Some Silver and a Robe

Introduction
            This message was inspired by and adapted from a sermon by Paris Reidhead, “10 Shekels and a Shirt”.  [Click here to hear a recording of Reidhead's original sermon.]  I heard Reidhead's sermon for the first time about 10 years ago and it really left an impact on me.  Reidhead was a missionary to Sudan mid-1900s.  His ministry in Africa led him to re-evaluate his core spiritual values and a rejection of humanistic Christianity.  I will do my best to communicate his ideas to you and I hope they will move you as much as they have me.  I have not always lived up to the ideas Reidhead put forth in his message, but I try and I keep coming back to his Christ-centered philosophy as an important guide for my life.
            This message starts with a rather long Scripture reading, so let me give a bit of background.
  Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and Joshua brought them into the Promised Land in Palestine.  The Israelites were to drive out the heathens that lived in the land and worshiped idols.  Unfortunately, the Israelites never completed the job and so the Israelites lived alongside the heathens in many areas and this caused all kinds of trouble.  One problem we find in our story today is that a heathen people called the Amorites would not allow Israelite tribe of Dan to travel to the Tabernacle in Shiloh where they were supposed to worship.

 

Judges 17:1 – 18:1-5, 14-21

17 There was a man named Micah, who lived in the hill country of Ephraim. ² One day he said to his mother, “I heard you place a curse on the person who stole 1,100 pieces of silver from you. Well, I have the money. I was the one who took it.”

“The Lord bless you for admitting it,” his mother replied. ³ He returned the money to her, and she said, “I now dedicate these silver coins to the Lord. In honor of my son, I will have an image carved and an idol cast.”

⁴ So when he returned the money to his mother, she took 200 silver coins and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into an image and an idol. And these were placed in Micah’s house. ⁵ Micah set up a shrine for the idol, and he made a sacred ephod and some household idols. Then he installed one of his sons as his personal priest.

⁶ In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

·       Does this seems like it could be a direct description for the times in which we live right here in America?

⁷ One day a young Levite, who had been living in Bethlehem in Judah, arrived in that area. ⁸ He had left Bethlehem in search of another place to live, and as he traveled, he came to the hill country of Ephraim. He happened to stop at Micah’s house as he was traveling through. ⁹ “Where are you from?” Micah asked him.

He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am looking for a place to live.”

¹⁰ “Stay here with me,” Micah said, “and you can be a father and priest to me. I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, plus a change of clothes and your food.” ¹¹ The Levite agreed to this, and the young man became like one of Micah’s sons.

¹² So Micah installed the Levite as his personal priest, and he lived in Micah’s house. ¹³ “I know the Lord will bless me now,” Micah said, “because I have a Levite serving as my priest.”

18 Now in those days Israel had no king. And the tribe of Dan was trying to find a place where they could settle, for they had not yet moved into the land assigned to them when the land was divided among the tribes of Israel. ² So the men of Dan chose from their clans five capable warriors from the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol to scout out a land for them to settle in.

When these warriors arrived in the hill country of Ephraim, they came to Micah’s house and spent the night there. ³ While at Micah’s house, they recognized the young Levite’s accent, so they went over and asked him, “Who brought you here, and what are you doing in this place? Why are you here?” ⁴ He told them about his agreement with Micah and that he had been hired as Micah’s personal priest.

⁵ Then they said, “Ask God whether or not our journey will be successful.”  ….

¹⁴ The five men who had scouted out the land around Laish explained to the others, “These buildings contain a sacred ephod, as well as some household idols, a carved image, and a cast idol. What do you think you should do?” ¹⁵ Then the five men turned off the road and went over to Micah’s house, where the young Levite lived, and greeted him kindly. ¹⁶ As the 600 armed warriors from the tribe of Dan stood at the entrance of the gate, ¹⁷ the five scouts entered the shrine and removed the carved image, the sacred ephod, the household idols, and the cast idol. Meanwhile, the priest was standing at the gate with the 600 armed warriors.

¹⁸ When the priest saw the men carrying all the sacred objects out of Micah’s shrine, he said, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ “Be quiet and come with us,” they said. “Be a father and priest to all of us. Isn’t it better to be a priest for an entire tribe and clan of Israel than for the household of just one man?”

²⁰ The young priest was quite happy to go with them, so he took along the sacred ephod, the household idols, and the carved image. ²¹ They turned and started on their way again, placing their children, livestock, and possessions in front of them.

Explain the Passage

            We see how religion served as a useful tool for everyone in this story.  Micah wanted God to bless him and he thought God would because Micah built a chapel--his own personal chapel right there on his own property.  It would be as if you decided it was too much trouble to come to church every week and since your kids had all grown up and move out, you decided to take one of the extra rooms and turn it into your own personal church.  Micah built a chapel and he filled it with some religious items.  And at first he made his son the priest and he was going to pray to the God of Israel, but he also wanted to have all his bases covered so he added some idols to foreign gods as well.  And so he thought he could use religion to make his life better.

            And the Levite in the story also found religion to be a useful tool.  Levites were the one tribe of Israel that weren't allotted a portion of land, but they were to make the living by being priest and serving in the Tabernacle.  But, the Levite in this story didn't much like being one priest in a whole tribe a priests.  He could make a living doing that, but maybe not as much as he'd like and he wan't very important and he thought he could do better elsewhere.  So the Levite was quite happy when he ran into Micah who offered to give him some silver and a robe to be his personal priest; and Micah was happy too because now he had a "real" priest, a Levite, to serve him in his chapel.  SO the Levite got what he wanted and Micah got what he wanted.  You see, religion was a nice tool for them both.

            Then along come some Warriors from Dan who thought religion might be a useful tool for them too.  They were supposed to drive out the heathens and take their land for their own--that's what God instructed them to do--but the Ammorites where too strong (or the warriors from Dan didn't have enough faith) so they decided to pick on an easier target.  And the came to the Levite and asked him for a blessing before they went to war.  And the Levite gladly gave them a blessing and the warriors won the battle.  So they came back, realizing that Micah had a lot of expensive stuff in his chapel, and they decided to steal it and make it their own.  What was Micah gonna do against 600 warriors?

            At first when the Levite sees the men stealing the altar and idols and all the religious objects from the chapel, he's like, "Hey!  What are you doing with that stuff?"  But the warrior so of Dan are like, "Shh!  Be quiet!  Look, here's the thing.  We're taking this stuff and you can't stop us.  But if you help us out, you can come along with us.  We'll pay you twice what Micah pays you.  And isn't it better to be the priest to a whole tribe than just one family?"  And Levite kinda likes that idea.  It's a great job opportunity.  More money. More important.  Micah sort of gets the short end of the stick, but religion is a pretty good tool for the Levite to get what he wants.  It going places!

            The main point of this message is this:  we must decide if God is the point or is He just the means to an end?  Are we going to be like the Levite who served God for some silver and a robe? Are we going to serve humanity in the name of God, rather than serve God?  You see, the Levite used God to get what he wanted and he did quite well.

Humanism

            In order to understand what this all means to us today, we have to understand a little bit of history.  A subtle shift took place around the 1700-1800s in the way people thought about life.  Up to that point, most everyone accepted the existence of God.  Then humanity entered a period known as the "enlightenment" when people looked more to reason and science than faith to answer life's big questions.  Charles Darwin proposed life came to be the way it is by evolution and not a divine creator.  And people began to argue that God was not real or as important and we should focus less on God an more on humanity.  And it wasn't long before humanism became the most prevalent philosophy among educated people.  Humanism is a philosophy that declares the most important thing in life is the happiness of humanity, that the reason for existence is our happiness.

            Well, happiness for humanity doesn't sound so bad, does it?  It probably sounds familiar as we get ready to celebrate the Fourth of July.  What was it our founding fathers declared?  That all men have the right to “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”  Well, our nation was founded in the midst of the Enlightenment and humanism was the philosophy of the day.

            How did humanism affect religious teaching?  Well, the more foreword thinking, liberal professors and theologians of the day began to question if we had put too much emphasis on God and not humanity.  Some, because of science, even began to question if God really existed or if heaven and hell were real places.  Yet, they made their living by religion so they couldn't just send everyone home and tell them not to go to church.  So they reasoned, “We don’t know about God and heaven and hell, but we want to make people’s life happier while they’re alive.  And we believe that religion can help improve things for humanity.  We can get rid of alcoholism and poverty and war; and religion can help people get along and live good, happy lives.”

            Well, another more conservative group of Christians didn't like that and they reacted by saying, "No!  We believe in the fundamentals of Christianity!  We believe in Heaven and Hell!  We believe in God and Jesus Christ his son who died on the cross, was buried in a tomb, and rose from the grave."  And they began insisted people needed to repent and believe in Christ so they could go to heaven when they died.  They said, "This life only last a short time--maybe 70 years if your lucky--but eternity is forever.  And you don't want to spend eternity in Hell.  Don't you want to be happy for eternity in Heaven?  Then you need to believe in Christ!"

            The problem is this:  liberalism and fundamentalism are motivated by humanism.  The liberal wants to make people happy while they're alive.  The fundamentalist wants to make people happy when they're dead.  But both are focused on making people happy!  And this is not real Christianity!

            True Christianity says, “The end of all being is the glory of God.”  Humanism says, “The end of all being is the happiness of man.”  Humanism was born in hell, turning humans into gods (in their own eyes). True Christianity was born in heaven, the glorification of God.  Humanism is a Levite serving Micah for some silver and a robe.  Christianity is a heart that is unworthy yet serving the living God because it is the highest honor in the universe.

            Paris Reidhead said, “Humanism is, I believe, the most deadly and disastrous of all the philosophical stenches that has crept up through the grating over the pit of hell. And it has penetrated so much of our religion. And it is in utter and total contrast with Christianity. And, unfortunately, it is seldom seen.”

            And in our Scripture reading, we see Micah wants to have a little chapel and he wants to have a priest and he wants to have prayer and he wants to have devotion because he says, “I know the Lord will bless me.” And it’s a nice little plan. And along comes the Levite and falls right in with him because he wants something too. He wants some silver and some clothes and to make a nice living and to be important.  And so in order that the Levite can have what he wants and Micah can have what he wants, they sell out God! --------- for 10 pieces of silver and a robe. 

 

Christ was Betrayed

            Can’t you see? This is an absolute betrayal of God! And it is the same betrayal of God that plays out all around us all the time!  My calling into ministry has been to help people grow closer to God, but in 17 years of ministry I find most of the time is people are not much interested in growing closer to God.  If they want a relationship with God it is in order to have prayers answered or to receive a blessing or to have a happy life.  People want God to bless them.  We even sing:  God bless America, but why should He?  So few Americans are in love with God.  They only care about what God can do for them.  And we must repent.  And we should sing America bless God!  America live for God!  If we want God to bless America, if we want God to revive us, then we have to repent and turn back to real Christianity and not religion we practice just to get what we want.
            There are some benevolent people in the world who care about others besides themselves; there are even some willing to make great sacrifices to help others.  But even this too is a form of humanism—working for the happiness of man.  Paris Reidhead realized this as a  missionary.  He wrote:

“I went out there [as a missionary in Africa] motivated by humanism. I had seen pictures of lepers. I had seen pictures of ulcers. I had seen pictures of native funerals and I didn’t want my fellow human beings to suffer in hell eternally after such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear through the overlay of this humanism. And it was that day in my bedroom with the door locked that I wrestled with God. For here was I coming to grips with the fact that the people that I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go heaven and were saying, “Someone come and teach us,” actually didn’t want to take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no interest in the Bible and no interest in Christ and they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to the place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery and I had been sold a bill of goods. And I wanted to come home.  And there, alone in my bedroom as I faced God honestly with what my heart felt it seemed to me I heard him say, “Yes, will not the judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they are going to go to hell not because they haven’t heard the gospel. They are going to go to hell because they are sinners who love their sin and because they deserve hell. But I didn’t send you out there for them. I didn’t send you out there for their sakes.” And I heard as clearly as I have ever heard—though it wasn’t with physical voice, but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its way into an open heart—I heard God say to my heart that day something like this. “I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen. I sent you to Africa for my sake. They deserved hell, but I love them. And I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for me. Do I not deserve the reward of my sufferings? Don’t I deserve those for whom I died?” And it reversed it all and changed it all and righted it all. And I wasn’t any longer working for Micah and 10 shekels and a shirt, but I was serving the living God. And I was there not for the sake of the heathen, but I was there for the Savior that had endured the agonies of hell for the heathen who didn’t deserve it. But he deserved them because he died for them.”

Byproducts & Prime Products [Slide – Beautiful Sunset]

            Some would say, "What you mean God doesn't want us to be happy?  God doesn't want us to go to Heaven?"  Yes God does want us to be happy and you will be happy and you will go to Heaven if you surrender to God, but as a byproduct and not the prime-product.  Paris Reidhead said, "There is only one reason, one reason for a sinner to repent and that is because Jesus Christ deserves the worship and the adoration and the love and the obedience of his heart, not because he will go to heaven. If the only reason you repented, dear friend, was to keep out of hell all you are is just a Levite serving for 10 shekels and a shirt. That’s all. You are trying to serve God because he will do you good. But a repentant heart is a heart that has seen something of the enormity of the crime of playing god and denying the just and righteous God the worship and obedience that he deserves. Why should a sinner repent? Because God deserves the obedience and love that he has refused to give him, not so that he will go to heaven. If the only reason he repents is so that he will go to heaven, it is nothing but trying to make a deal or a bargain with God. Why should a sinner give up all his sins? Why should he be challenged to do it? Why should he make restitution when he is coming to Christ? Because God deserves the obedience that he demands."

A Call to Repentance

            I think many of us need to repent--and authentic repentance.  Friends, let us not try to make a a deal with God--serving Him for the sake of Heaven or happiness.  No!  Let us instead say, “Lord of All, I repent of my sins and will serve You and only You from this day forward.  I give You the absolute first place in my heart even if I go to Hell at the end of it all, because I’m not trying to make a deal with You.  I realize You ARE Lord and deserve my whole-hearted commitment.”
            Would you make this commitment today?  Would you repent on these true terms?  Then go ahead and speak to your Lord.  Amen.

 

God's Heroes Have a Heart

Introduction

            We are starting a new message series at my church based on our upcoming VBS curriculum “Hero Central”.  For each of the next five weeks, I will share a message based on the daily VBS themes about how we can be God’s superheroes.  The message today is about having a hero’s heart.

            If we're going to talk about a hero’s heart, we should start by defining what we mean by “heart.”  Obviously, we’re not talking about the muscle that beats in your chest and pumps blood throughout your body.  When we say heart, what we mean is “the essence of who you are.” Your heart is the core of who you are, your passions, your interests, who you really are as a person and what you’re made of.  Your heart is what you're dedicated to; what you would fight for, live for, and even die for.

God’s heroes have a certain kind of heart and the Bible tells us what kind.  I want to share a story about David—a person described as a man after God’s own heart—and we will see what kind of heart we should have to be one of God’s heroes.  But first, let me set the stage for the story.

The story comes from the Old Testament Book of Samuel, named after the prophet Samuel.  The people of Israel wanted a king like all the other nations around them.  So they asked Samuel to anoint a man named Saul to be their king. 

Saul was an obvious pick for king.  Saul looked like a king.  He was very tall.  The Bible says he was “head and shoulders” taller than everyone else.  So Samuel anointed Saul and he became Israel’s first King.  However, Saul had some serious character flaws.  He looked like a king, but his heart was not right.  He disobeyed God several times.  He was selfish and deceptive.  God was sorry He ever made Saul king.  So God told the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king to take Saul’s place.  And that’s where our story picks up. 

1 Samuel 16:1-13

¹Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.”

² But Samuel asked, “How can I do that? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”

“Take a heifer with you,” the Lord replied, “and say that you have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord. ³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you which of his sons to anoint for me.”

⁴ So Samuel did as the Lord instructed. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town came trembling to meet him. “What’s wrong?” they asked. “Do you come in peace?”

⁵ “Yes,” Samuel replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then Samuel performed the purification rite for Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice, too.

⁶ When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!”

Notice here, that Samuel thinks Eliab would make a good king.  Eliab was the first born son of the family and he looked like a king.  Like Saul, Eliab was a taller than most men.

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

⁸ Then Jesse told his son Abinadab to step forward and walk in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “This is not the one the Lord has chosen.” ⁹ Next Jesse summoned Shimea, but Samuel said, “Neither is this the one the Lord has chosen.” ¹⁰ In the same way all seven of Jesse’s sons were presented to Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” ¹¹ Then Samuel asked, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.”

“Send for him at once,” Samuel said. “We will not sit down to eat until he arrives.”

¹² So Jesse sent for him. He was dark and handsome, with beautiful eyes.

And the Lord said, “This is the one; anoint him.”

¹³ So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah.

The Heart of a King

            The key verse in this passage is verse 7 - “People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” We can see what a difference heart make by comparing David to Saul.  Saul looked like a king.  He was head and shoulders taller than everyone else.  But he had a no heart.  In fact, the Bible story most people know is the story of David and Goliath.  Goliath’s most striking feature was he was a giant.  Goliath challenged the armies of Israel to choose one man who would face him in one-on-one combat.  The one man in Israel’s army who should have accepted the challenge was Saul.  He would have been the best choice.  Saul was a very tall man and a warrior.  He was the only one who could come close to matching Goliath physical stature.  But Saul didn’t have the heart to face Goliath.  The one who ended up fighting Goliath was the little boy David.  And David was so small, the Bible says he couldn’t even wear Saul’s armor.  Saul had an impressive physic, but David had heart.

            A study of David life reveals the heart of a hero.  He was brave, because he depended on God to fight his battles.  He was full of faith.  He believed God could overcome any obstacle and he was willing to wait on God to work things out in God's way according to God's timing.  David was compassionate, merciful, fair, and consistent.  When he made a mistake, David was quick to take responsibility, repent, and ask forgiveness.  David heart lead him to be faithful to the end of his days.  David had the heart of a hero.  The ultimate accolade the Bible attributes to David is this.  It says he was a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).

            But that's why Samuel 16:12 is kind of confusing to me.  It seems out of place.  It says David was "dark and handsome".  Now, if this passage is about looking at a person’s heart and not their physical attributes, why would it mention anything about David's appearance?  Translators have struggled to translate that verse.  The key words that cause trouble is the Hebrew for "ruddy" and "countenance."  Ruddy can mean dark or hairy or red or other things.  The sense is that David was a rough, unrefined looking fellow.  It’s not that he was ugly, but maybe he didn't fit his society’s beauty standards.  My grandmother was a red head.  She used to say kids picked on her when she was in school.  They would chant, “I’d rather be dead than have a read head!”  Kids can be mean to other kids they see as different.  And most kids are either brunette or blonde; and the less common red headed kids often get picked on.  They don’t fit the norm.  Neither did David.

            But the scripture also says David had a good countenance—another word that’s hard to translate into English.  Have you ever known someone who was beautiful, even though they didn’t fit the typical beauty standards of society?  Maybe they were short or a little on the heavy side or had something else unusual about them?  They weren’t the kind of person you would see in a beauty pageant or the cover of a magazine, and yet something about them was especially attractive.  If you only looked at a 2-dimensional picture of them, you wouldn’t think there was anything special there.  However, when you meet them in person, there is just something exceptionally beautiful about them.  I've seen this often in very godly people.  Their godly hearts give them a beautiful countenance.

I think that is what verse 12 is trying to tell us about David.  He didn’t fit the typical standards of what a handsome man of the day was supposed to be (and obviously, his family didn’t think he was anything special; they didn't even invite him to the dinner).  And yet, David had a good heart, and it just exuded from him and made him handsome to anyone who was willing to look at his heart instead of just his physical appearance.   

It’s All About Your Heart

You can’t tell a hero by the way they look.  I love the way this is often portrayed in movies and comic books about superheroes.  Superheroes often have an alter ego.  Take Superman, for example.  He is handsome and muscular and “able to leap over tall buildings in a single bound” and yet in his everyday life he dresses as the unremarkable Clark Kent.  Clark dresses kind of nerdy and wears glasses.  Clark’s love interest—Louise Lane—hardly even notices him.  And it’s ironic, because Louise has the hots for Superman.  All the while, Clark (Superman in disguise) is right there beside her and she doesn’t even notice him.  You can’t tell a hero by the way they look.

We tend to focus on all the external things when we judge a person.  We look at things we think are good.  We say:  “They look good. They wear nice clothes.  They have a big house and drive a new car, so they must be good people.”  Or we think they fit in with everyone and are popular and everyone likes them, so they must be special.  We also look at things we think are bad.  We say, “That person is rough looking, drinks, has a bunch of tattoos, cusses a lot or doesn’t use proper English, wears the wrong clothes, drives a dirty car, etc…”  And so we think they are not a very good person.  We are focusing on all the wrong things when we look at these external factors.  It’s your heart that makes you a hero or not.

The core problem of humanity is the human heart.  In Jesus day, the religious teachers said if you ate the wrong food or didn’t wash your hands or touched someone who had leprosy or was unclean, it would make you unclean and sinful.  Jesus knew this was nonsense.  He said it is our hearts that make us sinful and unclean.  Jesus said in Matthew 15:19, “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.”  Jeremiah 17:9 – “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” 

We Must Focus on the Heart

So, we need to focus on the heart and worry less about all those outward things.  And remember what is your heart? It is the core of who you are; it is your character; it is your passion; it is what drives you and motivate you; it is what is most important about you; it is what you live for and what you would die for.  And most of us, if we are really honest, realize our hearts aren’t right.  Our relationship with Jesus isn’t really what’s most important in our hearts.  When we look at what consumes most of our time, money, energy, resources, and thoughts, it is not God and His Kingdom and His righteousness.  We focus on our own selfish pursuits or our families or our careers or our security or our politics…  Christ may be part of our life, but he is not first in our life.  And anything that takes first place in your heart besides Christ is a problem. 

Accepting Responsibility

We like to make excuses for ourselves.  We say “That’s just the way life is.  That’s how the world works.”  But that’s just an excuse.  Or maybe we try to blame our shortcomings and our bad hearts on things that happened in the past.  “You know, it was the way my parents raised me” or “It’s the abuse I suffered as a child” or “It’s because I was bullied in school” or “I have a chemical imbalance…”  You can insert your excuse here: ________________________________.

It’s time to take responsibility for your own heart.  Until you take responsibility for your heart, you will never change.  You have to accept responsibility. It was not your parents' fault.  It is not the social class you belong to. It's not where you grew up.  It is not the way you were mistreated as a child or anything else. If you are not living up to God’s potential, if you are not living as a hero for God, it is because you have a sinful heart.  It is the Human Condition. And we must recognize this, confess it, and cry out to God for salvation! That is the only way. For as long as we continue to make excuses for ourselves we will never get to the heart of the matter and find healing for our heart. You will never become the hero God wants you to be until you admit your heart is broken.

Closing Invitation

            The Good News is Jesus came to give us a brand new heart.  If we will confess our sin, repent, and ask for help, Jesus will save us and give us a brand new heart--a hero's heart.  He said, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” (Ezekiel 36:26) 

Is that what you want?  Do you want to be one of God’s heroes?  A hero that has a heart just like God’s?  Then why don’t you ask Jesus to give you one today.  I offer the following prayer to help you talk to Jesus about getting a new heart.  Let it be your words to Him today. 

Dear Jesus, forgive me for the ways my heart has not been right. 

Regardless of what I’ve done on the outside, the core of who I am has been off.

I have not loved You with my whole heart.  I have not loved my neighbor as myself.

I have not always put you first in my heart.  Please forgive me. 

Help me to turn from my wicked ways.  I want to have good heart, a hero’s heart.

Jesus, please give me a new heart and put a righteous spirit within me.

Help me to live for you whole heartedly from this day forward.

Thank you, Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus Clears the Temple

Holy Week
            Lent is the 40-day period of spiritual preparation between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  It is a time when Christians focus on deepening their relationship with Jesus through prayer, study, and service.

            That last week of Lent is called Holy Week.  Holy Week consists of several special days that commemorate important events during Jesus' last week on earth.  The Wednesday before Easter is called Spy Wednesday and commemorates the day Judas and the priest conspired to betray Jesus.  Thursday is called Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday and marks the day Jesus shared his last supper with the Disciples.  We will have a special service at my Pleasant Grove UMC at 7:00 PM (Varnell UMC will join us).  Friday of Holy Week is called Good Friday and recalls the day Jesus was crucified; There will be a Good Friday service at Varnell UMC at 7:00 PM and I will attend that service with members of my church.  I hope you will join us for one or more of these services or choose another that is near you. 

            Holy Week all starts one week before Easter on Palm Sunday, the day Christians commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  We call it “Palm” Sunday in because the crowds of people waved palm branches and cheered as Jesus entered the city.   

Slides – Matthew 21:1-17

¹As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. ² “Go into the village over there,” he said. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will immediately let you take them.”

⁴ This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said,

⁵ “Tell the people of Jerusalem,
    ‘Look, your King is coming to you.
He is humble, riding on a donkey—
    riding on a donkey’s colt.’”

⁶ The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it.

⁸ Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,

“Praise God for the Son of David!
    Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
    Praise God in highest heaven!”

¹⁰ The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked.

¹¹ And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” 

¹² Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. ¹³ He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.”

But the leaders were indignant. ¹⁶ They asked Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes,” Jesus replied. “Haven’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘You have taught children and infants to give you praise.’” ¹⁷ Then he returned to Bethany, where he stayed overnight.

Summary of the Story
            That is a long passage, so lets summarize.  Jesus comes to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. He comes as a King—fulfilling the prophecy that one day Jerusalem’s Eternal King, the Messiah, would arrive riding on a donkey’s colt (Zechariah 9:9).
            Everyone is thrilled (well, everyone except the cynical religious establishment who felt threatened by Jesus). The crowds of people cheered as Jesus arrived—expecting Jesus to do great things as the long-awaited Messiah. Everyone wanted the Messiah to come and make Jerusalem great again.
            However, Jesus immediately shows His Kingdom is incompatible with many of the practices in Jerusalem. It infuriated Jesus that merchants and bankers were doing business right in the middle of the Temple at the only place Gentile’s could pray. Even worse, they were cheating their customers right there in the holy Temple.
            This is the only story in the Gospels where Jesus takes up arms in the name of God. He flipped over the bankers’ tables and used a whip to drive them and the merchants out.  We like to think of Jesus as sweet and gentle and carrying baby lambs, but sin is not compatible with the reign of Christ.  Christ must drive sin out from us and we must decide if we will let him cleanse us or will we be offended and resist and ultimately join the crowds of people on Good Friday who demanded that Jesus be crucified.

Jesus is Coming
            Jesus entered Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday nearly 2,000 years ago, but Jesus is always coming to us in a spiritual sense.  Perhaps the thought of Jesus’ coming does not thrill you. Perhaps you are ashamed of something in your life that you don’t want Jesus to see.  That’s ok. That’s a good place to start. At least you are not a hypocrite. At least you recognize you are a sinner. That’s a good thing. Jesus can work with that. The Apostle Peter once felt that way. When Peter first realized Jesus was holy, he said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.” (Luke 5:8) But Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid!” and invited Peter to be his disciple.  Peter followed and became one of Jesus' closest companions, and eventually the leader of the Church. You can follow Jesus too. Jesus accepts you as you are when you are humble. Jesus can work with that.

            However, a lot of people are like the crowds cheering Jesus when he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. “Praise God! Jesus is here! This is amazing!” We are so happy he has come. 
Yet, we must realize, Jesus has come as our King. And there are somethings we must let him change in our lives.  I do not say that we must change ourselves. We can’t change ourselves. It is the Holy Spirit that changes us when we accept Jesus as our Lord, but we must be willing to be changed.
And sometimes that change is difficult. It may even feel like Jesus has come into our sacred Temple and flipped over some tables. He may even need to break out a whip and chase some sinful behaviors out of our hearts. “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Sin has no place within your heart. Jesus must drive it out.  When these times come, we are faced with the choice: 

• Will I humble myself before the King? Will I allow him to make these changes? Will I cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in my heart?  Or...
• Will I resist? Will I try to hide my sin in the shadows? Will I secretly plot to thwart the Lord—like Judas and the priests? Will I be proud and angry and defensive? Will I refuse to let Jesus be King—the true Lord of every area of my life? Will I join the angry protest of the crowd who ultimately rejected Jesus? “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him! Crucify him!” “What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back. (John 19:15).

Are You Ready? Jesus is Coming Again.

Jesus is King.  And Jesus is coming.  He is coming to take back what belongs to him.  You.  He is coming to break every chain that has you shackled.  He has come to set you free.  You have a choice to make.  Will you let Him?

 

Pivot

Luke 3:7-9
7 When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said,
“You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? 8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. 9 Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

Mark 1:14-15

¹⁴ Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News.
¹⁵ “The time promised by God has come at last!”
he announced.
“The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

Understanding the Scriptures

            John the Baptist is the speaker in the Luke passage.  You may have heard of him.  John the Baptist was a fire and brimstone preacher. He didn’t cut people any slack. He’s known for preaching harsh, judgmental messages that pointed out people’s sins and called them to repent.  A lot of people in John’s day thought they were safe from God’s wrath because they were Jews—descendants of Abraham, God’s chosen people.  John thought differently. He called even the most righteous of them--the Pharisees--a brood of vipers! The fact that someone was a descendant of Abraham meant nothing to John.
            If John were here today, he would bluntly proclaim it doesn’t matter what your parents and grandparents believed or did. All that matters is what you believe and do.   And John would look at you with his fiery eyes of judgment and boldly preach: “You need to repent! You need to turn away from your sins and turn to God!”
            Most people today don’t like to hear that message. We’d much rather listen to Jesus—who was kind and healed the sick and ate with sinners and turned water into wine.  Our popular image of Jesus is a forgiving man who carries sweet little baby lambs around all day.  However, the Bible tells us Jesus preached the same message as John.  The “Good News” Jesus preached was this: “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15)  Repentance was as much a part of Jesus' message as John's. 

Repentance - The Pivot
            Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the first day of the season of Lent. For
Christians, Lent is a 40-day period of spiritual preparation leading up to Easter. During Lent, we turn away from more worldly pursuits and focus on spiritual growth through prayer, study, and service.  This year, Lent runs from March 1 – April 15.  (By the way, if you look at a calendar and count up the days, you’ll find it’s actually 46 days. That’s because we don’t count the 6 Sundays in Lent. On Sunday’s, we always celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. And it just doesn’t seem right to mourn and fast and be somber when you are celebrating Christ victory of sin and death. So we get a break from Lent on the Sundays. That leaves 40 days.)
            This year, Lent coincides with the NCAA Men’s College basketball tournament, popularly known as March Madness. So I will draw some parallels between the Christian faith and basketball.  In basketball, you cannot walk or run without bouncing the ball (known as dribbling).  If you stop dribbling, you cannot move anymore. You must stay in place. The only thing you can do is pass the ball to another player, shoot at the basket, or pivot.  Here’s how you pivot. You keep one foot firmly planted and you pivot (or turn) around on that one foot. With a pivot, you can legally turn all the way around without moving forward or backward.
            The pivot is a good illustration for repentance.  Repentance 180 degrees pivot.  It is pivoting (or turning) away from sin and bad behavior toward God.  When we think about repentance, we usually emphasis the bad things we’re going to stop doing. “I’m gonna stop being so selfish…” That’s good! However, don’t forget you are pivoting away from sin toward God, which ought to lead you to do other things, good things. Here’s some examples:

• Pivot away from being selfish and judgmental and learn to serve others.
• Pivot away doing everything your own way and pray more to ask what God wants.
• Pivot away from just entertaining yourself and focus more on studying God’s Word. 

            The pivot—repentance—is the key to key to success in the Christian faith. You can’t be a Christian without it. 

The 3-Point Shot
            The key to success in a basketball game is often the 3-point shot. The 3-pointer was not always part of the game.  It was introduced in either the 1960s or 70s and it has changed the game.  Normally you get two points for making a basket.  However, if you are farther away—past the 3-point line—you get three points.  The 3-pointer has made teams with shorter players more competitive against taller teams.  The shorter players may be less effective driving to the basket for a lay up, but they may still hang back from farther away and score more points if they are accurate shooters.  This has changed the way many teams play the game.  Coaches need different game plans.  The 3-pointer has also made it possible for teams who fall behind in the score to catch up more quickly.
            But that's basketball.  I’d like to challenge you to attempt a different kind of 3-point shot during Lent. This 3-point shot will help you pivot away from sin toward God.  For the 40 days of Lent, I challenge you to focus on three things:  prayer, study, and service.
            1 - Prayer.  I challenge you to pray more during March Madness.  Pray at least five times every day.  That might seem like a lot for some people, but it's not as hard as you think.  Say a prayer when you wake up; it will help set the tone for your whole day.  Then pray again before you go to bed; it will help you have a more restful sleep.  Add to this a blessing before every meal (most people eat three meals each day) and you have a total of five prayers for the day.  You can also pray at other times during the day: while you are driving (keep your eyes open!), before a test at school or important meeting at work, as you think of something for which you're thankful, or whenever you think about praying.  Focusing on prayer will help you grow closer to God during the 40 days of Lent.
            2 - Study.  I challenge you to study God's Word more during March Madness.  Perhaps you could read one chapter of your Bible each day; you could start with the Gospel of Matthew.  Another idea is to spend a set amount of time--10 or 15 minutes--hand copying the scripture.  This can be a very effective method for those who struggle to focus while they read (and it will let you practice yor handwriting).  Maybe you could join a Sunday school class or Bible study if you are not already part of one.  I invite you to come to my church on Wednesday nights or Thursday mornings for our study "The Story"   We have classes for kids, teens, and adults.
            3 - Service.  Do something selfless every day to help someone else. It cold be a kinds word or offering a prayer for someone on Facebook.  We will have some opportunities at my church you can pug in to serve.  On Sunday, March 19, we will offer several outreach projects in or for our community.  On March 26, we will have a spring cleaning day at my church.  People will serve by cleaning up and making repairs to the church facilities.  We have other opportunities to serve as well.  I invite you to join us for one or more or all of these service opportunities.  It will help you grow closer to God as you serve.

I challenge you to make 3-point shot for March Madness.  Focus on prayer, study, service.  Try it for 40 days and see if it doesn't help you grow closer to God.  I pray you have a meaningful and holy Lent.