Sermon Notes & Videos
2022-07-29 | Numbers 30-36 | Oh, What a World it Would Be… if…
Oh what a world it would be if men kept their word, but they don’t. Wars are fought over such things and people die. Vows are broken; marriages fracture and families are scattered. Fathering is optional and children are abandoned. Promises are forgotten and trust is lost. Help is withdrawn and dreams are shattered. Doing the right thing is discounted and someone always gets hurt. Greediness prevails and needs go unmet. Faith is discarded and every wrong option becomes available. Forget you are created in the image of God and the enemy gains free reign in your life.
Why must it be said, “If you make a promise you should keep it?” But, unfortunately, it must. Man has the propensity to violate his vows, to renege on his promises. And this condition is not novel. The disease is universal and timeless. God made it clear; “If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”
Oh what a world it would be if man exemplified fidelity with his “I do…”; responsibility with his “I have…”; integrity with his “I will…”; confidence with his “I can…”; character with his “I know…”; generosity with his “I possess…”; freedom with his “I believe…”; and certainty with his “I am…!” Oh what a world it would be.
2022-07-22 | Numbers 25-29 | How Not to Become the Warning
WARNINGS, WARNINGS, WARNINGS—they are all around us. From an early age, we are accustomed to being warned about many different things from parents, relatives, teachers, and friends. If you are grown now, yet still immature, you might still be receiving warnings. During your toddler years, you were undoubtedly told, “Don’t put your finger in that outlet; don’t put objects in your mouth; and don’t put that bag over your head.” As you got a little older, they warned you to, “Look both ways before you cross the street; and to brush your teeth at least twice a day.” In reality, the list of warnings could probably fill a book. In some ways they did!
Imagine if you didn’t obey and decided to stick that metal doohickey in that electrical socket. If you tried that as a youngling, you’d probably become a very strong advocate for prevention of that “shocking” mistake. When you experience the consequences of ignoring a warning, you then “become the warning.” Instead of just a herald you become an object lesson. These are very different. One is a voice; the other is an experience. The experiential displays more meaning and carries more weight than a talking head, better for the student, not so much for the teacher! This should not be shocking (excuse the pun)!
The human heart and emotions are the same today as in ancient days. We are fooling ourselves if we believe those Bible stories of old are outdated and have no relevant meaning for today. From one perspective, the Bible is one massive word of warning that we might receive like this; “Do not yourself become the warning.”
In other words, if you choose to ignore God’s Word, you will indeed become that warning. Peter best describes what God does with these sorts of people; He “makes them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.” Our minimal aim as Christians should be to live by the Spirit and follow after the precepts of Yahweh, so our very testimony preaches the warning, rather than a disobedient life that then causes us to BE the warning. DO NOT BECOME the arning!
2022-07-15 | Numbers 22-25 | What Did The Donkey Say to The Jackass?
It’s actually hilarious when you think about it. Let me set the scene. You are so obstinate, so out of touch with reality, so absolutely wrong—and yet you are totally clueless! You have not even reached the starting line of “getting a clue!” I can think of so many idioms that describe this mental condition…
“You couldn’t be more wrong.”
“It’s like the blind leading the blind.”
“We’re not even on the same page.”
“It’s like you’re dead from the neck up.”
“You’re as dumb as a post.”
“You’re not playing with a full deck.”
“You’re one sandwich short of a picnic.”
And after you have demonstrated the befuddling capacity to be consistently wrong and clueless at the same time, it can only get worse if you verbally insist that it’s not you, but others who drown in delusion. “Well, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” to frame yet another idiom. In the end, there is a way to know who is right and we can use one final idiom as evidence. “The proof is in the pudding.” Yes, the truth of a thing is obvious from the results of the thing! Now, let’s witness this cluelessness in action in the Scriptures. Get ready to laugh—or cry, if unfortunately this describes you.
Did you ever read the story in the Bible where the prophet of God becomes the wannabe-relevant-prophet-to-the-stars? This defector becomes so out of touch with God that the donkey he is riding has to: first turn off the path; then resort to crushing his foot against a retaining wall to get his attention; only to follow by simply laying down, as to not move forward one more inch. You’d think this pseudo-man-of-god would get the message. Nope! He just beats the messenger to carry on.
Finally, he discovers that his dumb ass is not so dumb after all, as she blurts out a few choice words. Okay, lets really consider what’s going on here. How would you react? First, you would be in utter shock and amazement that the mute beast suddenly spoke, no? I think we can universally agree on this. Certainly you wouldn’t just start conversing with the animal, as if this is totally normal. Would you engage in a conversation? Would you carry on as if this was typical? More so, would you try to reason, or better yet, argue with the four legged creature?
It’s stunning as you read the narrative. But maybe if we take another perspective it will seem a bit less distressing. Maybe the talking female donkey is not speaking human at all. Maybe the man upon her back has instead descended into thinking like a jackass (a male donkey) and it’s the female donkey who should be shocked that her once human passenger has become nothing more than a stupid beast.
Here is the takeaway and Moses said it best; “Don’t bless yourself and say, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.’” Don’t descend into such a place of blindness and depravity that you begin to think like an animal! In other words, don’t become a jackass who is forced to converse with donkeys.
2022-07-08 | Numbers 19-21 | Do You Dare Grumble
As a society in the western hemisphere, we have become spoiled, by having everything in a “have-it-your-own-way, right away!” fashion. We have become accustomed to pressing a button on a microwave and in minutes extracting an entire meal—completely cooked and scorching hot. We pick up our cell phones, better described as hand-held supercomputers, for instant information about anything we can fathom: recipes, phone contacts, directions, opinion pieces, news, weather, or the population of Bismarck, North Dakota—you name it and you can find it in milliseconds. You can also run to a grocery store and buy anything your heart desires, with practically zero limitations.
Our level of patience is tested whenever those little trivial things in life do not function as they ought. You know, that little buffering circle on your device takes longer than, well, instantly, and you wonder if you should change providers. The waiter takes too long to come take your order and you are popping up your neck like a giraffe to get his attention. If this is your level of patience, how would you handle a truly challenging circumstance? Let’s say one that might cause a permanent shift in your life. Would you throw a temper tantrum?
In the likeness of the Children of Israel, would you dare grumble at or against God? Or, like Elijah, would you want to give up and throw in the towel after coming to realize that the people you’ve put your life in danger for are not really worth it? They have no interest in following the Lord and you are left as the only one keeping Yahweh’s covenant.
As believers in Christ, we are called to a totally different standard! We are charged with patience and perseverance; we are certainly not permitted to grumble. Question: Do you dare grumble?
2022-07-01 | Numbers 16-18 | Disgruntled Employees
The Bible comes alive when we insert ourselves into the various narratives and stories, when we contemplate how we might have acted if we were there. It’s fascinating to me and disappointing how often God’s children resisted Him and resorted to complaining about, well, everything. Would you have done that? It’s easy to know; if you act that way now, you would have then! This is most often how the people related to God. Be honest; is this you?
“We don’t like Your leaders; put us in charge.”
“We don’t like your instructions; we’ll do it our own way.”
“We don’t like where You’re sending us; we’ll stay right here.”
“We don’t like your directions; we’ll choose our own path.”
“We don’t like Your consequences; we’ll skirt the punishment.”
“We don’t like your assignments; we’ll do what we please.”
“We don’t like this work; we’ll choose what we like.”
“We don’t like Your warnings; we’ll hear what we want.”
“We don’t like what you call us; we’ll pick our own identity.”
And even in the midst of God’s lovingkindness, His tender mercies, and His long-suffering, His chosen usually act like negative nellies: pessimistic about everything, constantly complaining, glass half-empty-type people, who when given a choice, opt for the negative outlook on life. Can you imagine? God gives you yet another chance to be content, to avoid the most serious of consequences for your bad decisions. He lays out His plan and to what you must stipulate. And then, your negative glass-half-empty-attitude takes over again. You assume you are just going to blow it anyway, so why bother? “Surely we die, we perish, we all perish!” It’s utterly depressing. How miserable, how wretchedly unhappy you must be to always assume the worst outcome, to believe you just can’t obey God, won’t obey God. You exist in a forgone conclusion; we are going to fail, so why even try? We’re going down, so we might as well have a good time doing what pleases ourselves along the way.
In contrast to a negative outlook and a never-ending dissatisfaction with what we’ve been given, we have this wisdom: godliness with contentment is great gain. Think about it; discontentment leads to envy and strife, and contentment opens the doors to an abundant life of blessings and favor. No one likes to be around constant pessimism and complaining: not Moses, not God, and not even you! And no one is striving for chastening and poverty, but that is what you’ll get if you don’t stop whining. So, snap out of it, “Surely we will live, we will thrive, we will all thrive!”
2022-06-24 | Numbers 13-15 | Adding Insult to Injury
Picture this in your mind. You’ve already made a bad choice that is sure to have dire consequences. It may even be such that everything about your bad decision is out in the open already, and you are certain of the negative ramifications. What now?
As a parent, I’ve always taught my children that it will go much better for them every time, if they quickly acknowledge their poor choice, admit what they did was wrong, and graciously accept the appropriate punishment. They were well-educated about how much more unpleasant it would be if they did or said anything to make a bad situation even worse. “Don’t add insult to injury” is one way to describe my advice.
There is no doubt in my mind that this aspect of human nature, the sin nature, is one of the main themes that circles back over and over again in God’s Word. Paul said it like this; “I am carnal, sold under sin.” But he also said, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” It’s bad enough that we see this pattern so often: sin—warning—intercession—penalty—repentance— forgiveness. But it makes matters so much worse, exponentially worse, if we insert another step between penalty and repentance! I am confident you would like to know what that is, hopefully to avoid making that critical error yourself.
It starts with not liking the penalty. “News alert! Not liking it is what makes it a penalty.” So, the human brain gets scheming. “I’ll take matters into my own hands!” That’s it! As bad as the ramifications for your sin might be, inserting that step, taking matters into your own hands, will make things exponentially worse!
We might say, “adding insult to injury” is a modern euphemism. A euphemism is a mild alternative, an understatement, or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt, when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. Another euphemism I am sure you are familiar with is, “Two wrongs don’t make a right!” When you take matters into your own hands that is exactly what you are doing; you are stacking a new wrong on top of an existing wrong! Now, let’s dive a little deeper into what that looks like biblically.
God’s words equates disobedience to unbelief, or a lack of faith. If I were to use the opposite of a euphemism, what is instead a dysphemism, and call a spade a spade, I’d rephrase “Don’t add insult to injury,” bluntly and with harsher terms like this; “Don’t add rebellion to unbelief!” Taking matters into your own hands to avoid the consequences for your sin is really the quintessential example of “adding insult to injury or adding rebellion to unbelief.” I have a secret for you that will change your life… “Don’t do that!”