Surely, you can't be serious

There's a story near the end of Joshua that has always struck me as, well, odd.  It's in Joshua 22.  The verses that really draw it out are

The Eastern Tribes' Altar of Witness

10 And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size. 11 And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.” 12 And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.

Joshua 22:10-12 (ESV)

Let's think about this.  The people of Israel that have grumbled and complained against God.  That, before much longer, will turn away from God completely for a little while, are currently ready to go to war over the construction of an altar by people within their own nation!

We're going to be real quick to be judgmental here.  It seems woefully immature to go off attacking your own people over an altar they've built.  Especially when you find out that the East Side Tribes (those that lived on the east side of the Jordan River) built it to remind themselves and the West Side Tribes that they all serve the same God. 

Yet we do the same things.  We find small details of behavior or finer points of doctrine or even just the labels we attach to ourselves.  Then, we attack.  We attack over ridiculous things.  Without seeking the heart, without examining the real situation. 

Part of the reason for the East Side Altar was fear over the attitude of West Siders, yet do you see the West Siders considering the possibility?  No, they immediately assume the worst of their own brothers, their fellow God-worshippers! 

In what ways do we strap on swords to attack within our own churches, our own circle of believers?  We have got to learn to focus on what matters the most: the worship of Almighty God and spreading His word so that, since "At the name of Jesus every knee will bow," people have the opportunity to start bowing now and not face judgment for not having done it.

It's time to stop having these arguments that, if we were watching from outside, our response would be "Surely you can't be serious! Arguing over that?"

We need to get serious about what matters.

 

And stop calling me Shirley.

 

Doug

Proverbs 4

 

Proverbs 4:26-27:

 

26 Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.

Proverbs 4:26-27 (ESV)

 

What to say about this?  Ponder the path of your feet!  Consider where you are and where you're going.  If you don't put your feet in the wrong place, you won't be in the wrong place.

 

Consider, for example, the number of stories of a marriage falling apart that begin with a spouse being by themselves in a place where being alone just wasn't good.  Whether it was at a party or on a long trip or at a distant movie shoot location or in your own home on a rainy night.  Why did your feet put you there? 

 

Or the temptation to do other sinful things….where did your feet take you and why did you make that choice?

 

Likewise, you can choose to make your feet take you to places that will accomplish what you need.  When you wake up, make sure your feet are headed to the floor, to your Bible, to work, to school, wherever you need to be headed to! 

 

On Sundays, let your feet be with God's people to grow and worship.  Throughout the week, let your feet take you where there are people that need the love of Jesus. 

 

Then, what your hand finds to do, do it.  Let your feet put you in the right place so that your hands will have good work, your eyes see the glory of God, your mouth speak the truth to ears that need to hear.

 

After all, we all want beautiful feet. (Romans 10:9-13)

Proverbs 2

Proverbs 2:6-8-> These verses speak of the Lord giving wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

 

One of the things I find here is in Proverbs 2:7: God stores up sound wisdom for the upright.  There's a lot of teaching these days that claims God stores up material wealth for His people, that we somehow guaranteed financial standing from our relationship with Him.

 

Yet it's not here.  I haven't really found it any place else either.  I see many places where we're told troubles will come.  We see examples of people that lose most everything they had to follow God's ways.  We also see highlighted exceptions where God intervenes, but we're never guaranteed that these will happen to us.

 

What I see here is that sound wisdom is what is guaranteed. That He also shields us in our integrity. 

 

What does it mean?  That what truly matters is what is guaranteed.  Not that we will always have food or drink, wealth or houses. 

 

The promises of God are not as tied up in the American Dream as we try to make them some times.

Sermon Outlines from February 28

Text: Matthew 6:24

Theme: focus!

Date: February 28, 2010 AM

Location: CBC Monticello

1. We live in a world that often presents us with exclusive choices:

1. Paper or plastic?

2. Republicans or Democrats?

3. VHS or Beta? (for all of you older folks)

4. X-Box or Wii (for all of you younger folks)

5. PC or Mac?

6. Thin crust or deep dish?

7. And the classic Baptist choice: Original or Extra Crispy?

1. Likewise, Jesus presents us with an exclusive choice here: God or Mammon

   1. For now, let's assume we all know God

   2. Who or what is a mammon?

      1. It's a direct transliteration of the Hebrew word for “money”

      2. While “mammon” is sometimes seen as a specific false deity representing wealth, it's really just about money

2. So, Jesus is presenting his followers that they must choose between God and money as their master

3. How do we know what we're serving?

   1. Take a look at verse 25: “For this reason”

   2. What is the source of our stress?

   3. Our worries about material things are evidence that we haven't decided to serve God only

4. What do we do?

   1. 6:33-34: seek first His kingdom, His righteousness, and deal with today's stress in obedience to Him

 

 

Text: Philippians 2:12-13

Theme: Work it out!

Date: February 28 2010 PM

Location: CBC Monticello

1. What drives our obedience?

   1. Is it the eyes of others?

   2. Is it fear of the judgment of God?

   3. Is it that we respond out of our love for God?

2. What drives us will impact our depth of obedience

3. What does it mean to work out our salvation with “Fear” and “Trembling”

   1. One thought:

      1. Fear is emotional/mental

      2. Trembling is physical

      3. So, it's a combined response of our minds and bodies

   2. Other thoughts:

      1. Fear as respect of God

      2. Trembling---

4. What does the work do?

   1. It changes us

   2. Into who God intends for us to be:

5. What choice do we have?

   1. Not a lot....

   2. God works in us for His purposes

6. What should we see?

   1. The Long view:

   2. We are moving toward eternity

   3. It may or not make sense or be easy now

   4. Consider it in light of God's perspective

Hindsight

Friday I was in bed recovering from an illness that is best left barely mentioned and then moved on from.  I spent a good amount of time watching the History Channel that morning, since I could sit up in bed until that was too exhausting and I had to lay down in bed.  What did I watch?

Patton 360.  The History Channel did a season where they took the battles and campaigns of General Patton during World War II, combined archival footage with computer graphics and aerial photos and maps to show everything that was happening in each battle.  For the record, I find stuff like this fascinating.  So often, we learn history only from zoomed out.  It's fascinating to hear about how one small group of men in a particular place turned the tide of a moment of a battle that in turn secures….well, that's another post.

What I was noticing as I watched this was how critical the commentators were about some of the decisions made by the leadership of both the Allied and Axis armies in the war.  There was one point that I think I heard someone point out that "The enemy is right there! He's walking right into a trap! What's wrong with him?" (I will admit, I can't cite exactly when it happened in the show.  It may not have happened, as I wasn't 100% coherent at the time.)

The show commentators seemed to have forgotten that they have access to information that neither Patton, his subordinates, his superiors, nor his enemies had access to.  They know where the enemies were, what the supply situations were for both sides.  In fact, they've got nearly the whole picture.

Now, this post is entitled hindsight, and you're thinking I'm going to make the point that someday we'll look back with hindsight and understand better what was going on in our lives.  Well, that may be true, but my point is actually this one:

God already sees the situation, not with hindsight, but with even more accuracy than the History Channel's 360 degree maps.  God knows where all of it is, and where it is right now.  There are things that we won't understand until we see it in hindsight, but that God knows it right now.  God is aware of your supply situation, where your enemies are, and even what your allies are up to and whether they'll be successful in their endeavors. (One of the things that hurt Patton was that when he could have driven hard into Germany, Allied command gave the limited available fuel to a British plan to go through Belgium and Holland, which failed. Had Patton gotten the resources, he could possibly have been in Berlin before Christmas.  Instead, it took until May of the next year to end the war.)

God is already aware of these things.  We've got to learn to listen to Him when he speaks, when He guides.  We have to learn to trust Him.

Otherwise, people with the opportunity of hindsight will criticize us for what we didn't see, even though we had the benefit of listening to one who knew.

Doug

Monday Morning Humor

I used the "Blog This" function on reader, and it didn't quite work to make sure that I gave Kevin DeYoung proper credit for me ripping off his blog this morning.  If you click the Monday Morning Humor link, it will take you to his blog.  I like that he uses Monday Mornings to be funny.  It's a good start for us preachers.

Doug

Monday Morning Humor: "
Good use of the church sign.



Not as effective.



HT: Thabiti and Fail Blog


"

Proverbs 1

Ok, for several months I've hit and miss my way through verse by verse comments on most of Proverbs.  It's been fun.  However, I'm noticing that I've started reading a rut into the chapters, noticing and commenting the same verses.  This begins to be self-defeating.  It's like looking at my face in the mirror and only looking at the same places.  Sure, there's great places to look at, but I've got to notice that I have missed the same spot with the razor the past 3 days eventually.  Otherwise, the fuzz gets, well, fuzzy.

 

So, perhaps today I'll try giving some extended thoughts on just a few verses, or maybe even just one.

 

I'm really seeing Proverbs 1:8 today, perhaps because Ann and I have been talking a lot about relationships and preparing young people, including our children, for them.  We're talking specifically about marriage relationships.

 

What got us going in that direction is that I just did the wedding for a young couple in our church, and this September I've got another one.  Meanwhile, another young couple that got married in their late teens just divorced after 3 years of marriage and realizing that marriage is harder than it looks.  Ann is teaching a class of teenage girls, and, well, I've got a whole church of folks to deal with.

 

What is it about Proverbs 1:8 that is striking me?  Most notably this: we tend to wait and expect husbands and wives to teach each other how to behave together.  Really, we do.  Moms clean up after their sons (and daughters occasionally) but how many young women are planning on cleaning up after their husbands? That's just one example…Dads motivate kids by yelling at them, but is that how you want your sons asking their wives to do things?

 

The point is this: it's not the job of a new husband and wife to learn the basics of home life.  It's the job of mom and dad to have been teaching this through the years.  First of all, to have been teaching by modeling it.  Whether it's the Biblical value of mutual submission, husband-leadership or just simple respect, you have to show it.  Think about it: nearly every family has older adults they interact with, whether they are biological grandparents or other people that come near that role.  Parents, your children learn much more about how to treat you by how you treat their grandparents than by what you say.

 

Second, to have been teaching it by word: are you using words to teach your children all aspects of home life? Fathers, are you teaching your sons to be sensitive to their wives needs? To do things around the house?  Guess what? She's going to expect him to do something, but he's learning from you to sit on the couch and watch TV while she works.  Moms, are you teaching your sons what they need to know? He should be able to clean up after himself, cook for himself and others, do laundry, and so forth.  Don't not teach it just because he's a boy.  Are you teaching your daughters? To do "manly" things? Can your daughter change a car tire? How about a car battery?  Wives, do you treat your husbands with respect so that your daughters see how it's done? Or do you run him down?  Husbands, would you tolerate some boy treating your daughter the way you treat your wife?

 

All of this comes back to Proverbs 1:8 –>Even the king needed to learn from both Father and Mother.  So should we.