OF GARDENS AND TREES
#169 OF GARDENS AND TREES
Scripture Genesis 2:8-9; John 19:41, NIV Orig. Date 8/8/1965
Rewr. Dates 7/23/1990
Passage: Genesis 2:8-9 8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
John 19:41 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
Purpose: For a Sunday evening message define the scriptural flow of gardens and trees through creation to crucifixion.
Keywords: Christ Crucified Miracle Creation Sin
Timeline/Series: Ben. Old Testament Miracles
Introduction
The direction taken this evening will plot a course from the Garden of Eden, by way of Gethsemane to Golgotha, and find our way to Glory, the only name befitting the garden where stands the “tree of life” as depicted in Revelation.
As chapter one describes the larger facet of creation, chapter two defines a specific place somewhere in the vestment of time where man was brought to his full potential. The place was called a garden. In the garden were trees. The trees were there for man’s aggrandizement. One was for his use and control. The other was to symbolize sensitive spiritual nature. His disuse of the tree was the means to that end.
When he selfishly tried to manifest control over this tree also, he was driven from the garden. Interestingly, Jesus brings us back to the garden. He went to one, Gethsemane, with His disciples to pray; then to another, Golgotha, to die for sin.
A tree was the nemesis of man that caused him to lose his place of favor in the garden. Now, another tree in a garden outside of Jerusalem offers man access once again.
John 19:41 “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden.”
Acts 5:30 “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a cross.”
Revelation 22:14 “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates to the city.”
I. Do We Comprehend the Miracle?
V8 “And the Lord planted a garden.” Understanding the beauty of creation. Imagine the struggle with words to describe such a place. Our self-seeking words would fail. Human vocabulary not sufficient. We are limited in describing gardens that we have seen: Hodges Gardens at height of rose season; Bellingrath Gardens in February for azaleas; Natchez Pilgrimage in Spring; New England when leaves are turning; Smokies in early Summer for the Rhododendrons; Our own dogwood vistas. Our best description is visual.
People of many persuasions scoff at such a concept. They applaud what the hand of man conceives, creates, crafts, crowns. Yet they scoff at such a place as a Garden of Eden. Study the order of development (evolution) claimed by geology. Chaos: Light: Firmament (Expanse): Dry Land: Vegetation: Life (water, air land): Man (Lockyer-Miracles.)
Read the order of development in scripture. 1:2 Void: 1:3 Light: 1:6 Firmament: 1:9 Dry Land: 1:11 Grass: 1:22 Living Creatures (fish/fowl): 1:24 Beast of the earth: 1:26 Man.
More important, see that garden as a place of sinlessness. Evil influence had not yet corrupted. Where had he came from. Who knows? What had he been doing? Only now free to corrupt. Caught them at a time alone. Slithering serpent came to symbolize an attractive, reasonable agent. The woman left her sphere of safety. She parlayed with Satan. She made the word of God complicated. Genesis 3:3 “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” We don’t know how Adam reported it to her.
II. Do We Contest the Miracle?
2:9 “And out of the ground the Lord made to grow every tree . . .” The keeper of the garden. We are given his name. The word “man” in 2:7. The same word “Adam” in 2:19. Called “husband” in 3:6 (maleness). What we know of the woman.
2:23 “woman” (24/wife) ishshah – female
3:20 “Eve” life chavvah
3:20 “mother” em
Recent genetic study called attention to human mammal going back to a common source (called Eve).
Human uniqueness. In comparative anatomy (Lockyer) rank among vertebrates is determined “by the proportion of brain to spinal column.” Fish 2-1; Reptiles 2.5-1; Birds 3-1; Mammal 4-1; Man 33-1. Genesis 2:7 “God breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life, and he became.”
The garden that was to be kept. The text speaks only of the tree. The larger text speaks of grass, herbs, fruit yielding [trees] (Genesis 1:11). The following (2:10) “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.” Hardly a month passes that PBS does not have a program. 326 million cubic miles (S104p71) of water on the planet. 97% sea/2% ice caps/1% to exploit for man. Animals—National Geographic Society—50 years ago 10million elephants. Today maybe 750,000. Zoos may furnish gene pool necessary to keep.
We must view thee spiritual content also. Parallel between “tree” and “cross.” Arthur Pink
(G18p27) Contrasts.
God planted 2:9/ creature Matthew 27:35
Pleasant 3:6/ “saw no beauty” Isaiah 53
Forbade eat 2:17/ Revelation 2:7 “I will give to eat of the tree of life.”
As Satan tempted of the one, he tempts to restrain from the other
First (2:17) brought sin and death; Second (John 6:53f) “Except ye eat.”
Adam (3:23 turned out)/ thief Luke 23:42
III. Do We Contemporize the Miracle?
V9 “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Our world is a garden, and we are keepers. There are places of great beauty. Evidence of care and skill abound. Other places in the garden do not reveal such husbandry.
The garden testifies to the burden of sin. As Adam was driven from the garden, man is left with a world under the serious struggle with sin.
Not only do we need to be ecologists, but spiritual economists as well. God’s voice is still heard. It rings out amid the degradation. To Adam in the overburden of the garden. To Solomon in the flotsam of decadence. John 15:16 “Ye have not chosen me, I have chosen you.”
The battle is still going on. We are caretakers in His garden. It is easy to become distressed about the physical world. The beckoning voice directs us to the spiritual needs also. The fruit of Calvary’s tree is food for the soul. It also is pleasant to eyes of faith. At the foot of that tree is the ground where God meets the sinner. It is the place of the finished work of Christ. It is the final source of wisdom. I Corinthians 1:18 “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness, but to us who are saved, it is the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
Conclusion
Trees offer us interesting instances. We have seen it depicted as curse (Genesis 3:17). Baker (Genesis 40:19): “hanged,” others. See it as comfort. (Genesis 18:1f) Three messengers “rest under the tree.” (See Jeremiah 50:6.) Revelation 14:13 “that they may rest from their labors.” Communion is next found. Genesis 18:8 “Under the tree they did eat.” Revelation 3:20 “Will sup with him and he with me.” Finally, there is cleansing. Exodus 15:23f “And the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, were made sweet.”
HELPING THE HOME TO HAPPINESS
#105 HELPING THE HOME TO HAPPINESS
Scripture Orig. 5/2/65 (5/77)
Genesis 2:18-24 NIV Rewr. 6/18/87
Passage: Genesis 2:18-24 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam[a] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[b] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[c] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
I Corinthians 7:3-5 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Purpose: On the occasion of Father’s Day, urge my people to achieve a renewed understanding of the home as a unique spiritual blessing.
Keywords: Family Marriage Heritage Home
Introduction
We occasionally see stickers on cars identifying those within as participants in some marriage-meaning seminar. One of these stickers states, “We believe in marriage.” If one believes in God, and believes that He has spoken in His Word, then marriage is the fundamental human relationship.
What we read in Genesis 2 as the historic position of scripture, is found virtually unchanged when we read Paul’s interpretation found in I Corinthians 7. Clearly, Jesus saw it this way, and declared his teaching openly.
According to many social scientists, marriage is at a low point of esteem. 50% of all marriages end in divorce. The average span of a marriage is six to nine years, giving vent to what is called the “seven-year itch.” That’s another name for boredom based on acquired responsibility.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that in our 20th Century, sex has become a “sales” technique. Thus enter our salesperson counselors who advise solutions: “gracious living replaces the life of grace.” Instead of dealing with the problem, such counselors insist on a change of appearance, or wardrobe. The psychiatrist seeks the total dismantling of “guilt” insisting, “If it feels good, do it,” which in many cases is what we want to hear anyway.
The mandate upon the Christian in regard to marriage, is that God is the instigator of marriage, the molder of relationship, the magnifier of trust.
It is important that those who have weathered the winds of withdrawal, know Who has been their succor. As well, those who are facing uncertain days of threatened dissolution, need to know that their marriage is worth saving, and to know Him, only, who can. And, finally, those who look ahead to such a social dilemma, might know that God still honors His Word, for those who are willing to live by it, and for those who do not.
I. Marriage is Founded upon a Unique Spiritual Heritage. Genesis 2:24 “. . . he shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” I Corinthians 7:3 “The husband shall give to the wife what is her due as his wife; and so also the wife to the husband.”
Such marriage is of divine origin. Living Bible: God took the rib and made the woman, brought her to the man, who responded, “This is it!” Grace is always getting more than we either expect or deserve. One is impelled to see intended, physical consummation. Some say it is the “result of sin.” Others, that God allows it as an impediment.
Scripture points to a higher goal of intent. It was to be creative, intimate, relational—ever so much more than carnal expression. It is the ultimate proclamation of selflessness. The Greek has three words expressing love: carnal, familial, selfless. Proverbs 18:22 “Whoso finds a wife, finds a good thing.” Hebrews 13:4 “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled.”
Such physical consummation becomes spiritual between two people on harmonious spiritual terms. It is the belief that its beginning, and tenure, are of God, and it is the contentment that the relationship is its own ultimate goal.
I remember a story (Readers Digest, March 1977), “There Came a Cry of Joy” about an ornithologist and a sparrow hawk. He trapped it, but instead of penning it at the end of the day, felt impressed to release it. He opened his hands, and watched as the hawk soared upward. From far overhead he heard the cry of another bird. “I was young then, and had seen little of the world, but when I heard that cry, my heart turned over. It was not the cry of the hawk I had released. I was now seeing farther up . . . where she had been soaring . . . for untold hours. And from far up, ringing from peak to peak of the summit over us, came a cry of such unutterable and ecstatic joy that it sounds down across the years and tingles among the cups on a quiet breakfast table.”
To this divine origin is added parenthood. It is lagniappe, not biological, but spiritual, emotional. Note: Parents, your children are being brainwashed with ideas relating to sex that are promiscuous, unrealistic. Let them see in your marriage the bases for the divine image. Youth, when you buy the contemporary garbage of promiscuity as a worthwhile goal, you reduce the chances that you will ever be able to experience what God wills for you.
II. Uniquely Spiritual, Marriage is also Uniquely Human. Genesis 2:18 “And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make an helpmeet for him.” I Corinthians 7:4 “The wife no longer has full rights over her body, but shares them with her husband. So also, the husband with the wife.”
The Christian home is a respite of equals. Matthew 19:6 “They are no longer two, but one flesh.” These equals work together to define roles. Indeed, the husband is to be head of wife and home. Ron used “obey” for the wife, but merited it not written into the companion vow.
The vulnerable marriages, Christian as well, are those that become power struggles. Speaking tongue-in-cheek, the husband settles big issues and the wife the little ones: The wife decides where to live, school for children, vacation plans, etc. The husband decides when to reestablish trade relations with China; whether or not to support the Contras; if PTL really should have sold the doghouse.
Both must take serious interest in avoiding what brings grief to the other. Watchwords are communication, compromise, commitment.
A relationship of equals is based on spiritual values. It is this that is most easily mismanaged. It is not a question of how much or how deeply we love. Love is measured in terms of quality. We must be able to gauge where we ourselves are spiritually, and to find another in spiritual harmony. The last statistics seen call attention to a much higher level of marital success for those marrying above college age, perhaps twice as high. It is not the college degree as much as age maturity. Youth are clearly vulnerable. All must remember that nothing physical or material will last.
Love sonnet: Thomas Moore, 18th Century Irish poet, was married to beautiful Bessie Dykes, an actress. In 1811, while away, he found out from a friend that she had been stricken with a skin disease, leaving her disfigured. She dreaded his return. This poem preceded him:
“Believe me if all those endearing young charms, Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow, and melt in my arms, Like fairy-gifts fading way,
Thou would still be adored, as this moment thou art, Let thy loveliness fade as it will.
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart Would incline itself verdantly still.
It is not while beauty and youth are thine own, And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervour and faith of a soul may be known, To which time will but make thee more dear!
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close;
As the sunflower turns on her god, when he sets, The same look which she turned when he rose.”
Others are as well vulnerable. Among them are those who have lost mates of special harmony. Marriage is not an end in itself. The key is always, “What God has joined together.” The solution is to allow the Spirit to lead.
The worst mistake in my life…. (***the remainder of this paragraph has been lost***).
What about the divorced? There are times when divorce or annulment are the only alternatives. That person has the right to marital happiness. The Christian must not ever take the easy way.
I came to know Wes Jackson in New Orleans. His wife had died, and he was dating a church lady. A friend, whose wife had walked out on his ministerial career, sympathized with him over the loss of his wife. “As strange as it may seem to you, I envy you. Not because your wife died, but because death is so final, while divorce is not. I know she’s out there somewhere, and I still care for her.”
III. For the Home to be Uniquely Christian, there Needs to be Grace to Accept Differences in Others’ Lives. The church performs in the role of extended family. Christ is the husband, the Church is the bride, and we are participants together in family.
Units within that family structure are going to differ. Marriage is the norm: the operating criteria for most of us. Single people are just as important to God. Marriage at any cost is not the answer. Making the most out of marriage is the answer for all married people. The church must stand ready to open its heart as well to those outside of traditional family, offering companionship, and a full sense of belonging.
Conclusion
Let me close, however, with a piece called “Practical Rules for a Happy Marriage.” “Never both be angry at the same time. Never talk at one another, either alone or in company. Never speak loudly to one another, unless the house is on fire. Let each one strive to yield most often to the wishes of the other. Let self-denial be the daily aim and practice of each. Never taunt with a past mistake. Neglect the whole world rather than one another. Never part for a day without loving words to remember. Never make a mean remark at the expense of the other. Never meet without a loving welcome. Never let the sun go down on any anger or grievance. Never forget the happy hours of early love. Never forget that marriage is ordained of God and that His blessings alone can make it what it ought to be. And you will be happy ever after.”
C.S. Lewis wrote in The Four Loves: “If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one. . . avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. . . . The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
#103 THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
Scripture Jeremiah 2:5-13 NIV Orig. 11/22/64 (11/78)
Deuteronomy 1:10-11, 21 NIV Rewr. 11/22/86
Passage:
Jeremiah 2:5-13
5 This is what the Lord says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
7 I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
8 The priests did not ask,
‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.
9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the Lord.
“And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar[a] and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Deuteronomy 1:10-11, 21
10 The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11 May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!
21 See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Purpose: To call my people to remembrance of blessings of God to His people and that their spiritual prosperity was linked to their obedience
Keywords: God’s Blessing Promises Hebrew History Promises
Thanksgiving Thankfulness
Introduction
The attitude of gratitude is not borne easily. Not only is its existence a troubled one, bearing it can sometimes be a struggle to those near at hand.
Anonymity claims the pen which wrote the verse:
“Be thankful every day for bread;
For clothes and shelter, clean and warm;
And God’s protection in life’s storm;
For life and health, and those who care;
For peace and quiet, and love and prayer.”
But in its lines is “the attitude of gratitude.” Without such, there is little to life’s meaning. There is no maturity, no personhood; certainly, no discipleship.
Bishop William Quayle, upon hearing of the death of his friend, the naturalist John Burroughs, reflected aloud, “Poor John, he loved the garden, but he never met the gardener.”
Joyce Kilmer, on the other hand, was unapologetically a believer. Before he died on a battlefield in France at the age of 32, he wrote,
“Thank God for the bitter and ceaseless strife
And the sting of His chastening rod.
Thank God for the stress and pains of life
And, Oh, thank God for God.”
The Hebrew people to whom Jeremiah spoke, and around whom Deuteronomy was written, shared a heritage of blessing in the promises of God. A part of that observance was the Feast of Tabernacles. They knew this celebration as “Sukkot,” and shared together in this feast at the end of the harvest season. The purpose was to give thankfulness to God for the fulfillment of all His promised blessings to them. But their history, like ours today, is checkered with those occasions of great blessing, with little or no response from those to whom the blessings are given.
I. The Attitude of Gratitude Examines the Record from the Past. Jeremiah 2:7, “I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof.” So the Lord is the key to time and circumstance. Dr. Sidlow Baxter teaches an important lesson in the lives of the seven great men of Genesis. Abel was 1st, not a man reaching in toward himself as was Cain, but reaching out to the unknown: to God. 2nd was Enoch, immortalized forever as the man who walked with God. 3rd was Noah, forever the man of spiritual renewal; he followed his God over the cold water to a new day of hope. 4th was Abraham; he was a man who walked by faith, was “accounted as righteous” and called “the friend of God.” 5th, a little later, came Isaac; from him we get our first taste of sonship; he was of special promise, of special birth, almost a sacrifice for sin. Then, 6th, came Jacob; in him was the life of service—busy, untiring, blessing, a prince at prayer. Finally, 7th, came Joseph, a life thrown away, but picked up again, blessed and used.
It is not such men that we need today, but people with such a grasp of God, committed to pray, promise, and perform.
It was in some similar way that God moved to bring America to the forefront of nations. The year was not 1492, by the way, nor was the man Columbus. The year was 1455, and the man was Gutenberg. If you do not recognize the name, he was a printer. Printing came alive, the equivalent of the computer. The Bible, and its vision of men and women in freedom, was only a step away.
It was not long before doctrinal integrity replaced Ecclesiastical hierarchy (1517) in Luther’s 95 Theses at Wittenberg. During that same period. The persecution of Separatists, your spiritual forebears, pointed believers toward a distant wilderness and freedom’s dream.
God’s concern in America today is not in a land, but in a vision; not in a political entity, but a people. Isaiah 1:18 “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall become as wool.” Colossians 2:2, “God’s secret . . . is Christ himself. He is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge.
II. The Attitude of Gratitude Considers Performance of God’s Dealings with His People. Deuteronomy 1:10 “The Lord your God hath multiplied you and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.” The good gifts of God to Israel were a stewardship trust.
They were gifts clearly from God. The Ark of the Covenant symbolized God’s presence. 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." We abuse holy things.
They were gifts centered for service. Deuteronomy 26:5, “My father was a homeless Aramean who went down into Egypt with a small company, and lived there until they became a great nation.” It was clearly their responsibility to use those gifts to the glory of God. To examine Israel during those years of glory is to be aware of the awe in which others held them. In the world of nations between 10th-8th Centuries BC, they were the rich kid on the block. Others were jealous, but could do nothing. Then it was discovered that the mansion of Israel had roaches and termites just like the shacks by the river. They had been given a chance to help others. Their greatest failing was that they did not. What will our greatest failing be?
You see, the truth of moral and spiritual responsibility is eternal. To know God is to be morally and materially responsible for sharing that knowledge persuasively. Isaiah 62:6 “I have set watchmen upon the walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace, day or night . . . . Give Him no rest till He establishes, till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
Not to share that responsibility is soul damning. Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”
“O Zion haste, thy mission high fulfilling, to tell to all the world that God is light,
That He who made all nations is not willing one soul should perish, lost in shades of night.
Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation that God in whom they live and move is love.
Tell how He stooped to save His lost creation, and died on earth that man might live above.”
III. The Attitude of Gratitude Speaks Also of Promises in Prospect. Deuteronomy 1:11 “[May] the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as you are, and bless you, as He has promised you.”
Let us remember that God is righteous, and our sin is a burden to Him. The world was created and ordered under His perfect hand. It awaits people of faith and dedication to open the chalices of promise.
About ¾ century ago Albert Einstein stood before colleagues and wrote an equation that has literally changed the world. E = MC2. Energy is proportional to mass. And the atomic age came into being. Will it always bode evil and war? Can it not also bring good?
The fulfilled promise is one in which sin is brought to light in Christ.
It is the eternal link of blood. Leviticus 17:11 “For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Hebrews 9:22 “Without the shedding of blood is no remission.”
It is the building blocks to the universe. Isaiah 28:16 “Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.”
God’s promise is first an invitation. Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye who labor.” I Peter 2:9, ‘Ye are a chosen generation called . . . out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Revelations 22:17 “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”
Conclusion
The early charters of the colonies that became the United States were treatises dedicated to God through His Son. Plymouth, Delaware, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, Rhode Island had the stated purpose, “to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the glory of God almighty.”
The closing words of the Declaration of Independence confessed the nation’s dependence. Congress appointed a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer in 1776, that the colonies, “through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain His pardon and forgiveness.” Congress ordered the first Thanksgiving in 1777 asking “the penitent confession of their manifold sins . . . and their humble earnest supplication, that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to blot out our sins of remembrance.”
Abbreviated version of #103
When you hear today of someone with “an attitude,” it usually has a negative connotation. However, if I understand the word aright, it can be used positively as well. Just as we are able to express strong negative emotions, we are also able to express powerful positive emotions. It is in that sense that I speak to you this morning on “The Attitude of Gratitude.”
Anonymity claims the pen which wrote the verse:
“Be thankful every day for bread,
For clothes and shelter, clean and warm;
And God’s protection in life’s storm.
For life and health, and those who care,
For peace and quiet, and love and prayer.”
Such lines as these contain that “attitude of gratitude.” Without such, life’s meaning is extremely the more complicated. Bishop William Quayle, upon hearing of the death of his friend, the world-renowned naturalist, John Burroughs, reflected aloud, “Poor John, he loved the garden but never knew the gardener.”
Joyce Kilmer, on the other hand, was unapologetically a believer. Before dying on a battlefield in France at the age of 32, he wrote:
“Thank God for the bitter and ceaseless strife
And the sting of His chastening rod.
Thank God for the stress and pains of life
And, Oh, thank God for God.”
The Hebrew people, who were Jeremiah’s audience, and the subject about which Deuteronomy was written, shared a heritage not unlike our Thanksgiving heritage. It was a celebration called ‘Sukkot.” It came at the end of the harvest season, and was intended as an expression of thankfulness. But their history, like ours today, is checkered with manifold evidence of blessing, and little more than token response from those to whom the blessings are given. The “attitude of gratitude” must examine Past Perceptions, Present Performances, and Promises in Prospect.
The early charters of the colonies that became the United States were treatises dedicated to God through His Son. Plymouth, Delaware, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, Rhode Island had the stated purpose, “to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the glory of God almighty.”
The closing words of the Declaration of Independence confessed the nation’s dependence. Congress appointed a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer in 1776, that the colonies, “through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain His pardon and forgiveness.” Congress ordered the first Thanksgiving in 1777 asking “the penitent confession of their manifold sins . . . and their humble earnest supplication, that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to blot out our sins of remembrance.”
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
#034 POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Scripture Deuteronomy 8:1,2,16-20 NIV Orig. 5/3/64 (3/79)
Rewr. 3/21/87
Passage: 1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. . . . 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. 19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.
Purpose: To examine the spiritual motivations of the people of God in light of His blessings and His expectations
Keywords: Blessing God, People of Judgment
Introduction
Many of us have seen awesome generational changes taking place in our lives and the lives of our children. So many particular advantages have come, and are coming, to the youth of this present age.
Both of our girls have already become world travelers. Fritha has been out of the country three times: Canada, Europe, Liberia. She is presently planning a Russia trip. Rhonda has been away three times: Canada, Europe, Brazil.
Both returned from their travels to share great moments with their parents. I remember vividly the slides taken in Europe. I particularly remember the great cathedrals.
The architects of the 12th and 13th centuries had great confidence in their technical skills. They continued to press for higher and higher monuments of praise, and of self-glory. In 1163 A.D., the vault of the nave of Notre Dame reached the then record height of 110 feet. At Chartres, 31 years later (1194), a new record of 114 feet was achieved. At Rheims in 1212, a height of 125 feet was recorded. Then, just nine years later, in 1221, the cathedrals of Amiens stood at 140 feet. By this time, competition between the cities had become the driving force in these construction displays. The people vowed to raise their cathedral 13 feet higher than at Amiens. Three times they tried. It fell each time. In 1500, gigantic transepts were begun, and in 1552, the lantern tower reached the unbelievable height of 500 feet. The tower collapsed one year later, and with it came the end of this great period of architectural competition. Such enterprises had become monuments to the praise of men rather than the praise of God.
It was not always so intended. At Chartres for instance (LinLib1583), without proper stones nearby, nobles and peasants, abbots and abbesses with their subservient bodies of monks and nuns, allowed themselves to be harnessed to the heaviest of carts, which they pulled from quarry to building site. Then, on that site, they built, with their own hands, the walls of the “House of God.” How easy for such labors to degenerate to desire for self-esteem. So it was for Israel. So it is for us, too often.
I. Act One in This Drama of Power to the People Is Persuasion. 8:1 “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers.”
The initial concept in Persuasion is the authority of the persuader. All of us have been recipients of promises that could not be kept. The greatest single factor in the breakdown of many marriages, is in promises not kept. Many parents cannot give liberally to their children, but promises broken are the destiny provokers. And, we have all been guilty of making promises that we could not or did not keep.
I still remember some promises not kept while still a youth.
I remember preaching the funeral in Oakdale, Louisiana, of a young man who was killed in a car wreck directly attributable to a broken promise.
The lagoon of life is filled with the decaying hulks of broken promises and broken lives.
The persuader here is God Himself, who would not and cannot deceive. Listen to 8:7f: “For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, . . . a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.”
Such sufficiency was the promise of God to Israel for their good. It was a promise He intended to keep. It was a promise to guide them in their will to follow. It was a promise, if kept, that would have been the supplier of power for Israel. It is a promise God makes to his people in any age. Psalm 27:8 “When thou saith, ‘Seek ye my face;’ my heart said unto thee, ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’” Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
It is in the context of promise given to persuade, that we learn of Jesus as Saviour. The Old Testament, you remember promised that ONE would come. The New Testament teaches us the story of His life and death. Old Testament, New Testament, and 2000 years of Christian history certify that He is going to return.
Are you persuaded?
II. Act Two in This Drama Is Provision. V2 “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments or not.”
What happened to Israel happened, to the end that they would better become a power of God. He is able to bring His people through struggle.
The misdeeds of His people are another matter. The Jim Bakker debacle is a case in point. We were in New Orleans when Bob Harrington left his ugly mark on the Baptist name. I have a friend in Morgan City who has recovered from this heinous wrong.
Have we stopped recently to contemplate what God has given over to us as His people? We are 7-8% of the world’s people. We occupy 6% of the world’s land mass. We control nearly 50% of the world’s wealth. We do struggle, over energy, marketing farm products, etc., but we are still, uniquely, the chosen people of God to the end that the gospel be proclaimed.
In such provision, we discover what a nation’s safeguards really are. Someone reminds us, “A nation’s safeguards are not in commerce or Tyre would not have fallen; not in art or Greece would have stood; not in political organization or Rome would have lasted; not in military power or Germany would have triumphed; not in religious ceremony, or Israel would not have collapsed.” Amos 5:21f tells us that assemblies were rebuked, offerings unacceptable, ceremony a defilement. Amos 5:24 “Let justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”
III. Finally, Act Three in the Drama Declares Their Probation. V18, 19, “But thou shalt remember . . . . And it shall be that if thou do at all forget, . . . you shall surely perish.” This is not the threat of an angry, surly, self-seeking God. It reminds Israel and us that He is not intimidated by our intellectual uniqueness. Even with that superiority, how evident is our record of failure.
Upon examination, His commands have always been consistent with this experienced probation. Look at the Ten Commandments and acknowledge their societal advantage. However, Jesus reminds us that they can be simplified. Mark 12:30-31 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength; and thy neighbor as thyself.”
The probation given is directed against human pride. V12f “Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God. . . .”
One of the clear indications of this time is that the world’s people are on spiritual probation: Nations. Churches, Individuals.
A pilot discovered that his instruments were not working. He told the passengers, “I have good and bad news. The instruments are out. I don’t know where we are going. The good news is we are getting there at 600mph.”
Conclusion
A National Geographic article on Brazil concluded with the story of a man from the interior of the Amazon who had made his way to one of the cities. For 15 years he had worked separating tin cans from garbage. “Which do you like better?” the author asked. “It is better here,” the man said. “There I was a slave.” (NG—March 1987).
THE POTTER'S HOUSE Deuteronomy 20:1-4; Jeremiah 18:1-6
#614bb THE POTTER’S HOUSE
Scripture Deuteronomy 20:1-4; Jeremiah 18:1-6, NIV Orig. Date May 10, 1981
Passage:
Deuteronomy 20:1-4
When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. 4 For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
Jeremiah 18:1-6
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.”
Purpose: To share a message at a special gathering of high school students.
Keywords: Discipline Banquet Revelation Relationship Youth
Introduction
It was one of those intolerably hot August days. A hiker had come out of the high regions and was beginning to see signs of civilization. Occasionally, in the distance, a house. Here and there, cultivated land with crops laid by. The hiker was now thinking only of finding a place to get a cool drink of water.
Down the way, he saw an old mountain house. As he drew nearer, he saw a man seated in a rickety chair on the run-down porch. As he approached he determined to be neighborly to the man, hoping that he would be so in return. He spoke, then called attention to the disagreeable weather. Still no invitation to rest came. He went on, “How is your cotton doing in this hot, dry weather?”
“Ain’t got none!” replied the mountain man.
“Didn’t you plant any cotton?” asked the surprised traveler.
“Nope,” he replied, “’fraid the boll weevils’d get it.”
“Well,” said the passer-by, “How is your corn?”
“Ain’t got none of that either,” said the old farmer, “And if you gotta know, I figured there weren’t gonna be no rain.”
Still hoping for an invitation to rest, and a drink of water, the hiker plunged in again. “Really, well what did you plant?” he asked.
“Didn’t plant nothing,” said the farmer, getting up to enter the old house. “I just played it safe.”
There are lots of good reasons why we do what we do. Some of them even good ones, and our excuses become the determinants of the way our lives are lived. To be a farmer and not to plant is ludicrous. To live in God’s world and make excuses for discounting Him is also.
There’s a shorter story of an avid golfer who was checking with his spiritual adviser about golfing in heaven. The adviser said, “There’s good and bad news. The good news is that the golf courses in heaven are many and lavish.” “That’s great!” the golfer happily exclaimed. “What’s the bad news?” The adviser said: “Tee off time is tomorrow at 10a.m.”
At first glance, Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote, has little to offer young people. It is the story of a thought-to-be senile old man, and his fat and 50ish servant. They launch a quest to do something about the evil in the world, the don on a sway back horse and Panza on a mule. They stop for the night at a less than becoming inn, and his strange ways continue. He addresses the slovenly inn-keeper, “Behold, you are the Lord of this great manor.” The abused kitchen servant was seen as a beautiful maiden, and he requests a token to carry with him into his battles with evil. But what happens is that people who have never been trusted before respond to Quixote’s kindness, and it changes their lives, and does affect the evil in the world by affecting the lives of evil people.
You are at the place to decide your quest: A part of the evil, or an attempt to do something about it. Why you?
The New Orleans TV market had an unusually fine TV program a few years ago that ended with the sudden and unexpected death of the host, Jim Metcalf. He chose for a portion of one program to see life through a child’s eyes. “I now recall only how to look. I do not recall how to see.”
You must decide quickly, before you join a great host of others who recall only how to look at the world, not how to see it. How to experience the world, not how you feel about that experience.
Jeremiah is a case in point. It is here that I invite you to venture with Jeremiah to the potter’s house.
I. With All of His Experience, there was a Lesson that He had Missed. It was not an obvious lesson: not wasted clay, though we Americans have something to learn about waste—our loss of credibility. The lesson was in the symbol of wasted clay. It was a revelation. Not new, but very old. The symbol declared that it was God’s purpose to take what seemed to be useless and give it meaning and opportunity. It is a lesson that must not be pushed too far. The clay does not have free will with which it can resist the potter. Jeremiah did, and we do.
II. You See, Even as God’s Prophet, He had Compromised an Ideal. The world out there waiting for you is beset with bargains.
Soren Kierkegaard told a story about wild geese who chose to stay behind in a farmer’s field because it was safe. A wild goose, with broken wing, entered a farmer’s flock. After winter, with healed wing, he heard another flock flying north. He extolled the other geese to fly with him, but they would not, for the farmer’s corn was good, and the barnyard secure.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote: “When was it that I completely scattered the good seeds, one and all? For, after all, I spent my boyhood in the bright singing of Thy temples.
“Bookish subtleties sparked brightly, piercing my arrogant brain, the secrets of the world . . . in my grasp, life’s destiny . . . as pliable as wax.
“Blood seethed . . . and every swirl gleamed iridescently before me. Without a rumble the building of my faith quietly crumbled within my own heart.
“But passing here between being and nothingness, stumbling and clutching at the edge, I looked behind me with a grateful tremor upon the life that I have lived. Not with good judgment nor with desire are its twists and turns illumined, but with the even glow of the higher meaning which became apparent to me only later on.
“And now, with measuring cup returned to me, scooping up the living water, God of the universe! I believe again! Though I renounced you, you were with me!”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag II (Harper and Row—1968)
III. It was Now Time to Certify the Word from God. What God had to say was to be revealed in the work of the potter.
It speaks of confidence. There is something to believe in. There is a dependable world.
It speaks of obedience. James Michener’s book, The Source, is a fictional account of Moses. El Shaddai said to Zadok-the-Righteous, “As long as you live old man, you will be free to ignore my commands. But in time, I will grow impatient and will speak to others.” Zadok: “My home is the desert. I was afraid to leave.” El Shaddai: ‘I waited because I knew that if you did not love your home, you would not love me either. I am glad that you are now ready.”
It speaks of faith. I watched with more than a smile as a little girl, 4 or 5 years old, waited at the baggage belt in the air terminal in New Orleans. Just the three of us waiting for luggage at Moisant. She asked about putting her stuffed bear on the belt. Her daddy assured her it would come back. You cannot imagine the look of concern on that father’s face as he waited with her for his word to be trustworthy.
IV. The Lesson had to do with Discovering a Destiny. “Cannot I do with you as this potter? . . . As clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.”
Let me remind you of your dependence. This is not what your contemporaries want you to consider. It is threatening to them.
Let me remind you of design. The will of God is not a trite “preacherism.” It is ultimate truth. A little boy in a small town heard a “circus” was coming. He did not know what it was but posters and talk convinced him. For weeks he saved pennies till he had 25 cents. On the day, he got to town and was told where to go for the beginning of the parade. He saw lions, tigers, bears, elephants with people riding on them, beautiful horses, acrobats, jugglers, clowns, the circus band. As the last person appeared, the little boy stepped into the street, put five nickels into the man’s hand, and ran home to tell what he had seen. He had not been to a circus but to a parade.
Let me remind you of discipline: the calloused feet; the tools—wheel, rasp, chisel, fire. The light then came on in the prophet’s brain. Life’s meaning is found on the shaping wheel of grace, tempered in the fires of God’s providence.
Conclusion
Herman Hegedorn wrote after the initial atom bomb blast in New Mexico: “I went to call on the Lord in His high house on the hill, my head full of 150 million people having to grow up overnight. If ever a people needed a miracle! The Lord!! He looked at me as a mountain might look at a molehill.” ‘So you want a miracle. My! My! You want a miracle. You want me to come sliding down a sunbeam and make 150 million self-willed egotists into 150 million cooperating angels.
‘Brother,’ said the Lord in a voice that shook the windows, ‘that isn’t the sort of universe you are living in. That isn’t the sort of God I am. . . .
‘Give me your life, and I will make it a spade to dig the foundation of a new world.’”