Today’s sermon podcast is is up on Asbury Church’s website. This sermon is the first in my series “Being Salt” which walks us through the Sermon on the Mount. It entitled Oh Happiness. The text is Matthew 5: 3-12. Click the to our website to stream it there, or you can listen to it through my blog. You can also click here to subscribe through iTunes.
Today I was reading through one of my favorite Psalms. And, I love the Psalms. They just speak to what is on our heart so many times. They are so honest, so full of emotion. Just like us, at times they are over joyed with God’s goodness. At times they are heartbroken over our sin. They speak so many things we feel.
I was reading Psalm 25 when some verses jumped out at me:
7 Gracious and upright is the LORD; *
therefore he teaches sinners in his way.
8 He guides the humble in doing right *
and teaches his way to the lowly.
9 All the paths of the LORD are love and faithfulness *
to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
10 For your Name’s sake, O LORD, *
forgive my sin, for it is great.
11 Who are they who fear the LORD? *
he will teach them the way that they should choose.
There is this notion, that I’ve never really picked up until I read it this morning. The Psalmist says that God is with the humble and the righteous, that He leads and guides them.
So, you’d think the Psalmist was one of the humble and righteous that God guided, right?
Notice what the Psalmist says right after through – Forgive me of my sin, for it is great.
Then it hit me. Perhaps what it means to be righteous isn’t to be perfect. If that were so, who could be righteous at all. None of. Perhaps what it means to be righteous is understand our constant need for forgiveness.
Part of being rightoues is to understand we are sinful and we can’t statnd without God. That we can’t do it ourselves. That we need God. That our own strength and will is not enough to “make” us good. We need the power of God, the grace of God, the might of God. We need His strength.
And, we need His forgiveness. Today. Everyday.
Part of being strong is to realize we are weak and frail and can’t do it. And when we think we are strong, we are headed for a fall. When we think we’ve got it figured out, we make a fool of ourselves.
When we think we are righteous we fall into sin. When we realize we are weak and in need of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness, we find His life. We find His power. We find a new day, a new start and a new forgiveness.
I think part of what it means to be righteous is live under God’s constant forgiveness. And under His constant forgiveness, we find life we can’t find anywhere else!
This morning as I was reading through of the passages of scripture that we all have heard a lot and that we know pretty well, the Fruit of the Spirit, I was struck by the last verse in that section in a way that’d I’d never noticed before.
Paul writes this:
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
and this:
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
As I read this, I began to think about that notion of crucifixion. This notion of putting to death these things. That we are supposed to die to our sinful passions and desire.
In short that we are supposed to be different. As Christians, as those that follow Christ, we are called to be different that the world.
We are called to be different than the culture.
We are called to live, to love, to serve, to be different than the culture we are in. Different from the world.
We have a different Lord – so we have a different calling and a different way that we are supposed to live. Not a life of self righteous judgment, mind you, but a life of love and service.
But, it comes back to that truth. We are called to be different. To put to death the past and it’s desires and live in the newness of life Jesus offers.
Today, are we different? Are we different than the world? Do folks notice something different about us? Do folks wonder what makes us different? Why we have hope, peace, and joy? Why we love?
Are we different? If we are led by the Spirit and have put to death the old, we will be.
May we be different for our Lord in this day!
In Scripture, there are just certain passages that you read and you go – that’s it! That’s how I feel! That’s what I’m feeling, that’s what I’m experiencing
For me, Paul’s words in Romans 7 are that. When I read the end of Romans 7, I say, yep, that’s the story of my life, that summarizes my feelings. Today, as I read through it, a couple of things from this chapter just leapt out to me.
Paul writes:
I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
Hello? Man, oh man, I’ve been there. I know what’s right. I know what’s wrong. I know what I should do, I know what I shouldn’t do!
I know it. It’s not guess-work. I know the answer. I know how I should live, serve, give, who I should be. It’s a plain as the nose on my face.
And what do I do? What’s wrong. What I shouldn’t do. The very thing I don’t want to do. The very thing I despise.
The good I should do I don’t do, the evil I shouldn’t do, I do.
In other words, that thing that we struggle with. That we know we shouldn’t do. That day after day after day we know we should not do – that very thing we do!
UGH. It drive me crazy. I don’t want to do it! I want to be different. I want to live apart from these sins. Yet, I keep falling into it.
What am I to do?
The reason why I love this passage is because Paul gives an answer:
25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
The answer is not my will power. It’s not in my being good enough, smart enough, strong enough.
I can’t. I’ve already proved that.
It’s not in what I can do. It’s in what He can do.
I can do nothing. He can do all things. I am weak, He is strong. I choose what is wrong. He is what is right.
Through ourselves, our own devices, our own choosing, we get ourselves in trouble.
Through Jesus, we find life.
Thanks be to God!
Today, trust in Him. Rely upon Him. Cast your cares on Him. He is life. He is strength. He is hope. Lean not on yourself, but on Him. Trust. Live. With Him.
Thanks be to God! For in Him, all things are possible.
One of the things in life that is most disheartening, to me at least, is when folks feel like giving up. When people feel like their is no hope. When we lose that sense that things can get better, can change, can be different.
In short, when people want to give up. When people think that there is no reason to hope.
We hear, oh, but things can change. Things can be different. It doesn’t have to be like that.
And, when we are broken, we say – impossible. That can’t happen. It won’t change.
If that is where you are on this Monday morning, listen to the word of Jesus from Matthew 21:
21 Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. 22 You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”
Things don’t have to be the same. They don’t have to be like they’ve always been.
I know it’s Monday, and we hate Mondays.
But this Monday, this Monday is a new day! Each day is a new day. Each day, through faith, we get to start over. Each day is new. Full of new life, new hope, new grace.
This is a new day. It does have to be like a aways. Things can change. Things can be different. It isn’t impossible.
Now, through ourselves and our strength, yeah, nothing will change.
But, through God. Through faith. Through grace. Through His life, things can change. Things can be different. There is hope. There is life. There is a change for a new start.
Today, through faith.
Today, yes even today. Even this morning. There is a chance for a fresh start.
Things can be different. Things can change. Nothing is impossible.
Mondays are awesome! Through God’s grace, each new day is awesome.
Go out and live a fresh, new, loved life. For today is a new day. Nothing is impossible for God.
Nothing!
One of the things that is always most inspiring, and honestly, intimidating, to me about the saints of scripture is the amazing faith they had. They had an ability to trust, to see, to hope, that is without a doubt, other-worldly. Today, look at Abraham. This is what Paul says in Romans 4
19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Think about that for a second. How easy would it have been to give for Abraham? How easy would it have been to say, ok, that’s enough. Check please. I’m done. I’m headed back to Ur.
But, he didn’t. He still had faith. Now, we know if we go back and read his story in Genesis, we’ll see he wasn’t perfect. He did some dumb things. He made some bad mistakes.
There were times when struggled and had doubts.
But, we see in the end, he had faith. He trusted. He believed. He trusted. Even when he didn’t see. He about the faith to see what is not there. And know that it will be there. One day.
In our lives, on the roads we walk, there will be times we doubt. There will be times we struggle. There will be times when we are down cast.
So in those times, hold fast to your faith. Hold fast to what is good and noble and true. Hold fast to what you believe. The doubts and trials and struggles and darkness will come.
Hold onto what is of God. What is of faith. What matters.
Don’t lose sight of what God is doing. Sometimes faith is the ability to see what is not there. But know that it will be there.
And remember, that God is bigger than all we face. God is bigger than our doubts, our fears, our hopes, our dreams. God is bigger than our vision. God is bigger than our sight. That’s why we walk by faith, not by sight.
We see with the eyes of faith. We see not just what is there. We see what will be there. Hope. Trust. Have faith.
God is at work. Today, and always. Hold onto Him.
I don’t always want what is best for me. The things that I desire are not always in my best interest and for my best life. They may look really, really appealing, but in the end, can be my doom. Today, Paul talks about the need to understand how our desires might not always be best. In Galatians, he says:
I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
What does that mean, to be crucified with Christ? That’s a nice phrase that sounds good and holy and Christian, but what does that mean?
I think, or at least I’ve found out for me, that in some ways, it just means realizing that life is not about me. Life, in the end is not about what I want or what I desire, but it is about what God wants.
In life I, and you, have two choices. We can spend our lives chasing our desires and our “stuff,” or we can spend our lives chasing God’s desires and God’s dreams for us.
The more we chase our “stuff” the more we will find a joyous, abundant life slipping through our fingers like sand. The more we chase God’s dreams, the more we will find life, even if it isn’t the life that we “want,” we will find that life that is abundant. Life giving. Amazing. Fulfilling.
So, which life will we chase? Will we chase ours and maybe, get what we want, but not what we need?
Or will we be crucified with Christ, and chase after His dream and His vision and His life? In that find life?
Which life will we chase after today?
The suggested Old Testament readings the past few days have been from Proverbs. I’ve always loved Proverbs and Psalms. Dr. Frank Pollard, one of the best preachers I’ve ever known, used to always tell folks to read three Psalms and a chapter of Proverbs a day, it would really make a difference. And I believe that to be true.
As I praying today, I started thinking about pride, and the famous passage we know from Proverbs popped in my mind Proverbs 16:18
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
It hit me this morning one of the ways that pride brings forth destruction in my life. It looks like this.
I need to be a better person. I need to be more faithful. I need to do more. I need to change. I need to be different. I need to. . . whatever.
How is that prideful? Those look like good, Christian statements. How is that pride?
It’s pride in that I’ve mistakenly though I can do it. I just need to bow up. I just need to do more. I can do it. I just haven’t. But I can.
No, I can’t. Pride fools us in to thinking we are stronger than we really are. Pride fools us into thinking we are smarter than we really are. Pride makes us think that if we just want it enough, we can do it!
That’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible reminds us that through God, all things are possible. Yes, we can change. We can be different. We can do better. We can be new. We can be a new creation. We can experience all these things.
But, not through our strength and will. But through God’s grace.
Pride makes us think we can do it.
And, as long as we think we can do it, we will never be able to do it.
Only through His grace can we do any of it. Only through His grace can we be new and different. Only through His grace can we change. Only through His grace can we live.
The pride goes before the fall. May we not be prideful today. May we remember that our true strength comes not from ourselves.
But from God.
Today as I was reading and praying, I read these words from Matthew:
40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. 41 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!
Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders and telling them that they must repent. They are asking Him for a sign earlier in the passage, but He says none will be given, for they have among the greatest sign – Himself.
And He gives reference to those in the Old Testament that have repented and received new life. He says that those that turn receive new life, but they must be willing to turn and live.
There is no one beyond God’s grace. I believe that with every fiber of my being. There is no one that can’t start again, today. There is no one that can’t know God’s forgiveness. No one is beyond the pale, if they are willing to turn back.
I’ve seen recently in some ways and in some lives the power of sin to destroy what is good. Sin is a destructive force that seeks to take away all that is good.
And one of the things that sin takes away is hope. The hope that it can be different. The hope that it can change. The hope that life can begin again. The hope that today is a new day.
Sin beats us down. It breaks us apart. It robs us.
It wants us to think that change can’t happen. That there is no hope for things getting better.
That is not. Where there is repentance, there is forgiveness. Where there is grace, there is new life.
Where there is God, there is hope.
Today, no matter what sin and the devil whisper in your ear, there is hope.
This is a new day. Things can change. You can be different.
God and goodness will win. Sin will not.
Today, there is hope. You can change. You can life.
Through God’s grace. Today, there is hope.
One of the things that worries me, that worries many of us, is this, how will I be ready when a
test comes?
None of us look forward to tests, want tests, desire to be tested.
We all want peaceful, calm, easy lives.
That’s something we all really, really want.
But, we all also know that a time of testing and trial will come. It’s something we all face.
Today’s readings seem to fit together (to me) in a way that showed me some truth about testing that I needed to be reminded of.
First, the Psalmist in Psalm 105 talks about the faithfulness of God, and recounts all God had done. But, he says in the Psalm
17 He sent a man before them, *
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 They bruised his feet in fetters; *
his neck they put in an iron collar.
19 Until his prediction came to pass, *
the word of the LORD tested him.
Testing will come, even for God’s people.
Just because you love God and He loves you, that doesn’t mean that testing won’t come. Don’t regard your tests as a failure. Don’t thing you’ve done anything wrong. Don’t think you’ve failed. Test come to us all.
Then, in Zechariah, the Lord says these words to His prophet:
“This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.
The Lord has just given him a calling to go and proclaim God’s Word. But, before he does, the Lord reminds him – it’s by God’s Spirit that he will accomplish what God has for him.
That really nailed me this morning. So often I try to pass those tests on my own. I try to beat back tests and trials and temptations on my own.
By my will.
My strength.
My might.
And, I fail.
But the Lord reminds us, not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
The surest way to fail whatever test we face today is by relying upon our ability. Our strength. Our will. We simply can’t do it alone.
How to pass a test? The Lord. His Spirit. His life. His power. Through Him.
We will face tests, each day. May we remember that it through Him and in Him, we can come through theses tests and cross over to new and abundant life.
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