Getting ready for Sunday.

I remember the days when I sat in the pews.  I get to do it every once in a while now, but it's different for me now.  I hardly ever get to just sit and listen so now it's a very difference experience.  I see things differently and hear things differently now.  But I remember the days when I sat in the pew.  I was tired and often struggled to keep my eyes open.  I remember many a time when I walked away from church and wondered what we did for the last hour.  I remember struggling to pay attention and keep my mind on track.  Sometimes I was tired.  Sometimes I was distracted. Sometimes I was cold.  Sometimes I was hot.  Sometimes I was troubled.  Sometimes I was too comfortable.  There were all kinds of things that me from really giving my full attention to the worship that was at hand.

What is it for you?  What is that keeps your hears from hearing and your heart from absorbing that which God gives in Word and Sacrament?

Jesus had many important things to teach his disciples in those last hours of his life, many things that he wanted to stick to their hearts and minds long after he was gone.  But they were having trouble listening. They were having trouble understanding.  They were having trouble taking to hear the things that Jesus said.

But Jesus was so patient and loving with his deaf disciples. 

This Sunday we're going to look at John 14:1-14 and hear Jesus comfort his disciples who were so troubled and confused that they weren't hearing his words. 

As you come to church this Sunday say a prayer that God would use his words to open your hears and pierce your hearts that you might have the hope and comfort that Jesus gives us in these precious words on the night he was betrayed.  He was more troubled than all the rest but from the depths of his love he comforted his disciples and comforts us.

See you Sunday!

Beyond Sunday - What's next?

When my brothers started their ministries as pastors in WI, NY, and GA my dad got all of us boys the painting above.  And he preached a sermon to each of us that now sits above the fire place in our home.  I'll admit sometimes I forget about this painting; it kind of just blends into the wall.  But when John 13 is one of the readings, then it always pops off the wall for me again. It still preaches a sermon to me as I remember the words of John about what Jesus did for us that night.  It was a huge deal!

Jesus washes me.  Jesus washes you.  He got down on his hands and knees; he humbled himself and became a human being to make us clean and to bring us to God.  Jesus did everything that was needed to bring us home to our Father in heaven, the only place where we belong. This is a big deal! Jesus washes my feet.

And now he teaches us to do the same for each other. Jesus teaches us to love each other and served each other as Jesus loved and served us. This is a big deal.

Here are two questions for you today:

1) Who can I serve?  By God's grace and God's calling, through faith in Jesus, you are the hands, the feet, even the mouth of God in the world.  You are the hands of Jesus washing feet.  You are the mouth of Jesus proclaiming peace to the world.  Who can you serve? Whose feet can you wash?

2) How do you need to be served? Let someone do it.  I've hear this more and more lately.  "I am always glad to help other people, but have a really hard time letting other people help me."  I feel that way too.  I want to feel and even be self-sufficient; I want to get 'er done on my own.  And when someone has to serve me and help me, that's a jab at my ego.  But we can't do it alone.  We need the help.

That's why it's called grace.  We couldn't save ourselves, so God did it for us.  We could cleanse ourselves, so Jesus had to wash us.  We couldn't change our minds and choose Jesus, he had to choose us. That's why it's called grace.  God did everything - and I mean everything - to save us.

Peter didn't want Jesus to wash his feet.  But what Jesus doing? He was showing Peter grace and doing something that Peter need to have done.  It's just as much grace when other people help us.  God is working through them to help us, support us, strengthen us.  I don't really want someone else to wash my feet, but my feet get dirty and my feet need to be washed.  We need other people, other Christians to serve and help us as Jesus served.

Jesus keep you as you serve other people in his name!

Through the Gospels in 30 - Day 3

Day 3: Matthew 3, Luke 3, John 3.

How is it going? What has God taught you as he reveals himself in his Word?  I'd love to hear it.

Through the Gospels in Lent - DAY 2

Alright, for those of you reading through the gospels this lent. Here are your readings for today. Matthew 2, Luke 2, John 2. 

If you missed yesterday go back and read the first chapter of the same books. As I reread these sections it is amazing to me how God has this whole thing planned and organized, even orchestrated. It will go according to plan. In his grace, he lets people - us - be a part of his plan and sends messengers (in these accounts, angels) to get people on board. Yet, even when they are not willing God's plan is not deterred! God gets it done and our salvation is won.

Thank you, Lord God, our Father in heaven above for your wise and careful plan that you carried out powerfully and perfectly in the days of Jesus.  Thank you for not doing it secretly but doing it publicly and letting us know about it through your Word and through the messengers you send to us who proclaim that Word.  Amen.

Through the gospels in Lent - DAY 1.

Through the Gospels during Lent

People sometimes talk about “giving something up” during Lent.  To be sure, the 40 days of Lent have generally been treated as days for discipline.  At first, however, this “discipline” was first “discipling,” that is, instruction.  

This year I want to challenge you, instead of “giving something up” during Lent, “take something up” and read through the Four Gospels with me.  Get to know the life and works of your Savior Jesus better as we watch him go to the cross!

Monday through Friday, beginning today I will post the daily readings here and as time permits a brief meditation on those readings.

This is a plan from YouVersion.com.

Day 1: Matthew 1, Luke 1, John 1.

So, Lent is usually a focus on the Passion of our Lord, on his suffering and birth.  What could these readings about his forerunner, about his birth, about his person have to do with his passion?  Is this not where it all begins? Yes and no.

If we want to know where this all begins we have to go back to Genesis where God first proclaims the promise when he curses the snake (Genesis 3:15).  There God promises a Champion who will rise up from the seed of woman to crush the serpent's head and render him powerless and destroyed.  It all begins there.

Oh, how Satan must have screamed every time a child was born wondering, "Is this the promised Champion who will crush my head?"  And then, in the person of Jesus, in the baby born of Mary adopted, so-to-speak, by Joseph, proclaimed by John, the Champion was born. So, where does the passion begin, where does the cross begin to come into view? It begins the moment he was conceived, the day he was born.  This child was born to die!

For us! For you. For me.  This child was born to die for you and for me.

It all started there in a manger.  It all ends at the empty tomb!

Ash Wednesday - Our Lenten Journey Begins

Ash Wednesday Meditation

Ash Wednesday Meditation

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; 

according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  

Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.  

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. - Psalm 51:1-5

In the Old Testament it was common practice for individuals to show sorrow over sin by wearing sackcloth and sitting in ashes.  It was an attempt to show on the outside the misery that was going on inside.  As Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday today, we continue to be sorrowful over the sins we have committed.

The writer of Psalm 51, King David, had reason to be sorrowful over his sin.  2 Samuel 11,12  paint an ugly picture of David the sinner.  He slept with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and she became pregnant.  After attempts to cover up the affair failed, he arranged to have Uriah killed.  David’s sin was horrible and damnable.

David asked for forgiveness that he knew he did not deserve.  So rather than trying to candy-coat his actions, he was honest.  He admits sin, iniquity, transgression and evil which had affected and infected him from the time he was born.  David did not deserve to be forgiven, so he simply threw himself on God’s mercy begging for forgiveness.  It was a forgiveness that God freely gave him.

Today is a day for all to be honest with God about sin.  We also need to admit sin, iniquity, transgression and evil that have come from our sinful hearts.  But this is also the start of Lent.  Lent is a Christian season when we consider the payment Jesus made for our sin.  As we follow Jesus to the cross on Calvary, we see God’s undeserved love and mercy which he offers to all people.

Join King David today in confessing your sin.  Be assured that through Jesus Christ you have been forgiven!

Prayer:

Almighty and merciful Father, you freely forgive those who, as David of old, acknowledge and confess their sins.  Create in me a pure heart, and wash away all my sins in the blood of your dear Son, Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord.  Amen.

Podcast Version.

This Devotion is brought to you by www.WhatAboutJesus.com

Getting ready for Sunday - Witness: Crossing Barriers.

February is black history month.  Our students and our kids are focusing on some of the important figures throughout history who have impacted and changed the world as they crossed racial barriers that once impacted our country.  USA Today asks the question: Is it still relevant?  I'll leave you to answer that question from your own experience.

On my part, I can tell you about my experiences with this.  Just a little over ten years ago, I myself was witness to how ugly racial tensions can become in our country.  Angry words exchanged.  Fires started.  It was ugly. Racial tensions were hot and heated.  But I haven't just had negative experiences.  I've experienced and still do experience great joy in relationships with people of all kinds of different backgrounds, races, colors, even languages.

But here's the question for us as we wrap up our series on witnessing: What is the Christian church to do about the barriers that exist?  What is Abiding Faith to do about it?

Before we can look closely at those questions, we need to answer two other fundamental questions clearly in our own minds and hearts:

What has God done about it? Simple answer: He sent his Son to die for all people of every race, language, tribe and nation.  God's Son crossed every barrier between people's that every existed!

What is God doing about it? Simple answer: He is overcoming the barriers that exist with the love of Jesus and the power of his Word.

This Sunday we learn from God about these very things as he teaches Peter and the early Christian  to cross barriers. We're going to study Acts 10:34-48.

As you prepare for Sunday I want you to ask yourself this introspective question: What biases and barriers do I have in my mind? Are they cultural? Are they economic? Are they religious? Do I have "issues" with people because of their color, their language, their social status, the religion?  What are the "issues" that I have with other people?

Then come ready to let God help you get over those "issues."

Getting ready for Sunday - We are his witnesses.

Two weeks in a row as we leave church on Wednesday night my kids have asked: "Dad, what's a witness?"  As I do, I like to turn it around on them, "What do you think it means?"  It always leads into a great conversation about what a witness sees and what a witness does.

It starts with seeing something with their own eyes.  They've seen what happened.  They can speak from personal experience. This isn't something "they heard about" this is something they saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears.  This was not their version of the telephone game.

It continues with saying what they have seen and heard.  It continues with their testimony.  And not as a "he said" or "she said," but as an I saw and I heard.

They see it.  They talk about it.  The apostles saw.  They heard.  And they talked about it as they said in their own words, "For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20.

As we get ready for Sunday, think about and meditate on those things that you've seen and heard.  How did God work before you were born to save you from your sins? How did God work and rule in your life to save you from your sins? Where did God put you? Whom did God put in your life so that you'd know him? Where has God put you now so that you'd be in him and know him? Where has God put you now so that you could witness and testify about him?

This Sunday we're looking at the early Christian church in Acts chapter 8 (v1-13) and we get to see our God at work, ruling the church, always for the good, always for the spread of the Gospel.  This Sunday we'll get to see how God rules; how he ruled in the past for the spread of the Gospel; yes, even how he rules today for the spread of the Gospel.

God has a plan and we get to be a part of it!

Beyond Sunday - "the bystander effect"

"What would you do?" I don't watch the show much but it is always interesting to see the scenarios they create and the way that total strangers react.  Sometimes the scenario is the need of an individual.  Sometimes the scenario is the outlandish and sometimes even offensive behavior of a person.  It's always interesting to see how people respond to a given situation.

Psychologytoday.com describes bystander effect like this: "The bystander effect occurs when the presence of others hinders an individual from intervening in an emergency situation. Social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley popularized the concept following the infamous 1964 Kitty Genovese murder in Kew Gardens, New York. Genovese was stabbed to death outside her apartment three times, while bystanders who reportedly observed the crime did not step in to assist or call the police. Latane and Darley attributed the bystander effect to the diffusion of responsibility (onlookers are more likely to intervene if there are few or no other witnesses) and social influence (individuals in a group monitor the behavior of those around them to determine how to act). In Genovese's case, each onlooker concluded from their neighbors' inaction that their own help was not needed."

Dear Christians - what will you do?

We live in a world that whether they know it or not, whether they agree with us or not, whether they feel like it or not, is largely on their way to the greatest disaster, ever. As horrendous the Genovese case was, it is an even greater tragedy when we see people walking toward the end of a cliff, an eternity in hell.  What will you do?

We have just the Savior for them.

We have just the message to share with them.

We have a message that speaks for itself.  Share it and let that message loose on 'em.  Charles Spurgeon once said that we didn't need to defend the Bible because it was like a lion.  Nobody has to do defend a lion.  We just let it loose to defend itself.  So let the message loose and it will do its work.

Don't just stand there.  Stand up and tell them.

Who will you tell? Pray for them. Pray for opportunities to tell them.  Pray for the words to tell them.

Then, get up and tell them as God gives you the opportunity.

Getting ready for Sunday: Witness - Cross Examined.

If you were put on a witness stand in a courtroom and had to testify to your faith, salvation, forgiveness, and who Jesus Christ is, what would you say? If you’re friend, your neighbor, your co-workers asked you to share your faith, what would you say?  How would you say it?  God will give us opportunities to share our faith - we want to be ready to witness and testify about him.  God urges us to take opportunities to share our faith - we want to be prepared to take advantage of those opportunities.

The amazing and gracious truth is this: We are a part of God’s plan of salvation to get his Gospel out to the ends of the earth.  We get to be his light in the world; we get to be the salt of the earth. We get to be God’s mouthpiece, God’s messengers, God’s fellow-workers!  We get to be part of the way in which God saves people!  How awesome!  How gracious!  God has shown us such grace!  He saved us by his Son.  He calls us to share that witness with all the world.

In this series, we will take a look at what the Bible says about being a witness for Jesus in our neighborhood, community, and world.

So, as you come to church this week, ask this: Why is witnessing hard for me? What is the thing that makes me most afraid to witness and share my faith?  This week, Jesus calms our fears even as he sends us out into battle.  We'll be studying Matthew 10:26-34

Getting ready for Sunday - SHIFT in my role models.

There are 168 hours in a week.  If we sleep 7 hours a day (49 hours a week), then we're awake for 149 hours.  If we're in worship, growth groups (Bible studies), and in our private devotions then perhaps we setting aside another 10 hours or so on time specifically set aside for God, for his Word, and for prayer.  That leaves us with 139 hours in our week.  Who are you listening to during that time?

Paul Tripp writes: “No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. You're in an unending conversation with yourself. You're talking to yourself all the time, interpreting, organizing, and analyzing what's going on inside you and around you.”

Kind of a scary thought, isn't it?  More than anyone else in my life, I'm preaching to myself.  I'm preaching to myself in my private devotions.  I'm preaching to myself when I'm at work.  I'm preaching to myself wherever I go and whatever I do.

Whose word are you preaching to yourself?  What message are you preaching?  What are you telling yourself?  Who influences the sermons you preach to your heart?

More than a little scary, isn't it?

That makes my time in God's Word all the more important.  It needs to go with me even when I'm not devoting all of my energies to meditating on it and praying about it.  God's Word needs to flow from my heart into my ears all day long.  It needs to be the thing I chew on all day long. The time we spend in God's Word on Sunday, in growth groups (Bible studies), and in our private, personal devotions are so important.  We want our Father's voice, which is loud and clear in the Bible, to be the voice ringing in our hears through our days.

That makes our friends so important, especially our closest friends and our advisors, especially our role models.  We need them to be speaking God's Word to us and redirecting us to the one thing needful, one thing true and certain, the one thing powerful and saving.  Our friends, our role models, our advisors and counselors, are so important.

This Sunday we will consider Hebrews 10:19-25 and remember why it's so important for us to keep showing up.

Beyond Sunday - SHIFT in my involvement.

Yesterday turned into an interesting but an awesome day. But it didn't go as planned.  Sunday morning was great! I always love the chance to share God's Word.  Lunch was awesome.  Got to visit with so many people.  Add to that the joy of seeing God's people connecting to each other - and not wanting to leave.  Then I got teach the basics of the faith.  All part of the plan, so far.

Then I came out to the car and had a flat.  Not exactly how I wanted to spend the next part of my Sunday.  But it turned out well.  I got home from getting the flat fixed and enjoyed a great evening with my family.  God gave me some down time that I hadn't planned on and it was just what I needed so that I could come home refreshed to be with family.

We're all busy.  I haven't met anyone in this world who isn't busy.  In fact, that is the common reason that something can't get done, someone can't meet... I can't do that because I'm busy.  Take a look at your day, take a look at your calendar and what do you see? You're busy. We're all busy.

We're all busy.  But don't be too busy for God.

Take just a moment today and thank God for the life that he's given you.

Take just a moment today and thank God for the grace that he's given you, the forgiveness that he's given you.

Take just a moment today and thank God for the way he is ruling your life and taking care of you, even if you don't agree with his plan.

Take just a moment and ask God to help you through whatever it is that is on your plate.

It's so easy for us to substitute our action and activity for trust in God's action and activity.  It's so easy to think, "I'm too busy to pray.  I'm too busy to read my devotions."  But take note at what we're doing... We're thinking that our work is more important than God's.  We're thinking that our will is more important than God's.  And we all know that that just isn't true.

Slow down and ponder God's will and work.

Slow down and ponder God's mission and ministry.

Slow down and pray.

Slow down and see how God get's involved in your life.

Slow down and see the opportunities that God gives you to be involved in the lives of the people around you.

Then, get off the bench and get into the game.

Getting ready for Sunday!

We live with people.  We live around with people.  We work for people.  We work with people.  We work next to people.  We interact with people more than ever before either in person or through some other medium.  We get phone calls, text messages, Facebook alerts, maybe even Voxer. Unless you are a hermit living on a mountaintop you interact with people all day long. What's that experience like?  Some people enjoy a tech free day off, a quiet day away from it all.  Many people would benefit from just a few moments unplugging.

That's what Jesus is doing with his disciples in the text we'll look at this Sunday (Matthew 14:13-21). They were going away by themselves to unplug.  The disciples had come off of a missionary trip.  Jesus had just received the news that John the Baptist had been beheaded.  They were worn out and tired and need a chance to unplug and to refuel in prayer and meditation on God's Word.  BUT THE CROWDS CHASED THEM THERE TOO!

Yet, what do we see in Jesus?  Pay close attention.  Jesus may have been worn out, but he was never too exhausted to give his love and care to that crowd that interrupted his quiet time.  He saw that they were harassed and helpless.

As you get ready for Sunday, learn this about Jesus - our Father in heaven is never too busy, never to exhausted, never empty to hear our prayers.  We are his children and he doesn't brush us off or view our prayers as too small a thing for him to be concerned about.  Jesus is the very same way.  He looked at this crowd and he was overflowing with compassion for them.

How do you look at the people in your life that enter it through a purposeful plan of yours or through God's purposeful plan (that you didn't know about!)? How do you see their intrusion into your day?

Jesus wanted to teach his disciples something that day.  He teaches us something too.  This Sunday we learn from Jesus about a SHIFT in our involvement in the lives of the people around us and learn to impact them in the same way that we have been impacted by Jesus himself.

Read Matthew 14:13-21 (for a fuller picture you can also read: Matthew 14:1-36; Mark 6:1-56; and/or John 6:1-70).

See you Sunday!

Beyond Sunday - SOAP journal entry

What joy God gave Sarah and Abraham in their old age. After a life of waiting, a life of pilgrimage (that wasn't done yet), God gave them a great joy - a son. This was nothing short of a miraculous gift of God. Their bodies were as good as dead, the apostle writes, yet God gave life in those bodies that were as good as dead.

Reminds me of Ecclesiastes 9: 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Life is a struggle.  Sins curse makes work toil, the sweat if the brow.  Sins curse troubles relationships wherever we turn.  Sins curse makes our life a steady march to the grave.  Life then becomes pointless.  So, I can learn from Sarah to laugh in thanks to God for the gifts of  Ruth and our children, truly amazing gifts of God.

Lord, help me to laugh in thanks to you for your grace to me in my family. They are an amazing and gracious gift to me from you.  Thank you for this grace. Fill me with joy in this grace today and don't let me get bogged down with the other struggles that sin brings.  Let me laugh and play and enjoy the gifts that they are to me. Thank you especially for the faith that you've planted in them. That is your greatest gift it them and to me.  I pray you then, defend this house, our family, from the attacks of the evil one that nothing would cause them to stumble and trip up, so that they lose their faith.  Nothing would bring me more sadness.  Keep them in the faith! Thank you for hearing me Father and for walking with me today in all that I think, say, and do.

Getting ready for Sunday (Matthew 6:1-15)

SHIFT in your private devotional life.

Lots of studies show it.  Church attendance is down.  Biblical illiteracy is high.  Just google it.  Just look at what Barna studies reveal about church attendance, about Bible reading, about devotional reading.  As much as America wants to be a Christian country, we're not walking in God's Word publicly or privately as one would expect.

But this shouldn't surprise us.  In the early 20th Century (1919) one church leader (August Pieper) already wrote: 

“Spiritual life among us in a state of steep decline...There is little discussion of the gospel and the grace of God among our people in their daily lives.  Regular  morning and evening devotions no longer predominate.  Joint family prayers and no longer spoken, often not even table prayers. A worldly point of view has slipped in among our Christian people” (The Wauwatosa Theology, 59).

How would you assess our country?
How would you assess our congregation?
How would you assess yourself?

Is Pieper right when he writes those things above?

What should we do about it?  On Sunday we will study what Jesus says about our private devotional life in Matthew 6:1-15.

Meanwhile, chew on these words from Pieper as we seek to grow up in our walk with Jesus.  Here he comments on the encouragement of Jesus to pray for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:11-13).

“We should and will want to pray, not for a specific measure of the Spirit, but for as much as is necessary, that we do not decline in spiritual strength, but grow stronger daily, for as much as is necessary to carry out our office properly, and to edify the souls entrusted to us and to make them rich in good works; as much as is necessary to carry his gospel into all the world and gather the elect; as much as is necessary that the church in our midst does not die out, but grows every stronger inwardly and outwardly, in short, Spirit and strength enough and in overflow for the adornment and perfection of his church - that is what he promised and will give us if we do not cease to petition him for it.”

See you Sunday! Pastor Nate

Getting ready for a new series!

Be honest: Are you happy with your life? Wish you could change something? Are you already making plans for what you’ll change in the New Year? New Year’s resolutions? We’d love to hit a grand-slam-walk-off home run.  We’d love to throw or catch the “hail mary” to win the football game.  We’d love to make that huge change that will have a huge impact.  The problem is that change is tough, especially if you try to do a 180 in a month.  That kind of change is really tough.

So what works? What can we do as we walk with Jesus toward heaven? What can we do as we grow together and walk with our fellow believers?

Small, steady shifts. Little, but powerful changes. Imagine feeling confident instead of fearful. Hopeful instead of despaired. Fulfilled instead of worthless. Small, steady shifts. God created us to walk with him every day and he guides us and helps us in making these SHIFTS: Small Changes that make a BIG difference. 

This Sunday - SHIFT in our worship experience.  We'll listen to Jesus teach us about how he wants us to approach him and his Word, how he wants us to listen and what he wants us to do with what he says.  And in so doing he helps us understand the purpose of our time with him.  Our worship experience, our time with Jesus on Sunday morning is our time to meet with God, to meet with Jesus, to hear from him, to be drawn closer to him so that our faith is built on the rock.  Jesus teaches us to shift our attention to him and to his Word in our worship and in so doing he works powerful in us.

So, let's get our year, our week and our year started built on Jesus and his words.  Our worship gets our week out of the blocks and sprinting toward the finish line.

Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) to read the whole context of what Jesus says.  We will give special attention to Jesus' words in Matthew 5:1-2 and 7:24-29.

See you Sunday!

Getting ready for church - A Tale of Three Kings

So...it's a new year and time for some changes.

What are the changes that you've resolved to make? What are the hopes and dreams that you have for the coming year?  What are you going to get done by God's grace and willing?

Lots of people do that.  Many people kick the new year off with resolutions, goals, and changes they want to make in their life.  In many ways they (you) want to transform your life in one way or another.  As you look forward to a new year what changes do you need and want to make in your life to live as God would have you live spiritually, emotionally, physically, even relationally?  In one week we're going to start a new series called SHIFT where we will discuss some of those little changes that God teaches us to make that will make a huge difference.

This week, however, we're asking the question: What must I keep in mind as I make my plans and move forward into the new year?  What do I have to remember?  Where must my faith be founded? Where must my heart be directed as we begin to follow through on our resolutions and make some of those small shifts that God teaches us to make?

Tomorrow, as we walk with the wise men, we will learn to understand what the wise men knew and believed AND what Herod knew but hated.  It's a tale of three kings: Matthew 3:1-17.

See you tomorrow!

Getting ready for Sunday - Luke 2:25-38

These days lines are long both in the check out and return line.  Some are still waiting for their UPS or FedEX packages to arrive in the mail.  Some are still waiting for their mail to arrive.  Nothing happens quickly or overnight.  Desire, however, is at an all time high.  The latest and greatest iPads, game console, and toys are hot ticket items.  The latest and greatest, newest and best have been rolled out - and if we didn’t get it for Christmas, we’d like to go out and get it now.

Will you wait as long as it takes to get through the checkout line, to get what it is you wanted?  Will you give up and leave the item there in line? Will you forget what it is you wanted or were looking for because you waited so long?

God’s people throughout the period of the Old Testament lived with both.  They lived with excited joy as they waiting with great expectation for the Lord’s Christ to come.  But then he didn’t come. And he didn’t come. And he didn’t come.  It was thousands of years from the time that God promised Eve a snake crusher from her family.  It was thousands of years of waiting - talk about waiting in line!

This Sunday, we move forward in the story of Jesus to the time when he was about 40 days old.  Yet, we move backward and imagine the expectation of Simeon and Anna.  They were both old.  They both had been waiting a long time.  What would they do?  What was it like for them when they met the Christ for the first time?  This Sunday we imagine and get into their sandals.  We’ll consider Luke 2:25-38.

Bring along your Bible and follow along as we dig into the Scriptures.  Bring a friend and invite them to share God’s Word with you as we meet Jesus in his house.

Get ready! A Bible Study on Matthew 3:1-12.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSCihecvvfU&list=PLDCEC119C9647D0F9 (start at min 4:50 - verse references in bottom right are chapter and verse of Matthew.  Watch until about minute 7:45 (or verse 12).

Matthew 3:1-12

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "

4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Who is John the Baptist? What do you know about him? (For a few more details, read Luke 1:1-25).

What was his role to be? (Look at Matthew 3:3).

This last week as the storms rolled in and the weather drastically changed from 80’s one day to 30’s the next, from sunny and dry to cloudy and icy, we all were warned to get ready.  What did you do to get ready?  Maybe you went shopping to get some of the essentials.  You know, stuff like food, water, batteries, blankets, groceries, fire wood, salt, sand, shovels, water faucet covers.  Who knows when we’re going to get out safely.  Looking at the weather it may not be until Tuesday!  Yikes. Talk about cabin fever.  We prepared to be holed up for a few days, at least.

John the Baptist had one specific and major role.  He did for us what the weathermen did for us.  They told us, ahead of time, about the drastic weather change so that we could prepare.  John’s role was the same.  “Prepare the way for the Lord.”  Jesus was coming.  In fact, he was only about six months behind John the Baptist in terms of being born.  Jesus was right on his heels.  In fact, if you keep reading in Matthew (or keep watching), one of the things that John did during this time of preaching and baptizing was baptize Jesus.  Jesus was almost literally right behind John.  John’s role was to prepare the people for Jesus.  John’s role was to get people ready for his coming.

What did you do to prepare for the storm?

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas? What does it look like?

What are you doing to get ready for Jesus’s coming (not just his coming at Christmas, but his coming at the end of the ages)?  What does it look like?

In many ways, our whole home changes in its appearance as many people prepare for Christmas.  A wreath  may adorn the front door.  Lights may sparkle in the eaves of our home.  A tree may fill the space in our living room.  A manger scene rests in a prominent place.  An advent calendar hangs on our fridge. Perhaps, as we get closer to Christmas gifts will rest under the tree.  In our house, we hang the Christmas cards that we receive on the wall.  Each family has their own traditions as they prepare for Christmas.  Each house looks a little different.

But what does it look like as we get ready for Jesus, as we prepare for his coming at the end of the age?  When is that moment in your life when you can say, “I’m ready for you now? It’s probably that moment when we think to ourselves that we have our lives most in order, when we are most in line with what Jesus had done, when we feel like he would be proud of us for the way we’ve been living.  “Look Jesus! I’ve gotten my life and house in order.”  We, of course, will admit that there will always be things in which we can grow as followers of Jesus.  But we’ve done the best that we can.  We’ve changed our lives.  We’ve reformed our actions.  We’ve been rehabilitated.

The problem is - we’re still infected with sin and it has totally taken over our lives. What proof from your life can you give?

Look at the life of Adam and Eve. How did sin take over their life?

What happened to their relationship with God? (Look at Genesis 3:8-10).

What happened to their relationship with each other? (Genesis 3:11-12).

What happened to their lives on earth? (Genesis 3:17-19).

What happened to their bodies? (Genesis 3:19; Romans 8:22-23)

And the same has happened to us.  Sin has completely and totally infect our bodies and our lives.  It’s destroyed our relationship with God.  It ruins our relationship with other people.  Husbands and wives don’t live in perfect harmony with one another.  The head/helper relationship isn’t what it should have been.  Parents and children don’t walk together as God intended.  Parents don’t reflect the love of their Father in heaven; and children don’t honor their parents as they ought to honor their Father.  Sin makes life, in so many ways, miserable.  By the sweat of our brow we bring home the bacon.  Our bodies are subject to decay from the moment we’re born.  Skin cells decay and die.  We decay and die.  We return to dust.  And that’s just the effects of sin in our bodies and lives.  That isn’t to mention the sins that we still commit on a daily basis.  That isn’t to mention our sinful rebellion against God every time we don’t do what he has commanded or do what he has forbidden.

Here’s the problem. God doesn’t hang out with sin.  And so if sin is still hanging on to you, even a little bit, you can’t get in.  It doesn’t matter how hard you’ve worked to control your anger; it doesn’t matter how hard you’ve worked to repair your relationships, reform your life, and rehab your thoughts words and actions.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve totally gotten rid of the effects of sin in your body.  

I want your life to change.  I want you to control you anger and the other sins you commit.  I pray that your relationships would be healed, that you would reform your life, and rehab everything about it.  I want your body to be whole and healthy.  But unless you totally evict sin from every part of your life, you can’t get in because God doesn’t hang out with sin or sinners.  God doesn’t hang out with sin.  God doesn’t hang out with sinners.

But, God does hang out with the repentant.

See, that’s part one of John’s sermon.  We have just a snippet here: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  In this one sentence we have a summary of his sermon.  In fact, in the one word “repent” we have a summary of his sermon, of every Christian sermon.

What does it mean “to repent?” What things does it include?  What things does it not include?

Repentance has two parts.  Part one of repentance is sorrow over sin.  Repentance means to confess we’re not who we should be; it means to confess that we can’t be who God wants us to be, not on our own; it means to confess we’re broken and crushed because of the sin that  infects us and the sin that we commit.  Part one of repentance is to be crushed and broken because of our sin.

That’s how David felt.  Psalm 51:17 - “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”  He said to God, “I can’t bring you a changed life.  I can’t bring you a changed heart.  I can’t bring you a sin free body or life.  My best offerings are filthy rags.  I’ve got nothing.  But I bring a broken heart and a crushed spirit.  I am a beggar at your feet begging for mercy, for grace, for love, for compassion.”

And that’s what John is calling for when he preaches: “Repent!”  He’s calling us to see our how broken and crushed we are by sin.  That’s where the Pharisees weren’t listening to his sermon.  They were pretty well convinced that their lives were pretty well in order.  They were in a bad place because they didn’t see how sinful, how broken, how crushed by sin they really were.  And if that’s where you’re at, if you’re not crushed and broken by your sin and your sinfulness, then listen to John’s call: “You brood of vipers! You’re not as good as you think you are.  You’re not as safe and as secure as you think you are.  The ax is already at the root of the trees!”  

Why is this a warning that each of us, especially those of us who have been in the church for a long time, need to hear?

John wants each of us - I’m praying that each of us - will be on the floor broken and crushed by the weight and condemnation of our sin.  But more than that, he wants us to be healed; he wants us to be redeemed and rescued from that condemnation.  He wants to lift us off the floor - not crushed or broken any more - but bound up and healed.

And that’s the other part of repentance.  To be healed, restored, rescued, redeemed by Jesus.  To believe that he is the Messiah who came to bind up the broken-hearted.  Part two of repentance is to believe that Jesus redeemed and restored us.  God will hang out with the repentant because they are redeemed by Jesus.  God will hang out with the repentant because they are restored by him.  God will hang out with the repentant because they are forgiven by him.

John’s message and the assignment given to him by God was simple.  It was the assignment given to Isaiah.  It was the assignment given to John.  God called him and said: Isaiah 40:1-2 “comfort my people…speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for…”  John was proclaiming the about-to-be-finished work of Jesus.  And what was Jesus about to do?  He came to bind up the broken hearted (Isaiah 61:1-3).

What does it mean that your sin has been paid for?  How does it relieve your conscience?

How does this make us ready for Jesus to come back?

We live in a country, in a society, in a world that demands remuneration and pay back. Sure, we can all find examples of people, of times and places when pay back wasn’t expected.  Yet, whenever anything happens, we’re all wondering when the other shoe is going to drop; we all wonder what the catch is; we all wonder what’s hidden in the fine print.

But that’s not forgiveness.  That’s punishment.  Punishment is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.  Punishment is payback for a wrong that’s been done.  Punishment is retribution.  That’s what happened on the cross.  God paid back Jesus for all the wrong that we committed.  God paid Jesus for all the sins we did.  God paid Jesus for all the sins the world committed.  Did you catch it?  God paid Jesus back! God treated Jesus as your sins deserve.

And because the payback was made, forgiveness is yours.  The guilt is gone.  The debt is paid.  The sin is forgiven.  God will not treat you as your sins deserve.  You are forgiven.  You are healthy and whole.  You are ready for Christ to return.  But not because you’ve been rehabbed or because you’ve reformed your life.  That’s what’s next.  That’s the fruit that will come because you’re forgiven, because you’re repentant.  That’s what’s next.  But before all that - you already stand ready for Christ to come; you already stand ready for Christmas because your sins are forgiven.  Believe it because it’s true.

God grant to each of us a changed heart, a repentant heart, which is both broken and healed, both contrite and believing.  Amen.

Let’s pray:

Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for your only Son.  By his coming give us strength in our conflicts and shed light on our path through the darkness of this world; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever, Amen.

Thankful for...

What are you thankful for?  For what are you giving thanks this week or even this month?

This is one of the things for which I always give thanks: The people through whom God ministers to me and serves me with his Gospel.

The pastoral heart of Paul just oozes out (I was reading 2 Corinthians 6-13 when I gave thanks).  In so many different ways Paul makes his heart known to the Corinthians, whether he is urging them to grab the day of salvation now, whether he is showing them his love for them and opening wide his heart so they can see his love, whether he is encouraging them to finish the offering... again and again Paul shows the Corinthians his love for them.  Paul daily felt the pressure of his love and concern for the Corinthian Christians.  They were always on his heart and mind; they were always in his prayers.

So, often I read this section of Scripture and pray: "Lord, make me more like Paul.  Give me a pastoral heart like his."  I haven't stopped praying that prayer.  But today, my prayer changed just a little bit.

This is a great opportunity to stop and give thanks for those who have Paul's heart for me. I thank God for my wife, my parents, even my kids; I thank God for the members of AF congregation, for my pastors past and present, for my brothers in the ministry; I thank God for all who have a heart for me and long to support me and build me up into Christ.  Sometimes they bear with me in my weakness and foolishness.  Sometimes they correct me in my weakness and foolishness.  Sometimes they have to rightly put me in my place and call me to repentance.  But always they show me Christ and the cross.  Always they show me the strength and power of Christ.

Who is it that God has given you?  Who is it in your life who has a shepherd's heart for you?  Who is it that has your eternity at heart, an eternity that is yours only through Jesus' life and death?

Give thanks for them, for those who shared the Word of God with you so that you might be saved for all eternity.

Thank you, Father, for the ministry by which you care for me.  Thank you for the shepherds young or old, experienced or not so much, who have called me once again to hear your voice.  Let my heart be lifted up by the love and concern of your servants who care so much for me.  In your name, dear Jesus. Amen.