”

And the next thing Nehemiah does in his prayer is to remind God of His, God's, promises. I personally believe God loves it when we "hold Him" to promises He has made. I'm sure that He smiles in relief and admiration as He sees us truly reasoning and wrestling with Him in prayer, rather than treating Him as a sometimes-undependable vending machine. "Finally," He probably says to Himself, "finally, they're getting it. Like Nehemiah, like Daniel, like Moses and many of my other Bible friends, they're starting to care. And they are remembering promises I have made.”

And finally, "special forces" team member Nehemiah comes to the place in his prayer where he actually asks God for help. But notice the amazing way this prayer ends.

Verses 8 – 11:  Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day,. . .

Watch carefully, because in the last six words of his prayer, Nehemiah is going to prove how much of a prayer master he is.

Verse 11: O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man . . . .”

When I first read those last six words this week, I felt as though I were in an elevator which was descending too fast. I have never noticed those words when I read this story before. But now I know that this entire prayer has been leading up to those last six words. Nehemiah has been using this prayer to build up his courage to see if he can have any influence on the great king of Persia to aid in the sad condition of the Jews of Nehemiah’s homeland.

And Nehemiah knows very well that it is only the intervention of God's power which will make this monarch agreeable to rebuilding a city which might one day revolt against him.

But Nehemiah recognizes that God is indeed powerful. Even though Nehemiah himself is in an important position, he understands that it is God who sets up kings and removes kings.

And that's what we have to remember too. I'm going to continue Nehemiah's story next week, let me tell you about something I saw earlier this month, something that reminds us who we really are.

As I approached our house on July 6, I saw something that had been tossed onto our driveway. It was a clear plastic Ziploc sandwich bag, and inside that baggy were four items. One of those items was a folded piece of white paper with printing on it. The print asked several questions, like "Are you tired of cleaning up after party guests? Are you too busy to keep your house clean the way you'd like to? Let us clean your house for you and make you happy!"

As I say, there were four items in that baggy. One was that sheet of paper – but the other three were humble white rocks. The rocks communicated no additional meaning to what the paper had said. But as the person who had driven by had flung this baggie out, the mass and momentum of those rocks caused that message to sail on to each driveway. And as breezes blew to and fro across the neighborhood, those rocks held that message firmly in place so that somebody could eventually come along and pick it up and see if it contained a message they might need.

In a way, Nehemiah was a rock. Every day as he ministered to the monarch, he was keeping in place a message of immovable human trustworthiness which reflected God’s immovable trustworthiness. If Nehemiah had not allowed himself to be the Heavenly King’s rock, transporting God’s message to the earthly king’s court, steadying that message so the king could get a good look at it, then the powerful events of the rest of Nehemiah’s book might never have happened in the wonderful way they did.

As I say, next week our Nehemiah story will continue. But how many of you would like God to use you this week the way He used Nehemiah? Would you like to be God’s rock, transporting and planting God’s message wherever you go? Would you like to be God’s special-forces person, praying grownup prayers? Would you like to do that?

 

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THE MOUNTAIN-CLIMBERS
Topical Sermon
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 7/21/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 19.

If you're the kind of person who carefully studies the title of the Sabbath morning sermon, and tries to figure out where the pastor will be going with it, I need to set your mind at ease. I am not going to present a how-to course on how to climb a mountain. I would be the last person you’d want to do that!

In fact, the only mountains I knew in my childhood and youth were the ones I read about in books. Even the hills were few and far between. When my family lived out close to the Adventist Academy, just a pasture-length away from the church school where I spent my first eight years of education, our surroundings were pretty much flat, except for Sunrise Hill, about a half-mile southeast of our farm.

If you want to know what Sunrise Hill looks like, you will also need to have observed the frying of an egg. A well-fried egg, which has not been turned over a couple of times, features a yolk in the center. Sunrise Hill, at least when viewed from our farmhouse, looked like that yolk, just a gentle, dome-shaped bulge in the earth, maybe a couple of hundred feet higher than the prairie around it.

Once in a while our church-school teacher would take us on a field trip to Sunrise Hill. Last night I pulled up Google Earth on my computer and visited Sunrise Hill again. Of course, when you're looking straight down on it from a satellite, you can't see the bulge, but I did see something which was really nostalgic--cow-paths. If I remember right, the satellite photo was taken in March of some recent year, and there was just a dusting of snow on the hill. But you could still see those cow-paths very clearly. One path branched gracefully out into two paths, like a languid capital “Y” lying on its side. Cow paths are never straight or geometrical – they are simply the shortest distance between two points that cows want to travel between, and cows will use those same paths and wear them down, year after year, so they can eventually be seen from earth-orbiting satellites.

As I say, Sunrise Hill was the closest thing we had to a mountain, and it wasn't very high at all. But I still remember those little gradeschool field trips, toiling up to the top of that little hill, and then turning to look back at the modest vista below. To the left we could see the green trees which hid the Academy building. Straight on, we saw the town of Redfield on the horizon, with its castle-like cement grain elevators. A bit to the right, at half the distance, was my house. I could see my house from Sunrise Hill!

This week I was thinking about some of the Bible's mountain-top experiences – especially the ones where God actually called human beings up onto a mountain. I'm going to invite you to join me in watching three of these events happen. I think that each of them has something to say to where we might find ourselves today. Also, I find something interesting happening as each successive mountain-climb takes place. Let me show you what I mean.

Before we actually ascend those slopes along with the people God invited upward, we need to remember that there are no recorded mountains in the Garden of Eden, or even in the land around it. The cataclysmic world-wide flood probably did a lot to produce the mountain ranges we see today.

Because we need to remember that God began His relationship with humanity not on a mountain but on level ground. God could have even gotten His knees dirty as He shaped Adam from the mud. Later, after Adam and Eve sinned, Genesis 3:8 specifically says that God was walking in the garden, and He made sounds as he walked, because Adam and Eve heard those sounds. The grass must have rustled where He walked.

And when He finally found His distrustful children, God did not ascend a high throne, or summon them to the base of a pedestal from which He would tower above them like a judge. Instead, He spoke with them face-to-face.

But things soon changed. Adam and Eve were banned from Eden, and almost immediately, their descendents began to put distance between themselves and God. Cain ignored God's prescribed sacrifice, and tried to offer fruits and vegetables on his altar. After the flood, people started building their own artificial mountain, the Tower of Babel, so that if another flood came along they could run to the top and be safe. They distrusted God's promise that there would never be another deluge.

So, because sin and God cannot occupy the same space, God backed away to protect us. But every once in a while He called certain people up to the tops of mountains.

Let's look at what happens in Exodus 19. The setting is Mount Sinai, which – if it's the traditional mountain we have always thought it is – is 7500 feet tall. That's about half the height of Mount Rainier.

Clustered at the base of that mountain is an entire traveling nation who, up until a few weeks back, had been slaves in the land of some other artificial mountains, the Pyramids. The great Pyramid of Gizeh was already 1000 years old when the Israelites marched out of Egypt around 1500 BC.

In fact, where the Israelites had just come from probably explains God's dramatic actions on Mt. Sinai. These people had been slaves for hundreds of years, and every morning on their way to work they had walked past tall statues of strange half-animal, half-human gods and goddesses. Their weary eyes saw tall temples, and of course those gigantic pyramids, which were three times higher than Sunrise Hill.

So God evidently realized that, in order to properly introduce Himself to His people, He needed to show that He was much bigger, much louder, much more powerful than anything any human being had ever experienced.

Incidentally, this plan paid off. I’m listening to the Bible on CD right now, and I’m up to First Samuel. Several times when Israel comes in contact with other nations, these nations will mention that they heard about how God brought Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand. This information was passed down from generation to generation in these heathen countries, and they remembered it.

Exodus 19:16 – 20 [NKJV]  Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

So there goes Moses, toiling up an impressively high mountain, probably within 1000 feet of most of the peaks of the Cascade Range. And almost as soon as he gets to the top, the Lord sends him back down to warn the people against coming too close. And then later Moses will come back up to get a transcript, a literal “hard copy” of the 10 Commandments, which God first will speak out loud so that all the Israelites can hear.

So what is our takeaway here? Well, it's very obvious that Moses wasn't the only one God planned this message for. God would've loved it if He could have come right down on the desert floor and spoken His commandments gently into the ears of the people, the way His Son would speak the Sermon on the Mount. Later, in Deuteronomy 5:29, God will lament to Moses, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!”

But these rebellious ex-slaves do not have such a heart in them, so the thunder and the fire and the earthquake were presented to arouse respect and fear.

So what is God’s message to Moses the mountain climber – and to all the people Moses represents in the valley below? Here comes Sermon Point One if you're taking notes:

God’s message to Moses and the rest of the Israelites is, "Listen! I am the God who has powerfully delivered you from slavery. Listen to My commandments and you will have even greater freedom."

Have you ever thought of what would happen if everybody in the world would choose just one of the 10 Commandments and keep that one? Maybe the "do not murder" command might produce the most dramatic results—it might have prevented the tragic mass slaughter in Colorado Friday morning. No matter his mental state, if the shooter had never seen a movie where murder was depicted, maybe he wouldn’t have bought those guns.

And imagine what a society would be like if all 10 were carefully followed from the heart – as God yearned would happen in that Deuteronomy verse.

So what does this first mountain-climber message have to do with me? Well, there may be times in our lives when we need to feel the force of God's Sinai thunder. With all our other distractions, it’s quite possible to put God out of sight, out of mind. Mount Sinai was a wake-up call for a lot of people who had grown accustomed to imagining that their God didn't seem to have much power, and didn't seem to care very much either.

So amidst all the fire and smoke of that mountain, let's get the hint – God is a powerful deliver, and God has a 10-point plan for real freedom. Have you prayed your way through the 10 Commandments recently, asking the Lord to infuse their principles into your heart by His Holy Spirit?

We notice some intriguing changes as we look at another time when God called someone onto a mountain. Turn to First Kings chapter 19.

The prophet Elijah is the invitee this time. And he has just come from his own mountaintop experience, on top of Mount Carmel. The god mythical god Baal ignored his own 400 prophets who spent hours and hours screaming at him to ignite their sacrifice. But Elijah prayed for barely a minute, and his very non-mythical God sent down an immediate bolt of fire, which burned up sacrifice, wood, altar-stones and trench-water.

But the next morning, when Elijah gets word that Queen Jezebel has vowed to hunt him down and kill him, he panics and flees southward, and finally ends up at Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai. Even though he has just presided at probably the most dramatic public display of God's power since Mount Sinai itself, Elijah is depressed and discouraged, and thinks he's fighting a losing battle. Watch what happens.

1 Kings 19:9 – 13:  And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

So what's happening here? And what message is God giving this second mountain-climber?

I believe God's message to Elijah could go something like this: “Listen! I’m only on the mountain when I have to be. I’m mainly in the valley with you, working through you.”

Notice the interesting change from Mount Sinai. There, God wanted people to connect the smoke and the fire and the earthquake and the loud voice with Him. That's what the people at the base of that mountain needed to experience.

And maybe Elijah had made his way south to this mountain in search for the thunder, the booming voice, which would cause a nation to tremble. From what he tells God in the next few verses, there's not a whole lot of Israelite spiritual trembling, spiritual concern, at the moment. Maybe they need a good dose of Sinai shock treatment.

Every once in a while these days, you hear wistful voices longing for "historic Adventism." They imagine a purer time in our church's history, a time when hearts were more devoted to God, and less worldly.

Years ago I helped co-author a book called Blinded by the Light, which talked about spiritual apostasy and how to defend against it. The main author was a pastor named Phil Dunham, who had had a lot of experience working with fringy offshoot movements.

Phil reminds us that if you read Adventist history, if you find out what really happened back in the mid-1800s, or late 1800s, or whenever, you'll find that there was no such thing as a fabled, pure "historic Adventism." About the closest you can come to it is the period from about 1920 to 1950, which was a very legalistic time, where some people were dreadfully uncertain about their salvation, and in practice they sometimes exalted the writings of Ellen White above the Bible. In other words, they read very little Bible, and mostly Ellen White's books, something which would have made her sit bolt upright in her grave if such a thing were possible.

Maybe Elijah was longing for a time when God spoke not with gentleness but with brassy authority, a time when people flung themselves flat on their faces in fear of HIm. If that's what Elijah was hoping for, even he should've realized that there was no such time as "historic Hebrewism." Those wilderness Israelites who had seen and heard and felt what happened on the mountain still rebelled at the drop of a hat, even with the presence of God in a cloudy pillar hovering a hundred feet above the tabernacle.

Remember, starting in verse 11, where it says that there was a strong wind, then an earthquake, then a fire? But it says that the Lord was not in any of them. I got to thinking this week, how did Elijah know that God wasn't in the wind, the earthquake, and the fire?

I think there's a good chance that Elijah had grown accustomed to sensing the presence of God. And I believe that, no matter how high-powered the wind, how convulsive the earthquake, how blistering the fire, Elijah could tell that God was not connecting Himself to these phenomena.

But then came the still small voice. And as soon as Elijah heard that voice, he recognized that it came from God, and got ready to listen to what God had to say.

After all, once Elijah would get over his intense discouragement, he would recognize that the Lord was always with him, in every aspect of his service to the King of Heaven.

I love the way the Lord handles this situation. First, He listens to what Elijah has to say, and then He gives Elijah a to-do list, and finally encourages him by telling him he’s not alone after all.

Verses 14 – 18: And he [Elijah] said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

Are there times when you and I think we need God's earth-shuddering power, when what we really need is His encouragement, and specific suggestions as to how we can best help Him?

I remember many years ago when a family came to this church very burned out from serving in a church that was quite a bit smaller. These folks admitted to me that they simply could not say no, and could not bring we all themselves to delegate some of their duties. When they arrived at Bellevue, they earnestly told me, "Please don't ask us to do anything. We are burned out."

Well, we followed their wishes, but once they’d had some time to rest up, perspective returned, and they begin to get involved again, while being careful not to overcommit themselves.

We all get overworked and over committed and overstressed once in a while. But keep in mind – as Elijah learned – that God is with us even in the times of our deepest discouragement, that all is not lost, and we are not alone. That’s why it’s so important to come to church week after week. Here is where you find—and can be encouraged by—some of God’s faithful 7,000.

For our final mountain-climber experience, turn to Matthew 17.  This time the One offering the mountain-climbing invitation is the Son of God. I think it's really intriguing what happens during this mountaintop experience.

Matthew 17:1 – 8: Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

So here we have what you might call a reunion of two charter members of the Bible’s Mountain-climbers Club. Here is Moses, who probably vividly remembers the shuddering earthquake and blazing, smoky mountaintop. Here is Elijah, who also felt the fury of these elements, but then heard something that the Sinai multitudes would never have been able to "get" – the still, small voice.

And here is Jesus, who may have been the member of the Trinity who had called these two men up that Sinai mountain on those two occasions nearly 800 years apart.

And even as Peter is voicing his plans for a three-tabernacle mountain retreat center, God interrupts him. And I believe we can put His message like this:

God says, “Listen to My Son! He and I are one. Follow Him back down the mountain, where He and I most love to be.”

Notice – this time there's no wind, no fire, no earthquake. Just a conversation among three old friends. Jesus' face shines with the glory of God, and the air vibrates with the voice of God, and the disciples grow very afraid. But Jesus tells them, "Arise, and do not be afraid."

In other words, "Get up. Forget about the retreat center. Let's go back down to where we are needed. Let’s go back down to where My Father and My Spirit have always longed to spend our time since we sadly had to close the gates of Eden."

Is it possible that you and I need to climb this mountain regularly? Jesus asked His disciples to come spend time with Him alone. Isn't that what He is asking us as well? Doesn't He want us to see Him in connection with not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well? Don't we need to be reminded by God the Father that Jesus is the One we need to listen to?

I’ve resolved that I need this personal encounter with the transfigured Savior every day. Every day I need to find some time alone with Him, time which will strengthen me for my descent to the valleys of life.

What about you? Would you like to resolve to spend some time with your Bible each day, watching for the Savior's footprints there? And would you like to thank Him for His love, that love which longs to draw us close?

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THE PROFESSOR’S MISSING PUZZLE-PIECE
Topical Sermon
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 7/14/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3.

When I was a farm kid back in South Dakota, I remember that every once in a while a picture-puzzle-box would appear in our house. I don't know how they got there, because my mom didn't have time for picture puzzles. I didn't perceive myself as having time for puzzles either.

Because once you’d spent all that time and trouble putting a puzzle together, what could you do with it, except look at it?  You could stand there and look at it, but what else? You couldn’t use it for home plate for a softball game. You couldn’t nail it to the barn wall and use it for a strike zone to throw your baseball against.

Maybe my sisters bought those puzzles from time to time, or maybe they were given to us by other people. I do remember once in a while seeing a half-assembled puzzle on the kitchen table, but since the kitchen table was where we all ate, this partial puzzle would have to be carefully slid onto something and moved to another flat surface.

Or you could actually, if you did it right, grip a couple of pieces on the corners of one edge and raise the whole thing up and let it hang while you took it somewhere else.

This maneuver was really my only interest in picture-puzzles. I was amazed at how the pieces had been so cleverly cut that they all could hang together like that, and that even in a 500-piece puzzle, no two pieces seemed to be exactly alike. So, while I was transporting the puzzle from the table to another location, I would experiment with it, and swing it back and forth.

But the only problem was that, since there were four kids in the family with many interests, there wasn't any other flat space to put the puzzle on. So I would just plop it on my parents' bedspread or somewhere like that.

Naturally, with these environmental challenges, you could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of fully-completed puzzles with which my sisters tried to enhance our art appreciation. I do remember, once in a while, the annoyed wail which would arise when one of them discovered that there was a missing piece. Months later someone would discover that piece, fallen on the carpet behind a leg of the davenport, or even in a kitchen drawer, where someone had put it after finding it on the floor.

I thought of missing puzzle-pieces this week as I was working on my sermon. A couple of weeks ago I was in a bookstore and discovered this book. In big red letters on the front cover, the title says, "THERE IS NO GOD.” But the cover designer has made it appear as though someone with a black marker has crossed out the word “NO” and written an “A” in its place. In other words, the book's real title is There Is A God. It was written by Antony Flew, with the assistance of a co-author. Its subtitle is, "How the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind."

Dr. Antony Flew, who passed away in 2010, was a philosopher and former atheist. Even though his father was a Wesleyan Methodist pastor in England, and even though the young Antony was sent to Christian schools there, he just decided after a while that there was no God.

In fact, as a philosopher, he would write books against Christianity. As far as I know, these were not satiric and combative atheist books like those written recently by people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Dr. Flew’s anti-God books were thoughtful ones, and simply stated that we shouldn't claim that there is a God unless we can prove Him scientifically. Dr. Flew would often accept debating challenges from Christian intellectuals, and he would always take the side of trying to prove, graciously but firmly, that God did not exist.

Antony Flew was a university professor and philosopher, and for 50 years he maintained this "God does not exist" position. As I began to read his book, I was naturally interested to discover how he finally changed his mind, but what was equally interesting to me was why the son of a Methodist preacher would become an atheist.

On page 15 of the book, he tells us that by the time he was the equivalent of a high school junior or senior, "I was regularly arguing with fellow [students] that the idea of a God who is both omnipotent and perfectly good is incompatible with the manifest evils and imperfections of the world. . . . by the time I reached my 15th birthday, I rejected the thesis that the universe was created by an all-good, all-powerful God." (There Is A God, by Antony Flew, HarperOne, 2007, p. 15)

Later in life, he would put this more crisply. In his early 80,s after he had come to a belief in God, journalist Lee Strobel interviewed him. At the beginning of the interview, which I watched online, Strobel asked, “What was your greatest barrier to faith?” Dr. Flew answered, “Because I didn’t want to go on forever, and a fortiori (which is a Latin reasoning term which means, “an even stronger reason") I didn't want to be tortured for eternity."

At the end of the interview Strobel asked a similar question about what makes Christianity so difficult to accept, and Antony Flew promptly said, “The doctrine of eternal torment.”
 
http://www.leestrobel.com/videoserver/video.php?clip=strobelT2038

Isn't that interesting? On page 536 of her book The Great Controversy, Ellen White says, “It is beyond the power of the human mind to estimate the evil which has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment. The religion of the Bible, full of love and goodness, and abounding in compassion, is darkened by superstition and clothed with terror. . . . The appalling views of God which have spread over the world from the teachings of the pulpit have made thousands, yes, millions, of skeptics and infidels.”

That's another whole topic, of course but the doctrine of eternal torment did indeed have an influence on the young mind of Antony Flew.

So, knowing this, I was extremely interested in why Dr. Flew eventually started moving back in the direction of a belief in God. He made it very clear that he did not yet consider himself a Christian, just someone who had come to believe in an Intelligent Designer.

But why did he come to that conclusion? In his book he makes the point that in the last few decades, science has developed instruments which reveal that nature is hugely more complex than anyone could possibly have thought before. And the more he studied about this complexity, the more he came to the conclusion that all of this complexity – and the ability that human beings have to think and to develop purposes and aspirations – there has to be an Intelligent Designer behind it. It couldn’t have come from nothing.

As I said, Dr. Flew was still cautious about calling himself a full-fledged Christian. But even just admitting that he believed in an Intelligent Designer God threw his former atheist colleagues into a tizzy. Here was the most influential atheist thinker of the last half-century moving over to the other side! If you look at the Wikipedia article on Dr. Flew, you will see some of that controversy there. Some people claimed that his mind was going—and indeed, he did finally die of dementia. But he always firmly asserted in answer to his critics that he did believe in a God, and gave his reasons.

So. Why am I telling you about Antony Flew this morning? I believe that my Bible shows me the missing puzzle piece which could have kept Dr. Flew a Christian from his youth up.

Before I talk about this missing link – which is clearly found in the Bible – I'll mention another principle that Dr. Flew followed all through his philosophical life. Several times in this book he mentions that the philosopher Socrates urged his pupils to "follow the argument where it leads."

In other words, if you are thinking correctly, and a line of reasoning clearly leads you in a certain direction, don't let your preconceived ideas hold you in your tracks. Keep following that argument. (Of course, as I say, the argument needs to be a sound one, based on solid principles.)

Socrates of course, did not invent that idea. Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 that we must worship God not only in spirit but in truth. Jesus Himself claimed to be "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Every person who has ever become a Christian has had to reject what is false and accept what is true.

Now let's get to the missing puzzle-piece. What would have kept Dr. Antony Flew and many other people who were raised Christians but drifted into atheism, what would have kept them from doing that?

I believe that the missing puzzle-piece is the idea of what's been called the "great controversy between Christ and Satan." It might seem strange, but Satan is an important part of the missing puzzle-piece. Much as we despise him and abhor him, he has to be shown to be part of the equation.

If you've been an alert Seventh-day Adventist for awhile, this idea is probably not new to you. In fact, if you're like me, you may have tended to take it for granted. But we can't do that.

And the reason we can't do that is that, in each of our lives there may be more than one embryonic -- or fully-developed – Antony Flew. Many of you have told me about neighbors, or coworkers, or fellow students, who find God a puzzle that they have been trying to put together, but don't seem to have all the pieces.

So now– just briefly – let's look at three Bible passages which – even though they may not be the most cheerful ones to read – provide that missing "great controversy" puzzle piece. You never know when you may need to take this puzzle-piece out of your pocket and hand it to someone.

The first passage is here in Genesis 3. Watch what happens.

Genesis 3:1 – 5 [NKJV] Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Do you see what's happening here? Every person who seeks to understand God better must learn that it's not just God and His creation they need to take into account. They also need to learn that there is indeed a devil. Years ago, one of the titles in an Adventist evangelistic series would be, "Good God, Bad World – Why?" And that would be the night that the evangelist would talk about the great controversy between Satan and the Savior.

The great controversy wasn't just a one-time battle. It was more like the Cold War which existed between the United States (and other Western countries) versus the Soviet Union.

Because the devil, who once was the highest created heavenly angel, decided to turn against God. And throughout the entire Garden-of-Eden conversation we've just read, his purpose is clear. Because the missing puzzle piece is indeed the presence and influence of the Master Accuser.

And Point One of this sermon, is the first fact about him, that first little curve around the edge of the missing puzzle piece:

The devil tries to make God look bad to us.

Notice how he does it in these verses. The first thing he does is to twist God's words. God had told Eve, "Don't eat of that one tree," but Satan says, "Do you mean to tell me that God’s not going to let you eat of any of these trees in the garden?" So right from the start, the devil is doing his best to make God look bad, make God look stingy rather than generous, limiting rather than lavish.

And after Eve clears up the supposed misunderstanding, Satan goes on to flatly contradict God. God says one thing – that eating the fruit will cause death – and Satan says exactly the opposite. (Incidentally, Adam and Eve did die that same day – through a substitute, an unnamed animal or pair of animals who died to provide them with coverings. So it was God who was telling the truth, and Satan who was lying.)

I don't know about you, but I'm bracing myself for the political season ahead, when lots and lots of money is spent to make one's opponent look bad. Just this week in the mail I got two large attack-add mailings, both targeting the same candidate, one painting her as a coward and the other tying her ideas to the presidential candidate of her party, whom the card-printers are also trying to make look bad.

So why is knowing that the devil makes God look bad to us important? Well, it can be enticingly tempting – as it was for Eve – to distrust what God has specifically said, in favor of someone who says the opposite very effectively. Satan enticed Eve to use purely human reasoning to decide what was right and wrong. It’s good to use our minds, but we have to remember that we are not as intelligent as God is, and there are some times when we have to simply believe Him because He says something, and take it on faith for the time being.

Can you imagine how knowing this could have helped guide the young Antony Flew? If somebody had only taught him that life's deepest questions deal not simply with an inscrutable God and a questing humanity, but also with a third party, an incredibly evil accuser who would like nothing better than to bring down God from His throne and take His place.

Satan will not succeed, of course, and Antony Flew needed to know that as well. And he needed to learn that the great controversy is over the character of God, and that only time and patience could have clarified what God really is like.

For the next fact about the Adversary, turn to Job chapter 1.  The first five verses in Job 1 introduce us to a very wealthy and also very righteous man. And Satan, who doesn't let any opportunity pass to make God look bad, seizes this opportunity. Evidently what we’ll read about in the next few verses is some kind of heavenly council, where different beings from all over the universe have gathered.

Job 1:6 – 11:  Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

Here comes the second fact about how the devil operates.

Not only does the devil tries to make God look bad to us, but he also tries to make God look bad to the universe.

These verses don’t specifically tell us who these "sons of God" are, but it's very important to notice that Satan didn't let loose his accusations in private, into God's ears alone. Instead, he does this right there in front of all of these other beings who have come from who knows where across the universe to meet with God.

And in this public forum, Satan can be really danagerous. We must always keep in mind that, as Satan spread his deceptions even among God's angels, one out of three chose to believe the angel rather than the Ancient of Days.

Which is why, here in Job 1, the Lord evidently felt He needed to demonstrate, before the very eyes of those in front of whom Satan had accused Him of favoritism, that this human being – called Job -- who had never had any of the advantages Lucifer had had, such as being face to face with God, basking in God’s presence – the Lord knew that a grief- and boil-tormented Job would stare desperately out into the silent blackness, he would still trust in God, no matter what. And this trust would reveal with crystal clarity Satan’s foul, faithless treason.

For the third fact about God's adversary in the great controversy, turn to Isaiah chapter 14.

Isaiah 14:12 – 14: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

And this is the sobering third fact about God’s antagonist in the great controversy:

Not only does the devil tries to make God look bad to us, and also tries to make God look bad to the universe, but the devil wants to BE God.

And that may be the most important fact of all. It shows that the devil is not simply someone critiquing from the sidelines, hoping to improve the organization. Instead, Satan has allowed himself to be infected by the "I want to be God" virus.

So why is this important? It's important because heaven’s rulership is not a political campaign. There is only one God, and He is the only life giver, and His wisdom is light-years multiplied by light-years beyond even the wisdom of the highest angel.

Only God is omnipresent. Only God is omniscient. Only God is omni-existent. Only God is omnipotent. Only God created life. Only God can create beings who can intelligently worship and serve their Creator.

And – maybe best of all – God is the ultimate Servant. Satan wants you to believe that Heaven’s King is a tyrant, a dictator, before whom He wants His slaves to cringe and cower. Satan has spent his entire career accusing God of having Satan's own qualities. But the universe can be safe in no other hands but God’s, as Lucifer's defection and subsequent activities have so perfectly proved.

And people with questing minds need to be exposed to ideas like this. Thinking people need to realize that the only way to understand the complexities of evil is to accept Satan as part of the missing piece. It would be nice to be able to factor the fiend out of the equation, but we can't make sense of the world's dilemmas without him.

You see, the atheistic evolutionist looks at the world’s problems and says, "It's just us. There’s no God. There’s no devil. That means that there’s no help from The Beyond. So we ourselves are going to have to step up to the plate and solve our problems. So let’s get with it.” But it doesn’t work. Nobody operating with these ideas can solve the world’s problems, because they don’t know the whole story.

The deist, or the theist, who says that God started the planet running but doesn’t take any further interest in us, says, “Okay, we were designed by an Intelligent Designer, but it’s still up to us to solve our problems. Let’s get with it.” But using these ideas alone, problems still can’t be solved—because the theists don’t know the whole story.

And even many Christians, who believe in a Creator God and His Savior Son, say, “Okay, we have a Savior. Let’s accept His salvation. If we don’t, we will burn forever in torment.” And that is where the Antony Flews of this world often get off the Christian bus and let it travel on without them. If a sinful, mortal human being is utterly revolted by the thought of an ever-burning hell, then how could the “God-is-love” Creator of life permit it, much less stoke its flames?

That’s where the missing puzzle-piece makes everything fit together. There is an arch-enemy whose purpose is to spread lies about God (like the one about eternal torment) and to defame His character. And since God is emphatically not a tyrant or a sadist, He needs everyone in His universe to be able to see, to their complete satisfaction, that the insinuations of the devil are not only wrong but dangerous. And the only way this can be done is to allow the whole story to play itself out.

I believe that if such ideas were part of the philosophical equipment of an honest-in-heart person such as Antony Flew seemed to have been, maybe it wouldn’t have taken 50 years for him to start making sense of it all.

Dr. Flew’s story is a wonderful one – the story of a man who, in spite of the ridicule he knew he would eventually receive from his atheist former colleagues, gazed steadily into the evidence, followed the arguments where they led him, and discovered the truth.

 And he was just starting to learn that if we follow truth wherever it leads, the truth will indeed set us free. And that freedom into which God will finally release us, is the freedom to devote our lives to the well-being of others. As I look back on nearly 30 years' pastoral ministry, I can testify to you that the happiest people are those who have allowed the Lord to use and develop their talents so that the lives of others can be made better.

 And Dr. Antony Flew, this man who had thought about thinking, and taught about thinking, and written about thinking, had finally come to the place where—with growing belief—he perhaps could have stood here in our congregation, and sung our closing song with us: “This is My Father’s World.”

(Back to the Top)


WE'RE SURROUNDED!
Expository Sermon on Ephesians 6
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 7/7/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6.

I hope everybody had a pleasant Fourth of July. Shelley and I didn't take the trouble to attend one of the large fireworks displays, because right around our neighborhood we could see some pretty impressive rockets going up.

Apparently people aren't letting the uncertain economy worry them when it comes to buying fireworks. My sister e-mailed me yesterday to say that she was really impressed at the display put on in tiny Redfield, South Dakota! Also, they’ve been having, hot and dry weather, which has pretty much eliminated the mosquitoes, which otherwise would have provided an annoying distraction to fireworks-watching.

Every Fourth of July night, the same thing happens to me. There's always that moment – and it happened again late Wednesday night – when Shelley and I are back in our house, with the windows open, and we hear the crackling rattle and the massive booms of everybody trying to work their way through their fireworks supply before the hour strikes when they become illegal.

For just a few seconds, during that fusillade, I try to imagine I'm in a village in Afghanistan or Syria, and that the bangs outside mean that real metal is being shot around. I can't imagine how those people live from day to day with all that uncertainty and danger.

Here in America – whose freedom was achieved partly through the "bombs bursting in air” – we can be a bit more in control of uncertainty. As you know, there's been a recent rash of shootings in the Puget Sound area. But whenever I hear, for example, about a young man getting shot at two in the morning while emerging from a bar in Seattle, I can make myself a mental note not to emerge from a Seattle bar at two in the morning. If I ever were to go down to dangerous areas at those dangerous hours, I could expect to be surrounded with all sorts of potential dangers. So I just don’t go down there.

But in some countries, and even in some places in the United States, you don’t have this kind of control over your security. Whole areas of Mexico are involved in drug wars. In other countries, you never know when you might be kidnapped and held for ransom. And of course none of us can really be sure that we won't suddenly become victims of carjackings or home-invasion robberies. In a way, we are all surrounded – surrounded by uncertainty.

And as I studied Ephesians chapter 6 this week – I chose these verses because they talk about the armor of God, and I thought it might be interesting to take another look at that armor on Fourth of July weekend – as I studied this chapter, I discovered that we are indeed surrounded. But we are surrounded in several different ways.

And I believe that as we take a look at what these verses really say, we will find ourselves encouraged in ways we may never have been before. I can find four ways in which we are surrounded in this chapter. And those "surroundings" aren't all bad. In fact, most of them show how much God loves us. Let me show you what I mean.

The town of Ephesus is in modern Turkey, about 100 miles straight east across the water from Athens, Greece. Ephesus had been destroyed in an earthquake in A.D. 29, but the Roman Emperor had had it rebuilt, so when Paul and his friends visited there in the 50s, a lot of the buildings were still brand-new. If you go to our church website and click on the "Daily Photo Parable", and then scroll down to this past Sunday's entry, you will see a photograph of what Paul would have seen when he visited there. Bev and Ron Riter traveled there this spring, and Bev snapped a photo from the city level, looking up at the same hillside stone theater-seating which Paul's eyes would have rested on.

Here in Chapter 6, Paul is winding down his letter to his Ephesus friends. Up to this point he has spoken of several practical Christian principles, and now he's going to tie it all together. He knows he's writing to a small group of believers in a very pagan city. He has seen with his own eyes the gigantic Temple of Diana, which was four times the size of the Parthenon at Athens, and was considered one of the seven wonders of the world.

Paul knows that he is writing to a group of people who have decided to transfer their worship and allegiance from a pantheon of very visible stone idols to a Nazareth Carpenter whose statue or picture they have never seen, and never will until He returns to this earth at His second coming. Paul knows that these Ephesian Christians probably think of themselves as being surrounded by people who not only don't understand them, but who at the drop of a hat can become hostile to their faith.

So let's see how Paul educates and encourages his Ephesian friends.

 Ephesians 6:10 [NKJV]: Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Until I slowed down and really read this verse carefully, and even went and got my Greek Bible and studied it there, I had not realized that verse 10 is a "we are surrounded" verse. Packed into just this 15-word sentence (in New King James Version English – it's 12 words in the Greek), we have the New Testament’s three most powerful words. In fact, this might be the Bible's most power-packed verse, simply because of those three words so close together.

In fact, before we go any further, let's lay down our first sermon point, in case you're taking notes. What are we first surrounded by, here in Ephesians 6?

We are surrounded by God’s maximum power.

Look at the verse again. Do you see where it says "be strong"? That’s the Greek word endunamoō, and it's a form of the word dunamis, which is where we get "dynamic" and "dynamo" and "dynamite.” That's the word used many times in the gospels to describe Jesus' miracles – in the King James version, whenever you see the phrase "mighty works," that is this Greek word.

If this were the only "power" word in this verse, that would be quite enough. If you have the same word used for Jesus' miracles, and Paul encouraged you to “be strong” in that word, you would have all the power you need. But Paul doesn't stop here.

Ephesians 6:10 [NKJV]: Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Do you see the word "power"? That's the Greek word kratos, and in the New Testament, it is only used to describe the power of God or Christ, and nobody else. For example, in Revelation 1:6, John says about Jesus,  “ . . to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” That word "dominion" is kratos. So whenever this word enters a New Testament sentence, it's talking about Jesus or God, and it's talking about their rulership, or dominion. And that is the kind of power Paul says is surrounding us, available to us.

But there's still one more power word in this verse. It’s the word “might,” and in Greek it is ischuo. Over in Revelation 12:8, where it talks about the war in heaven, it mentions that the devil and his angels did not "prevail," literally they did not have enough ischus to win that battle. Which means, of course, that Michael the archangel and his angels did have the ischus, the muscle-power, that it took.

And I think you will agree with me when I say that this verse surrounds us with all the power we will ever need. This is the power Paul tells us to be strong in. This is the power-promise that a loving God lavishes on us.

This must have been partly the reason Paul himself could be so upbeat and encouraged in his letters. From clues within this letter, Bible students have concluded that Paul was actually a prisoner in Rome when he wrote this to the Ephesian church. But Paul never seemed to let his physical discomfort discourage . In his letters he will allude to his “chains” once in a while, and at one point he will ask someone to bring him a cloak next time they came, but he never whines about being chained day and night to a Roman soldier, or being fairly certain that he will eventually be executed for his faith. He just doesn’t seem to let these things bother him.

And maybe the reason he's able to not let these physical dangers bother him is that he has practiced what he preached in verse 10. Maybe he has surrounded himself, “dynamized” himself, with God's maximum power. Maybe he has discovered from personal experience just how comforting this power can be.

And that's what I can do, the more I understand just how powerful this promise is. As long as I follow through with what the rest of this chapter says, I can relax, and not worry so much about anything that could happen.

Well, it's a good thing we have verse 10 and its powerful promises. Because when we glance down at verse 12 and see what else we are surrounded with, we can get a feel for how much we really need that power.

Verse 12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

 Paul first tells us that we are surrounded by God’s maximum power. Second, he tells us that we are also surrounded by dangers we can’t possibly fight on our own.

This past Thursday I took my car for a tuneup to the North Seattle Honda repair shop I've been going to since the mid-1980s. While the mechanics were ministering to my Civic, I hopped a bus down to the University of Washington area.

While standing on the corner of 45th and University Way – probably the busiest intersection for many blocks around – I saw a heartwarming sight. (It is actually today’s Daily Photo Parable blog on our church website, and I tell this story there as well.)

This was during the noon hour, and traffic was really busy. All of a sudden, across the street to the East, I saw a small group of preschoolers coming across the street in a little cluster. They were led by an energetic woman, and followed by another woman bringing up the rear. A third woman pulled a large wagon which evidently contained all the kids' supplies they needed for this little field trip.

The little kids, who couldn't have been any older than three or four, were all holding tight to squishy foam rings which were attached to a red rope. I noticed that a couple of the kids evidently didn't have attention spans long enough to keep a constant grip, so there was a little plastic tie around those kids' wrists, and the tie was fastened to the ring.

The little kids reached the corner where I was standing, and the teacher gathered them around her and got them ready to head north across the street when the light changed. As soon as it was safe, she tugged on the red rope, and started singing "We're going to cross the street, we're going to cross the street, hi-ho the derry-o, we're going to cross the street!”

Halfway across the street one of the little kids suddenly wanted to be carried, so the teacher scooped the kid up in one arm, and still held onto the red rope with the other. Pretty soon everybody was safely on the other side.

As I was working on this sermon I thought to myself, this is a perfect example of this second point. Paul has just told us that you and I are surrounded by dangers we cannot possibly fight on our own. I would imagine that in their preschool playground, some of these kids might be a little bigger than the others, and maybe had bigger muscles so that they could push the littler kids around. And maybe some of the smaller kids were even scrappier, and could lord it over the bigger, gentler kids.

But not even the best-developed three-year-old bicep is a match for a ton and a half of motorized metal approaching at 30 miles an hour. It won't be for another 20 years before these children will truly understand how deadly an encounter with a moving car can really be.

And that's how it is with us. Glance back at verse 11:

Verse 11: Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Do you see that word "wiles" (“the wiles of the devil”)? The NIV translates it “the devil’s schemes.” The ESV says “strategies of the devil.” The Greek word there is methodeias, which is where we get the English word "methods." We should never forget that the devil has methods he has developed over the centuries, and we must never forget that he tailors his methods to individual people.

When he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Satan didn’t try to get Jesus to use drugs or to get drunk or to do something blatantly immoral. The devil knew who Jesus was, and he knew what Jesus' life goals were. So he tried to get Jesus to sin in subtle ways connected with those things. And along the way, the devil even misquoted a Bible verse as he spoke to the Savior.

So the devil is extremely dangerous, and if we don't get a firm mental and spiritual grip on verse 10, this could easily cause us to become obsessed with the devil, and with demons, and with the supernatural. But remember, verse 10 places all of God's power at our disposal. We are supposed to surround ourselves with that power, so that no matter what unseen, malevolent forces surround us, we need not worry.

Actually, Paul goes on to get specific about how we are to surround ourselves with God's power, in the next few verses.

Verse 13: Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

First, Paul tells us that we are surrounded by God’s maximum power. Second, he tells us that we are surrounded by dangers we can’t possibly fight on our own. Third, he tells us that by putting on God’s armor, we’ll be surrounded with protection.

The Greek word for “whole armor” is panoplian. That word is used twice here in Ephesians 6, but only one other time in the whole New Testament. That other time it's used is in Luke 11:21 and 22. That's when Jesus tells a little story showing how important someone's "whole armor" is:

Luke 11:21 – 22: When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

Here Jesus is talking about the armor and weapons that a householder might get together to protect his goods, or nowadays it could be a home security system. If someone comes along and knows how to disarm the system, or take away those defenses, that person and his whole house are vulnerable.

Back here in Ephesians 6, Paul makes sure we understand clearly that we need to own, and surround ourselves with the full armor, the "panoply," of God.

And it's interesting that each of these pieces of armor pretty much surrounds the person wearing it. Let's read through and see how this happens.

Ephesians 6:13 – 17: Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

So there is the belt of truth, which surrounds you. Today's Syrian government doesn't allow foreign journalists to move freely through out the conflict over there. Is it because those journalists might find out the truth? Often times Facebook and Twitter can spread truth around very rapidly when there is a lack of official truth-telling. People are safer when they’re surrounded by truth rather than propaganda.

Then there's the breastplate of righteousness. Last night Shelley was watching a video series on the armor of God, and she told me that the breastplate was not simply for the chest, but went all the way around the body. It's more like body armor.

The feet are enclosed with the gospel of peace – remember Jesus said that we are to be peacemakers. Then there's the shield of faith, which can be rotated to meet attacks from any direction.

Then there's the helmet of salvation. The Greek word here for "helmet" is perikephalaian, which literally means “around the head.” You and I need to protect every part of our mind with the knowledge of salvation – why that salvation is important, and what it cost to the One who provided it for us. We dare not take that helmet off, and set salvation aside as something that isn't that relevant. Because salvation means that God and His Son love us deeply and warmly enough to die for us. “What wondrous love is this, O my soul .  . . .”
 
And there’s the Sword of the Spirit, too, which is the Word of God. And it’s key to remember to allow the Spirit to use His sword, and not to slash irresponsibly about with it, ourselves.

Some people have made a habit every day of praying their way through this armor of God, of mentally putting it on. I think that's a good idea.

It wasn't until I read through this chapter again this week that I discovered something else that we are surrounded with. Let's find out what it is.

Verse 18: . . . praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

Notice the constant repetition of the word "all" – and it's even clearer in the Greek. "Always . . . all prayer . . . all perseverance . . . all the saints.”

"All" is a word of completeness. It's not "some" – it's "all." And this is Paul's fourth “surround” in this chapter.

Paul tells us that we are surrounded by God’s maximum power, and we’re surrounded by dangers we can’t possibly fight on our own, and that we stay spiritually protected from those dangers if we surround ourselves with God’s armor. And finally Paul tells us that we are surrounded by people to pray for.

If we don't already have a "prayer pattern," or prayer habit, we need to establish one. My dad's prayer plan was to imagine that in his mind he was gliding over our town and the countryside around it as if he were in an airplane. He would mentally picture a person's house, and pray for that person, and then pass on to the house of someone else he knew, and then out to someone's farm. Both Dad and Mom had prayer lists, and prayed through them regularly. And down through the decades, my brother and sisters and I have been surrounded with the protection of those prayers.

So, unfortunately we are surrounded by perils prepared by a devil who knows his time is short. But fortunately – because of God’s overwhelming love for us – we are also surrounded by His power and (if we choose to put it on) His armor. And from that position of strength and safety, God wants us to provide the strength to others who need it.

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SOLOMON'S FOUR PRAYER PRINCIPLES
Expository Sermon on 1 Kings 8 & 9
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 6/9/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles again to first Kings chapter 8.

When I was an elementary-age kid on the prairies of South Dakota, attending a little Adventist one room grade school, I was always impressed by the story of Solomon, at least Solomon in his earlier years.

Solomon's later life I viewed with vexation. My feeling was, how could this man have let his early advantages go to waste like that? I mean, I had two sisters, and therefore I knew what women were like. It puzzled me that the world's smartest man would voluntarily handcuff himself to 700 wives and 300 concubines.

But as I say, the early Solomon was deeply impressive. Back in First Kings chapter 3, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked him a question. (God probably knew what Solomon's answer would be, or He probably wouldn’t have asked it. God asked him, "What would you like? Ask Me anything you want and I'll give it to you."

Now, that is the one question a prairie boy never heard asked to him, especially a boy raised by parents who had lived through the penny-pinching Depression 30s and who knew that necessities were hard enough to come by, let alone luxuries.

But God asked Solomon that question, and it always impressed me when I read Solomon's answer. He said, "Give to your servant an understanding heart, that I may judge this great people.”

God was delighted with this answer, and told the young king that even though he had not asked for riches but for wisdom, God was going to give him riches too. And that's what He did.

And if you simply focus on Solomon's first few years as king, he also fits into the category of a sermon series I've been preaching this year. This series is called "Prayermasters," and we've been looking at the lives of some of the Bibles most successful pray-ers, trying to learn from them how better to communicate with God.

And at least for a while, Solomon falls into the prayermaster category. Not only does he warm God's heart with his "Give me wisdom, not riches" response, but Solomon has also lovingly and ambitiously dedicated himself to building the temple which his father David had longed to build. And as I've been studying this part of his life, I discovered that, in this early period, Solomon demonstrates great wisdom in how he prays. I think we can learn from him. Let me show you what I mean.

Let's enter the story at the moment which Solomon and all the rest of the people have been looking forward to – the moment when the ark of the covenant, the 500-year-old goldplated box with golden angels atop it, is arriving in this brand-new temple.

1 King 8:6 -11 [NKJV]: Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. The poles extended so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

What a relief this must've been for Solomon, and for the priests, and for all the people. Not only was God's ark safely in its new home, but the glory of God Himself had arrived.

In fact, if you’re taking sermon notes, here comes Point One, the first of Solomon’s prayer principles.

Solomon's first prayer principle is to bring God into his (Solomon’s) temple.

The temple is, of course, God's temple, but it was built by Solomon, and is most often called Solomon's temple, just as the temple built later by Herod was called Herod's temple.

In other words, Solomon wasn't building a "God Museum." He was building an earthly home for God to take up residence. Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has been celebrating her diamond jubilee just recently, and throughout England and Scotland, she has several homes or castles she can go to, and call home. Solomon wanted the King of Heaven to have a place to stay.

So, what does this mean to me? Is there any way I can bring God to my "temple"? There certainly is, because Paul, in First Corinthians 3:16 and 17, says this:

1 Corinthians 3:16 – 17: Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

Those are very sobering words. We are to be temples where God's Holy Spirit will come and stay. But Paul tells us that we need to make sure that our body-and-mind temples are not defiled. When those Levite priests were preparing Solomon's new temple to receive the ark of God, we can be pretty sure that there were no piles of trash in the corner of the holy place, no graffiti on the Most Holy Place wall.

How can our personal temples be cleaned? Solomon’s father David gives us the answer in Psalm 139. In verses 23 and 24 he says,  “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”

I think God would deeply appreciate it if we gave Him permission to search our hearts and lives and minds for what needs removing so that His presence can be there, and then lead us away from these things.

And I think this refurbishing should also apply to the place where we come together to worship. If you take some time to study how the wilderness tabernacle, and then Solomon's temple, were constructed, there's no doubt about it that God wants us to provide a quality place of worship which shows how much we value Him.

Up there on the top of Mount Sinai, as He handed Moses the plans for the tabernacle, God could have told Moses, "Oh, just find some used, worn-out tent material that you don't need anymore, or the color might've faded, and just get some old poles and somehow brace up that tent cloth so that you can cobble together a place to put the ark. No big deal, just whatever you have."

As you know, it was exactly the opposite. God not only gave detailed plans, but also specified top-quality materials including lots of precious gems and metals, and gave every indication that He had the deepest interest in how well the tabernacle represented Him. One of the most powerful proofs of this is found in Exodus 31. There it specifically says that God gave the craftsman Bezalel the Holy Spirit, not so that he could go out and find the best deals on chipboard and offbrand siding, but—and I quote—“to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship.” Exodus 31:4, 5

The bottom line is that not even the wealthiest Israelite had a fancier tent then that portable sanctuary.

Later, when David was gathering materials for the temple, and then when Solomon started putting it together, God could have said, "Gentlemen, don't go to a lot of trouble this time. Keep the cost down. Just some leftover cedar siding will do, just keep it cheap.”

But that's not what God said. Instead, He remained absolutely silent while Solomon lavished money and time and creativity on the temple. God never told Moses to build a gigantic laver basin with 12 carved oxen supporting it, but that's what Solomon did, and God didn't utter a word of protest. And His glory still came and filled that beautiful and costly temple.

Because it was okay with God that His dwelling place, just as in the wilderness, be a fit dwelling for the Most High King of the Universe. People near and far needed to understand that God was to be the center of their life, Someone who wasn't an absent God like those of the other nations, or a shabby, apologetic God. The King of Heaven, the owner of a thousand cattle-filled hills, was present, and His dwelling place was to represent His Majesty.

By now, you're probably sensing what this has to do with us. Over the last few months, our congregation has finally begun putting in place some careful plans to bring our own aging sanctuary and other parts of our church a bit closer to something that will properly represent the King of Heaven.

No, there is no “ark of the covenant” we need to house, but where two or three are gathered together, God is in our midst, so He is here. And we have decided that He deserves a place which is such that visitors to this campus can recognize the value we place on a building which the Lord inhabits.

Shelley and I have recently decided on a regular monthly pledge amount we will be donating. Many others are doing the same. As you can see from those red and blue ribbons on the chart in the foyer, we still have a ways to go. Please join with us in following Solomon's example to not only bring God home to our mind-body-spirit temples – and to this sanctuary as well – but to prepare these temples for His habitation.

For Solomon’s second prayer principle, let's start with verse 22. This time we'll actually listen to him pray.

1 Kings 8:22 – 24: Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; and he said: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.

Here comes Solomon's second prayer principle.

If Solomon's first prayer principle is to bring God into His temple (our personal temples as well as God’s corporate sanctuary), his second principle is to praise the Lord the Bible way.

It's important to really understand, from the Bible, what praising the Lord is. Do you remember the old chorus, “Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord”? Millions of Christian kids, including me, have sung that song. And we all probably thought that as we sang it, we were praising the Lord. But we really weren't. That’s like singing the Star-Spangled Banner by repeating “Oh say, can you see” all the way through the song and not mentioning anything else.

The book of Psalms – and even just the start of Solomon's own prayer right here – tell us what praising the Lord really is. Praising the Lord the Bible way is not singing “praise the Lord” and little else. Instead, it is listing the good things He has done for us. You won't find a single Psalm which says nothing but "hallelujah, praise ye the Lord." You won't find a Psalm that says "I want to praise you Lord, much more than I do. I want to praise you, much more than I do," over and over.

No, all the Psalms that praise the Lord get right into the details, many details. Glance through the Psalms again and you’ll see that they contain much more than two verses and several repetitions of the chorus. Just like Solomon in these verses, praise means publicizing God’s wonderful, caring deeds for us, in detail.

Now let's move on and pick up another of Solomon's prayer principles. As Solomon prays this dedication prayer, he moves into earnestly asking God to respond to His peoples' needs. And again the young king starts getting specific:

Verses 31 – 36:  “When anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, then hear in heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked, bringing his way on his head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this temple, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers. When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.

And this is just the beginning. Solomon goes on to pray for when there is famine, or pestilence, or when an enemy besieges them. Starting in verse 41 he prays for foreigners who might be curious about God and want to draw close to Him. Then Solomon prays for help in any future battles. He even prays for mercy in the event the nation will be taken captive by a foreign enemy.

So what is Solomon's third prayer principle?

Well, if Solomon's first prayer principle is to bring God into his temple, and his second principle is to praise the Lord the Bible way, Solomon’s third prayer principle is to be an equal-opportunity intercessor.

One thing that comes through very clear for me in these verses is that Solomon thought about his prayers. He didn't simply do like I sometimes have the bad habit of doing, simply look into the day ahead and ask for help during the day, just for me. I need to widen my view and become more of an equal-opportunity intercessor.

Because Solomon looks beyond his own nose and his own needs. He looks to left and right, praying for people in situations that may not even need prayer yet but eventually might. Solomon prays widely. Remember Jesus' "wide-angle" prayer in John 17? Just a few hours before His capture and death, the Savior prayed for His disciples, and finally for everyone who would believe in Him because of those disciples' preaching.

What's so comforting is that Christians who believe their Bibles can pray about the future – as Solomon did here – because the Bible tells us something of the future, and therefore gives us something to pray about.

The last prayer principle we’ll look at this morning isn't actually Solomon's, but God's. Because sometime after Solomon finished dedicating the Temple, the Lord visited Solomon again.

1 Kings 9:1 – 3: And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he wanted to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the Lord said to him: “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

So that must've been a relief to Solomon, to have this additional confirmation that God was pleased with the temple. But God doesn't stop here. He goes on.

Verses 4 – 9: Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Lord has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”
 
Solomon's first prayer principle is to bring God into his temple, and his second principle is to praise the Lord the Bible way, Solomon’s third prayer principle is to be an equal-opportunity interceder. And the fourth prayer principle—which is God’s—is to remember that even “prayermasters” are accountable to Him.

God wasn't dazzled or overawed by Solomon's wisdom, or impressed by his riches. God had given him that wisdom and that wealth. God knew that – under all those talents and all those riches – Solomon was a human being just like anyone else, able to be swayed by selfishness and ego and lust, able to be distracted from the kind of humble, God-centered praying and God-centered praising he has been doing up to this point.

That's what God is saying to us as well. We are accountable.

During the last week in March, as I was driving, I saw a long, two-trailer semi truck. Its sides were covered in elegant black flexible fabric. I wondered what those trailers were carrying, but there was no insignia on the black fabric.

But then I saw what was written on the door of the truck’s cab – the word "Lexus." Evidently the Lexus manufacturers had decided that, rather than simply rolling these shiny new cars up on to your standard open car-carrier trailers, exposing them to flying road-rocks, potential vandalism, or hail, or whatever else, these manufacturers had decided to make sure that those cars were protected.

I think that's the way you and I need to treat the wonderful mind-body-soul temples that God has provided us. We need to do what it takes, and pray for what it takes, to preserve our souls and characters in behavior blameless before God.

Because, passing through our lives are people who will never walk into this sanctuary and form an idea about what we think of God by what they see and experience here. Instead, you and I will be the only true temples of God they may ever come near.

And these folks not only need to see on our faces a kindly smile, and here in our voices gentle humility, but they need to see – by our actions – that we serve a God who is holy.

That's a serious responsibility, but it's one that God can fulfill through us as we put Solomon's prayer principles – and the many other Bible prayer principles – to work day by day. Will you do that with me?

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ALL HE NEEDS IS LOVE
Textual Sermon on Psalm 91:14-16
For the Baptism of Caleb Jurgensen
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 6/2/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this baptismal service, click here. First you'll hear Caleb himself tell what this day meant to him, then Shelley Schurch leads out in the congregational welcome. Then Caleb's mother Amber tells the Children's Story, which is followed by a string trio which includes Caleb's sister Chelsea. Then comes the sermon, based on Caleb's chosen scripture passage, Psalm 91:14-16.)

Please open your Bibles again to Psalm 91.

Like everybody else his age, Caleb has been going to school for many years. He has had to learn facts, apply formulas, figure out the volume of this, and calculate the area of that, and memorize history timelines. And this whole study-the-book, take-the-test routine isn’t going to let up any time soon. After high school it’ll be college.

And since in Matthew 28 Jesus told His disciples that—as they were going and baptizing all nations—they must teach those baptismal candidates to do everything He had commanded, Caleb and I have been reviewing Bible teachings.

This means that it might be easy for someone like Caleb to get the wrong idea about God. Is God merely another in a long line of lecturers and test-givers? Does Professor God have His own GPA scale?

However, I have a feeling that Caleb has successfully sidestepped that trap. And one reason I think this is true is because of the three verses he chose for today's Scripture reading.

Psalm 91, of course is a well-known psalm. Caleb could have chosen all sorts of interesting verses from it. He could have chosen verse 4, which contains the phrase "under His wings," and he could've chosen the song with that title as his closing song.

He could've chosen verse 11, "For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways." Incidentally, Satan twisted that very verse during one of his attempted wilderness temptations of Christ.

Or Caleb could have chosen a verse which could be of great interest to someone who loves hiking, as Caleb does – verse 13: "You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.” This might have been especially interesting to a young man who may have wondered from time to time how Tiger Mountain got its name!

But instead, Caleb chose the three verses from this Psalm which are probably the least-quoted. They are the verses which conclude the Psalm – and which, I think, summarize its basic meaning really well.

And what those last three verses do – especially verse 14 – is to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that no, God does not regard His relationship with us as that of professor to student. No, God has no divine ACT exam on which we must earn a minimum grade to go beyond this life and into the next. The truth is so much better.

Let's take a look at these verses which mean so much to Caleb. I believe that they contain a secret which can help us understand God far better than before. In fact, I can discover only two basic requirements which God has for Caleb, and as you'll see, they are very simple – though not necessarily easy.

Let me show you what I mean.

Psalm 91:14 [NKJV]: “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him . . . .

This is a very interesting verse. For one thing, the entire Psalm up to this point has been spoken by an anonymous narrator, who tells us what God promises to do for us. Verse four: “He shall cover you with His feathers.” Verse seven: "A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you."

But in verse 14, we are startled to observe that it is suddenly God Himself who is speaking to us, for the first time in this psalm. It's as though, as this Psalm was being written under the inspiration of Heaven, God suddenly says, "Hold on. What needs to be said right now is too important for someone else to say. I'm going to say it myself." So from this point on, we're hearing a direct quote from the King of the Universe.

And notice what He says:

Verse 14: “Because he [Caleb] has set his love upon Me [God], therefore I will deliver him . . . .

What is God's first requirement for Caleb? (And it’s really rather strange and “forced” to call it a requirement. Let's call it a "fond hope" instead)

God’s first fond hope for Caleb is that Caleb “set his love” on God.

If you burrow into the original Hebrew at this point, you discover something really interesting. You see, the word used for "love" here is not the standard, ordinary Hebrew word for love. The usual word for love is ahav, and it's used probably 200 times or more in the Old Testament.

But the “love” word used in this Psalm 91 verse is very rare. It’s a more intense word. It’s the word chashak, and it means "a doting love," or a "clinging love." In the English language, we use the word "love" very casually. "I love that new song . . . I love my new smartphone  . . . I love your suntan."

As I understand it, a speaker of Hebrew would never use chashak in this casual way. This is only used for an intense, clinging, doting love where someone “has a delight in” or “sets his or her love on” someone else. The English Standard Version translates this part of the verse "hold fast to God in love."

Just a quick note to serious Bible students here. You do not need to learn Hebrew or Greek in order to get the most out of Bible study. What you do need are four or five very literal translations of the Bible. Not just one, but four or five.

And if you read all four or five, you will pick up nuances such as the one I have just described. Some of these literal translations will simply skip over distinctions like this and others will highlight them. But you won't find all these distinctions in just one translation – you need four or five very literal ones. These would be the King James, the New King James, the New American Standard Bible, and the English Standard Version. The old RSV is pretty good too. And even the NIV will once in a while "nail" a translation perfectly while the others totally miss it.

So God tells Caleb here in verse 14 that He would deeply appreciate Caleb loving Him with a close and doting love. It's like He's saying, “Hey, Caleb, how about a hug?" After all, Jesus called God “Father” 200 times in the four Gospels, and called Him nothing else.

In a way, what God is saying to Caleb here is, "Caleb, all I need from you is your love. If you can come to understand Me so well that you love Me with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, then everything else (including your behavior) will take care of itself."

Remember how Jesus mentioned that the two greatest commandments were love to God and love to humanity? The truth is that if Caleb's love for God is deep and adoring and knowledgeable, Caleb will have no problem reflecting God's love to humanity, in whatever he says or does. It's only people who've drifted away from God who need reminders to honor their parents, and refrain from murder, adultery, stealing, lying and coveting – and Sabbath-breaking, blaspheming and idolatry.

It won't be long before Caleb will be driving the family car. The Jurgensen driveway is an interesting one. Every Monday afternoon, once my study with Caleb was done, I had to nose my manual-transmission Honda up out of that driveway and onto the road. And just as my front wheels came over the driveway’s edge and onto the road surface, there was a moment when I hadn't gone quite far enough to be able to look both ways. Luckily, Tiger Mountain Road isn’t very busy—at least early Monday afternoons.

I don't know whether Russell has given Caleb some guidance about that critical “driving moment,” but I'm sure he will. My dad was a natural-born brooder. Dad would brood about things no other mortal would think worth brooding about. Dad brooded about my driving – and he may have had good reason to. He suspected that I let my mind wander from time to time, thinking about something I had read, so he would give me much free advice about driving whenever he could.

 And Dad brooded about my driving, of course, because his love for me was close and doting. Fathers of his generation did not normally reach out and give sons spontaneous hugs, but his heart was hugging mine, all along.

Okay. What can Caleb do – and what can I do – to deepen this very important love for God, this love which, because I set this love upon God, will give God permission to deliver me?

Well, we need to keep firmly in mind that, though parents are imperfect, God's love resembles and surpasses the love a mom or dad has for a child. God is not an alien from a distant world. We are created in our Heavenly Father's image, whatever that might mean. In some very important way, we look just like Him.

Just this week Shelley and I got a postcard from my niece Alissa and her husband Justin. On the postcard were several photographs of newborn Henry Pierce Toering. In some of the shots, these fond first-time parents had placed on Henry’s head a large brown knit cap with ears, and had taken pictures of him. The cap made him look like a newly-inducted member of some out-of-the-mainstream fraternal lodge, like the Moose Lodge or the Oddfellows. Parents do these things, of course, so have something to embarrass their children with fifteen years down the road. This provides great comic relief during the long winter evenings.

In most of the pictures, Henry Pierce Toering looked like many other babies of his age (at least to the non-doting eye of a non-parent), but in one photo Henry was grinning. His eyes were closed, so the grin must have proceeded from some happy dream. But as soon as Shelley spotted that grin, she said "He looks like his dad." And sure enough, he did.

Caleb looks like his dads – both his earthly father and his heavenly one. That's what God wants Caleb to know. God loves Caleb, and you and me, with that intense, chashak love, and all He wants – all He has ever wanted – is for us to love him back with a love like that. That's the kind of people God knows are safe to populate eternity with, because they will always give each other—and Him—the deepest joy.

And we need to read our Bibles – and as we read, we need to watch everything God does, and listen to everything He says, only through this chashak-love filter.

 

Well, if God’s first fond hope for Caleb is that Caleb “set his love” on God, what is God’s second fond hope for him? Look at verse 14 again.

Verse 14: “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.

God’s second fond hope for Caleb is that Caleb gets to know God’s name.

Do you see that word “know”? That word is not a rare word—just the opposite. It’s one of the Old Testament’s most-used words. It’s the Hebrew word yada, and it is loaded with so much freight that it can mean anything from “Yes, I know the formula for the area of a circle,” to the deepest physical intimacy between married couples. “Adam knew Eve and she gave birth to a son.” That’s the same word.

So when God hopes that Caleb gets to "know" God's name, this is a powerful word. This isn't just the knowledge you acquire to pass a high school science test. This is a progressively deep and complete understanding of God's name.

So why is understanding God's name so important? Back in the Old Testament, and even in the New Testament, names were far more important than they are today. An angel brought the name "Jesus" down from heaven to Mary and Joseph. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and Jacob's name to Israel.

Caleb himself is named after a heroic Bible character, someone who had the courage to stand with a tiny but faithful minority who could see things from God’s point of view. And in the very Psalm he has chosen for this morning, there are several important names of God. In verse one, God is called both Most High and Almighty. In verse two He is called “Lord,” which in Hebrew is probably pronounced Yahweh. In verse four, God has metaphorically become a mother bird protecting her babies.

Names are important. During my college years I worked at a state institution for the developmentally disabled. Back when I worked there, the buildings didn't have names. Instead, they were called by numbers. There was One Building, Two Building, Three Building, Four Building, Five Building, Six Building and Seven Building. These numbered buildings mean absolutely nothing to you, but they do to me. I still see all those buildings clearly in my mind when I hear their number. But that’s only because I worked there fulltime for seven years.

Fortunately, God did not refer to Himself with a number or a label that meant nothing. Instead, He gives us many ways to know Him, many names which can add facets to His personality for us. As we read our Bibles, let’s keep an eye out for the names and qualities of God.

Now let's look at a very comforting word here in verse 14. It tells Caleb and the rest of us what God will do for those who continue to grow in their deepening knowledge of who He really is.

Verse 14:  “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.”

Do you see the sentence "I will set him on high"? This is why it's so important to have four or five good literal Bible translations to study from, or you may not get the deepest insights.

For example, the New King James Version, which I'm reading from, says, "I will set him on high." But the NIV simply says "I will protect him." So does the English Standard Version, which is a bit surprising. But the good old very-literal New American Standard Bible pulls the true Hebrew through for us and says, "I will set him securely on high."

What's so encouraging about this is that the Lord promises Caleb that He won't simply protect him – He will lift him to a higher place during this protection. Remember how Jesus said that he who humbles himself will be exalted? That's one way of looking at this verse. God will take us to a higher place for protection.

Shelley and I keep our second-story bedroom window open at night, and at about 4:17 a.m. every morning, a fat robin perches on the roof-ridge of the house just west of us, and sings "Shelley! Come here! Shelley! Come here!" (That's what it sounds like , anyway.) And I have to get up and close the window. (Yesterday afternoon I heard him again, and checked him out with my binoculars. He looked like a plump operatic tenor.)

This week as I worked on this sermon, I thought about that robin again, this time with more charitable sentiments. After all, this bird is a creation of God, and God has given it the ability to fly to high places for safety.

God's promise to set Caleb on high, securely on high, for protection doesn't mean, of course, that Caleb is going to escape all of life's troubles and tribulations.  But the following two verses definitely promise that God will be there for him.

Verses 15 – 16: He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”

Take a look at that final word, "salvation." Hebrew words are often made up of prefixes and suffixes, and this word is no different. But if you take the prefix and the suffix off this Hebrew word, you are left with the word yeshua, which is Jesus' Hebrew name. At supper time, when Jesus' mother called down the Nazareth alleys for her Son, she didn't say “Jesus!” She called, “Yeshua! Salvation! Come to supper!”

And this morning, because Caleb has followed the Man named Salvation down into the water and out again, and has resolved to follow Him all the way to where he will see Jesus returning with all His angels, and welcome Him with joy and relief, because of this, Caleb has brought great joy to heaven.

What about you? I would encourage you to use Caleb's example as a model for your own relationship with the God who loves you so much. Will you do that?

(Back to the Top)

PRAYERMASTERS – WHAT PAUL PRAYED FOR
Topical Sermon on Paul’s Writings
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 5/26/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Romans, Chapter 1.

This is another sermon in the series I'm calling "Prayermasters." In this series we’re taking an up-close look at some of the Bible people whose prayers really moved God. Maybe as we study their lives, and those prayers, we can find out how better to pray ourselves.

As every Memorial Day draws near, I think about my parents, who now lie in side-by-side caskets under the South Dakota prairie sod a mile northwest of the tiny town of Rockham. I imagine that sometime this weekend my two sisters, who still live in that area, will drive out to see those graves, and maybe lay flowers on them.

When I think of prayer, I think of my parents. I'm holding in my hand a very precious notebook, which came about because of Shelley. One summer, which must've been the summer of 1996, we had traveled back to South Dakota on vacation. Shelley was working in the old farmhouse kitchen with Mom, and Shelley (whose birthday is in August, just one day before Mom’s) said something she'd never said before to my mother.

"I have an idea for my birthday present," Shelley said.

 Mom looked startled, and said, "But I already have your birthday present."

Shelley explained what she meant. She said, "I would appreciate it if you would write down some of the stories of how the Lord has led you." Mom loved to tell stories, and Shelley enjoyed listening to them.

This notebook, with 111 pages filled with Mom's schoolteacher Palmer Method handwriting, is the result. As I was working on this sermon this week, I suddenly thought of that notebook. Shelley had read it, but even though it has stood on the shelf in my home office, I had never settled down to read it.

As I paged through it this week, the memories flooded over me – not so much memories of stories I knew, but memories of my parents' devotion to the Lord, memories of how they truly, seriously knew and trusted Him. They believed that the Lord would listen when they prayed. He might not always answer their requests in the way they wanted, but they felt that their prayers would make a difference.

Here's what Mom wrote on page 1 of this notebook, her first entry on how the Lord had led her.

"One of my first recollections I can remember of the Lord's leadings was when I was single and teaching school. My older brother seemed to be afraid that I was going to be an ‘old maid.’ He would prod me from time to time as to why I didn't have a boyfriend.

"I guess I wasn't that concerned about it. One time later I was praying – a prayer that I really meant from the bottom of my heart with all sincerity. I said, ‘Lord if you have a mate for me, bring him into my life – if not – I will continue on with my teaching career and will be a schoolteacher the rest of my life.’

"I left the results with the Lord and went on my merry way of teaching school. The fall of that year I finished my second year of college and as a result was qualified to teach in a city school. There was an opening in Redfield at Christmas time . . . . [Due to a cousin of mine] ‘twisting’  the arm of the superintendent, Lester Bauman, I got the job.

"I started teaching in Redfield in January of 1946. That summer the Lord answered my prayer and Dad walked into my life. We were always sure that we were divinely brought together. A year later we were married – a teacher friend of mine said, ‘My! You and Henry don't let any grass grow under your feet.’ We said, ‘Why wait any longer when we know the Lord has brought us together?’”

This week I went through all of Paul's writings and looked at every time that he prayed for something or someone. And I discovered a couple of very interesting things. First, whenever Paul mentions praying, he most often mentions Jesus Christ in almost the same breath.

Another thing I discovered was that most of the times Paul mentions praying, he does so in the first chapter of whatever letter he's writing. A lot of times when Christians talk together about their concerns, they will conclude their discussion with prayer, or with a promise to pray.

But Paul most often mentioned prayer first off, as though it was more important than anything else which he might be able to say in his letter. Notice all his “first chapter” mentions of prayer. Paul mentions prayer in Romans 1, Ephesians 1, Philippians 1, Colossians 1, First Thessalonians 1, Second Thessalonians 1, and Second Timothy 1.

Early on, this week, I discovered that if I used everything Paul said he was praying for, I would've had enough sermon material to keep us here till midafternoon. So I've just chosen three of the things Paul prayed for. And I believe that as we look at his requests, we'll see that he was praying these requests not just for the churches he wrote to, but for us as well. And we need to take up the "prayer torch" and keep praying these requests, for ourselves and others.

True to form, just eight verses into Chapter 1 of the book of Romans, Paul mentions his first prayer request. Let's see what he's praying for.

Romans 1:8 – 10 [NKJV]: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

And notice why Paul wants to come and see the Roman Christians.

Verses 11 – 12:  For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established— that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

If you're taking sermon notes, here comes Point One. what's the first thing Paul prays for?

In Romans 1, Paul prays for togetherness.

Togetherness was something my parents modeled very well. The impression they gave us was that they were united in how to raise us – but since I liked to read late into the night, I would sometimes overhear them heatedly disagreeing in hushed tones, and sometimes they would be trying to reason each other out of some course of action having to do with their four kids. But they devotedly loved each other, and treasured their times together.

On page 35 in the notebook she wrote for Shelley, Mom writes about her love of being with Dad, and how this finally came to a tragic end:

“The Saddest Time of My Life. Dad passed away on January 21, 1994 at 4:30 p.m. in the Huron Regional Medical Center on the fourth floor, room 417. Always before when dad had to go to the hospital for either dialysis or to be entered into the hospital for an extended stay, we both went together and we left the hospital together and of course returned home.

"On January 21 we both had to go our separate ways. After Dad passed away, I along with some of the nurses stayed in the room with him until Penny, Ken and Onilee came. Soon the undertaker, Pat Thelen, came, and after conversing with him for a while we knew we had to leave. Pat had left the flat bed outside in the hallway with the maroon covering laying on it.

"In our previous days in the hospital, I had taken Dad up and down the various halls of the hospital in a wheelchair. It meant so much just to be together . .  . This particular day I realized I had to leave the hospital and go our separate ways. For two people such as Dad and I who had always come and gone together everywhere – that was quite a traumatic experience to walk that lonely hallway and go down the elevator and out to the car without him. . .  . At times it felt like you just couldn't do it but then the Lord steps in with His strengthening hand and supplies the extra strength is needed for such a time as this."

You don't have to read very far in your Bible to discover that God created us for togetherness. And when Paul talks about togetherness, he's talking about more than just socializing. Look at verse 11 again:

Verses 11 – 12:  For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established— that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

 Why did Paul want to get together with the Roman Christians? First he wanted to see them – look into their eyes, renew friendships (in fact, he mentioned several people by name in chapter 16). Paul also wants to impart some spiritual gift to them so their faith will become more solid – but he says that he will be encouraged by their faith as well.

After 30 years of pastoring, I can testify to you that the happiest Christians are the ones who get together with other Christians. This doesn't mean, of course, that a good Christian always has to be the ultimate extrovert, the life of the party. Different people have different capacities for mingling with their fellow men and women. My Mom enjoyed chatting in groups of people, but Dad loved thoughtful, one-on-one conversations the best.

And if I could hire one of those airplanes that has a banner flying behind it, I would have that banner say, "Join a Church!" I would naturally want people to join a church which follows the Bible, but just being a part of a Christian group gives you such a wonderful support system, sort of a safety net, in a way, if something should go wrong. As a pastor, I am often the one who hears the compliments from someone who isn't able to make it to church, and who deeply appreciates how other church members care for him or her.

So, if Paul prays for togetherness, what should I do about this? Well, I should do my best to answer his prayer. I need to come to Sabbath School, and get my kids to their children's Sabbath School rooms. I need to stay after church and fraternize a bit. While the church service is going on, I need to pick out a family I don't yet know, and after the postlude go over and get acquainted with them.

And then there are the other opportunities to get even more closely acquainted – our potluck fellowship dinners which happen the first and third Sabbaths of each month.  (By the way, during June we will indeed have a potluck the first Sabbath, but on June 16 and June 23 there will be no services here because we’ll be down at campmeeting, and there will be Bellevue potlucks down there both those Sabbaths.

During the week, of course, we have our 6:00 p.m. Wednesday night Bible study, and our prayer meeting at 7:30, great times not only to study and pray, but to just be friends.

However, togetherness is only part of Paul's "prayer story." To find out what else he prays for, turn to another "first chapter," Ephesians chapter 1.

Here’s one of Paul’s famous long sentences, so take a deep breath.

Ephesians 1:15 – 21: Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

In Romans 1, Paul prays for togetherness—and in Ephesians 1, he prays that we will come to know Jesus completely.

Do you get as bothered as I do about people who try to exploit the Savior for their agendas? Some people have considered Jesus a revolutionary, and have fought in His name. Others have gone on brutal crusades in His name. Others, in His name, have put on white robes and pointed hoods, and burned crosses. Others have associated carved images of Him with grotesquely pagan practices.

However, if we simply settle down and work our way patiently through this long, classical Greek sentence of Paul's, we discover that Paul's prayer for us to get to know Jesus completely is truly exciting.

If you go into a Barnes & Noble bookstore this Memorial Day weekend, you will see a whole section devoted to "kits." These kits promise to give you everything you need to accomplish something. There are juggling kits which contain three balls and an instruction book. There are knot-tying kits. There are cartooning kits.

There's a kit that enables you to build a miniature Roman military catapult so you can put it on your desk and lob paper wads at someone across the room. There are kits teaching you how to paint or do Chinese calligraphy or write a blockbuster novel. What's fascinating about these kits is that supposedly you simply buy the box, take it home, open the box, and find everything you need to succeed at what the kit is for.  Ah, if it were only that easy!

However, the verses we have just read are indeed a complete “kit” which furnishes us with really everything Jesus can provide us with.

Oftentimes, we discover the most about God as we are going through life's most difficult moments. On page 19 of her notebook, my Mom talks about her own health crisis, which happened two years after Dad's death.

"In the summer of 1996 I was diagnosed with colon cancer, so as a result I was scheduled for surgery on August 15, this being the first surgery I ever had in all my 72 years. Needless to say, I was very apprehensive concerning the whole situation.

"One day a while before my surgery I was praying about it, and as I was sitting on the davenport in my living room, it seemed that the Lord whispered Fear not. I have lived on those two words and have found comfort to help me in times of anxiety. Also, from day to day since my surgery, I have received a lot of promises to help me along the way. These promises you will find listed on the following pages."

And Mom needed those promises, because during that August 15 surgery, the doctors discovered that that colon cancer had metastasized to her liver. There was nothing they could do. It was just a matter of time.

Now come four  closely-written pages, sort of a miniature prayer-diary. I'll just read you a few entries.

“Aug. 1996. Fear not!

“Sept. 1996. The Lord said "Let me take care of this." And that He has faithfully done.

“Nov. 11, ’96. Abide in Me.

“Nov. 19. The Lord touched my side pain.

 “Dec. 4. Forward in faith.”

There are many entries, some just one or two lines. She writes things like, "Each thought and each motive beneath His control . . . There is victory on ahead so keep on praising Him! . . . . We must keep our eyes on Christ and not on circumstances. . . . Nahum 1:7 -- The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble and He knows those who trust in Him . . .

And on May 20 of 1997, she of course did not know that within a year she would die of that liver cancer. On May 20 she wrote:

“This admonition of Fear not! from the Lord has been such a help since I have been recovering from my surgery nine months ago. If I fail to stand on it, I can easily become disheartened concerning the Lord healing me. When I remember to use it, it instantly lifts me up and gives me great courage and strength to carry on."

I've met many other people, many in this congregation, whose long years of prayer in the midst of crisis have taught them some precious truths about God and His ways. I have sat by hospital beds where some of these people were dying, and knew they were dying, yet they had no fear. Like my mom, they had taken the time to really get to know the One whom they could depend on, and they knew that when the trouble and trial was over, they would meet Him face-to-face at the resurrection.

That's why you and I need to follow Paul's prayer advice in Ephesians 1 – pray that God will introduce us to the fullness of His Son Jesus Christ.

Let's turn to First Thessalonians 3 to find just one more thing which Paul prayed for.

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13: For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith? Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

Did you catch the kernel of Paul's prayer request? I believe it's found in verse 12:

Verse 12: And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you,

In Romans 1, Paul prays for togetherness. In Ephesians 1, he prays that we will come to know Jesus completely. And here in 1 Thessalonians 3, Paul prays that a growing love will be the center of our maturing faith.

Because love is the only way our faith is going to mature. If you keep track of the news at all, each week you hear of people who profess belief in some sort of God, but who show no love. This week I heard how a group of Indonesian Muslims surrounded and harassed a small group of Lutheran Christians who were on their way to worship. This week I heard the comments of a American Christian pastor who declared that gays and lesbians and transgender people should be put behind a wire fence, and that the fence’s top should be electrified, so that eventually they will all die out.

True Christianity grows only with love. Remember First Corinthians 13, which says that even prophetic wisdom and other such talents are nothing without love.

Did you ever see that bumper sticker that says, "I love mankind – it's people I can't stand!" You and I can't be true believers in God without love. Paul himself, while he was still called Saul, thought he was a believer in God. Yet if you had approached Saul while he was holding the coats of those who were crushing Stephen to death with stones, and if you had asked him, "Saul, do you love Stephen?", he  would have glared at you. "How can I love him?" he might have growled. "Any enemy of God is an enemy of mine."

Notice that the love Paul talks about here in 1 Thessalonians 3 is not a minimal love, not a “just enough to get by” love, but an abounding love, a love which multiplies and multiplies and multiplies. And also notice that verse 13 says that this is not a permissive, false, surface love, a love that winks at evil, but a love that impelse me to become blameless and holy.

Many seasoned Christians have come to the same conclusion my Mom came to. Mom was never one to shake her fist in God’s face and scream, “You owe me one!” She knew that you open your heart to the Lord, you pray earnestly to Him, and then you accept His way of dealing with the situation. You do not become bitter, you just understand that God has the wisdom to do the right thing.

I’d like to close with one more comment from this notebook which expresses that very idea. Mom says,

"After Dad's death, it helped me so much to realize and except the fact that the Lord knows what He is doing. The Lord seemed to show me that it is a waste of time to ask ‘why.’ Asking ‘why’ can delay the means of overcoming your sorrow for the one you have lost in death. As I accepted the fact that the Lord does everything for the best for our good, I could cope with the times of sorrow so much easier. Practicing that attitude lifted me up to greater victory rather than let me sink into deep despair thinking about the one I had lost in death."

Shelley and I were able to go visit Mom in the spring of 1998. By then, her liver cancer had shrunk her thin and very yellow, and we knew, and she knew, that her days were numbered and that the number was small.

As she sat there in her easy chair in our farmhouse living room, a blanket wrapped around her thin, yellow body, I asked her, "Mom, are you afraid to die?"

She swung her head around and gave me a startled look. "No," she said emphatically. "No. What worries me is, who's going to pray for the grandkids when I'm gone?" Even with death crouching in the corner, Mom believed in prayer.

She was gone within a couple of weeks. Now the meadowlarks and killdeers she loved are singing once more on the prairie near her grave. Together, side by side, she and Dad are resting, and one day they will hear a silvery trumpet sound, and then the voice of the One to whom they prayed, to whom Paul prayed, the One they knew will give them life again, the One whose heart they had come to know so well.

And I plan to meet them again.

And I would like to introduce them to you. They would love to get to know you.

Shall we plan on that?

And, until that happy morning, shall we plan to stay—as they did—by prayer, near to the heart of God?

(Back to the Top)

 

 

WAYFARERS
Topical Sermon on the Occasion of
the Baptisms of Juan Joya, German Mendoza-Rodrigues,
and Andrew Nye
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 5/19/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(NOTE about the audio for this service: This is the service in which Juan Joya, German Mendoza-Rodriquez and Andrew Nye were baptized. First you'll hear Juan, German and Andrew give their personal testimonies, followed by Shelley Schurch's "roll call" of family and friends. Then you'll hear the baptisms themselves, followed by the Scripture passages they chose, read by relatives. Then Ruth Lemus tells a children's story, and Pastor Maylan Schurch preaches the sermon "Wayfarers," prepared from those Bible passages. Because of copyright restrictions we're not allowed to play the audio for the two lovely songs, one sung by Alivia Nye and the other by Sarah Ceron. To hear the spoken audio for this service, click here. Only the sermon is printed below.)

Please open your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 3.

As I was working through these guys’ Scripture passages this week, I picked up a couple of really interesting patterns. Both Juan’s passage (Proverbs 3:5, 6) and Andrew's passage (John 14:1-4) talk about "ways” or "paths." That's why I called this sermon "Wayfarers." Each of these three young men has been moving down various paths in his life, and after today they'll continue to be wayfarers on the road of life.

And then, as I studied, it seemed to me that each of these Scripture passages holds a key word which is important not just for Juan, German, and Andrew but for each one of us.

Key words are important, aren’t they? These three young men enjoy spots, and German also is an avid photographer. Just for the fun of it, I Googled soccer terminology, basketball terminology, and photography terminology. Let me give you some examples of how words are important..

Here are some soccer terms I found:

Banana kick: a type of kick that gives the ball a curved trajectory; used to get the ball around an obstacle such as a goaltender or defender.

Carrying the ball: a foul called on a goalkeeper when he takes more than 4 steps while holding or bouncing the ball.

Direct free kick: a kick awarded to a player for a serious foul committed by the opposition; the player kicks a stationary ball with no opposing players within 10 yards of him; a goal can be scored directly from this kick without the ball touching another player.

Hat trick:  3 or more goals scored in a game by a single player.
 
Draw: a game that ends with a tied score.

The Draw: the selection of World Cup teams to place them into playing groups for the tournament, and is also the event surrounding this selection.

Now, on to some basketball terms:

Air ball -- An unblocked shot that fails to hit the rim or backboard. Does not reset the shot clock.

Alley oop -- An offensive play in which a player throws the ball up near the basket to a teammate (or, more rarely, to himself) who jumps, catches the ball in mid air and immediately scores a basket, usually with a slam dunk.

Bounce pass --  A pass that bounces once before reaching the receiver.

Double dribble -- (1) To dribble the ball with two hands at the same time (2) To dribble, stop, and then begin to dribble again; Either act results in a loss of possession.

Granny shot -- An underhand shot taken using both hands, usually as a free throw.

Gunner -- Someone who shoots the ball too many times.

When it comes to photography terminology, I'm on more familiar ground – except that back when I took a photography class in college, a lot of the terms dealt with developing rolls of film rather than processing pixels. 

Aperture -- the hole inside the lens that allows light through. Aperture is measured in “f” numbers.
 
Depth of field -- a measure of how much of a scene (from the front to the back of the image) will be in focus.
 
ISO is a term "borrowed" from film photography. In film photography the ISO was a measure of how sensitive the film was to light. It was called film speed.

Noise -- is the digital equivalent of film grain. It shows up on digital photographs as small coloured blotches, usually in the darker areas of an image.

As I say, I took photography in pre-digital times, and when it came to sports, my brother was the sports fiend, not me. But as I read through all these vocabulary terms, these key words, it's amazing how much I learned. Of course, simply knowing that a "banana kick" is sort of like a curveball in baseball doesn't make me any better able to kick a banana kick, but at least I have a greater understanding of that part of the sport of soccer. Now, if I watched a game, I could say in a confident, authoritative voice, "Wow. What a beautiful banana kick!"

This morning for the next few minutes I'd like us to look at three key words, one from each of these Scripture passage, can be something like God's signposts for these young wayfarers and for the rest of us. I believe these three words will point us straight and keep us steady during the complicated "last days" ahead of us.

So let's discover these words, starting with Juan’s passage.

Proverbs 3:5 – 6 [NKJV]: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

I suppose we could choose several keywords from those verses, but the word that leapt out at me – it was repeated twice – was the word "all." In fact, if you're taking sermon notes, here comes Point One.

I believe that God’s first key word to successful wayfaring is the word “all.”

Notice the two ways "all" is used. First, the proverb-writer urges us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. All three of our talented young man have from time to time “set their hearts” on this or that goal. Maybe it's shooting a three-pointer, or kicking a shrewd banana kick, or catching on a camera a candid pose or expression at exactly the right moment and then cropping and photoshopping that image to make it even more effective.

As time goes along, each of these guys will set their hearts on, and give their hearts to, other causes and other people. That’s the way God created us, to fling ourselves enthusiastically at life.

But you don't achieve hair as silver as mine without seeing some people set their hearts on less-than-healthy pursuits, or less-than-stable people. I believe that's one reason why these verses urge us to devote every part of our heart – the career-seeking part, the creative part, the romantic part –devote every part of our heart to trusting Him. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart."

And notice the second way the keyword "all" is used.

Verses 5 – 6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
 
I believe that if we trust in the Lord with all our hearts, then it will be much easier to acknowledge Him in all our ways. Young people and anybody else travel many paths throughout the week. Some of these paths are the routine trips to school, the route from classroom to lunchroom to gymnasium to soccer field. But other paths involve choice – the choice whether to gossip, whether to persecute, whether to do something, or go someplace, foolish that will harm yourself or someone else, or the choice to surrender your choices to other people who may be less mature.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart." “Acknowledge Him in all your ways.” In other words, make His agenda yours. Apply His promises and His commands to your life.

A couple of months ago I heard a radio interview with a father and his son. The father had been a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and in blue ink on the inside of one of his wrists the Nazis had tattooed his personal prisoner number.

Over the years, this father tended to ignore this number, and when he happened to glance at it he regarded it as an ugly symbol of what he'd gone through, and was glad he had survived.

However, his son – who had been born late in Dad’s life, long after the Nazi atrocities – became fascinated with that number, and actually had that same number tattooed on his own wrist, using lettering that looked as much as possible like the original.

At first, his father was puzzled and horrified. He couldn't understand why on earth his son would willingly take on this ugly and demeaning symbol. But as they talked together, the dad realized that his son wanted to identify as fully as possible with what dad had gone through.

Hebrews 2:18 tells how completely Jesus identified with us. It says that He was tempted and tested in every way that Juan, German and Andrew will be tempted, and will be able to help them, and the rest of us, emerge from these temptations victorious.

And this can give us greater confidence to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and acknowledge Him in all our ways.

Now let's move to German’s passage, Psalm 91.

It is every parent’s fondest hope that their children—German, Juan, Andrew and every other young person here – will sail smoothly through their 20s, going from strength to strength, from triumph to triumph, into their more-seasoned 30s and beyond, without any sort of trial or tribulation.

But as every parent knows, with a sinking heart, life rarely goes this smoothly. That's why we need to discover and remember another key word.

German actually considers the entire chapter of Psalm 91 as his Scripture passage, and I wish we had the time to move through it in leisurely detail. But let's look at the summarizing verses at the start:

Psalm 91:1 – 4: He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.” Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

As I read through this entire Psalm, I discovered that whoever is narrating it is not really doing anything at this moment. He's not going out and fighting the Lord's battles. Instead, he is surrounded by enemies – the metaphorical "fowler" who has set his snare, the pestilence that seeks to poison him, the terror by night, the arrow by day.

It's only when we get to verse 8 that we realize who is causing all these problems.

Verse 8: Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.

One of the Bible's most bitter truths – and Jesus experienced this far more harshly than anyone else – is that there is a devil, and that he despises God and His  Son, and often uses human beings to persecute those who are doing their best to follow the Lord.

This is not a pleasant thing to think about, but it's a good thing that Psalm 91 tells us about it, and gives us a key word to remember.

I believe that if God’s first key word to successful wayfaring is the word “all,” God’s second key word is “abide.”

As I mentioned, we don't see the writer of this Psalm doing anything active. He seems to be surrounded so completely with spiritual danger, at least for the time being, that all he can do is dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

This is helpful to know. Several years ago, for a few months, a man attended this church who because of a back injury was not able to go to work. He shared his frustration with me during that time, told me how he earnestly and impatiently prayed to the Lord to change his situation, which seemed hopeless. Eventually he had a successful operation, and to his delight, the Lord opened up the perfect employment opportunity for him, a dream job which later led to an even more satisfying position in another part of the United States.

And before he left, this man gave me permission to share his story, and he told me, "If you ever come across someone who is discouraged, and who doesn't think the Lord is working in their situation, just tell them to be patient. The Lord may just have to take time to set things up."

Our third keyword is found in Alivia’s brother’s scripture passage.

John 14:1 – 4: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Again, we could choose several different keywords from these familiar lines. But here’s the keyword I would like to present to Andrew and the rest of you for your consideration and use.

I believe that if God’s first key word to successful wayfaring is the word “all,” and His second key word is “abide,” I believe His third key word is “believe.”

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”

A few weeks back in another sermon I mentioned how there were no such things as chapter-divisions in the original Bible manuscripts. John did not sit down with his pen and write a big number 14, and a little number 1. In fact, John didn't realize that he was starting another chapter at this point. And he wasn't – people would not divide his words into chapters until more than a thousand years later.

And if you eliminate the words “Chapter 14,”what's so touching is that when Jesus says "Let not your heart be troubled," He is probably talking first and most directly to Peter. Because in the last verse of the previous chapter Jesus has just had to tell Peter that he, Peter, will deny Him, Jesus. But immediately Jesus says, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe.”

It's easy to believe in God when things are going well. It's less easy to believe in God when we're going through Psalm 91 pressures and persecutions. And maybe it's most difficult to believe in God when we have gravely disappointed Him. And maybe what's so difficult to believe is not so much that He can forgive us, but could He really, deep in His heart, want to forgive us?

But there, with the air still vibrating with the horrifying prediction about Peter's denial – a prediction that would come true within just a few hours – there, after that dreadful revelation, Jesus tells Peter and the rest of His disciples, and everybody in this room today, to keep believing. Keep believing that in His Father's house are indeed many mansions, keep believing that Jesus went to prepare those mansions for us, keep believing that yes, there is enough abundant forgiveness so that He will come again to receive us to Himself, so that we can be with Him forever.

So what should Juan, German and Andrew do now that they know this? What should the rest of us do?

Well, we all need to remember that Romans 10:17 tells us how belief happens. “So then faith [which is the noun form of that exact same John 14 word “belief”] faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

So the strongest faith comes not merely from a good Sabbath school class, or from a good Christian elementary school, or good parents. Those are so important—and they reinforce that faith—but the strongest faith that will guide and protect these young men throughout their lives comes by personally hearing, by listening to, by acting on, what the Word of God has to say to them.

So guys, I urge you to read those Bibles of yours. If they tell you to confess and forsake sins, confess and forsake them. Read some more of those common-sense Proverbs. Read some more of those Psalms, those songs from Israel's ancient hymn book. Read some more from the book of John, that wonderful, warmhearted biography of Jesus.

And that's what the rest of us need to do as well. Remember that the Son of God met each of the devils deadliest deceptions not with logic or reasoning but with a well-chosen quote from the book of Deuteronomy. And one of those temptation-refuting verses says, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

Can we all commit to do that this morning? Would you like to raise your hand, and later use that hand to turn the pages in God's Holy Word?

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CHOOSE YOUR PROCESSION!
Expository Sermon on Luke 7
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 5/12/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 7.

Early Wednesday afternoon I was driving up I-5 from Federal Way. I was heading to the same Honda repair shop I have been using since the mid-1980s.

Just as I was coming up even with South Center Mall, I saw that there was a message on one of those long, lighted traffic-report signs which stretch over the freeway, the ones that tell you about things like the 520 bridge closure.

But this one had a message that wasn't quite like any I'd seen before. This one said: “Earlier incident north of MLK Jr. Way.” I knew that Martin Luther King Way was up ahead of me, but the sign didn't say "accident" as it normally does, but "incident."

As it turns out, I already knew what this "incident" was. A few minutes before, I had turned on a radio traffic report, and the traffic person said that there was still something of a traffic tie-up because President Obama’s motorcade procession had been passing along.

A few hours later, on the computer, I was able to pull up the KOMO News clip reporting on the president's visit. I hadn't seen pictures of a presidential motorcade in a long time, and I guess I still pictured a procession of long, low limousines. But here were these tough-looking black SUVs, probably about as bulletproof as you can get. And somebody in the watching crowd who had worked at the White House pointed out one of the SUVs which had a black truck-box on its back. From what the man said, this was where they would put the president if he were ever exposed to some sort of hazardous material and needed to get quickly cleaned off.

As you probably know, these presidential processions happen as quickly and as secretively as possible, to lessen the chance of terrorists or anyone else causing problems.

Luke Chapter 7 tells us about not one but two processions. Tomorrow is Mother's Day. Back in Jesus' time they probably didn't have anything like a Mother’s Day. And here in Luke seven, we see a mother who is having what is probably the worst day of her life. She is part of a procession that she never in her worst nightmares imagined would happen. Let's watch this amazing story unfold.

The story begins, actually, with another procession, going in the opposite direction.

Luke 7:11 [NKJV]: Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd.

Let's try to imagine for a moment what Jesus’ procession might've been like. I'm sure that as Jesus and His procession walked along, there were probably a lot of separate conversations going on, and maybe little pockets of people were singing psalms to pass the time. Jesus and His disciples are up at the head of the procession, maybe talking theology.

As Jesus heads west toward the entrance to the village of  Nain, He is actually fairly close to His home territory. Just seven miles to the northwest is His growing-up hometown of Nazareth. 20 miles west, on the horizon, He can see the range of high hills which contains Mount Carmel. And according to the article on Nain in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "East of Nain are rock-cut tombs of an ancient cemetery, which Jesus had probably just passed when he saw the funeral procession coming out of the city." (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 3, p. 480)

But suddenly, the crowd following behind Him becomes hushed. Because coming forth from Nain is another procession. Voices are raised, but not in singing.

Verse 12: And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.

If you read this in the original Greek, it's even more sad. Do you see the English phrase "a dead man"? The word "man" is not in the Greek. It simply says, "a dead was being carried out." The Greek word used here for “dead” is tethnekos, it means to die, or to be dead. You see the same thing happening over in John 11:44 at the resurrection of Lazarus. In English it says, "And he who had died came out," but in Greek it says "the dead came out."

 This was a particularly cruel way to speak of someone who has departed this life. How it must have cut this poor mother to the heart. It's as though, after his last breath, her son's name and his very personality had been erased from the earth, and he was now spoken of only as "the dead."

At Lazarus' tomb, you remember, Jesus would have none of this anonymity. He called out, "Lazarus, come forth!" One of the most comforting Bible truths, and I hope we don't take it for granted, is that everyone of those who have died is clearly remembered, by name, by the One whose voice will raise them to life.

At this point, the procession following Jesus comes to a halt, and probably the people in front back away a few paces. Because now that this young man lying in his open coffin has departed this life, he has become immediately unclean. In the laws of Moses (and these were, of course, excellent regulations to protect a nation from terrible epidemics) it says that anyone who has touched a dead body is to be unclean for seven days, and this probably includes his mother. What a cruel twist . . . the boy whom she loved to hug is now untouchable.

Two processions meet at the city gates. But as we know, one of these processions isn't an ordinary one. The focus of one procession is the body of a son who has died. But the focus of the other procession is a Son (with a capital "S") who has the power to give life.

And while His followers back fastidiously away, watch what Jesus does.

 Verse 13: When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Let's pause for a moment in case you want to note down the first of our two sermon points. Here the first one.

Why should I make sure I'm a part of Jesus' procession? Because Jesus is the only one who can tell a grieving mother not to weep.

Every pastor learns early in the ministry that there are certain things you simply do not say to someone who is grieving. In fact, articles and books have been written on that topic. When we are with someone who is grieving, it's tempting to rush in with words which will try to explain, try to make things make sense.

You see, the human mind was not designed to be comfortable with the appalling, unnatural fact of death. So unless we firmly button our lips, we feel we need to rush in and suggest explanations, as though logical propositions lessen the grief. They don't. So don't try.

So what do you say? A website I looked at this week mentioned some of the “don’t say this” comments, dealing specifically with the death of a baby. Then the website went on to say this:

“After reading the above list you may be wondering what there is left to say that won't offend. The truth is, if you support them and feel for their loss, you can give them sympathy without offering explanations, judgments, opinions or comments. Just say the truth: that you are sorry for their loss, that you are sorry that they have to go through this.”

http://www.babyandinfantloss.com/for-family-and-friends/what-not-to-say.html

Even "Don't cry" is a wrong thing to say – except when one Man says it. When Jesus told this mother not to weep, He did not mean that grief was wrong. He was not advocating some kind of stoic philosophy which urges us to rise above our emotions. On the contrary, Jesus Himself will weep several times during His ministry. He will weep at Lazarus' tomb. He will weep over the unrepentant city of Jerusalem.

No, Jesus told this grieving mother not to weep because He knew that before she had taken another five breaths, her heart-wrenching wails would turn to incredulous screams of joy. It's like He was saying to her, "Save your tears. You might need them for your joyful sobs."

So now these two processions have met at the gates of Nain, one headed by a son who has died, the other by a Son who will die, but whose death will give Him the right to do what He is about to do.

Watch what happens next.

Verse 14: Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

Why should I make sure I'm a part of Jesus' procession? Not only because Jesus is the only one who can tell a grieving mother not to weep, but because Jesus is the only one who with His voice can change death into life.

Notice several incredible things Jesus does. First, He touches the coffin. This shows that He is not afraid of death and its uncleanness.

Jesus is the one who has the greatest right and the greatest authority to repeat these words from John Donne’s defiant sonnet:

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe, . . .
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die. 

That's what Jesus did with His death. He murdered death.

Notice what else He did – in this case, what He said:

Verse 14: Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

Notice that Jesus did not say, “Tethnekos, arise.” “Dead, arise." Instead, Jesus gave this boy back the dignity of being a human being, and called him "Young man."

Next He said, literally in the Greek, “To you I say.” It's like He was saying, "Young man. You. I'm talking to you. Yes, you! Get up!"

With something like that happen at the great last-day resurrection? Will Jesus, through some amazing divine ability, be able, in a fairly short space of time, to call us each by name from our graves, speak specifically to each of us as He reunites mothers with sons, and daughters with fathers? Maybe so.

Maybe the voice which called "Lazarus, come forth," and "Young man, I say to you, arise," will – as with His magnificent angelic procession He glides above dry South Dakota prairie grass – call out "Henry Schurch, June Schurch, I say to you, arise."

Let's take a look at another interesting fact. Look at verse 15.

Verse 15: So he who was dead sat up and began to speak . . . .

Isn't that interesting? If you think back to Jesus' other resurrections, and even beyond that to the other times in other parts of the Bible when human beings came back to life, you get absolutely no sense that there's any blinking, no gazing around in astonishment, no "Where am I? What happened?" And certainly no convalescent period, no gradual regaining of strength.

In 2 Kings 4, when Elisha raises a little child to life, the child sneezes seven times, and then presumably ran off and started doing kid things again. And in our very next chapter, Luke 8, when Jesus resurrected Jairus’ daughter, it says that she immediately got up, and Jesus quickly commanded that they give her something to eat. Before her illness she had probably been a normal, active 12-year-old, and when she came to consciousness again – perfectly healthy and ravenously hungry – she probably thought to herself, "What am I doing down here on the floor? And why are all these people looking at me so strangely? When’s supper?"

So here at the gates of Nain, Jesus commands the young man back to life, and the young man immediately begins to speak. Maybe his death had been from a work-related injury, and maybe he'd been carrying on a conversation with a fellow worker at that moment. And now, back to life again, maybe he picks up the thread of his thoughts as though there hadn't been a break. Or maybe he's a very perceptive young man, and as he came to life he noticed his mother's tears, then started asking her what was the matter.

If we could just realize, and remember, and keep remembering just how totally Jesus has everything under control. He does not control our wills, but with our permission He sends His Holy Spirit to write His law of love within us so that we will grow to be more and more like him.

So what should you and I do, now that we have heard this story again?

I think we should remember what happened to that funeral procession. When Jesus approached, and when He gave back the gift of life to that young man, He changed that procession’s direction. Before He arrived, that mother was following her son out of the city on whose streets he had played, and from whose alleys she had called him home to supper. And now they were taking her boy out to those cut-stone graves, where it was bleak and lonely, and he would never come home again.

But when Jesus arrived, He turned that funeral procession into a triumphant parade, headed back into town. Maybe the young man stayed up there on his former coffin, riding along, waving and smiling, being jounced joyfully by his pallbearers.

How do we join Jesus' procession? How do we come close to Him? Maybe it's something like what people had to do who wanted to be close to the president on Wednesday. They had to make some serious commitments – and of course financial commitments -- in order to draw close to him.

And maybe (and actually, there's no "maybe" about it), in order to join Jesus' campaign procession, you and I need to make the most serious campaign donation of all – ourselves. And when we decide to become totally His, along with our hearts will come our lives, our time, our talents, even our treasure.

How about you? Tomorrow is Mother's Day, that day which celebrates the women in our lives who work so hard and sacrifice so selflessly to nourish and guide us. We owe them devotion, and we owe at least as much love and fidelity and respect and follow-through to the One who gave us life in the beginning, and who holds in His hands the keys to eternal life.

Will you do that this morning? Will you say, "Lord Jesus, I want to follow You, march with You in Your happy procession this coming week?"

 

 

 
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YOU CAN TRUST THE SINGER
Expository Sermon on Zephaniah
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 5/5/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles for a few minutes to Zephaniah chapter 1.

 As you probably know, this week marked the one-year anniversary of the Navy SEALs' raid which put an end to the life of Osama bin Laden. Those who prepared this raid, and those who approved it, shared the same goal – to make the world a safer place.

The bearded man who authorized the Twin Towers horror, and who laughed about it afterward, was – we learned this week –planning more attacks against Americans, including a special strike team which was to have been stationed at the very Afghanistan airport where President Obama landed during his visit there this week. If such a team had been in place, their orders would have been to try to blow up the president’s plane if they ever caught sight of it.

As you know, America is perceived in different ways by different people. Back in the 1980s, when I was pastoring another church, the news began to mention references to Palestinian terrorists. One Sabbath morning, to make some point or other during a sermon, I actually used that phrase – "Palestinian terrorists."

As I was shaking hands at the door afterward, a young, slim, dark-haired lady approached me with an absolutely unsmiling face, and asked talk to me. So we went into a room, and her eyes were like two gun barrels pointed at me. She was polite, but in almost hissing voice she asked me why I had said what I had about Palestinian terrorists. It turns out that she herself was from the Middle East, and she told me icily, "The CIA is the worst terrorist organization of them all!"

I don't know where this lady is today, or whether she would still hold to that view with the same intensity, but she was dead serious. She had seen – or heard of – things being done by these representatives of America, maybe done to this lady's relatives or close friends, things which the average American didn’t realize the CIA would ever do.

People could probably debate just how important it is for America to be perceived correctly by the rest of the world. But the Bible makes it very clear that there should be absolutely no debate about how important it is to get a completely correct view of God.

Because God is so often misunderstood. And the two main reasons He is often misunderstood is that some people read the Bible in little bits and pieces. Others don't read it at all but depend on other people to tell them what it says and what it means. As a pastor I have seen too many people who have an incomplete view of God.

Some think He is inexplicably uncaring or cruel or vengeful, and they turn away from Him. Others believe that since God is love, He will eventually save everyone.

It's very important to get this right, of course. Nowadays, with Facebook and texting and tweeting, it's chillingly easy to carry on a reputation-bashing campaign against anyone, even the most blameless person. It's happening all the time, from top-level politicians to kids in school.

And it's bad enough to smear fellow human beings, but fellow human beings do not hold the safety and happiness of the universe in their control. When an incomplete or distorted picture of God is the one people see, they won't be able to take the proper steps to connect with Him. As I mentioned, if I think like this I’ll either turn my back on Him, or I will treat Him like a “Santa Claus” God, who exists merely to hand out good things from His gift bag, and otherwise doesn't really care about, and doesn’t hold me accountable for, what I get myself into and how I hurt those in my life.

That's where the book of Zephaniah is such a great help. It's only three chapters long, but it summarizes everything we need to know about God so we can get ready for a happy and emotionally healthy relationship with Him.

I believe that because of Zephaniah, you and I can go from this room understanding God more completely – and loving Him more deeply. Let me show you what I mean.

Zephaniah 1:1 – 6 [NKJV]: The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. “I will utterly consume everything From the face of the land,” Says the Lord; “I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, The fish of the sea, And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the land,” Says the Lord. “I will stretch out My hand against Judah, And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests— Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, But who also swear by Milcom; Those who have turned back from following the Lord, And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”

By now it should be fairly clear what is the first truth Zephaniah teaches us about God (this is Sermon Point One in case you’re taking notes):

God despises idolatry.

This is incredibly good news.

Because since you and I never lived back in the 650s BC as Zephaniah and King Josiah did, we probably will never truly understand what really went on in an idol –worshipping culture. It was far more than just bending your knee to a stone image.

In some versions of idolatry which the Jews practiced, you chose one of your children and sacrificed him or her to the heathen god. In other idolatries, part of your worship was becoming physically intimate with the priest or priestess at the local shrine. This meant that you returned home a carrier of the town’s most dreadful diseases, which you later passed on to your wife, and to any children she might later bear to you.

You see, idolatry at its root gives the worshiper permission to do whatever he or she wants to do. If human beings create their own gods, the morals of those gods rise no higher than those gods’ creators. The true God wants our worship, not because He is selfish, but because He knows that His ways have the best and purest influence on us. He will teach us to be unselfish, which is the exact opposite of idolatry.

God despises idolatry. And He despises modern idolatries too – anything or anyone we devote more time and energy and dollars than we do to His soul-saving agenda.

Now let's take a look at the second truth Zephaniah teaches about God.

Verses 14 – 18:  The great day of the Lord is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. “I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the Lord’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land.

If Zephaniah’s first truth about God is that He despises idolatry, the second truth is that God will judge the earth.

This is more incredibly good news. Finally, the true truth will come out about all evil which has been done, and who all were responsible for it.

Those of us who have been Adventists for a while, and have gotten into the habit of scanning the news for the signs of the times, we look at each other and wonder just how long the festering crust of this wobbling old globe can last.

And knowing that there will come a day when all we own or drive or play as an instrument or read or watch will become charcoal or molten plastic or bubbling, sputtering slags of metal, and eventually smoke and vapor – if we knew this and nothing else about God, we would have every right to be frightened and dismayed. Because God is definitely going to clean things up.

But let's hurry on to Zephaniah’s third truth.

Zephaniah 2:3: Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the Lord’s anger.

If Zephaniah’s first truth about God is that He despises idolatry, and the second truth is that God will judge the earth, Zephaniah’s third truth is that during those final horrors God will protect the meek who seek Him.

This of course is good news as well.

But what's so great about the meek? Why will they "inherit the earth," as Jesus asserts in Beatitude Number Three? Well, the meek are not satanically proud, nor are they satanically selfish. The meek are servants – just as God is a servant and His Son is a servant. The meek would never assume – as Lucifer did – that they know better than God, that they can prescribe how God should handle things.

The rest of the Bible – including the Gospels and Paul's writings – gives more details about how to seek God, and how to take advantage of Jesus' wonderful substitutionary sacrifice for us.

But let's take a look at one more important Zephaniah truth. Maybe this is the most important of all, because we have just read some unsettling things about the Almighty. Remember that, as a called prophet of God, Zephaniah's duty was to cry words from the heart of God to the people. He was to be God's voice, uttering God's warnings.

But Zephaniah’s final truth gives us an incredibly precious glimpse into the heart of our Creator.

Zephaniah 3:14 – 17: Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Isn’t that really, eternally, the best news of all?

Did your mom ever sing to you when you were a kid? I don't remember my mom ever singing to me, because she didn't think her voice was that great. Yet she must have sung to me, because I know "Rock-a-bye Baby," and "Lullaby, and Good Night, with your blue eyes closed tight." I remember those songs, from before I went to school. So Mom must have sung them to us.

 Later, Mom didn't so much sing to us as talk to us, and read to us. She would make up funny words to say to us, and she would tickle us once in a while.

And God sings, coos, croons to us. That’s truth four.

God will be so happy to be with us that He will sing to us.

True, He despises idolatry with the same vicious hatred my mother would despise anything that could hurt her four kids. True, He will destroy every wicked thing and unrepentant wicked person on this planet, just as my mother would take a garden hoe to any snake she even remotely suspected of being hurtful. Mom knew that it was not only her motherly duty but her fiercest desire to protect us from danger, and at night in our safe, cozy farmhouse, she would show her delight in us – maybe not so much with singing – but with her tender speaking voice.

And according to Zephaniah, that is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about our Heavenly Parent, the one Jesus called “Father” at least 200 times in the four Gospels. You can trust the Singer who tenderly croons to you, because He loves you.

Doesn't that make you love Him even more?

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FOLLOW THE BLOOD
Communion Sermonette
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 04/28/12
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

I was a college student back when the Watergate scandal was happening. During that time I was working a fulltime night shift six nights a week, and during the daytime I was attending college nearly fulltime. So I was often barely awake, and in absolutely no mental condition to add to my school studies the task of trying to keep track of Watergate’s twisting trail of intrigue. Some afternoons in the student union lounge I did watch the Watergate hearings, and I remember folksy old Sam Irvin questioning a very pale John Dean.

But at least one memorable phrase has come out of that era, and word has it that the “All the President’s Men” movie scriptwriters made it up. It’s the phrase “Follow the money.” In other words, the most dependable travel-route through Watergate's tangled maze to its instigators was to try to figure out where the money had come from and where it had gone.

The plan of salvation can sometimes be a puzzle also – but a happy, encouraging puzzle rather than a demoralizing one. Theologians have argued for centuries about salvation’s details, but many have discovered that it can be made far more simple – though no less wonderful – by following the blood.

So for the next few minutes, let's follow the blood.

The first time we see blood in the Bible we don't really see it – we assume it. One twilight in Eden, His heart hurting but filled with love, God went calling for His human children who had decided to distrust their Creator and believe a talking serpent’s lies.

He finally found them, ashamed and shivering, trying to cover their bodies with leaves. And that was when the first blood stained the meadow grass of Eden, because God made Adam and Eve skins for their covering. Not woven cotton, not Spanish moss, but skins – skins from animals, maybe lambs – who had died for them as a substitute, died for them on the very day they ate of the fruit so that they wouldn’t have to die, and who pointed forward to the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

It's easy to follow the trail of blood from there. To keep alive the dreadful danger of the ultimate selfishness which forgets its Creator, God commanded His children and their descendents to portray this horror again and again through animal sacrifice until Eve’s Descendent, the Lamb of God, would come to bruise the serpent's head.

And, as if to prove sin's ugliness, as if to prove how selfishness can brutally possess a soul who refuses the shed blood, Eve’s firstborn son Cain insisted that the sacrifice of his fruits and vegetables was just as good. And when God said no, Cain refused to allow himself to be redeemed by blood, and instead spilled his brother's. And that's when we saw how very deadly this “I’ll do it my way” selfishness can become.

Later we see the blood of the ram which symbolized Isaac's redemption. And still later in Egypt, the Passover lamb’s blood was splashed on the door posts of slaves who believed.

Once across the Red Sea and the into the wilderness, God's rescued people erected their tents around a portable sanctuary. This beautiful, carefully-made tent was not to be a museum, not a shrine at which to meditate, not a self-improvement university, but a place to bring blood. Each Israelite family confessed their sins, and then the head of the household would lead a lamb to the courtyard gate, and confess those sins over the head of that lamb, and again blood would stain the ground.

Then in their minds, that little family would follow the blood as the priest carried some of it right directly into the sanctuary, symbolically bringing the family's confessed sins to God. The lesson was clear – when you discover how sinful you are, you don't have to punish yourself, you don't have to run away in despair. Instead, you can confess your sins confidently to God, no matter what those sins are, because only He can forgive them, and He does this gladly and immediately, with joyful relief.

Blood was used in other ways as well. When a priest was ordained and consecrated to God's service, blood was touched to his toe and his thumb and his earlobe to symbolize his holy responsibilities. When a leper was cured of his disease, the priest applied blood to symbolize his cleansing.

And then, one Passover evening in Jerusalem, the blood took on a wonderful new meaning. It's a meaning that no one could have really, fully understood – or dared believe – until then. Jesus and His disciples were celebrating Passover in that upstairs room. The lamb had been killed, just as lambs had been killed for centuries. The ceremonial blood has been splashed upon the doorframe, just as had been done by these men’s fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers for 1500 years.

But then Jesus held up a cup filled with the juice of the grape. "This is My blood," He told His friends. "Drink of it, all of you." Suddenly they remembered what He had said back in John chapter 6: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.’” (John 6:53-54)

This is so astonishing that it probably takes a lifetime to understand. Less than 12 hours later, Jesus the Lamb of God would offer His life – and spill His blood – as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. But this Last Supper service, this holy Communion, would prove to sorry sinners from then on that the Savior who shoulders the weight of our sin, and knows our inner ugliness far better than we, still wants to be one with us. "Take, eat," He said. "This is My body. This is My blood."

Matthew 26:27 – 29 [NKJV]: Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

Do you see what this means? It means that our Creator’s love for us will never dim, no matter what. Even though our sins forced Him to use the death of lambs as an object lesson to show how we may be saved, and even though He Himself finally became the slaughtered Lamb of God, none of this vile wretchedness has turned Him from us in disgust. His love is still so strong that, just a few hours before our sins would nail Him to the cross, He promised that one day – if we wanted – we could follow His blood all the way to the place where we could finally lift a happy cup with Him in heaven when all the horror was over, as though we had always been the best of friends.

That is just a tiny bit of what we are celebrating this morning. We are celebrating the love of our eternal Friend. And with awe and humility and reverence, scarcely daring to believe, we are accepting His love for us and pledging ours to Him.

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PRAYERMASTERS – DAVID:
GOD’S FAVORITE PRAYER PARTNER
Expository Sermon on 2 Samuel 7
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 4/21/2012]
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles again to 2 Samuel chapter 7.

This is another sermon in the series I'm calling "Prayermasters." I thought it might be a good idea to make an up-close study of some of the Bible people whose prayers really moved God. Maybe as we study their lives, and those prayers, we can find out how better to pray ourselves.

I think I must've been maybe eight or nine years old. Both my seven-year-old sister and I had been taking piano lessons for a couple of years from the same woman. And one day she came to the same conclusion to which every other piano teacher of siblings comes – little Maylan and little Onilee should perform a piano duet at an upcoming talent show at the Adventist academy.

To me, piano lessons were already the grimmest, grayest part of the week, both the practices and the actual lessons themselves. I solved the grimness of the practices by the clever decision to  simply not practice. This, of course, made the lesson time even grimmer and grayer, since the teacher always made me sludge methodically through the piece I should have perfected by now, noting each of my mistakes in a pained voice. The only benefit that the teacher ever gained from my piano lessons was her weekly dollar. I think that she appreciated, and needed, that dollar, so she didn’t put much pressure on Mom to make me practice.

Therefore, I guess you could consider her either brave or foolhardy for harnessing me to my sister for a talent show piano duet. I remember actually practicing for this, pounding my way through the bass clef, not understanding the music’s inner meaning at all, because of course playing the melody over there on the other end of the piano bench.

When we actually put the two parts together, however, I remember being amazed at how beautiful the piece was. I had to look sharp, of course, to dodge my sister's left elbow and left little finger. And on the day of the talent show, I was startled by the news that we would have to dress up. This meant that I was crammed into black pants and a stiff white shirt tightly buttoned at the neck, and a little black bowtie was clipped to my collar. My sister wore a frilly dress and impossibly shiny black shoes.

This formal costume, along with a bright spotlight, took quite a bit of the spunk out of our performance, so it was a rather meek and watery duet which my sister partner and I presented for the crowd's listening pleasure. They applauded us with great enthusiasm, but I don't remember winning a prize, and would have been astounded if we had.

This week as I was studying the life of David, it struck me that David was a partner too—not a piano partner, because he played a portable harp, and that was definitely a one-person instrument.

No, David was probably one of God's favorite "prayer partners." You might say, "Wait a minute. David was a prayer partner with God? I thought a prayer partner was when two human beings got together and prayed to God." That's true, of course, but another way of looking at it is that the more closely we partner with God in His plans, the more effective we can be as pray-ers.

I think it's a good thing to have human prayer partners. Wednesday evenings right here in the sanctuary, right up close to the front, a number of pray-ers meet at 7:30. Some of them have already been praying during the last part of the 6 PM Bible study which come just before. You are invited to either of these two sessions—or both, as some make a habit of doing. Wednesday nights, 6 p.m., with a light supper, and then 7:30.

These Wednesday night prayer meeting attenders aren't teamed up in twos, but we are all gathering together, often with prayer notebooks, spending a good bit of time mentioning answered prayers and giving thank-you prayers for these, and then spending some more time praying for requests. And we all do hope and pray that our prayers, partnering with God's wishes, can give Him greater permission to work miracles as they are needed. And we’ve seen those answers come.

As I mentioned last week, the Bible people we name our kids after are most often those who really knew how to partner with God in prayer. And just knowing David – from all the stories about him, and from all those songs he wrote – we can tell that God had a special place in His heart for this man.

I think if you were to look through the entire Bible, you would probably never find a chapter as amazing as 2 Samuel 7. I'm sure that God Himself looks on this chapter as an especially happy one. Because in this chapter, we see the God of Heaven having an easy, familiar conversation with a trusted, long-time friend, and we see the human being responding in the same way.

God and David had partnered many times already, working together to create a happy and peaceful nation. David wasn't perfect, and when he sinned, God held him strictly accountable because of the highly visible position he held. But here in this chapter we see directly into the hearts of both God and David, and we see how close their friendship was.
And I believe that as you and I look ahead into this coming week, I think we need to partner more closely with God in His wise and wonderful plans. And I think that as we look at what happened in this chapter, we can discover how to become God's favorite prayer partners too. Let's see if we can discover what we need to do to make this happen.

2 Samuel 7:1 – 2 [NKJV] Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.”

I believe that these verses show David's first step to becoming probably God's favorite prayer partner aside from Jesus. If you're taking sermon notes, here comes Point One.

I believe that the first step to becoming a close prayer partner of God is this: As God has done for you, devote your energies totally to Him.

If you look back along David's dramatic life, you definitely see a full partnership with God. David was a shepherd, and even out there on the twilight hillside he was thinking about God, and writing Psalm 19 which talks about the heavens declaring the glory of God and the firmament showing His handiwork.

David's father sends him to the battlefield with care packages for his brothers, and David stands up before the king and then before the enemy giant, declaring firmly that he will defeat that giant through God's power. Samuel comes along to anoint one of Jesse's sons as king, and the Lord directs him to David, the youngest. All the way along, God is watching out for David, and David returns the favor by enhancing God's reputation by giving God the credit. God poured immense energy into David's adventures, and David used that energy for God's glory.

And David took this respect for God to amazing levels. Even though twice, King Saul tried to pin David to the wall with a javelin, and later pursued David with his troops, David refuses to even invoke the "stand your ground" concept. However evil King Saul has become, he is the Lord's anointed, and David patiently waits for the Lord to deal with him.

Every once in a while, and this comes up quite often, you hear that certain famous secular singers or rappers grew up as Christians. The church nurtured them, and provided them performance opportunities, but as soon as fame and fortune beckoned, the Christian nametag was ripped off, crumpled up, and tossed into the nearest wastebasket, and the songs changed to selfish, me-first, lust-pandering songs, or depressed and angry ones. All that energy these performers had previously devoted to gospel music was now channeled in the opposite direction.

Okay, what does this have to do with me? What would it look like in my life if I began to devote more of my energies in God's direction as David did?

Well first, I would need to get a pair of David's glasses and put them on. Some people look at life through rose-colored glasses, others through discouragement-colored glasses, but David looked at life through God-colored glasses. Wherever David looked, he tried to spot God at work, or places where God needed to be allowed to work. The Psalms he wrote show just how much he wrestled with a godless world, and sometimes he wrestled with the God from whom that world had wandered. Aside from a few painful and very notorious lapses, David devoted his energy to God's plans.

So like David, I need to keep my eyes moving back and forth from the Bible page to what is happening around me. I need to be ready to go to work for God. I need to get into the habit of saying "yes" when opportunities to serve him arise. (Notice how subtly I inserted that Nominating Committee commercial?)

But I'm really serious. I grew up in a home where my parents were not Adventists until I was in my late teens, and then they rarely attended church. I think I am still in the church because my parents taught me to say yes when the church needed help. Week after week I attended that little congregation of 15 or 20 people, where I was the only person my age, and where there was never any earliteen class or youth class. But the dear church members cajoled me into playing the piano, or teaching the adult Sabbath school lesson. They made sure that I was needed, and they let me know that.

So, whether you’re responding to a nominating committee call or something else, ask the Lord to guide you into areas of service for Him which fit the talents He has given you. And don't be afraid to let Him stretch you a bit by pushing you beyond your comfort zone.

Now let's look at another reason David became God's favorite prayer partner.

Verses 1 – 3: Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.” Then Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

Did you notice something interesting about what we've just read? Nathan doesn't let David finish his thought. David is about to say, "Nathan, I want to build a house for God."

But Nathan knows where David is going with his thought, and jumps ahead and agrees with him. And I think this is really significant. In fact I think this is the second reason David was such a beloved partner in God's plans.

I believe that the first step to becoming a close prayer partner of God is to remember that, as God has done for you and me, we should devote our energies totally to Him. And the second step is that, as God has done for you and me, we should be inspirers rather than dictators.

Think how differently David could have approached this whole subject. He calls for Nathan. Nathan comes into his presence. David is holding a scroll. "Nathan," he says, "I'm going to build a house for God. Here's a rough sketch of the plans. Get hold of an architect to tighten them up, and report back to me. You're dismissed."

But all through his popular rule, David never operated that way. Several months back I was reading through David's life story, and David was an inspirer. He might plan big plans, but rather than laying them out with a royal decree, he travels to different areas of his kingdom, gets together with the leaders, and says, "How would it be if we did this or that?" And immediately, people are inspired.

You see, David may have been the king, but he knew – probably instinctively – that a king with halfhearted followers is not going to accomplish much. So he allowed his subjects to catch a vision to do something great for God, and the people followed him with joy.

Again, what does this have to do with me? What's it going to look like if I change my ways to be more like David in this area? Well, this means that in my efforts to interest people in becoming inspired to follow God, I need to be an inspirer rather than a dictator.

Just yesterday I heard a radio interview with a female journalist for Vogue magazine who, a little over a year ago, had interviewed Asma al-Assad, the wife of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Bashar’s wife Asma is a beautiful woman and dresses stylishly, so they sent this journalist to interview her. This was just before the Syrian uprising, and neither Vogue nor the journalist suspected the tragedies that would follow.

Vogue ran the article, along with pictures, but once the atrocities began, they removed the article from their website. The reason the radio interviewer was talking to the journalist about this was that recently the wives of a couple of world leaders created a YouTube video which addresses Asma Assad directly, urging her to use her influence over her husband to stop what he is doing against the Syrian protesters.

The radio interviewer asked the journalist if she thought this video would change Asma’s mind. The journalist said very firmly, "She surfs the web. She’s seen it. But these people [speaking of the Assads] are just pretending that nothing is happening.”

So what's it going to look like for me to stay away from being a spiritual dictator, and instead become more of an inspirer?

Have you ever heard the phrase "straight testimony"? As in, "Someone needs to give that person a straight testimony"? Over the three decades I've been a pastor, I occasionally receive printed material from offshoot movements who seem to be insisting that all pastors and other church leaders should go around giving the "straight testimony" to people who need it, sort of a brutal, no-holds-barred rebuke to shape up and follow God’s laws.

There is a time, of course, for speaking emphatically against evil, but the only time Jesus seemed feel the need to give a “straight testimony" was to the spiritual dictators of His day, the Pharisees. And they were the ones who seem to do little else but go around giving “straight testimonies” to people about the nitpicking rabbi-made regulations they were breaking.

One of the delightful qualities of our own congregation is how mellow people are. People who aren't acquainted with our church board stare at me disbelievingly when I say that board meetings are fun. This past Monday night we had our first nominating committee meeting, and nominating committee is fun. Not long ago we had a church business session which introduced our Capital Improvement Projects, and that was a good-natured and inspiring meeting as well. Somehow, this congregation has managed to avoid putting dictators into office, choosing inspirers instead. (Maybe we don't have any dictators at all.) Can you imagine how pleasant this makes a pastor's life?

Back in the days when you would hear the "straight testimony" phrase, part of this stemmed from the dread that the individual might feel about not informing someone of the truth, and later possibly being held accountable for this. An Ezekiel passage was quoted to support this principle – but this idea has been badly misused. I've heard stories of people who went over and desperately dumped on their neighbor about the Sabbath, for example, and lost a friend while leaving a bad taste about God in that potential friend’s mind. Yet the “dumper” grimly said to himself or herself, "There. I've cleared my soul. Now they  know the truth, and it's up to them."

That is so not the way to do it. That is so not the way, God does it, or Jesus did it. Jesus won hearts by showing the love of God rather than threatening the vengeance of God. For God so loved the world – not "God so threatened the world" -- that He sent His Son to die for us. True, there will be eternal death just as surely as there will be eternal life, but Jesus told stories rather than thundering threats, and when He needed to talk about those stark realities He spoke with tears in His voice.

And God Himself – as David knew very well – is not a dictator but an inspirer. If anyone in the universe had the right to dictate to us, it would be God. But God doesn't work that way. Adam and Eve sin – and God doesn't thunder threats but has a quiet talk in the Eden evening, and then provides a substitute sacrifice for His children. And the stories go on and on. For 120 long years, Noah preached to an increasingly vicious and vile generation. Later God sends prophet after prophet after prophet to His idolatrous people using every persuasion, pleading, or exhortation possible before finally allowing them to be taken captive.

You see, we need to remember that the Holy Spirit is God's true salesman. Nothing you or I say in defense of God will make one bit of difference unless the Holy Spirit softens the heart, and that heart has opened. So this takes a lot of pressure off me, pressure I should not try to take control of again.

In fact, I think this leads us directly into the final step David took, and God took, to make them such effective prayer partners.

This is where we actually hear them in conversation with each other. True, God speaks to David through the prophet Nathan, and then David speaks to God without probably getting any audible response. But notice what happens. Remember, Nathan has just urged David to go ahead and build God a temple. But God immediately sends a different message to Nathan that very night.

And let's listen to the gentle, genial, best-friend tones of what God has to say.

Verses 4 – 7: But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Would you build a house for Me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’ ” ’

Do you see what God is doing? In a gracious, gentlemanly way He is taking the pressure off David. David is so conscientious that, now that his enemies have backed off, he feels he wants to do something significant for God.

Later on, we find out the real reason why God refuses to let David build the ark – David is a man of blood. But God does not mention this at all in the conversation. If God had been a dictator, He could have simply had Nathan give David the "straight testimony" about this. But you see, God is tenderhearted, and into this tender situation, with David's heart aglow with zeal, God is not going to cause hurt like that.

Instead, what He does do in the next few verses is to turn the tables on David. "David," He says, "you want to build Me a house – but I'm going to build you a house.” What He's saying is that David will be the head of a long dynasty of kings, and that David's own son will build the temple which David has been planning so fondly.

Right now, before we listen to parts of David's response, let me insert Point Three.

I believe that David’s first step to becoming a close prayer partner of God is to remember that, as God has done for you and me, we should devote our energies totally to Him. And like God, we should be inspirers rather than dictators. And David’s third step to becoming God’s close prayer partner is that, as God has done for us, we need to take time to understand His heart, and share our hearts with Him.

Let’s listen as David does this. And let's listen carefully, because in the next few seconds we will be hearing a heart which God claimed in 1 Samuel 13:14 was "after His own heart." David’s heart throbbed in unison with God's heart. Let’s listen to it beat.

Verses 17 – 22: According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord God? Now what more can David say to You? For You, Lord God, know Your servant. For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

Isn't that wonderful? Here is someone who is so in tune with God that he had the highest hopes of building a wonderful dwelling for the ark of the covenant. Yet when God denies David's request, David’s devotion does not flicker in the least. Instead, he reaffirms his admiration, gratitude, and love for the one whom he once sang about as his Shepherd.

So what do I need to do to fulfill this last step, this step to strive to understand God's heart and share my own with Him? I need to do what David describes in Psalm 40:8: “I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.” The more I allow God’s word into my heart, by reading it and allowing the Holy Spirit to infuse it into my nature, the more natural and delightful will be my true prayer partnership with God, because the better I will be able to hear the beating of His great heart. And the more beautiful will be the duets of love we play together.

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PRAYERMASTERS -- SAMUEL
Expository Sermon on 1 Samuel 7
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 4/14/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bible to First Samuel chapter 7.

While you're turning there, just a note to let you know that we are back into our "Prayermasters" sermon series, as we look at the prayer habits of several Bible people who really knew how to pray. So far we have featured Jesus, then Jacob, then Moses, and this morning  we’ll be looking at an incident in Samuel's life. Incidentally, you can always go back to the sermon web page on our church website, and either read or listen to the earlier messages in this series.

Anybody who has gotten married, especially to someone who grew up in a different part of the country, or even of the world, knows that there are several adjustments that need to be made. And that's because each family has its own traditions. And it always comes as a slight shock to discover that other people, just as smart as you are, do things totally differently.

For example, when I was a kid, our family always ate melons slices sprinkled with salt. No matter what kind of melons –watermelon, cantaloupe (which we called "muskmelon"), honeydew melons – any kind of melon we were served, we always sprinkled salt on it. Sliced tomatoes, on the other hand, we always sprinkled with sugar.

Even though in my personal opinion the humble green bean tasted best right off the vine, once those beans were taken hostage by my mom, they were always boiled to within an inch of their life, and then, as they lay limp and helpless on the plate, you smothered them in ketchup. And salt. The same thing happened to peas.

The only lettuce I liked in salads was iceberg lettuce. Mom grew leaf lettuce in the garden, but I suspected it of being a weed in disguise. I wanted my lettuce crunchy, and I wanted it anointed with Dorothy Lynch salad dressing. And maybe some salt.

The preparation of fried eggs differed according to the desires of the individual. I preferred mine hard-fried, or as we kids called it, "poked out." To me, in order to manfully hold its place in a fried egg sandwich, a fried egg needed to become pretty much a white-and-yellow slab of rubber. I got pretty good at making eggs that way.

When I married Shelley, I discovered that she prepared food almost totally different than the way my mom prepared it. As it happened, Shelley fixed food that was healthier, and a whole lot tastier, because my mother did not loved to cook. She loved us, and cooked our food just the way we were used to, and we loved it. So even though Shelley had to gentle me into quite a few changes like that, and even though I grumpily resisted them from time to time – I'm healthier now than I ever would have been if I hadn't changed.

That's kind of like what First Samuel 7 is going to teach us this morning. Just as there are healthy ways to eat and less healthy ways to eat, there is God's way of doing things versus other ways of doing things.

Take the matter of a spiritual revival, for example. That's what this chapter is going to be talking about. Probably pretty much all of us have been through some kind of revival meeting, whether it's an evangelistic series or an Academy week of prayer.

But how long such a revival lasts depends on whether or not we follow God's way of doing it and praying for it. As you’ll see, real revival is far more than a few moments of deep emotion, or some kind of mountaintop experience you later descend from with a crash.

I think that this chapter can be Samuel’s "prayer guide" for you and me – if we feel the need of a personal revival – or for someone else to whom we’re hoping this will happen.

Because any longlasting revival is of course thoroughly bathed in prayer. Samuel was a true “prayermaster.” He'd probably been praying for revival for many years. In fact, let's just set the stage for this story. The Israelites were at war with the Philistines, and things were not going well. Finally someone got the idea that if the ark of God could be brought into battle, that would solve everything, because wasn't the ark of God powerful?

So they brought the ark into the battle, and lo and behold, the Philistines captured it and took it back to their own country! This was a devastating blow to Israel. However, any Philistine city where the ark was parked soon began to suffer illness, and finally the Philistines begin shuttling the ark to different towns, and pretty soon each new town started saying "No way! Don't bring that deadly golden box within our city limits."

To make a long and rather somber story short, the Philistines finally allow the ark to go back to Israel, and that is where chapter 7 begins.

1 Samuel 7:1 [NKJV]: Then the men of Kirjath Jearim came and took the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord.

If you're taking sermon notes here comes Point One. What's the first step to revival in this chapter? Here it is:

Bring the ark back home.

A very interesting thing happened to me late last week. I was kneeling out beside the church reader board sign changing its message to the little poem which is on there now – "Within your heart will you make room for one who left an empty tomb?"

I had already changed the letters on the north side of the sign, and now I was on the south side, just laying down the first line of the message. The traffic light changed to green, and someone in a long white car started to accelerate northbound through the intersection, but then slowed down as he came past our sign. He called cheerfully out through his window, "Praise the Lord!" He wasn't doing it ironically, but very earnestly.

I smiled and waved at him, and he sped up and continued heading north. As I say, I hadn't put much of the sign’s message up, so it couldn't have been the words that caused this joyful outcry. I think that he must've just seen the silver haired man crouching by the sign, and assumed I was the pastor, and had just decided to express his gratitude to God for pastors in general, out loud.

As I think back on that experience, it strikes me that that man sounded as though his might be the perfect house to bring the ark of God to. Here was someone who probably wasn't a Seventh-day Adventist, and who certainly didn't know for sure who I was, but who deliberately rolled his window down, and deliberately slowed his car, and spontaneously praised the Lord out loud about me and whatever I was doing at that sign. Somehow I could feel that his heart may have already contained the ark of God.

So what do I mean by bringing home the ark? Obviously, the Bible doesn't tell us where the real ark is, unless it is the "ark of His covenant" in Revelation’s portrayal of the heavenly sanctuary.

But if it's true that we should symbolically bring the ark home, into our lives, what would this look like?

Well, consider what the ark represented. First of all, it represented the presence of God. Secondly, because of what was inside, it represented the presence of His law. Third, also inside it were reminders of His miracles—the pot of manna, and Aaron’s wooden stick which had budded.

It isn't that what every home, and every heart needs – the presence of God, a reminder of how important His law is to Him, and reminders of how awesomely, miraculously good He is to us? How much we have to thank Him for?

I got to thinking this week about all of the advantages Lucifer, Heaven’s highest-ranking angel, enjoyed. But as he began to focus more and more on himself, he must have allowed gratitude to die within him. He must have forgotten, one by one (or began to think he was responsible for), God's gifts to him – life, talent, influence, the chance to make a lasting difference in the universe. None of these capabilities had he given himself. All of them were gifts from God.

And of course once the devil began to ignore or make light of God's benefits, the next step was to decide that God wasn’t worth obeying. But if we symbolically and fully bring the ark into our lives and homes, we will not make those same deadly mistakes. Jesus mentioned that God loves to live within us, and Hebrews 10:16 says that God Himself will write His laws on our hearts and minds.

But once we have decided to symbolically bring God's ark into our lives, with His presence and His law and the reminders of His miracles for us, that's still not enough. That's just the foundation. We need to take a step further. Notice what happens next in the story.

Verse 2: So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

We need to keep in mind that, even though the ark had come home, it had come home to one specific family who took good care of it. The nation as a whole was still not converted. But at least they were taking the next step toward revival.

If the first step to revival is to bring the ark back home, the second step is to lament after the Lord.

The Israelites had a lot to lament about. The Philistines, who lived just west of them, were making life very difficult for them. But Israel didn't simply lament – they lamented "after the Lord." The NIV says they "mourned and sought after" the Lord.

There's a difference between “lamenting” and “lamenting after the Lord.” Have you ever known someone who was a lamenter? Once in a great while I have come upon such person who just cannot look on the bright side. Everything is going wrong, and often there are a series of people to blame for their problems.

Whenever I get to know somebody like this, I get the distinct feeling that rather than lamenting "after the Lord," in other words mourning and seeking after Him, these lamenters instead have something of a chip on their shoulder about God. In fact, there's a good chance they have simply stopped talking to Him altogether.

And that's not good. That's the reason the nation of Israel was in such trouble. Rather than treasure His ark because of His presence and because of the ark’s reminders of His law and His miraculous care, they had tried to use that ark as a magic tool.

Several years ago, right about the time the first Harry Potter movie was coming out, I got an assignment from the Review and Herald publishing company to write a little book for kids about Harry Potter. At that point lots of Christians were condemning the Potter books, some without even reading them. I knew that if I were going to be credible I would need to see what was inside them. So I read a couple of them, and discovered something really interesting.

Basically, Harry Potter and his friends were living the fantasy of every 10-year-old. What kid wouldn't want to possess a magic wand which really had power? What kid wouldn't want to fly around on a broom?

The problem was this – in this fantasy story, these kids had access to immense power, but they did not have to be accountable to the source of that power. That magic power was smarter than electricity, but there was no wise mind behind that power, no supernatural being who would switch that power on or off depending on some higher purpose. No, if you know the right spell, the power was yours. 

In a way, the Israelites were trying to use the ark against the Philistines like Harry Potter might use a magic spell. But God doesn't work that way, and let the ark be captured. So when Israel started lamenting after the Lord, they had at least come as far as to understand that God was the source of whatever power might one day defeat the Philistines, and that they should take His opinions into account.

Another part of the problem was that Israel was working toward the wrong goal. Their main goal was to drive the Philistines away. But God's main goal was to establish a heaven-centered culture there on the land bridge between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian desert, so that everyone who passed through there would see how wonderful it was to worship the Creator of the universe.

If you want a “demo manual” for lamenting after the Lord, read the Psalms. A good number of them do just exactly that – praying urgently to the Lord that He will intervene for the ones doing the praying. These Psalms are not bland, formal prayers. They are heart-cries from people who are hurting, either because they themselves are in trouble or because someone they love is in trouble.

Again, lamenting after the Lord is good, but we can't simply stop there. We don't know exactly how long Israel was lamenting after the Lord, but nothing happened to answer their prayers until they followed Samuel's suggestion and took another step.

Verses 3 – 4: Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.

If the first step to revival is to bring the ark back home, and if the second step is to lament after the Lord, then the third step to personal or corporate revival is to get rid of your foreign gods.

There's probably a pretty good chance that nobody in this room has every actually bowed down to a literal heathen idol. So, do some varieties of foreign gods actually tempt Christians today? I believe they do.

Jesus, of course, mentioned at least one of these gods – money. And when you think of it, money is foreign to God's original plan. God didn't set up a joint checking account for Adam and Eve in Eden. And even though Jesus told us to render to Caesar what is Caesar's, that doesn't mean we should obsess about, or worship, money.

You see, anything that is foreign to God's kingdom – in other words, damaging to that kingdom or something that can become a roadblock on our journey toward that kingdom – this is a foreign god.

And just like little statues were centuries ago, modern gods are objects of worship. When you think of it, a god can be someone you spend a lot of time obsessing about, or something you spend a lot of money on, or something that arouses emotions within you which Jesus would be concerned about.

Foreign gods can be good things we think wrongly about. I remember how, several years ago, someone broke into our Bothell house and stole several things, including a couple of my guitars. The insurance money from that robbery helped me buy the guitar I have now, which is a good guitar. But once I bought that guitar, for a couple of weeks I kept it in its case and literally carried it around with me in my car trunk. I was that obsessed about keeping it safe.

Finally, I came to my senses and just left it at home. But for a little while, that guitar had come perilously close to being a minor god to me. I’d forgotten that it was merely wood and wire, and will eventually become charcoal, like everything else we see around us.

Is there anything in your life that is acting something like an object of worship? Is anything taking up time which you should be balancing out among other things, such as staying thoughtfully and prayerfully acquainted with your Bible? It might be good to take a small-“g”-god inventory of your life, and put away those foreign gods from among you.

Yet even getting rid of all our foreign gods isn't the end of the story. Remember Jesus' Matthew 12 parable about the evil spirit who left a man, but that man didn’t bother replacing the bad spirit with anything wholesome, but simply left himself empty. That spirit returned, with seven other spirits, and this man was worse off than before.

Notice the next step Samuel prescribes toward revival.
 
Verses 5 – 6: And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.

If the first step to revival is to bring the ark back home, and if the second step is to lament after the Lord, and the third step is to get rid of your foreign gods, the fourth “revival step” is to gather.

Pretty much every Tuesday from 9 AM to 1 PM, I'm on the campus of our two Adventist schools in Kirkland. This past Tuesday I saw something happen that really made me chuckle.

I was walking along the hallway close to the fifth grade classroom. Suddenly, out through the door came all of the fifth-graders in a speedy bunch. I flattened myself against the wall as they raced past me, and as I gazed after them I saw that they were all running at top speed across the playground. And their speed did not let up until they reached the far end.

Their teacher appeared at the classroom door and started walking along the hall after them. I chuckled as I told her how all the kids had raced past. I said, "There weren’t just three or four runners and the rest walking thoughtfully along chatting to each other. They were all running, and they all ran all the way across the playground. What were they heading for?"

She glanced out the hall doorway and grinned. "Tetherball," she said. And sure enough, the kids were now intensely involved in a tetherball game. I have a feeling that whoever got to the tetherball pole first had some sort of advantage, which explains all that speed.

These kids were remarkably unified in their goal. They all wanted in on that tetherball game, and weren't willing to dawdle  behind. They wanted to be in on the action, right from the start.

In fact, they are a pretty good example of what Samuel has just told the people to do – to gather together. We're doing that this morning, right here in this room, and we did earlier in our Sabbath school classes. Quite a few women from this congregation are gathering down in Auburn for the women's event.

Samuel could have simply told the people, "Now that the ark is back, now that you've lamented after the Lord, now that your foreign gods are put away from you, just make sure you keep up your private devotions at home." Instead, he said "Let's gather. Let's all get together at Mizpeh, and I will pray to the Lord for you."

God calls individuals, but God is a God of groups. All through the Bible He gathered people together rather than send them off to individual hermit grottoes. I think if I had one piece of advice for every struggling Christian, it would be to just come to church. And don't just slip in after the worship service has started, and slip out again before anybody can shake your hand and say “Hi” to you.

Gather at Sabbath school at 9:30 for the feature right here in the sanctuary. Gather in one of the Bible study classes starting at 10. Gather in the sanctuary during the announcement period between Sabbath School and church so you can hear something about which direction this church is going. Gather at the worship service, and then stay around in the foyer after a while and hobnob.

And whenever there is a potluck, or on elder parish group gathering, gather there. Because gathering is an unavoidable, inescapable part of true personal or corporate revival. We need each other. We need the encouragement we can give each other, we need the listening ears others can provide, we just need to know that we are not alone. And in the case of the Israelite people, they needed to gather in order to repent as a goup for what they had done.

I can find one more step to true revival, and it's a step the Israelites had to learn, even as Samuel was gathering them together. Watch what happens.

Verses 7 – 10: Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel.

If the first four steps to revival are to bring the ark back home, lament after the Lord, to get rid of your foreign gods, and to gather, the fifth revival step is that in spite of looming trouble, remember how powerfully God can work.

Again, this takes us right back to allowing God to work things out the way He wants to. If we forget how powerful He is – if we forget those instances in our very own lives when He solved the most worrying dilemmas with stunningly creative, often low-key, behind-the-scenes miracles – if we forget the "manna" experiences in our lives, we’re tempted to desperately get our fingers into solutions we think are best, rather than waiting for God to do things His way.

But how little we have allowed God His way. In Exodus 23, God promised to send hornets before the Israelites to drive out the Canaanites so that Israel could have their land back. And in Joshua 24:12, Joshua quotes God as telling how He did indeed do this. But most of the time, Israel simply didn't have the faith to relax and let God take care of things.

Not long ago I was in a large mall, and it was a busy afternoon with a lot of people walking through. Along came a little three-person procession, which consisted of mom walking in front, a little three-year-old girl walking a few feet behind, and a grandma bringing up the rear.

I noticed something very interesting and touching about mom. She was walking along, watching ahead of her, and carrying her purse in one hand. But the other hand was stretched out behind her, fingers spread wide. As I say, the little girl was several feet back, nowhere near those fingers. You could tell that extending her hand like this had become a habit with this mother, a habit as habitual as walking itself. This mother had trained herself, probably without knowing it, to always have that hand ready for the little girl to grab onto.

As I saw the mother’s outstretched hand, I thought to myself, "Isn't God like that? Doesn't He walk ahead of us, His hand stretched invitingly back toward us, so that we can grab it and hold on tight if we need to? And, like that mother, doesn't He fondly hope that we will not be distracted by toy store windows and candy shops, and dart away from him to where the devil might wait to abduct us?

How about you? Do you need revival? Are you praying for someone else’s revival?
Do you want to gladden God’s heart by doing as Samuel himself did as a young boy, and all through his life, do you want to reach up and take God’s welcoming hand right now? Why don’t you raise your hand if that is your wish.

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PRAYERMASTERS 3 -- MOSES
Expository Sermon on Exodus 32
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 3/17/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To hear the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Exodus 32.

Today's sermon is the third in a series I'm calling "Prayermasters." The idea behind this series is that I would like to learn how to be a better pray-er, and I thought that one way I could do this would be to study some of the Bibles great prayer people. The first “prayermaster” we looked at was Jesus, and we studied His Lord’s Prayer. Then we looked at Jacob, and watched the development of his prayer life.

Today we are going to spend a little time with Moses. Moses, of course is in a different category than Jacob, because it was Moses and not Jacob who eventually stood with Jesus on the mountain when the Savior was transfigured. Moses may have understood God’s heart better than anyone else besides Christ. Certainly, God opened His heart personally and emotionally to Moses far more than to anyone else.

And observing God's emotional side (seeing how powerfully God cared) may have been what made Moses the powerful prayer person he was. Let me tell you what I mean by that.

For years I have enjoyed the well-drawn and witty cartoons in the New Yorker magazine. A few weeks back I even bought a special edition of the New Yorker which contained nothing but cartoons which had appeared during the previous year.

These single-panel cartoonists work within a surprisingly narrow range of cartoon plots. Two people are marooned on a desert island, and one makes a humorous comment to the other. A seeker after truth struggles to the top of a mountain to learn wisdom from a hermit, and the hermit often dispenses a smart crack instead. Several high-powered business people are gathered at a conference table, and the boss makes an unintentionally humorous remark. In fact, in one cartoon, there was a conference table whose chairs were occupied by dogs, all looking at the chairman, who was a cat. The cat was saying, "All in favor?" And all the dogs said, "Meow."

One stock cartoon situation which shows up with surprising frequency features God on a throne in heaven. God is always  white-robed, white-haired, and white bearded. In one cartoon He sits on his throne paging through a Bible with a startled look on His face. He says, "I can't believe I forgot to tell them about the dinosaurs!"

But in most of these “God” cartoons, God is shown standing on a cloud looking at Earth, and is making a comment to another white-robed figure. And usually, God is annoyed at what is happening down below. Most often, these cartoons speculate about what gets God mad. And since these are cartoons, they are always silly reasons.

What gets God mad? This is not an academic question. This is a real question, which needs a real answer. People who draw cartoons – and editors who buy cartoons – evidently sense, subconsciously at least, that this is something which catches people's attention. What gets God mad? Or maybe a better way of putting it would be, What gets God emotionally stirred up? What disturbs Him?

I believe that one of the reasons Moses became so close to God was that he let himself enter into God's emotional life. Maybe it was that way with Enoch, too. Enoch, you remember, walked with God, and at one point God simply opened up the door into that other dimension where heaven exists, and Enoch walked right on through.

There's no doubt about it, God lets His emotions show, throughout the Old and New Testaments. This morning I'd like us to watch God get disturbed. And when I say "get disturbed," I'm speaking in human terms. God's emotions are not tainted by human selfishness or sin, but it is certainly true that He can become stirred up.

And I believe that, the more that you and I see into God's loving heart, and see what delights Him and what grieves Him, I believe that this can make our prayers less selfish and more empathetic – empathetic not only to others, but to God Himself.

So here in Exodus 32, we’re going to watch God become emotional. God is a Parent, and parents get emotional, and we also need to remember that God isn't merely responsible for a wife and three kids. He is responsible for an entire planet in rebellion, and an entire intelligent universe watching with great interest to see how He handles that rebellion. If Lucifer was able to seduce a third of the angels of heaven to his side, then this isn't simply a matter of sending a child to his room until he settles down. The entire peace and happiness of eternity depends to a great deal on what happens when God gets emotional.

So let's watch. Just a few weeks before this chapter begins, the Israelites were still back in Egypt as slaves. One by one, they watched as 10 devastating plagues swept over the land. Then there was Exodus night, when with the taste of yeastless bread between their teeth, they marched toward freedom. Then there was the Red Sea, and the thunder of the Egyptian army on the horizon, and the waters parted, and they walked through, and when the Egyptians followed they were drowned.

And then came Mt. Sinai with its clouds and smoke and fire, and the very voice of God. And once God had spoken His 10 Commandments, He called Moses up the mountain to talk. And days go by.

And now we are going to see a little of what cuts God to the heart.

Exodus 32:1 [NKJV]:  Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron . . . .

If you taking notes, here comes Sermon Point One.

One thing that disturbs God greatly is when people say, “I demand that God follow my timetable.”

Not, “I request, Lord, that You consider my timetable,” but “I demand that You follow it, or let me follow it.”

Again, God is a Parent, but not simply a parent. Every parent has had to deal with some version of "Are we there yet?” "When is Christmas coming?" "I want a bike." “I want a car, a cell phone, an iPod, an iPad. And I want them now!"

And these Israelites, of course, were grown-ups, not kids. If you know a bit about the Exodus story, you might remember that a group of Egyptians, which the Bible calls a "mixed multitude," came out of Egypt with the Hebrews. And often it was the mixed multitude who stirred things up.

But each of these grown-up Israelites should have learned by now to believe that a God who had so powerfully brought them forth from slavery, and who had actually spoken to them with His own voice, could be given a little slack.

Not long ago someone sent me a YouTube link to a video which was actually made up of several home videos patched together. Each little mini video showed a dog, and in some cases several dogs, who had been trained to wait patiently at their dog dishes, and not eat until their owner had said grace and finished the prayer with the word "Amen."

There was a cute little fluffy dog who sat upright, and when his owner said, “Let’s pray,” he would put his little paws together. In another video there were four dog dishes in a half-circle, with four dogs of various sizes all standing there ready for their food. The owner prayed aloud, said Amen, and those noses were buried in those dog dishes immediately—but not until then.

Why can't we human beings allow ourselves to be trained as obediently? One of the crucial benefits of reading our Bibles is that those Bibles contain stories about people who trusted God even in the darkest and most uncertain times, and what happened. Other stories tell about people who didn't trust God, and what happened there as well.

And every parent knows what happens when a child does not follow mom’s or dad’s timetable. Even though a three-year-old child has great curiosity, a three-year-old child should not have access to a pistol. Nor should a nine-year-old child.

The Bible is packed from end to end with stories of people who either ran ahead of God's timetable, or lagged behind it. And the results were tragic.

I mean, these Israelites had actually had splendid patience-training. First, they had waited all those centuries to be released from slavery. Then they had waited through the 10 plagues. They had waited through Passover night, and then had waited at the shore of the Red Sea while the Egyptian army approached. And after each of these “wait-times,” God had come through.

What does this have to do with me? Well, if I have read the stories – like the one we're looking at now – I know that it's important to wait for God's timing and not my own. I should pray earnestly and fervently (and make sure I am following His will in everything), but I should recognize that if I don't get the response I want, I need to be patient with God. All through Moses’ time of leadership, he prayed fervently, but except for one tragic slip-up when he allowed himself to lose his temper, he was incredibly patient.

How do I acquire patience if I don't currently have it? Well, over in Galatians 5:22, "long-suffering" or patience is the fourth gift of the Spirit, following love, joy, and peace. The Holy Spirit is the one who can give us divine patience. If you need it, pray for it. And open your heart for it, or the Lord might have to teach you patience in more unsettling ways than you might like!

Now let's look something else which causes God great concern.

Verse 1: Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

One thing that disturbs God is when people say, “I demand that God follow my timetable.” Another thing that disturbs Him is when they say, “I want to create and control my gods.”

I didn't grow up in a culture where people bowed down to idols. As a kid, I would read these Bible stories and wonder how on earth anybody would want to do this. But in my culture, just as in any other human culture, there were people who wanted to create and control their gods.

A god is something – or someone – whom you allow to control your time, your money, your thinking patterns, your actions, the music you listen to, even what you do on the day which the true God calls the Sabbath. Life on this earth is one long series of choices—do I obey the capital-G God or the small-g gods?

And every once in a while someone will take it upon himself or herself to try to re-create the true God. Several years ago a man was going through a period of great personal discouragement. He took up a pen and started to write, and he discovered that words flowed very easily from him. And not only that, the words appeared to be the words of God speaking to him.

This man went on to publish this material in a book called Conversations with God. And later he wrote another book where the words he claimed were God’s words answered teenagers' questions. I read a little of that material, because I had been asked to write an article about it, and what was so chilling was that the "God" of those conversations did not have a wide emotional spectrum. He spoke more as a kindly uncle--and even more bloodcurdlingly, this "God" never really condemned anything.

Teens would write in, agonizing about what they were going through, or confessing things they were doing, and this "God" would assure them that everything was all right, everything was fine, they should accept themselves as they were, they should just go ahead and do what they wanted.

In other words, what this author was doing – whether he understood it or not – was creating his own God, creating God in his own image. This author was probably a tolerant person, or may not have wanted to submit his life to the Bible’s moral code, so the "God" he created ended up being appallingly tolerant also. Who knows how many people have been led astray by those books, while allowing themselves to believe that they were truly listening to divinity.

Again, how does this relate to you and me? Well, the clearer a picture I have of the true God, especially if I have allowed Him to come into my heart through His Holy Spirit, the more willing I will be to allow God to be God, and not try to create my own version of Him.


But we need to move on to something else which destroys God's peace of mind.

Verses 1 – 2: Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”

If God gets disturbed when people want Him to follow their timetable, and when they want to create and control their own gods, He also gets disturbed when they say, "I want my religious leaders to approve of what I do."

The Bible does not tell us what got into Aaron's mind which led him to go along with the people’s idea. I mean, this man had had a front-row seat at the true God's most dramatic Egypt miracles. A staff in his own hand had become a snake, and then a staff again. And it's not like Aaron had been a mere spectator – he had been Moses' spokesman. Aaron had looked into the very face of the idolatrous Pharaoh and had told him the words God wanted him to hear.

Aaron had seen the plagues, Aaron had watched the Red Sea part and clash together again. Aaron had heard the voice of God, and had heard what that voice had said: Don't make any graven images, or bow down to them.

But when the people put Aaron on the spot, he caved.

So – what does that have to do with me? Well, it has a lot to do with me, personally, because I am a pastor. I must not betray my pastoral trust. I thank everyone of you who prays for me, and prays for Shelley. Every once in a while someone in conversation says to me, "Boy, it must be hard being a pastor."

Well, every once in a great while a crisis or uncomfortable situation does come up that makes it tough to get to sleep at night. However, when a pastoral couple knows that he and she have people who are not only willing to share the burden and share their wisdom, and most importantly to pray, pastoring is a true joy. Please continue to pray for us.

And of course, pastors aren't the only leaders in the congregation. Each one of us – whether or not our name will come up on our next nominating committee list – is a minister for Jesus. If you lead a children's Sabbath school class, you are a role model whether or not you want to be. If you stand in the foyer and greet people who are here for the first time, you are, for them, for the moment, the Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist church. If, at our potluck this afternoon, you invite someone you don't know to sit at your table, you may be providing pastoral care the pastor would never be able to. If you listen silently on the phone to someone sharing their discouragement, you are an angel of God.

And if, when you are away from this building and doing what you normally do during the week, you do everything to the glory of God and for the enhancement of His reputation, and to uphold what you know He believes is the right thing to do, then He will change lives through you.

Let’s watch the conclusion of this story, and notice God’s reaction to it.

Verses 3 – 6: So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

What happens next always causes my skin to tingle, because we will see God becoming extremely emotional. But we will also see His trusted friend Moses at prayer. Notice what happens.

Verses 7 – 10: And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

And of course God has every right to be fed up. He has worked many miracles to guide these people away from slavery not only of the Egyptians but of their idols, and while He's talking with His friend Moses, they are having the worst sort of pagan orgies around their self-created god. The Lord is probably thinking of the desperation He felt with the pre-flood civilization of Genesis 6:5, whose hearts were “only evil continually.” Is it possible that He cannot fulfill His plans for a happy humanity through this degenerate generation either?

But now, Moses turns to prayer. Prayer is actually “conversation with God” – not a conversation with your own mind, but with God. And notice that Moses doesn't utter a humble and fatalistic "Thy will be done, Lord" and plug his ears against a nation's destruction. No, Moses takes a deep breath and begins to intercede in a way he never had before, and maybe never will again. Moses disagrees with God, but rather than turning grumpily away and refusing to talk with God, he begins reasoning with Him.

Verses 11 – 14: Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

And did you notice the main talking-point Moses used as he interceded for the people? It was God's reputation. Both Moses and God knew that the most important question in the universe is not, "Will I be saved?" but "What is God like?" Moses knew that God wants to live forever with people whose minds have been satisfied about His goodness.

And whether or not the Lord was testing Moses, the Bible doesn't say. But immediately, the Lord relents, and maybe within His heart He feels the joy of discovering a human heart that is very like His own.

Do you want to be a successful pray-er? Like Moses, learn what breaks God's heart. Then, like Moses, learn God's fondest hopes, and as you pray about your own requests, pray toward those hopes of God. And you will bring him joy.

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 PRAYERMASTERS -- JACOB
Expository Sermon on Genesis 28 - 32
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue SDA Church 3/3/2012
©2012 by Maylan Schurch

(To listen to the audio for this sermon, click here.)

Please open your Bibles to Genesis 28.

While you're turning there, I'd like to mention that this is the ssecond sermon in a series I'm calling "Prayermasters." What I'd like to do in this series is to look at some of the Bible’s most powerful pray-ers. I'd like to see what we can learn from them.

As I mentioned last week, I don't want this to be a sermon series where we simply build up a long list of "prayer success" tips. Instead, I would mostly like to look at what these veteran pray-ers understood about God. I would like to get to know God the way they did, and if possible know how they got to know Him this way. I believe that the better we understand their true friendship with God, the more confident and effective our own prayers can become, because first of all we have become His friends.

This week I'd like to take a look at some of the prayer experiences of Jacob. As far as I can tell, the three major “prayer events” in Jacob's life give us a fascinating view of his growth as a pray-er. I think it's a good idea to spend a few minutes seeing where we can place ourselves along the line of his spiritual maturity, and see if we can learn something about how to grow as he did.

When we pick up the story here in Genesis 28, Jacob's life is about to change dramatically. Back when he and his twin brother Esau were born, the Lord had promised their mother Rebekah in Genesis 25:23 that "the older shall serve the younger." Esau was actually the first one born, and Jacob was the second. We know that Jacob's mind was focused on this “reversal” promise, because at one point when a tired and hungry Esau came in from hunting, Jacob "bought" Esau’s oldest-son birthright with a dish of the lentil stew he’d fixed.

An when it came time for the sons to receive their father's official blessing, Rebekah knew that Isaac, the father, favored Esau, and since he was born first would probably give him the firstborn's blessing. So since Isaac was blind by this point, Rebekah worked up a little deception to make Isaac think that Jacob was Esau. And it worked – Isaac gave Jacob the firstborn's blessing.

Esau, of course, was extremely angry about this, and vowed that once father Isaac had died, Esau would have his revenge on Jacob. And this is where chapter 28 starts. Rebekah suggests that Jacob go stay with some relatives a long way off. Old, ailing Isaac agrees with this, and sends Jacob off with another blessing.

And Jacob heads north, and right on to the stage of one of the Bible’s most familiar stories – and into his first recorded prayer experience.

Genesis 28:10 – 12 [NKJV]: Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of