1/13/23 1/13/23

THE POTTER’S HOUSE (with Deuteronomy)

#614bb THE POTTER’S HOUSE (with Deuteronomy)

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. ²When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. ³He 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. ⁴For 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.” ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. ⁴But 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. ⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me. ⁶He 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.’”

1/13/23 1/13/23

THE POTTER’S HOUSE

#614b THE POTTER’S HOUSE

Scripture Jeremiah 18:1-6, NIV Orig. Date 2-4-75 (5-78)

Rewr. Dates 9-24-87

Passage: 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.” ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. ⁴But 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.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me. ⁶He 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

“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.”

I. Jeremiah Reminds Us of Something that He has Overlooked. V2. “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.” The message is not a new one. We are reminded rather than informed. It is not something never said before, not some new thing making its appearance. There all the time but Jeremiah was elsewhere.

And, it was becoming increasingly important for Jeremiah to know the heart of God. I wonder what good thing occupied the prophet. I wonder why he failed to seek the “best” thing. Were you ever guilty of that? I have been.

Even here, we can occupy ourselves with secondary matters. Why, here is a wonderful lesson about wasted clay. The potter needs to be more careful. We can extend this to a world where waste abounds and examine others’ guilt.

Contemporary ecology warns us about waste. We are losing trees, forests, woodlands. Water quality is a problem everywhere. Oil has been wasted to the point of world revolution.

The major economic concern in America today is that we are creating debt on unborn populations.

But, that’s not the lesson. The lesson is in the message delivered through the potter. It is a lesson that shows God to be the redeemer, the user of what has been cast aside. It didn’t just involve clay. It involved people, flesh and blood. Folks with free will, who could resist their potter.

II. So, Jeremiah Has to Deal with a Relationship That Has Been Bargained. V4 “And the vessel that he (the potter) made of clay was marred.” It did not achieve what was intended. It was bargained. It was cheapened. Now, wait a minute, do those words mean the same? The world out there, young people, is teaching you to get by as cheaply as you can. That’s okay if you’re buying books, or jeans, even a car if you are careful. But what about things that matter: Home, family, community, peace, dignity, integrity. God.

Soren Kierkegaard, a philosopher you’ll study about in college, wrote a fantasy about geese. 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.

We are too ready, you and I, to bargain the true lessons of God’s spirit for material, worldly reasons. 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.”

We are neither too young nor too old to discount, to bargain the word of God to us.

III. Jeremiah Begins at Last to Look into the Very Heart of God. V4b “He made it again, another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.” V6 “. . .As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand.”

The prophet had to learn that God was involving Himself redemptively in their lives. Exodus 19 (Moses): “Ye have seen how I bear you on eagle’s wings to myself.” Psalm 37 (David): “I was young, and now old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.”

How intuitively Jesus knew this to be the case. Matthew 5:45 “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good.” Matthew 10:29 “The sparrow shall not fall without the Father.” Luke 12:27 “Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin.”

The prophet had but to remember this Godly quality and act in obedient faith. The life of Jesus proves how unlike God we are. His doing is my undoing. Without His mercy I have no choice left. Faith is believing, and living on the basis of that belief.

I watched a little girl, 4 or 5 years old, at the baggage belt in the air terminal in New Orleans. Just the three of us waiting for luggage. 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 Prophet Reminds Us that there Is an Undeniable Discipline in Responding to the Trustworthiness of God. V6 “. . . Cannot I do with you as this potter [does with the clay]?” saith the Lord. “As clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand.”

So, we are dependent. Give God the first segment of every day. Give God the first day of every week. Give God the first return on material earned. Give God the first consideration in every decision. Give God first place in your heart.

For a brave to become a chief, he had to pluck the fur from the sacred bobcat, bring down the white buffalo alone, wrestle the brown bear. Then came the trial of fire and water. “Whatever happened to wholesome good looks and a nice personality?”

Look on the potter’s wheel and see design. It was the design that was flawed. Even so, God’s people were less than he had planned, thus the renovation.

Nor must we overlook discipline. The potter’s feet were calloused and misshapen from all the years at the wheel. The tools were those of wheel, rasp, chisel, fire.

And it was thus that the light suddenly came on in the prophet’s brain. This God would have me to see. His work is never to destroy but to design. His grace is not to reduce but to redeem. The smartest thing that one can do is to let Him have His way in our lives, and the sooner the better.

Conclusion

‘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.’”

Alternate Conclusion

“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.

“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)

1/1/23 1/1/23

THE EXCELLENCE OF GOD

#120 THE EXCELLENCE OF GOD

Scripture Psalm 8, NIV Orig. 2-28-62

Rewr. 12-22-76

Passage: ¹Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
²Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
³When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
⁴what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?^[^c^]

⁵You have made them^[^d^] a little lower than the angels^[^e^]
    and crowned them^[^f^] with glory and honor.
⁶You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their^[^g^] feet:
⁷all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
⁸the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Introduction

Psalm is a Christmas Cantata and Easter program rolled into one. It is the highest expression of all that the Psalmist feels. The entire congregation seems suddenly to have been made aware of what God is really about.

It is the wonder of the shepherds as they become aware, not just of the angels, but of the message being proclaimed. It is the wise men, who, having for weeks followed a star, suddenly discovered that it was leading to more than they ever imagined. It is a young Hebrew man and his wife, who believed in each other when no one else did, and who now reap the reward of their trust.

It is that marvelous discovery of what Christmas is all about. The realization that something wonderful has happened, and that it has happened at a time and place when my life is affected by it.

I. His Excellence is Seen in His Divine Imperative. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. (Thy glory is recognized as far above the heavens as the heavens are above the earth.) He brings to the earth a being not strange to himself, with the potential to deliver personality, character, and integrity. The world is waiting for these signs of life to be communicated.

Elton Trueblood writes in The New Man for Our Time “The Christian faith cannot perform a redemptive role in the modern world unless it gives strong leadership on the central issue of faith. If the members of the church are primarily interested in erecting a new building or buying a new piano, they will not even begin to meet the need that modern seekers so deeply feel."

Additionally, it is the purpose of God to transmit His own holiness into the being of His creation. There is one irrefutable argument for our faith—a life lived in holiness.

II. His Excellence is Seen in the Majesty of His Creation. When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We do not project the image of something in mass production, but that which is carefully, tenderly made. How many of us remember those simplistic toys of childhood that meant the more because they were turned out by the loving hands of a parent?

The concept of visitation is messianic, as in “visiteth” or “care for.” Christmas was the literal visiting of God to the things of earth. Luke 1:68 “At the birth of John, Zechariah prophesied ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people.’” Vv. 78-79 “The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness.” Acts 6:3 “(Look ye out) among you seven men of honest report.”

There is redemptive purpose in this creation. There is discovery of praise. There is the blessing which results. How many people want the same results from worship that they seek in the marketplace—the most for the least?

III. The Excellence of God is Seen in the Honor Extended His Creation. “Yet Thou has made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor.” We are capable of dominion, of maintenance of physical control over the physical universe.

We have mental comprehension. Take into consideration what man has been able to understand of outer space. He had to know what to expect before men would be sent on the moon journey.

We have spiritual uniqueness. “A little lower than the angels” (Elohim). Luke 20:36 “For they are equal unto the angels.”

Conclusion

From Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”:

“Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire—

Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,

Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.”

12/28/22 12/28/22

SALUTING THE LIBERATED WOMAN

#108 SALUTING THE LIBERATED WOMAN

Scripture Luke 1:46-55; 2:4-7, 33-35, 40 NIV Orig. 5/10/64

Rewr. 5-9-86 (5/77)

Passage: Luke 1

⁴⁶And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
⁵⁰His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

Luke 2

⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

³³The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

⁴⁰And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

Purpose: On the occasion of Mother’s Day, to share with my people a particular understanding of the meaning of Women’s Liberation

Keywords: Dedication Duty Liberation Marriage Motherhood Special Day

Introduction

Before allowing Mary to testify to us of a truly liberated woman, may I call your attention to her Old Testament counterpart, named Esther. History paints a rather dim picture of woman’s place during her day. There were no feminine aspirations to equality, and the men were intent on keeping it that way. Esther and others like her lived in the crucible of inequality.

Just before Esther makes her timely appearance, the beautiful Vashti was queen. But now she has been deposed. She embarrassed her husband and benefactor, the powerful King Ahasuerus, of Media/Persia and “125 other provinces from India to Ethiopia.” Vashti had been summoned to come and parade her beauty before the lustful eyes of the lesser princes of the realm. She refused. Now there is liberation. However, the menfolks decided that unless the king acted swiftly, this kind of uppitiness was sure to catch on with their wives. We are not told that she was punished, only that she was deposed, stripped of her royal estate. My knowledge of the period is limited, but Vashti would have been better off dead.

Herein steps Esther. That’s like following Nixon in the White House, or Edwards in the State House. Esther, did you learn anything? Esther, did you learn anything? Do you know to come when you are called? Otherwise, enjoy yourself in the lap of luxury.

Esther had an older kinsman who saw her in this new role as a standard bearer for Hebrew liberation. Perhaps a dark-skinned Joan of Arc. She just wanted her skin left intact. Don’t forget that it was Mordecai, the kinsman, who was at fault in this mess. The Jews were in the hotbox they were in because Mordecai would not bow before and reverence one of the king’s princes. So, Mordecai challenges Esther, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” It is to the truly liberated women who have functioned with queenly honor in a man’s world that this salute is addressed.

I. The Liberated Woman’s Devotion of Faith. Luke 1:46 “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.” It is the devotion to achieve what she can, while she can, where she can, to the glory of God. You have the privilege of living in the world’s finest hour for women’s rights. Don’t forget the achievements of your sisters: Sarah, Deborah, Ruth, Esther, Mary, Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale. Do those at the forefront today deserve the credit? It was an idea whose time had come. Many think equality discounts God because He is male.

The New Orleans Times Picayune printed an article written by a nun about God the Mother. Did she believe it, or was it cleverness? We have some right to get away from terms of God’s sexuality. God the Father still says something that God the Person never will. He is wholly Other.

So, we are making peace with old and often outmoded concepts. There are men who want to keep their women subservient.

Genesis 2:18, King James Version: “I will make him an helpmeet for him.”

Me: “I will make him his counterpart to complement and complete him.”

Society is not dependent on “family as we have known it,” but on family. In the dimension of faith, if woman chooses equality, she loses uniqueness.

Statistics show greater equality, also, lung cancer, sclerosis, heart disease. Statistic: Less than 100 of 1000 women between 15-44 are married; babies are having babies; abortion on demand; etc.

Women’s truest liberator and liberation is in the dimension of faith. Some go for headlines: “Six Woman Basketball Illegal,” “All Boys’ Choir Falls Victim to Women’s Lib.” But the real discovery is that of Faith: “My soul magnifies the Lord, My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” Therein she becomes the enabler—the Christian mother.

II. The Liberated Woman’s Detachment for Her Husband. Luke 2:4, “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, . . . unto Bethlehem, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.” The consensus of concern remains that the husband be the provider of sustenance. It becomes more difficult for one income to suffice. In either case, the wife becomes the principal enabler. She is more often the one called upon to make sacrifices to complement her life to that of her husband. The Biblical record sustains this.

But the place of authority figure is not the intent. The first compulsion of God on female or male is faith. I like what a sainted seminary professor used to say, “The wife submits, not because she has found her master, but because her heart has found its rest.”

III. The Liberated Woman’s Duty in Motherhood. Luke 2:7, “She brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” She was called upon, as mothers often are, to make fullest use of circumstances. A cattle stall became a castle under a loving mother’s hand.

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to begin as early as possible to complement and supplement spiritual instruction. Knowing what they are learning that is potentially harmful is half the battle. Tipper Gore fought for moral responsibility in popular music.

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to pray unendingly for God’s sustenance, encouraging them outside the nest while knowing the dangers and counteracting. Ecclesiastes 11:9, “Rejoice, . . . in your youth and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that from all these, God will bring you into judgment.” But, you see, this is a happy eventuality when the child has learned that the judgment of God is to be trusted.

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to challenge to seek and follow God’s will as He reveals it. Liberation for its own right is a basket of summer fruit, rotten and contaminated. One can make peace with God’s will.

Driving from Alexandria to Baton Rouge, I met a young man on his way west about twenty miles out of Baton Rouge. He was a rover. Across his chest was a guitar. On his back he carried his backpack, complete with a map of his itinerary. All of this while he pedaled a monocycle. He claimed liberation. Some might claim that he was being victimized by this roving spirit.

Conclusion

Devotion to Christ! Detachment for husband and family! Duty! These are the clarion calls of true liberation. Someone has said, “When a woman is possessed by Jesus Christ, something more significant happens to her than could ever happen to a man.”

Khalil Gibran, in his book, “Jesus, the Son of Man,” includes what he interprets to be the feeling that Mary Magdalene had for Jesus. “Then Jesus looked at her and said, ‘You have many lovers, yet I alone love you. Other men love themselves in your nearness, I love you in yourself. Other men see beauty in you that shall fade away sooner than their own years. I see a beauty in you that shall not fade away, and in the autumn of your days that beauty shall not be afraid to gaze at itself in the mirror, and it shall not be offended.’”

12/28/22 12/28/22

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

I Corinthians 7:3-5 NIV

Passage: Genesis 2:18-24 ¹⁸The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” ¹⁹Now 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. ²⁰So 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. ²¹So 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. ²²Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib^[^c^] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

²³The 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.” ²⁴That 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 ³The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴The 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. ⁵Do 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 20^th 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, 18^th 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.”

12/28/22 12/28/22

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

⁵This 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.
⁶They 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?’
⁷I 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.
⁸The 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.
¹⁰Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
    send to Kedar^[^a^] and observe closely;
    see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹Has a nation ever changed its gods?
    (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
    for worthless idols.
¹²Be 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

¹⁰The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. ¹¹May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!

²¹See, 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 1^st, not a man reaching in toward himself as was Cain, but reaching out to the unknown: to God. 2^nd was Enoch, immortalized forever as the man who walked with God. 3^rd was Noah, forever the man of spiritual renewal; he followed his God over the cold water to a new day of hope. 4^th was Abraham; he was a man who walked by faith, was “accounted as righteous” and called “the friend of God.” 5^th, 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, 6^th, came Jacob; in him was the life of service—busy, untiring, blessing, a prince at prayer. Finally, 7^th, 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 10^th-8^th 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.

12/28/22 12/28/22

A MISSIONS MANDATE

#098 A MISSIONS MANDATE

Scripture Psalm 96:1-13 NIV Orig. 12-3-61

Rewr. 11-28-79

Passage: ¹Sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth.
²Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
    proclaim his salvation day after day.
³Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

⁴For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    he is to be feared above all gods.
⁵For all the gods of the nations are idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.
⁶Splendor and majesty are before him;
    strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

⁷Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
⁸Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come into his courts.
⁹Worship the Lord in the splendor of his^[^a^] holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth.
¹⁰Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
    The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
    he will judge the peoples with equity.

¹¹Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
    let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
¹²Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
    let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
¹³Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
    he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples in his faithfulness

Purpose: To call my people to the high goal of response to the nobility of the task found in missions, and doing all that we can to further His cause.

Keywords: Missions God’s Word Jesus the King

Timeline/Series: Lottie Moon

Introduction

A pastor friend here in the city share a counseling burden through which he had recently gone. It had to do with a 22-year-old mother of two children, whose husband had tired of the boredom of relationship and went off looking for his thing. Her inability to cope with this situation, the responsibility, the loneliness, the inequity, brought her finally to her pastor’s study.

Before the hour had passed, He knew that she was facing far more than just this debilitating circumstance. He recognized that this young woman’s life was in jeopardy. Somebody was going to have to do something, and soon. Discovering that there was no one else who would help, my pastor friend went to the Orleans Parish coroner’s office. There he was advised to secure the services of a lawyer who could appeal to the courts for this woman’s admission into a mental health unit. This in turn would enable the Court to order the appropriate agencies to take action on behalf of this young woman.

Before this process could be secured, my friend’s counselee took her own life. I do not know what happened to the young husband, and I must honestly say I do not care. I do not know what happened to the two small children, bereft first of their father, who did not love them, and then of their mother, who most assuredly did. But for them I do care. Our responsibility in missions is facing up to the fact that we are living in a world fraught with the burdens of broken relationships; destitute with the inequities with which some people brutalize other people. We are living in a world where we Christians are the only ones who have the answer. Our responsibility is to heed “A Missions Mandate” for the world’s sake. The world, like this desperate young woman, cannot long cope with what is happening to it. We American Christians are spending our time trying to find a negotiated answer, which will permit someone else to do the dirty work, when the only answer is in the giving of ourselves.

I. A Missions Mandate Declares the Purpose of Missions. V3 Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. The principal purpose is to reveal God’s love. This aspect of God’s character has taken a beating. Only its truth has enabled this love to break through the barriers of human pretense.

I surely do not need to do more than remind you of the injustices carried out in the name of Jesus. The Arab, Khomeini, is not the first of his kind to preach his gospel of hate, and murder, in the name of God. God will deal with him and his kind appropriately, but we best be ready to stand by our guns. This present crisis may yet involve us all. Perhaps it is an appropriate time to remind you that Muslim faith was under the gun of its founder, Mohammed, who conceived it as a mixture of Jewish, Christian, Greek, and Roman influences. Of all of the great prophets, he passed himself off as the greatest, even the Holy Spirit promised by Christ.

How many people do you know about whose lives would be very, very different if there were just one person to show them love? In that purpose inspired by love is the offer of salvation. It is an offer made unconditionally. It is an offer made irrevocably. My insurance company sold me a policy to protect my car. They didn’t tell me at the time, but part of that policy was conditional and revocable. The coverage on breakage becomes deductible after I file a couple of claims.

It is an offer made through Jesus because only in Him is God’s love fully measured.

Involved with that purpose is the understanding that we who follow Him must declare His glory before all people. Nothing else portrays His love as Jesus does. The Jews had failed as a people to respond to this love. Amos 3:2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

II. A Missions Mandate Proclaims the Message of Missions. V10 Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved. Our principal message is to tell the world that the Lord reigns. No greater service can you render your king than to let him reign in your heart. No greater gift can be given from the human heart than to announce yourself subject unto your Lord.

Years ago, an English king went to hear a little-known minister. As the scripture was being read, the King whispered something to his consort. The minister turned from the scripture and declared: When the lion roars, the other beasts are silent; when the kings of the earth speak, then all others become quiet; but when the King of Glory speaks, even the kings of the earth shall keep silent and listen.

To say that our Lord reigns is to acknowledge that He has the temper of human history under His hand. In 1812, Adoniram Judson went to Burma, paid for, by the way, by the offerings of other people. He labored there for six years before he had his first convert. He spent untold numbers of hours translating the Bible into the Burmese tongue. In all of his ministry there, part of which was spent in jail, he witnessed only a few hundred conversions. How many of us, knowing such rigors, would have advised him that it wasn’t worth it to spend his life that way. Yet, because they have the message, because one man’s life stood under the Lordship of Christ, there are hundreds of thousands of believers in that place today. Can you think of one place where, because you lived there, there is one person who has become a believer?

Can you think of one place where, because you lived there, one person became a believer who otherwise would not? We are bearers of a seed that will propagate itself. We are to see that it gets to some. They then must see that it is taken to others.

Those through whom you heard and believed were faithful. Will those who wait for you be so fortunate? In the library at the Prague, there is displayed a triad of medallions dated 1572. On the first. Wycliffe, the Bible translator, can be seen striking sparks from a stone. On the second, the great martyr Hus is seen kindling a flame from the sparks. The last contains the image of Martin Luther holding high a flaming torch. They were an Englishman, a Bohemian, and a German, united in faithfulness.

III. A Missions Mandate Elicits a Picture of Our Victory Through Missions. V12f Let the field be joyful and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for He cometh, He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.

Make no mistake about it, God’s offer of salvation is offered to all mankind. Are you inclined to doubt your ability and capability? So am I! It was for this very reason that the disciples heard their Lord, and they looked at the multitudes around them, and observed the handful of loaves and fishes. John 6:9 “What are these among so many?”

The same One who strengthened the faith of those first disciples offers us His strength today. There is that most-quoted of verses Philippians 2:10f That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, . . . And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

It is unquestionably the destiny of the people of God. Habakkuk viewed this destiny when he declared, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah proclaimed it when he wrote “The wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together; and the little child shall lead them.” Micah believed it. “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not rise up against nation, neither shall they study war anymore.” And John in Revelation gave a final testimonial. “After this I looked, and beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, from every nation and from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb.’”

Isn’t it time for you to give your life to Jesus? Isn’t it time to stop playing religious games when so much is at stake?

12/27/22 12/27/22

CROWDS ABOUT THE CROSS

#096 CROWDS ABOUT THE CROSS

Scripture Luke 23:26-43 NIV Orig. 5-6-62

Rewr. (8-76) 3-5-89

Passage: ²⁶As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. ²⁷A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. ²⁸Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ ³⁰Then

“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’^[^a^{] 31}For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” ³²Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”^[^b^] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. ³⁵The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” ³⁸There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews. ³⁹One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.^[^c^]” ⁴³Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Purpose: Approaching Easter, to speak to my people of variant attitudes about Jesus’ death, and the determination that He died in our place.

Keywords: Christ as Saviour Faith Special Day, Easter Crucifixion Man/Sin

Timeline/Series: Prior to Easter

Introduction

It is not necessary for us to travel very far to encounter crowds. They are everywhere we go, and their reasons for being where they are, are as numerous as the people themselves.

We find these crowds at our malls, our cotillions of commerce. They are there to shop, some even to spend money. But many others are there for the purpose of seeing and being seen.

Again, we may find the crowds at ball games, at religious conventions, at historic sites, at school convocations, at pageants and festivals, or speeding down the already unsafe highways.

They gather in the mountains, at the beach, at parades commemorating such themes as Mardi Gras, freedom, homecoming, etc. You see them riding horses, wearing clown costumes, playing band instruments. Some would not be anywhere else in all the world. Others would rather be anywhere than where they are.

The paper told of a gathering crowd. A distraught woman was threatening to take her own life. The curious came out of the woodwork. With hoots and jeers some of them urged her on. Some there surely cared, but they were intimidated by those who did not. The police arrived, but even they had difficulty from the vented anger of the crowd becoming a mob that wanted to see some blood-letting. In their attempt to break through to the poor woman she had become so disturbed by these savage tactics that she drove the knife several times into her own body. Crowds, how easy to deplore what they become once we are free of their dastardly influence. How would you have acted at the cross?

I. On the Faces of That Crowd I See Contempt. V35 “And the rulers also with them derided Him saying, He saved others; Let Him save Himself, if He be the Christ, the chosen of God.” The Greek word for ‘passion’ is ‘pathos.’ We have a number of words that are derivatives: Sympathy—to feel for; Empathy—to feel with; Apathy—a lack of feeling; Antipathy—spite, feeling against.

This last is what we find among Jesus’ enemies here at the cross. What, exactly, were they feeling? They were not bored with Jesus. They weren’t looking for a more dynamic Messiah. They hated, with passion, all that Jesus stood for.

Matthew and Mark incriminate chief priests and scribes with “rulers” here mentioned. Theirs is a contempt for the unproven. His teaching was in conflict with theirs. The scribe was patting himself on the back: “The people need the law, I can give it to them.” The rulers were concluding that the people were not smart enough to interpret their religion. They could.

Does it surprise us to learn that there are still those disposed to contempt for Jesus? Some modernist religious leaders say that Jesus really didn’t have to die. They discount Paul’s “Unto us which are saved, it is the power of God,” I Corinthians 1:18. They ignore John’s terse “Whosoever denieth the son, the same hath not the Father,” I John 2:23.

There are others who simply hate that for which Jesus stands. I shared recently the testimony of a rock musician who played Jesus in Jesus Christ, Superstar. Jeff Fenholt said the “Cast were atheists who were trying to mock Jesus.” The recent uproar over The Last Temptation of Christ is also evidence.

I challenge you to send for the AFA Journal. Read some of the dialogue being perpetrated on a naïve public. I read Don Wildmon’s editorial (4-88) proudly accepting contempt and scorn of the ACLU and Playboy for having led the fight against smut.

II. On Faces in That Crowd I Also See Consent. V35 “And the people stood beholding.” V36 “And the soldiers also mocked Him.”

Those looking on so candidly were agreeing to this carnage. Those “beholding” are observing with interest, and their interest is not faith in Christ. The word “mocked” spoken of the soldiers means ‘sport,’ ‘jest,’ ‘childlike.’ It seems as if there were ambulance chasers then also. (“Let’s go see how long it takes the crucified to die.”)

The passion expressed here is apathy. The contemptuous deserve none of our pity. These even less. The soldiers go so far as to gamble over the garment of Jesus as a trivia item to talk about later.

I have seen the cards come out at one-sided ballgames. The 1989 Nevada crusade team had to be challenged not to play slots; we may look back to Las Vegas in June.

Yes, we can turn up a reason for consent. Valid questions were being raised by people all over Judea. Some of those questions were raised by people after hearing Jesus. Others just didn’t like those kinds of questions. So, this way they can get Jesus out of the way, and can even say, “Tsk! Tsk! What a shame.”

Our church roles have many “consenters” on them. If you didn’t listen carefully, you may have thought I said “sinners.”

III. Yet Other Faces Stand Out in That Crowd, and On Them I See Confusion. V 40 “Dost not thou fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation?” There may have been, and credit must be given to, those “beholding” who were concerned about what all this meant. Some had heard prophecies of Messiah. A few might have understood that He was to suffer, die.

They had heard Jesus’ reference to himself as “Son of Man.” Outside of Revelation, the title occurs more than 80 times, all but one in the gospels, and all but one of these used by Jesus Himself. The exception (John 12:34) is interesting; it is the crowd in confusion asking, “We have heard from the law that Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man?” The passage, Acts 7:56, is the other exception: Stephen, nearing the end of his life, cried out “Look, I see . . . the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

IV. But There Were Believers in the Crowd for on Some Faces I See Compassion Concern, Concession. V26 “Upon . . . Simon, a Cyrenian, . . . they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.” V27 “And there followed Him a great company of people, . . . which also bewailed and lamented Him.”

They’re the ones who perceived in Jesus the answer to long-standing questions. “Where is God?” “Why was I born?” “What happens when I die?”

Believers were there who saw the world potentially as a better place, not yet ready for His departure, not believing that the tide had turned. Peter (Matthew 16:22) “began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: This shall not be unto thee.”

Perhaps there were those who had measured the required commitment needed by those who remain. Down the ages the crucifixion must be repeated over and over again. What face do you reveal to the Christ who dies there? The face of contempt? That of Consent? One of Confusion? Or the face He wishes to see, of compassion, concern, concession?

Conclusion

We are part of the crowd. We can’t change that. But we do control the kind of face He sees. In the angry crowd every trusting face He sees causes the nails to be less painful, the crown of thorns less burdensome, the hour of death less agonizing. Look up! Look up to Jesus!

12/27/22 12/27/22

GOD’S ROAD TO REDEMPTION

#089 GOD’S ROAD TO REDEMPTION

Scripture II Peter 2:4-9 NIV Orig. 12-16-62

Rewr. 8-3-77

Passage: ⁴For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,^[^a^] putting them in chains of darkness^[^b^] to be held for judgment; ⁵if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ⁶if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

Purpose: To remind men that God’s Word establishes the reality of His judgment, but that out of that judgment are the first rays of hope and salvation.

Keywords: Salvation Judgment

Introduction

Most of us who have spent any time at all singing in Baptist churches are familiar with the music of John Newton. We have enjoyed such favorites as “How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours” and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.” We may know very little, however, about his own Christian experience.

When he was still only a boy, he left his native England to go to sea. The day he left home, his mother hold him that she would pray every day that he would become a Christian. (Has it ever occurred to you what might happen in the lives of your children if they knew your spiritual concern for them?) Many years passed, and that prayer went unanswered. As if to aggravate the sorrow that his mother knew, the life of John Newton turned to depravity and decay. He became, eventually, a slave trader, plying the waters between West Africa and the American South. He had come finally to moral and spiritual ruin.

It was in that depravity, however, that God convicted him of his sin. After his experience of repentance, at which time he turned to Christ in faith to save him, John Newton wrote, as an expression of his own life and transformation, a song that became one of the best-loved songs in Christendom, “Amazing Grace.”

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come,

‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we first begun.

I. The Condemnation. V9 “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and . . . to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.”

CONDEMNATION IS DESERVED. The examples of our text show that the angels were not spared, but were cast into mystical “Tartarus,” a holding area awaiting judgment: not gehenna (hell), mentioned at least 11 times by Jesus; not sheol (Old Testament), a region of departed spirits. Revelation 6:8 “. . . a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.”

There was a prior world judgment by flood upon the ungodly. Deliverance was through the preaching of righteousness.

There was a judgment of limited scope upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was to serve as a warning to others. As the judgment was limited, even so there would be the righteous “living among them” who would be delivered.

There is also the evident displeasure of God with contemporary humanity. Our age is an age of indulgence. Judges 17:6 “In those days . . . every man did what was right in his own eyes.” Did you catch the article in the paper this week? A St. Bernard parish political figure reminded a reporter that questionable funds were not a kick-back, but a campaign contribution.

Paul found it necessary to remind believers in Ephesians 5:18 “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be ye filled with the spirit.” Proverbs 14:9 “Fools make a mock at sin.” Luke 18:11 “I thank Thee, that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers.”

God’s truth concerning condemnation covers all the ages of man. Genesis 3:17 “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of the life.” I Kings 21:21, Elijah said to Ahab “I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.”

I looked with dismay at a Times Picayune article, June 7, 1977, about a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old facing indictment on 4 counts of murder. One said, “I’d rather be sailing.” Those two boys lived in somebody’s community with the gospel. Are there any like them in our community? What to do? As a member of Riverside Baptist Church, what do you do? Leave it to the staff! As a Christian, a Baptist, live in indifference? It’s just temporary.

II. The Judge. V4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned . . . , to be reserved unto judgment.”

He is the judge who cannot be mocked. Have you ever thought to consider what you taught your small children about Santa Claus, and later about God?

You’d better not pout, you’d better not cry

You’d better be good I’m telling you why…

You used a fairy tale to bargain your child into better behavior, getting them committed to a myth. That is not wrong in itself, but when you fail to teach them the true meaning of Christmas and their ultimate responsibility to God, then you are mocking God.

To live in atheistic disbelief is not to mock God. Martin Luther tells of the time when “I hated God and was angry with him.” But by his own reckoning that state of mind and heart spoke badly for himself and not of God.

Even Madeleine Murray O’Hare claims to believe in a god of nature. But, you see, she wants a quiet god who makes no claims or demands. One who sits around like the three monkeys with eyes, ears, and mouth covered.

Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived. God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

He is the judge who cannot be other than just. He will not turn his back to ignore sin. Psalm 90:8 “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of the count.” Jeremiah 32:19 “. . . Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

In the Orleans Parish Criminal Court record of one Richard Norman Glover, self-accused rapist and murderer of 17-year-old Cynthia LeBoeuf, confessed in June 1972. In October 1972 he was ruled insane and unable to stand trial. He was committed to East Louisiana State Hospital. In March 1975 he was ruled synthetically sane, and able to stand trial. In February 1976 his admission of guilt was allowed (5 to 2) by State Superior Court. Eleven months later they reversed themselves and Glover was free.

III. The Promise. V9 “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.”

It is a promise which cannot be earned. Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ.” Understand, please, that we may stand convicted of sin, and sincerely want to change our ways. But the power for justification is not in ourselves, but in Christ. Satan’s last foothold occurs when God convicts us of sin and he, Satan, tries to make us think that we can change ourselves.

It is a promise which can only be believed and received. It is more than a mere fresh veneer. Matthew 23:27 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full of dead men’s bones.”

It is the new birth, an inner change, wrought by God alone. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

NOTE by Rev. Skinner: Verse 4 contains a reference to God in judgment. Verse 9 completes this in reference to the Lord in that through Him there is the promise of deliverance.

***THE CONCLUSION OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***

12/27/22 12/27/22

WATCHING JESUS CLOSELY

#476LS WATCHING JESUS CLOSELY

Scripture Luke 14:1-14, NIV Orig. 3/13/68

Rewr. 1/30/85

Passage: One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ²There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. ³Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” ⁴But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. ⁵Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child^[^a^] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” ⁶And they had nothing to say. ⁷When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. ¹¹For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” ¹²Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Purpose: Using the occasion of the Lord’s Supper for a brief message relative to the interrelationships of Jesus at a supper.

Timeline/Series: LORD’S SUPPER

Introduction

Take note please that on a Sabbath, the Holy Day to a Jew, Jesus went into the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to share in a festive meal. It is said that the Jews normally ate two meals a day; but on the Sabbath a festive meal was added to the middle of the day. It is a joyful occasion.

Some people have a forlorn and complex view of Jesus as a man who never was other than serious. John Wesley founded a school near Bristol, England, where no games were allowed because “He who plays when he is a child will play when he is a man.”

William Barclay (G30p201) gives us some examples of this short-sighted view of the happy Christ. He quotes Swinburne, “Thou has conquered, O pale Galilean. The world has grown gray at the breath.” Julian spoke of “pale-faced, flat-breasted Christians for whom the sun shone and they never saw it.” And it was A.B. Bruce who said one “could not conceive of the child Jesus playing games when he was a boy, or smiling when he was a man.”

There were those present who were “watching Jesus closely.” Let’s join them and see what we can learn of our Lord’s disposition.

Observe Jesus’ Presence at the Supper. Jesus never refused any man’s hospitality. V1 “He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath.” Jesus went in response to a supposed kindness. It was a large gathering including lawyers and Pharisees. It included also an infirm man, either a plant or someone who happened in off the street. Jesus was not ill-at-ease in the surroundings. V1: “They watched Him closely.” Paratereo means “to watch with sinister intent.”

Note, please, that at such a supper given in His honor, Jesus is present.

Observe Jesus’ Activity at the Supper. He was there as a Pharisee’s guest. The lack of sincerity on the part of some would not change Him. He was there as a guest. However, one was present for whom something must be done. V4: “And He took him and healed him and let him go.”

Attention is called to the Pharisees’ lack of value judgment. It was the Sabbath. That was their excuse to do nothing. Jesus not only does what is right, he rebukes their do-nothing attitude.

At this supper given in honor of our Lord is the appropriate time to check our own values.

Observe Jesus’ Teaching about a Supper. V7: “So He told a parable” about being invited . . . to a wedding feast.” There is always relevancy in Jesus’ teaching. They were at a supper as guests. Some were not acting accordingly.

V7 “He noted how they chose the best places.” Thus, His teaching to them was a lesson in humility. V10 “When you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place.”

Note that it is a rare thing for us to think of ourselves as humble. What place would you want at the table where Jesus sat?

Observe Jesus’ Advice to His Host. He encourages him to examine his motives. Why do we do the things we do? Duty? Self-interest? To befriend? He had invited Jesus and perhaps the infirm man. Fearing what his friends would say, he invited them.

Do the right thing and let God provide the blessing. What better advice or higher goal could we accord than this? I will do the right thing, and I will wait for God to bless as he will.

***THE REMAINDER OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***