Ephesians 1:1–2 NASB95 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He is "Paul." The Ephesians know him--time has been spent, relationships built. He is "Paul." Not "Sergious Paulus Extremely Awesomeus." God used him for who he was. Not even for who he should have been. God will use you as you are. When you are obedient . Paul is responsible to Christ Jesus. Not to the Ephesians. Nor to anyone else. Except Jesus Christ. God does not ask if you would like to... by the will of God He's the one in charge!! What does this look like? A relationship with Jesus, for starters Salvation by grace Salvation from sin and for God A surrender to Jesus, for the next step All lives Called out servants as well A commitment to the cause of Christ! Every day Every person! Exported from Logos Bible Software, 3:31 PM September 19, 2016.
We had just one service Sunday, September 4. This week, though, we get back on track. Next time we won’t have an evening service will be October 30th when we host our Fall Festival. Additionally, we’re going to start a digital church newsletter. It will publish once-a-month, starting in October (hopefully). If you want in on that, sign-up here.
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,
For Christians, our work now belongs to God
You do not go to work to please your boss
You go to work to please your Master
Your provision is from God, not man. Even if man is the instrument.
And keep in mind, the new heavens and the new earth are not the absence of work! It's not the end of God's purpose but the redemption and fulfillment of it. We have no way to truly fathom what God's work assignments to us will look like. But we need to know they are there.
We can see that worship and praise will be part of it. Whatever else may be, it will not be frustrating to do it.
For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
The one work we cannot do: redeem mankind
This work is already done for us!
Jesus has redeemed us through His blood.
Sometimes the hardest thing to remember is not to work--while there is a sermon in that about taking a Sabbath, the important part at this point is about the work we can NEVER do:
One of the things I like to do is read the “Odd News” sections of various websites. After all, the deliberately odd seems preferable to the unintentional farce that is American politics right now. Seriously, folks, when they told us in Civics that “anyone” can be president, that wasn’t a challenge to see how we could scrape the barrel. Do we really want to choose between the Democrat’s political dynasty in the Clintons or the Republican Reality Realty guy in Trump? 300 Million people, 180-200 million easily over 35, and this is the best we can get?
Anyway, not out for a political bloodbath today. Instead, take a look at this story: Switched at Birth. TL:DR? Two friends discovered that 41 years ago, they were switched at birth in a Canadian hospital. This is the second case of switching kids from that hospital in that era. Now, that is a bad thing. And it is even worse if it was related to neglect because it was a hospital run by the government for the Cree Nation. (Not going to take too big of a shot at government run hospitals…)
What I want to take note of is that now, 41 years later, the government is investigating what happened and the families involved are suggesting there could be criminal charges involved. 41 years later, how many people are still working at that hospital? Maybe the 16 year old kid who started as a mop-boy is now the chief of facilities maintenance, but he didn’t mix up babies. What good does it do now? Is it not a little late? To get the facts cleared up, the what went wrong straightened out?
Now, before I go further, I do think some investigation is warranted. And some effort should be made to make sure there have been no other mistakes waiting 40 years to be uncovered. But if this hospital is like any other in these days, they have already adopted rules and guidelines to prevent this happening again. Any holes found in 40 year old procedures are likely irrelevant. It’s like figuring out that “211” would be quicker to rotary dial in case of emergency than “911.” Does that make a difference now?
Not really.
We are often this way, though. We spend so much more time figuring out what went wrong so that we can find someone to blame than we do trying to move forward in the first place. We do this in churches, where we will hold someone responsible for a plan going wrong 20 years ago to the point of hobbling them for what they should be doing now. We do this in life—how many times does one half of a married couple hold on to “what went wrong” 10 years ago? Yes, your husband screwed up a repair job. He may have learned. Yes, your wife may have fallen off the roof last time she fixed the leak—maybe she’s developed a better sense of balance.
The point is: many mistakes and errors should be corrected as quickly as possible, but hand-wringing decades later does very little good. Take a look at history. We can learn from what happened that led to World War 1, but we can’t undo it, can we? Why punish the Serbs today?
Set it aside, if possible, and fix the problem. Then move forward.
Now, a note before you go: some things need dealt with, no matter how long it has been. There is no sunset on issues like abuse—just because it was decades ago doesn’t mean we should not deal with it now. Likewise if there is a continuing problem, like we see in some issues of equality in our nation. We need to openly discuss them.
This is more about lesser things—or the desire to jail octogenarians over the mistakes of youth. It’s about our unwillingness to separate true intentional harm from mistakes. Punish intentional harm; discipline mistakes that they can be learned from.
Joshua’s story continues as his eponymous book begins. We’ve heard of Joshua already, going back to Exodus 17, so we know that Joshua is in the generation that exited Egypt under Moses’ leadership. He was likely a leader within the Israelite community already, as his first mention places him as a military leader during the battle with the Amalekites. From there, he becomes Moses’ servant (Numbers 11:28) and is selected as one of the twelve spies in Numbers 13. He brings a positive report, though it is rejected by the ten spies as well as the people of Israel.
Joshua 1, then, is not his introduction but his time to step out of the shadows and into the leading role. In doing so, God charges him to be “strong and courageous.” God repeats Himself three times (1:6, 1:7, 1:9) in commanding this—which means that He is quite serious about it. Strong here is connected to “binding tightly” or “being firm.” It’s not just about physical strength but also about mental and emotional fortitude. It is strength as a spiritual value. Courageous is connected to having a firm heart, a decided heart. Joshua is commanded by God to firm, to hold tightly, to be decided. And if God saying so three times is not enough, the people tell him the same thing. Just once, though.
In Focus:
Having said all that about Joshua, let us put the focus on the hero of the book of Joshua. His name is found in Joshua 1:1, 1:9, 1:11, 1:13, 1:15, and 1:17. Who is it? It is YHWH, the Lord God of Israel. While the book of Joshua looks, at first glance, like a chronicle of the exploits of the Joshua the Conqueror, it is actually the covenant fulfillment record of the God of Israel.
Remember, after all, that Deuteronomy is a record of the covenant between YHWH (the divine name of the God of Israel) and the people of Israel. This is a bilateral, or “if-then” covenant. If the people do this, then God will do that. The first “if” is on God’s part: He must deliver the people into the land first. Then the covenant as stated becomes operative. Take a look, then, at Joshua 1:2-3. God reminds Joshua of His promise to the people of Israel. Throughout this chapter, we see two things restated: the promise of God to be faithful to His covenant, and the promise of the Israelites to act just like they have for forty years (Joshua 1:17).
Despite this, God remains faithful to Himself and His Word.
In Practice:
Practically speaking, we should take courage and strength from the promises of the Faithful One, the Lord God Almighty. We either live in complacent times or in strange and interesting ones. If it appears easy to walk in obedience to God, let us take courage to re-examine whether or not we truly are being faithful to God. After all, it is not uncommon for the church-at-ease to falter in our obedience. The history of the “Bible belt” or other zones of Christendom demonstrate that quite well.
If we live in strange and interesting times (a euphemism for difficult days), then we need strength. Strength to stand as the world falters around us, strength to trust that God has our eternity in His hand. After all, if eternity is in His hand, then next Tuesday will be right as well. Right, of course, in His perspective. Not necessarily ours.
Living with courage and strength will drive us to proclaim the word of God no matter what befalls us. As we look at Joshua, he was given one conditional command. One thing to draw his strength from: the book of the law given by God. In other words, the covenant. He had God’s promises, God’s words, to keep in his mind and on his lips. Let us do that, and so draw others to the same covenant. The God of the Promise did not change when the human leadership changed, and it will not change no matter how the seasons pass.
In Nerdiness:
A few thoughts:
1. Dimensions of the Promised Land? From the “Wilderness” to Lebanon, as far as the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. Assuming, of course, that “Mediterranean” is the right idea for the Great Sea and it’s not the Atlantic. Which is probably a reasonable assumption. We never saw Israel stretch that far, but…
2. “Joshua” is drawn from the words meaning “YHWH saves.” The Greek equivalent? “Ihsous.” That’s right: “Jesus.” How far do the lands of the Kingdom of Jesus stretch?
3. Think through the Israelites’ promise. They are going to obey just like they did with Moses. Have you read Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy? Who do they think they are fooling?
We had five excellent sermons from Dr. Emil Turner for our fall revival meetings. I’ve got all of them embedded below, in case you weren’t able to attend.
