Marriage that Points to Jesus 1 Peter 2 If you know, you know. If you don’t, it’s Princess Bride. And you now have a fun movie to watch in the next week. It’s amazing how packed in that little sketch, that little skit, are all of these cultural assumptions about marriage. A dream within a dream. It’s about true love. Our culture tells us that marriage and promises that marriage we will, in marriage, will find a soulmate marriage will find true love in marriage, we’ll have our dreams completed in marriage, we’ll find the partner who can advance us socially and financially in this world. In marriage, we’ll be made whole. Our culture makes these promises. And yet my hunch is for every one of us, married or not, there’s a sense in which we have a sneaking suspicion that those promises cannot be fulfilled. Now, if you’re single. And actually, just recently, the adults in America tilted on the single spectrum, so 51% of American adults are now single. If you’re single, I invite you to hold with me here. The statistics say that 58% of you who have never been married desire to be married. And so maybe this marriage conversation from Scripture is an invitation for what God might have for you in the future. All of you are friends with those who are married, and so you’re invited into a relationship with those to help point them to what Christ has for us in marriage. And ultimately, as we’ll learn, marriage is a shadow of an ultimate reality. So for all of us single and married, marriage points us to the ultimate marriage, our relationship with Jesus Christ. So as we go through this text, for all of us, Jesus is at the center of this text. Jesus is the one who anchors and promises and invites us deeper into his heart. Because marriage is a shadow of an ultimate. We get that the promises of culture have failed us, don’t we? 25% of Americans have been divorced, many living in marriages that are marriage in name only. We get that the cultural promises of marriage are empty. And so with that, we step into a text today that is going to make us uncomfortable. I promise it will. It’s so radically countercultural, it’s so radically other than what we perceive marriage to be about, that it’s going to call us to reset our expectations and our own hearts in the context of marriage. His passage about marriage in 1st Peter 3 is one of the clearest and concisest passages about marriage in the entirety of Scripture. And yet, in my 17 years of being pastor, I don’t think once I’ve been asked to preach on this passage in a wedding. And you’re about to see why. Because it’s going to make us cringe, it’s going to make us recoil at points, and yet don’t miss this. As we’ve been walking through this sermon series on first Peter called Exiles, we have seen time and time again that the gospel expectations and Peter’s expectations for how we live in this world are radically different and radically set apart from how the world lives. And it’s no different in marriage. It would be really easy to hear this text and just say, oh, this is just because it’s 2,000 years old. But it was as radically countercultural 2,000 years ago as it is today. And it still pertains to us today because at the heart of this is the bridegroom. Because marriage points us to Jesus. The purpose of marriage is to point us to Jesus, to his heart, to what he has for us in marriage. Last week we read a passage that really is the. The heart of the entirety of the letter. It’s a picture of Jesus and his sacrificial love for us. And on that Peter hangs these three practical applications. How we live as citizens. We talked about that last week. How we live as employees. He talked about that last week. And how we live as husbands and wives, which he gonna talk about this week. So let me return to that picture, because if we lose that picture, we lose the entire weight of the passage. We lose the invitation that God has for us to look again and again to Jesus in our marriages. This is 1 Peter 2:21-25. For this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but now have returned the shepherd and overseer of your souls. What Peter is saying is that in Jesus Christ, in His death, our lives are transformed, are redeemed, are purchased back. And also in his life and in his death is a pattern. It’s not just the redemption, it’s not just the gift of what his death accomplishes for us. It’s actually the pattern of his life and death that calls us to live in that same pattern. I mean, I think we get this right this week as Americans, we celebrated Independence Day, and we look and we reflect and we’re grateful for the gifts and the freedoms that we enjoy as Americans because of the sacrifices of those who’ve come before us. And also it’s an invitation for us to consider our own lives. Is my life about clinging onto my own rights, or is it about sacrificing ourselves? And as it is with our country, so much greater as it is with Jesus Christ, who laid aside his rights and gave up himself so that we might be saved. He is the bridegroom. The pattern, the demonstration of what marriage is all about. I’m going to go back and forth between Peter and Paul talking about marriage so we can highlight and emphasize just how embedded this pattern is biblically to look to Jesus the bridegroom in our marriages. I want to take us over to Ephesians where Paul is talking about marriage. And Paul in Ephesians 5:31-32 says this. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and, and the church. In other words, at the center of any marriage is a reflection. It’s a shadow of the ultimate reality that’s there for us all. Every marriage is to point to the heart of Jesus for his bride, us, the church. This is why we don’t get to choose what marriage is. Marriage is between one man and one woman for one lifetime because it’s a shadow of. Of that ultimate reality with Jesus, the bridegroom and the church as the bride wed for eternity. And in this, in this, we begin to see the heartbeat of marriage. Let me take us back to 1 Peter. Before I do, let me just provide some caveats. I warned you that this is going to be a challenging. And as we hear this passage, I just. It’s just going to be a reality for all of us that we’re going to have these places in the passage. We’re going to. We’re going to want to push back. We’re going to want to give exceptions to our own heart in. And I would just invite you to step in and trust your heart to God in the passage. To trust yourself to God, to continue to look to Jesus in the middle of the passage. And also there are caveats. We will get to the end of this, and we’re gonna get to the caveats. And I would invite you, as you’re listening, not to be looking for a way out, but for a way in. And so we begin with Peter’s words to wives. He says this in first Peter 3, starting in verse one, likewise, wives. Now just pause right there. Likewise, like what? Well, he’s just finished talking about Jesus, who is despised and rejected. Before that, he was talking about slaves and their relationship to their masters. Likewise, in the same manner that Jesus was despised and rejected in the same manners in which you live that out in the context of a master slave relationship. Now, can you feel the discomfort already? Like this is the basic baseline expectation. Peter brings in a marriage, and he’s going to do the same for husbands, too, by the way. Now, that’s pretty radically different than the dream within a dream our culture promises, isn’t it? Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the Word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. When they see your respectful and pure conduct, wives, Peter says, I want you to live your life in a way that you’re winning the heart of your husband to Christ. Now, let me give a couple of pieces of cultural understanding here. Piece number one. In the ancient world, women at this time really doesn’t matter the culture, but we’re talking about Roman culture, certainly was the case. In Roman culture, women were of the same rank as household slaves. They could be given away by a man of household. They could be divorced very easily, they could be pushed aside. They had limited rights. It’s the reality of the Roman world. And so they were mistreated and not given the dignity that they deserved. And then the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes. And as the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes, this word, this radical word is spoken, that men and women are. The language Peter’s going to use here in just a bit are coheirs of God are of equal dignity and value. And reflecting the image of God, it’s a transformative word of worth to women in the ancient world. It’s unsurprising then, that the gospel found a quicker hearing of among women. And it appears as Peter’s speaking to this group, as though there’s an imbalance, that there’s more women in marriages who have come to Christ than men. And so there’s a number of women in this congregation, many women who are married to unbelieving husbands. And here’s the reality, here’s how we would experience that and the danger of that experience. So as a woman in an ancient world, you come to Christ, you begin to have your eyes open to the dignity and the value that Christ and that God bestows upon you. A beautiful thing. The danger of that then is to begin to assert those rights in the context of your marriage. To say, yeah, but this culture demands that I submit, but I am of equal worth and dignity, so I refuse to. And Peter says, you don’t submit because of the culture and the cultural expectations. You submit because you are a follower of Jesus Christ and made in his image. And as you experience the life transformative work of Christ in your life, you recognize that to follow Christ is to be one who submits. Christ did not cling to his rights, but gave up his rights and was despised and rejected for the sake of his spouse. And so too women. Peter says, you step into that place of submission. Submission is not a four letter word in Christianity. It’s not a word that we despise. It’s a word that we step into and don’t miss the why? Why? So that you can win your husbands. Peter says, win your husbands in Romans. Paul says it this way. Outdo one another in showing honor. Live in such a way that your life reflects not just the message of Christ, but is itself an example of, of the life of Christ. Outdo one another in showing honor. He continues in verse three through six, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children. If you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. Women, I want you to be transformed by the work of Christ in your life. To step in and trust him with your heart. And as you imitate him, imitate him in submitting to your husbands. What is submission, by the way? Submission, we could say, is finding delight in laying down your preferences and showing honor and respect. Finding delight in laying down your preferences. And Peter says, as you submit, your heart is transformed, is beautified. Like we’ve all experienced this, right? Like you meet somebody who just seems like a pretty ordinary looking person, begin to hang out with them, and you get to know their heart and you’re like this person. What an incredible human being they are. They reflect the heart of Jesus. And the days and the weeks and the months pass and you don’t even see the ordinariness anymore. They’re A beautiful human being. And also the likewise happens, right? We’ve all had this experience, really good looking human being from the outside. And the more we press in, the more ugly it gets. And pretty soon we’re like, I don’t know how I ever thought they were beautiful. Because what comes from within is the source of beauty. Our hearts are meant to reflect Jesus and to press in. Paul has similar language to this. Both Peter and Paul, they begin their letters in Ephesians and then in first Peter with these invitations into knowing who we are in Jesus Christ. And then they press those in in practical applications, in how we begin to live life. For Paul, he begins this in chapter five by pressing us into what it looks like to live life within the church, within the family of believers of the faith. He says this in Ephesians 5, starting in verse 1 and 2. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. It’s the same invitation of Peter. Look to Jesus, who not only redeemed you but now has given you a pattern of living. Be imitators of him. And what’s the heart of Jesus there? A heart that gives himself up. Gives himself up. Paul then teases that out and how it looks in community. And he concludes with this invitation to the whole community before he. Then he transitions to talk about marriage, how that looks like in marriage. His final verse is this. Submitting to one another, man and woman, in the context of community, out of reverence for Christ. So hear that Submission biblically is not a female invitation. It is a Christian invitation. Those who follow Christ submit. They give up their rights and in doing so they imitate Christ. Any of you find yourself in your ugliest places being those who are clinging to your rights. Man, that’s me. My ugliest places. I’m demanding what I think is mine. The Christian looks to Christ and submits, releases those rights out of the delight, out of the honor, out of the respect for the other person. That’s for all Christians and it’s also for wives. Paul continues with an admonition directly to wives in Ephesians 5. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. You submit to your husband because in this shadow of the beautiful reality, you get to play the honor of the love of God’s people for Jesus as you honor your husband. As you submit to your husband, you reflect our honor and our submission to Jesus. Now listen very closely and very clearly. Both Paul and Peter, they lay these very hard commands at the feet of wives and of husbands. Those commands are not to be weaponized. Husbands, the call for you is about to begin. Your call is not to demand submission out of your wife, and it’s to step into God’s command to you as a follower of Jesus Christ. We step in because of Jesus. Because of Jesus. The passage continues in verse 7 of 1st Peter 3. Likewise, husbands. Likewise. Likewise what? Likewise in the manner of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial life. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered. Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, in a sensitive way, in a way that presses after their heart, that treasures them, that understands that they’re different than you. You don’t get to love them just in the way that you feel loved. You get to love them and get to pursue and know them in the way in which they feel loved. Living your wise in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel. Oh, that’s cringy part, isn’t it? What is he talking about there? Let me give two explanations here. Commentators give two explanations. I think they’re both correct, although the weight of the second one, I think is more helpful in the practicality of our lives. The weaker vessel. Just a clear statement, an obvious statement that on average, men are bigger and stronger than women and so ought to treat them with the care and respect of someone who is not as physically strong as imposing, does not have testosterone running through their veins in the same way in which men do treat them in an understanding way as the weaker vessel. The second, we’re going to have to flip our mindset and understand what a vessel is in the first century. What’s a vessel? A vessel is a common household object that carries things often made of clay. You would have different types of vessels in the house, the vessels that would last the longest. In fact, if you look at archaeology, you can find, like, household, like oil pots that were big and sturdy and, you know, rough and tumble, that were passed on generation to generation. You could tell that by sort of the oil remnants within those vessels. That’s you guys. You’re the stronger, the tougher vessel. In contemporary terms, you’re the Tupperware cup, the everyday cup. Right, the plastic cup. All right. And Then there’s the weaker vessels. What’s a weaker vessel? It’s a vessel with thinner walls, it’s of more value. It’s only brought out on fine occasions. It’s. If you’re a friend’s fan, it’s Monica’s china. It’s the type of vessel that you take care of, that you don’t treat roughly. It’s the, in our terms, the wine glass, right? And what Peter is saying here is that men and women, you are different, you are shaped differently, you are equal in your image, bearing, status of God, and yet you are different beings, both emotional, both purposed by God. But if you, I don’t know, if you’re a woman who grew up in like an all girl household, you can probably remember that time when all of a sudden you were like, with the guys and the guys were acting like guys and you’re like, what is this? Like, these guys are pretty rough and tumble with each other. It’s because they’re the plasticware. And you know what you can do with plasticware? Well, you can, you can just, you can handle it kind of roughly. It takes a licking, keeps on ticking, right? That thing is good to go, no problem there. You don’t treat, you don’t treat the fine vessels the same way. You don’t treat the wine glass the same way you got, you just throw it at you. You can’t drop it on the ground. It breaks, it shatters. Could I just contemporize this? Husbands don’t treat your wife like a dude, like one of the guys. Now, let’s be honest. Sometimes the way we treat the guys is not also a godly thing either. But especially with your wife. Don’t treat her like she’s like you. She’s a valuable reflection and imitation of God who’s made differently than you. Show her honor. Peter says show her honor. Two weeks ago, I finished work here, went straight to the gym, got my workout in. As I’m working out, I do that thing where you look at your calendar and God bless it, my calendar was empty the rest of the day. And I thought to myself, oh, delightful. I get to go home, get to put on comfortable clothes and just chill out the rest of the day. I get home and my wife, angel, has a smile on her face. And I’m thinking this smile must be because we’re both excited about the relaxing afternoon we’re about to share. And instead, my wife, who informs me that she’s moving offices. And so the office of the new place that she was Moving to. The owner had contacted her. She thought she could move in later that week, but lo and behold, we could move in that day. I was so excited. Yay, honey. So are we moving in? Yeah. And so we did. So I hopped in the car, and up we went with all the stuff. And angel was in nesting mode, and I was in get it done mode. Like, let’s get the husband brownie points and let’s get out of here. So I’m, like, moving at double speed, and Angel’s like, ooh, let’s turn the rug the other way. What if we switch the placement of the chair and the love seat? Don’t you think? Those pictures. Do you think they’re even? Honey, can we rehang them on this wall? And I’m there, but I’m not there. In an understanding way, in a showing honor way. And so as we are leaving, finally, as we step out on her little counselor’s chair, there’s a bin on top of that, and then a lovely vase of succulents on top of that bin. And I thought to myself, as we’re leaving, that’s a stupid idea. That thing is going to fall. And then I thought to myself, john, you have no chips left. Shut your mouth and leave, boy. And so we did. Left, closed the door. As the door came close, I was like, oh, no. We walk back in the room, and the vase is shattered everywhere, Soil all across the room. And for another hour, we’re there, beating out the rug, vacuuming, replacing everything, wiping things down. Because I was not loving my wife in an understanding way. Showing honor to her, you see? Showing honor, living in an understanding way is not merely actions. It comes out of the heart. Husbands, are you treasuring your wife as Christ treasures the Church? This is Paul’s language, too, over in Ephesians 5. Here’s Paul. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. For he who loves his wife, loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church. Because we are members of his body, Christ gives himself as a dowry, as a payment because of his deep love for his wife, the Church. And it’s not just a one time deal at the cross. It is his lifetime. A life of sacrifice, a life of honor, a life of treasuring, a life of living in an understanding way. Jesus saw the crowds and he had compassion on them. How? Because he’s the perfect bridegroom. He lives with compassion welling up in his heart. But if you only knew. But if you only knew how rude and absent my husband is. But if you only knew how disrespectful my wife is, how controlling she is. If you only knew. And with that, we opt ourself out of the biblical model, out of the invitation to step into Christ’s heart, even when we are mistreated. Is it true that if your husband loves you like Jesus loves the church, your life as a wife will be easier? Absolutely. Is it true that if your wife honors you and respects you, submits to you, your life as a husband will be easier? Absolutely. And yet that’s not the model of Christ, a if only model. It’s a no matter model. Now let me get to the caveats. There are caveats. There are boundaries of this because of Christ’s deep love for us, because of his honor for us, and his understanding of just how profoundly sin has affected our hearts and the hearts of this world. There are boundaries of this. There’s two times in Scripture we’re given the reality that we are permitted to divorce. Jesus in Matthew says we’re permitted to divorce in the matter of infidelity, behalf of unfaithfulness of our spouse. Paul over in 1 Corinthians 7 says we’re permitted to divorce if we have been abandoned by our spouse. Now I’ll just speak into this. This is a whole other sermon I can’t go into right now. But I’ll just share my own thoughts on that abandonment piece. I do think that that refers to and can refer to emotional, to spiritual, to physical abuse. And yes, absolutely, there are times in which you remain married. And yet the reality is that to honor one another, to honor Christ’s separation, does make sense in some circumstances. And also note the word that I used there, Jesus and Paul permit divorce. The heart of God is for reconciliation. The heart of God is for repentance. The heart of God is to restore broken marriages. And in this disposable world where marriage is so often about me and my own happiness, we dispose of it quickly. So even if that is your circumstance, and I’m sorry if that’s your circumstance, we still are to press through with Christ, to look to him, to Be faithful in walking out with him, walking out with godly peers, with godly leaders that we entrust ourselves to, with godly counselors that we seek to press into and to pursue reconciliation, which first and foremost always begins with our own heart and our admission of our own piece of sin in the marriage. And so, yes, there are caveats. But marriage is about Jesus, the faithful bridegroom, who points us to him and points us to hope in him. Back to Ephesians 5:32-33. This is how Paul concludes this passage. This mystery is profound and I am saying that it marriage refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. So what do we do with this? First, let me return to singles. Singles, look to the bridegroom. Look to the bridegroom. Your hope, all of our hope is in Jesus the bridegroom. You are not missing out on the ultimate expression of marriage. If you are in Christ, you will one day have the perfect bridegroom. Singles, don’t use your freedom as an out for submission, for giving up your own rights as this world would have you, but use it to submit to one another, to press in to release your rights. Are you idolizing your singleness? Singles, are you idolizing marriage? Now, to those who are married, look to your bridegroom, look to your bridegroom, look to Jesus. Your marriage is meant to grow you in the Lord. You put two sinners together and it can be painful. That’s a lot of sin in an itty bitty place, isn’t it? It’s a lot of pain and yet it is there for your sanctification to point you to Jesus, to press you in in your hope of Him. What sacrifice can you make today in your marriage? What sacrifice can you make today in your marriage? Remember, you do not sanctify your actions. Your withholding, your abusive, your controlling, your demeaning tone, your cold shoulder, your absenteeism, your transactionality. None of that will bring sanctification to your spouse. It’s sin. And it’s on you to step in with trust of Jesus Christ. Jesus doesn’t need you to sanctify your spouse. Well, I’ll do that when she does. No, no. That they may be one without a word is what Peter says. Win your spouse to Jesus. Wives, one question for you. And then husbands, one question for you. Wives first. I mean, this is your question. How can you grow in having your pure conduct honor Christ and your husband? How can you Honor Christ and your husband through your pure conduct. Maybe that’s a question if you have the courage to ask it, you could ask your husbands this afternoon. Husbands question for you. How can you grow in better honoring your wife by seeking to understand her? How can you grow in better honoring your wife by seeking to understand her? Likewise, maybe a question to ask your wife this afternoon in all these things, marriage points us to Jesus, the perfect groom, our hope, our rescue, the one in whom all of the promises of God are fulfilled and who demonstrates the heartbeat, the sacrificial heartbeat of marriage. To us. It’s him we look to, and it’s him that we fittingly close with in communion. In communion, we reflect on the sacrifice of the bridegroom for his bride. And so if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you’re invited to the table. A time of remembering Jesus, remembering his heart, remembering his sacrifice. If you’re here with us in person, we would love for you to come forward. We have two tables up front, two tables in the back. Back on this side is the gluten free options. Come forward as we reflect on the sacrifice of our Savior. If you’re worshiping with us online, invite you to grab something in your own home as you step into communion with us. Communion is a beautiful invitation to participate in the body, the blood of Jesus Christ, to reflect on his sacrifice for us. As you grab those elements, take them back to your seat. We’re going to partake of them together here in, in just a minute. On the night before Jesus was sacrificed, he gathered his disciples together. And as he gathered them together, he set their hearts, he prepared their hearts for what they were about to witness in his crucifixion. That on the cross where Jesus, the creator and sustainer of the universe, laid aside his rights, that he would be broken for us, for our salvation. There. There we see love. There we see the pattern of love. There we see our great Savior, our great bridegroom, giving up everything for us. So the night before he was crucified, he took the bread. And breaking the bread, he said, this is my body. It’s broken for you whenever you eat of it. Do so in memory of me. Let’s eat the broken body of our bridegroom. Jesus, what love is this that you would give your life for us? That would you step into death, that you would live a life day by day of sacrifice, Lord, that we might be healed. Thank you for your sacrifice. Amen. Jesus then took the cup. Taking the cup, he said, this is the cup of the new covenant. A new relationship that God formed with his people because of the work of Jesus Christ. A covenant not of striving, not of being better, not of trying harder, but a covenant of living in the accomplished work of Jesus Christ. The promise of the redemption, the transformation. That we, the Bride of Christ, have been washed clean, who are robed in white because we have been transformed by his sacrifice. This is the cup of the new covenant. Jesus said, my blood shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. Whenever you drink of it, do so in memory of me. Let’s drink. Jesus, we thank you so much. We confess, Lord, that we fail, we fall, we sin, we’re selfish, we’re self centered. And we look to you, God, the One who transforms us, who heals us, who forgives our sin. And we say, thank you. Thank you. Make us new. Help us to live in the step of the Spirit, in new life with you, looking like you in all we do that the world might see the heart of Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom and his great love for us. It’s in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Let’s stand and respond in song.

You see, the gospel is not about bad people becoming good. It’s about dead people coming to life. And only through the blood of Jesus and his resurrection can we come to life. And if you’re lost today, if you’re hurting today, there’s life in Jesus’ name for you. There is an answer to the ache within, to that loneliness you feel, even in the middle of a crowded room, that nagging sense of meaning and purpose that you lie in bed aware of, acutely aware of, but that shouldn’t make sense if life’s just an accident. If you have your Bible, Luke 15 is where we’re going to be today and then next week as well. Let me begin with a touching story. A couple celebrating their wedding anniversary, I think they were close to 50 years married, as I remember the story being told, the details. And they were at a very nice restaurant. In fact, they booked and got a table at what became, and at one point was, the number one rated, reviewed, Michelin-starred, endorsed, criticized restaurant in the entire world, if you can believe it, a restaurant that was called and is called Eleven Madison Park, in New York City. It, at the time, was owned by the same restaurant group that owns Shake Shack. And actually, at one time, Eleven Madison owned Shake Shack as well. And since then, Shake Shack became its own 9 billion pound gorilla. It was just a seasonal hot dog cart experiment for the summertime. And it did so well, it actually surpassed all the restaurants in the restaurant group. And of course, it is what it is. But Eleven Madison Park was this fine dining experience. And this couple was excited to honor the occasion of being married so long by getting a table at this restaurant. And so they were all excited. And they get seated. And the captain comes over to figure out whether they want still water or sparkling water or because they’re in New York City, how many of you know just the tap water will do? Because that’s some tasty water, right, and some, a little insider secret. Some people think it’s why the bagels are so good in New York City is because the tap water just tastes fantastic. And so they go through all that. Then the maitre d’ comes by and brings up the wine pairings and all the things that are going to be happening through the course of this meal, that is going to probably cost one arm and one leg at the end of it. And at that point, when wine was brought up, one of the two, the man stood up and goes, oh, my gosh, the champagne, the champagne, The maitre d’ is like, OK, what’s happening here? We’re having a senior moment, or something, the champagne. He goes, sir, sir, what happens when you put champagne in the freezer for too long? And the maitre d’ says, it’ll explode. And he goes, I bought this really nice bottle of champagne for us to celebrate later when we get home. And I forgot to put it in the refrigerator before I went to work. And so before we left for the restaurant, I stuck it in the freezer. And I meant to take it out and put it into the refrigerator when we left, but I forgot. And a dinner at this restaurant can take three or four hours. It is not something to rush. It is something to savor, something to enjoy. And he says, what’s going to happen by the time we get home? And the sommelier gets consulted. He said, I’m almost positive it’s going to have burst by then, sir. And so the man reluctantly looking for the coat check ticket in his pocket says, I’ll go, honey. You enjoy the first couple of courses. I’ll be back and begins to kind of… and at that point, the maitre d’s heart just, his heart, just breaking for them, says, sir, give me your keys. Tell me your address. You sit down. You enjoy your meal. I’ll get on the subway. I’ll go across town. I’ll go to your apartment. I will get this bottle out of the freezer. I’ll put it into the fridge for you. When you get home, it’s going to be taken care of. And both the man and the woman are just, of course, like, their hearts are just like, unbelievable, this treatment. This is crazy. And so they do. They give the keys to the man. And I was telling this story to my daughters this week, just practicing it before I told this tale. And my daughters are so sick. You know how sick they are? They go, I bet when they got home, he had stolen all their stuff. I’m like… what’s the matter with you? What’s the matter? Why would I tell a story like that in church? That would be a good ending. But that’s not how the story ends. They have their great meal, and they have their creme brulee. And they go through all the deal. And they leave, and they get home. And would you believe it? Nothing had been stolen. The champagne, though, is sitting safely chilled in the refrigerator, where next to it is a tin of caviar, a box of dark chocolates, and a note from Eleven Madison Park, saying, Happy Anniversary. This story is, in addition to just being heartwarming, is powerful for us to consider for a moment. Because it is not only something that just happened out of the goodness of this maitre d’s heart, but this was him literally following orders. You see, Danny Meyer, the founder of Shake Shack and at that point, the owner of Eleven Madison Park, explained in his book Setting The Table that it fits perfectly within the culture of the Union Square Hospitality group, that he leads, and that he instructs, using this story as an example of how to illustrate a principle that the employees are regularly encouraged to practice. And that is going the extra mile. You see, he postulates that there’s a massive difference between service and hospitality. By the way, you can’t spell “hospital” without using the same basic letters for hospitality. And so there’s something inside all of us that craves and needs both the giving and the receiving of hospitality. It fixes things inside of us. And they have this principle in their secular employee culture and handbook, that is going the extra mile, that everyone’s supposed to not just do service, people getting a meal in exchange for money, that has no hair in it or bugs in it, right is service, right? That’s what you paid for. That’s what you expected, but ways that they can go above and beyond or go the extra mile. And you’re like, wait a minute. Go the extra mile, is that the gas station? Yeah, it’s the gas station. But it’s not just the gas station. It’s also straight Bible. That phrase “go the extra mile,” it comes from the mouth of Jesus, as so many wonderful things in our world, that we don’t even realize, are coming from scripture and coming from the Bible are. Matthew 5:41, Jesus said, “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles”. And you’re like, Levi, what weird scenario under which would I ever find myself in where someone would make me go one mile? You have to understand, in that day, the nation of Israel was under the control of the Roman Empire. And as a conquered territory or province, there would be Roman soldiers routinely coming and going. And there was a Roman governor, we know, the one when Jesus died. His name was Pontius Pilate, and he ruled. And he allowed there to be quote, unquote “king” under him, King Herod and other rulers. But make no mistake. Caesar was in charge. But Caesar liked to allow the idea of autonomy to exist within the conquered territories. It seemed to go better for him if he allowed them to think that they were still going through the motions of being in charge. But at any point as you were going about your day, you could confront the Roman authority. And if you did, you had to do exactly what they said. One of the strange laws that existed was that if a Roman soldier, who had all of his gear and all of his bulky packs, was walking around from place to place, from assignment to assignment, from one jurisdiction to another, and grew tired of carrying all their gear, all they had to do was walk up to anybody within the Roman Empire and with the end of their spear, touch your shoulder. If they touched your shoulder, it meant one thing. You needed to turn around, gather all of their gear, and be willing to walk with them a distance of precisely one mile. And if you did that, at the end of it, you could literally put the gear down, and they could make you walk with their burden no more. They had to go find someone else to carry their stuff. But Jesus in this statement was saying, do not do merely the service requested of you. Go above and beyond. Go the extra mile. When they ask you to do one, because it was common in that day to be counting your steps. And when you got exactly to one mile, you would throw that down and be done with it. But Jesus says, no, I want you to go the extra mile. I want you to do more than asked of you. I’m not looking just for service. I’m looking for a spirit of hospitality. I’m looking for the caviar. I’m looking for the chilled champagne, but also the… you see what I’m saying? And so the story is, in their culture, as a way of just saying, look for opportunities to do what is not requested of you. And it goes into their culture as a legend. And in staff meetings, they’ll say, let’s all look today for opportunities to create legends. You can be sure that anybody that week that asked that couple, how was your anniversary dinner? I heard you got reservations at that restaurant. They’re going to be telling that story and doing the viral marketing for the company. Because they have people who are literally believing in the mission, believing in the vision of the dream of hospitality, and looking for ways to go that extra mile, doing more than is requested of them and not just going through the motions. This, by the way, illustrates perfectly a statement often misattributed to Maya Angelou. But it’s actually Carl Buechner, who said, people may forget what you said, but they will never forget, look at it, how you made them feel, great inspiration for us as we follow Jesus and as we seek to understand his heart for his house. Welcome to week three of “Make Yourself At Home,” as we’re seeking to get our minds, get our hearts, get our feet, on top of the who, the what, the when, the where, and the why of church. And this is exactly what Jesus’ heart is for us as we live and as we do life’ and as we serve him in this world. Matthew 5:16, Jesus said, “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven”. Well, this week, the title of my message is “What Satan Fears Most”. And we can get to know God’s plan for us by understanding what the devil hates, what the devil fears. And there are things that he does hate. And scripture says we’re not to be ignorant concerning Satan’s devices. And so by understanding what the enemy hates about what we can do in the church, we can understand God’s plan for us all. It says in Luke 15, “then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to him to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he spoke this parable to them, saying, what man of you having 100 sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say to you that likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance. Or what woman, having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost. Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of God and the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Then he said, a certain man had two sons”. And what follows is what commonly gets referred to as the parable of the prodigal son. But I read the setup, the opening bands before the headliner, you could say, the first couple of choruses before the main event, so that you would notice two things; number one, that you would notice that there’s only one parable. Jesus said to them, “this parable”. And it began with a shepherd. It moved from there into a woman, and it culminated into what we mistakenly referred to as the parable of the prodigal son. But it is, in fact, only the third portion of the one parable that has multiple different movements, much like the artsy movies, that as they begin, open up multiple plot lines. And you’re not quite sure until the end, if the director is doing his job, what they all had in common with each other. But that’s Jesus’ goal here. He’s a master communicator, and he understands what you need to know, that stories are facts that get wrapped up in emotions. So as opposed to just telling them a true statement, he makes them feel something along the way of this journey. But it’s not three parables. So it’s not the parable of the prodigal son. It’s one parable that has these three movements. The second thing we need to realize is that he’s exposing how the church is supposed to work, how Jesus thinks and how he looks at situations, through it all coming in reaction, or correction, we could say, to some criticism Jesus was getting about the kind of church he wants to build. Which is a table where there are seats for people from every walk of life, from every background conceivable, and people who are messed up and sinners and prostitutes and tax collectors all being told, it doesn’t matter where you’ve been. It doesn’t matter where you’ve done. There’s room. Come on in and touch me. Come on in and be healed by me. Come on in and receive living water. Come on in and receive life. I love you. I care about you. I don’t just see what’s damaged about you. Now, of course, this exposes the tension that we need to address. Because we’re living in a world where we are increasingly being told, that if I don’t approve of everything you do, I must not love you. Therefore, I do not accept you. But Jesus never condoned sin. Find me one time in scripture where he ever said to someone doing something that was pulling them away from God’s command and God’s blessing, and he encouraged. He would say, neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more. He called people to their best. Because every time we choose to sin, we choose to suffer. So Jesus never condoned sin, but he always accepted the sinner and welcomed them to relationship and welcomed them to be at his table and welcomed them to do life with him, even if they didn’t agree with what he agreed with and saw, what he saw. But that truth that’s been distorted, that we can love someone while not accepting what they’re doing, because it’s pulling them back from God’s best, is, in our day, being blurred to where if I don’t accept what you do, therefore I must not accept you. But I can love you, but still speak the truth about what God says about what is best and what is good and what is for your long-term enjoyment. And we need to understand this desperately. Otherwise, we’ll end up just being silent, or we’ll end up pulling back in the love that God wants us to give. And so it is, again, a tension to be managed. And the devil doesn’t care which side of the horse we fall off of. He just doesn’t want us to stay in the saddle and ride. And so we have to remain in that messy middle, where there is sin, and it’s not God’s best. And this is true about what God has revealed about who he is and what salvation looks like and what marriage is, which was his invention, to give to us; and at the same time, where we would say, hey, right here with you. Let’s eat. Let’s talk. You’re welcome here. You think differently? That’s OK. You’re welcome here. We want to point you to Jesus and believe that he is willing to touch you as well. And so that’s what Jesus is exhibiting. It’s called the church. And the religious people were not such big fans of it. They were not keen on being around the messy people that Jesus was willing to touch. And that’s because they didn’t consider themselves as a part of the club of sinners. They didn’t see themselves as sinners. Why would you eat with sinners? He’s like, because otherwise, I’d have to only eat all my meals by myself. Right? Even the asking of the question insinuated that they should be welcomed in. But they were the worst sinners of all. But they just put this religious wall up of, this is what we’ve done that God must be so happy with. And so in response to their criticism of his being there with the sinners, building the church, where broken people are welcome and embraced and called to God’s best plan for their life, he gave this parable to them. And then follow the math. Follow the math. I know I lost some of you. I’m not a big fan of math myself. But this is easy math. This is easy math, OK? His point was, and if we missed it, if we just jump into The Parable of the Prodigal Son, one shepherd has 100 sheep. Some of you, your eyes are already glazing over. And he loses one. And he leaves the 99, safely protected, and goes out and risks everything to get that one back. What is that percentage-wise? 1%. That sheep represents 1% of 100. OK, next story, we have a woman who has 10 coins. She loses one coin. What does that represent? That’s now not 1 out of 100, or 1%, that’s 1 out of 10, or 10%. But the woman who lost only 10% of what she had did not say, well, I’ve still got 90% of my stuff. I’m good. No. She put everything in her life on pause to ransack the house. The things we will do to get lost stuff, have you ever lost your phone in between the seat and the console in your car? You will bloody your knuckles up all day to get that phone back or that chapstick back. You’re going to recover the lost possession. Anybody with me? Am I preaching good up in here? That woman bloodied her hand to get that coin back. And if that shepherd, hey, Jesus was saying, you would do the same. And every one was like, you’re right, we would do the same if we lost 1% of our livestock, if we lost 10% of our financial net worth. He said, now let’s make you feel real bad. Because the father had two sons and lost one of them. What percentage is that? 50% of something that’s got a lot more value than things or possessions or things you could own. And he says, and that’s how I see these people at this table. I care about them. And I (news flash, Jesus said) came (here is Jesus’ mission statement) to seek and to save that which is lost. It’s what Jesus said is the whole purpose of his coming to the world. He didn’t come just to give us epic statements that could end up in fortune cookies one day. He didn’t come to just be Mr. Rogers with a beard on and tell us we should recycle, and stuff. Jesus came to be slaughtered on the cross and rise from the dead, so that we, if we’re lost, can be found. You see, the gospel is not about bad people becoming good. It’s about dead people coming to life. And only through the blood of Jesus and his resurrection can we come to life. And if you’re lost today, if you’re hurting today, there’s life in Jesus’ name for you. There is an answer to the ache within, to that loneliness you feel, even in the middle of a crowded room, that nagging sense of meaning and purpose, that you lie in bed aware of, acutely aware of, but that shouldn’t make sense if life’s just an accident, that shouldn’t make sense if you’re just atoms that collided in the night, and the monkey one day put on pants. And now here you are, well done, well played, mud. And why do we all long for immortality? Why do we all dream of greatness? Why are all of our hearts stirred by the nobility of a maitre d’ going above and beyond, out of his way? That makes no evolutionary sense, right? This is survival of the fittest. I mean, you see what I’m saying? There’s something in our hearts that yearns for things that on paper, we shouldn’t believe to even be true, forgiveness, charity, and compassion. Why do all the stories we love involve someone sacrificing themself, that others may live? Does it matter? Those are themes that have resonant sympathy inside of our souls. And it’s all hints and echoes of the great story, of a Savior who came through his own expense to save that which is lost. And if we’re to be a part of his church (follow me) we are to be his hands and feet, giving everything we can to the mission that consumed him. In other words, we are to give our lives to that noble pursuit of hospitality, being the agents of his love, inviting others into the house where we were welcomed in, that we are God’s way of saying to the world, make yourself at home in the kingdom. Come on in. That’s what lights up God’s heart. And that’s what Satan fears most. He would have us focus on anything else, anything else. Bible trivia? Yes. The disciples are standing there. Jesus is like, all right, I’m coming back. Until then, go into all the world. Preach the gospel to every creature. And he’s been gone 10 minutes, and what are they up there doing? Just derdy, derdy, der, looking at clouds. Angels had to come back. They’re like, hey, hey, hey, didn’t he give you a job to do? He’s coming back, y’all. Come on, go reach some people. Go touch some people. Go seek and save some people. Do you like how it is to be saved? Pay it forward. You see, that’s what the angels came back and said. And I think that’s what they would say to us. And the enemy will do anything to keep us back from our hospitality that we’re called to, being his ambassadors. So what does Satan fear most? Four things, jot them down. Number one, the attention on Jesus. Need to know about Satan. We’re learning by contrast today. We’re learning, what does Satan hate? He hates attention on Jesus. Why does he hate that? It reminds him of his past. Satan’s original name was Lucifer. Lucifer was a worship leader. Yeah, that’s what his job was before he fell. And when he fell, he forfeited the right and the privilege to cover God’s throne in praise. And when he did, he turned back from living a life focused on worshiping the Ancient of Days. So, of course, he would hate us living a life focused on Jesus. But in the church, nothing makes sense if we’re not lifting up the head. Have you ever seen a headless horseman? I know Halloween’s coming. That’s not natural. Right? But if the body doesn’t have a head, if we’re not focused on Christ, or as we say in our values, and if you look on our website, you’ll see our statement of faith. What do we believe here at the church? What’s most important to us? Number one, right at the very front is this. It’s not about us. We’re here to make Jesus famous. We exist to bring him glory. We exist to do what he wants us to do, which informs mission. Because if Jesus, who’s the head of the church, the body, was focused on seeking and saving that which is lost, should we as his body do something different than what the head wants us to do? Wouldn’t it be unnatural if my arm was just doing stuff over here? I’d be like, what you doing back there, pal? Oh, I’m just doing my own little thing, you know. No, that’s called cancer. It’s called a seizure. When our body does not respond properly to the head, but chooses to do its own thing, something’s wrong. Colossians 1:18, “he is the head of the body the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, he may have the preeminence”. Revelation 12:11, why does Satan fear our focus on Jesus? “They overcame him”, hello, “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death”. There is power in the gospel. There is power in the name of Jesus. There is strength. There is salvation. There is light. There is love. There is healing in the name of Jesus. So we, if we’re going to be anything in this church, we’re going to be focused on Christ. Secondly, what Satan fears most, willingness without understanding, willingness without understanding. I see the brother outside the party, which is so sad to me. Because the heartbreaking part of the story at the beginning is that the father has lost 50% of his sons. He’s got one son at home and one who’s out at a wild party, paying for the prostitutes and buying casamigas for the whole room, making all kind of bad friends. And then you see the story shifts at the end. When that son has come home, and the father receives him and welcomes him, though he shouldn’t have, and calls him son again, but sadly, the enjoyment of it’s not long-lasting, because he still got a son outside the house. Elder brother is out there with his arms crossed. Now, many commentaries have pointed out that it should have been the job of the older brother to be out looking for his bro. And there’s a pattern that’s established and then interrupted, that’s meant to, by negative space contrast, what should be the natural thing that’s taking place. Guy loses 1%, goes out looking for it. Woman loses 10%, goes out looking for it. Family loses 50%, no one goes out. Well, maybe the father’s old, can’t go out. He’s there to hug. He’s there to embrace. We know, by the end of the story, the young son was strong enough to be out working in the fields, which meant he had more than enough physical dexterity to handle the rigors of international travel in that day. And some have postulated that Jesus was seeking to tug out or tease out all of their outrage that he wouldn’t be out doing what would have lit his father up, going to do the job of the shepherd, the job of the woman looking for the coin, to seek out his younger brother. No one goes. And there is within the story some sense of his unwillingness to do it. Because he didn’t understand why. It didn’t make sense to him. I’m not going in, because what makes sense to me is I do this, therefore you do that. His relationship with God was all transactional. If I do this. This is how God should respond, and he should be lucky to have me. That makes sense somewhat. But to us who love to stand and to peg our identity on our accomplishments, and our ego craves that validation of, if I do this, then you should have given me a goat, and you should have given me these accolades, which just reveals he was festering bitterness all along anyway. Couldn’t even say, my brother. He said, as soon as that son of yours has come home. So there is some sense of him only being willing to comply if it made sense to him. But what if we eradicate that in the body of Christ, in this house and no matter what God calls us to do, we’re willing to do it because we’re just grateful to be saved? We’re just grateful that he died for us. We’re just grateful, right? I think, sometimes, we’re like, if I see it, I’ll believe it. We shift into Thomas mode. I’m not going to be made to a fool by coming and worshiping you. But you might not even be alive. So if I can stick my finger, that makes sense. That’s older brother thinking. It makes sense to be Cain, angry about what he gave, not being accepted, and jealous of Abel. Because Cains never understand Abels. It makes sense to me to see Saul’s daughter Michal angrily judging her husband David for dancing as a fool. Because her frame of reference for a king was someone who lorded it over people, someone who was strong and full of natural ability and took all the attention and took all the glory. So when she saw her husband, who was not a king like Saul, he was a king who was a shepherd. He was a king who was a simple poet. He was a king who was pulled up from “I didn’t deserve it. I’m the least of my family”. And that king, who’s just grateful to have a Savior who included him in the story, who’s going to dance before the Lord joyously and foolishly and be even more undignified than this, and it didn’t matter what God called him to do. Because if God’s speaking, and he says to do something, the answer is yes. Now tell me the question. But listen to me. If you need control, and you need to understand, and you need to know, if I obey, what are you going to do? And when are you going to do it? And if I clean my life up a little bit, when can I expect Mr. Right to show up on my doorstep? And when can I expect the raise, if I’m willing to be a good, put my time, hold, that’s not ever how God works. Just ask Jehoshaphat. Yeah, we’re going to go into a battle against this huge overpowering force. Love you to send some worship leaders on ahead. Doesn’t make sense. But God’s not asking for you to understand him. He’s asking for you to obey him. It doesn’t make sense to be Gideon and to see your army get smaller before you go into battle against a bigger force. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make sense if you’re Esther, and you’re going to go into your husband, even though he didn’t call for you. And if you didn’t call for you, but you come, you die. It doesn’t make sense. Welcome to the kingdom of God. He chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. It’s never going to make sense to obey. It’s never going to be a good time to give. It’s never going to be a convenient time in your schedule to begin to prioritize serving or community service or any of these things. So we need willingness without understanding. Why? Because this is the victory, 1 John 5:4, that has overcome the world, our faith, our faith. And if we fully understand it all, exactly how it’s going to work, and what’s going to be over here, and then I’m willing to begin to obey you, God, we will never see the powerful things he wants to do. It’s faith that the devil hates the most. He was so sure, that if he could just touch Job’s business and touch Job’s money and hurt Job’s kids, Job would curse God. Because that makes sense. But Job, having no clue why his health was in shambles, his children had died, his entire net worth reduced in a moment to nothing, got on his knees and said, I don’t understand what you’re doing, but I will worship you even if you slay me. And in all these things, Job refused to do what made sense, even to his wife, who said, curse God and die. He would not sin with his tongue, but honored God and worshiped him on an ash heap. Come on, we will be unstoppable if we have that posture. God, I’m going to trust in you and do what you called me to do no matter what. I don’t need to see it to believe it. I’ve already seen your resurrection through your spirit in my heart. I’ve already seen the cross. I’ve seen enough. Come on, turn to your neighbor and say, I’ve seen enough. I’ve seen enough. And the blessing comes not to those who believe after they see, but see even when they haven’t believed, Jesus said. And that kind of enthusiasm is contagious. So we’re going to fight for willingness without understanding because the devil hates it. And then thirdly, hilarious generosity, what Satan fears most, hilarious generosity. Why? Because he’s a taker. He’s a taker. You want to understand him? He’s a thief. He takes stuff that’s not his. He’s a murderer. He takes life that he shouldn’t take. And he got kicked out of heaven because he tried to take the throne that was not his. Long before Jay Z, he was trying to take the throne. He was. He literally, Isaiah says, says, I will put my star above his star. I’ll put my throne above his throne. He wanted the glory. So he sought to take. He was a thief. And so, of course, he wants to lead us down that same path. So any time we give of our own accord, anytime we have that spirit, he would be afraid of that because he knows we’re doing what’s going to move us towards God’s best for our lives. And he wants to take us in the opposite direction. So whatever Satan hates, God loves. It’s a study in contrasts. 2 Corinthians 9:7, “so let each one”, this is about financial giving, “give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly”, oh, I’ve got to give something, “or of necessity”, well, I really need to probably. But what does God love? Say it with me. God loves a Cheerful giver. “Cheerful” is a good word. Cheerful people are a blessing to be around. But guess what? That’s not even the tip of the spear of that word. Because in English, cheerful is a wonderful word, right? But in Greek, which is what Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 9:7 in, it’s even better. Because the Greek word is… Guess what English word we got from…?? Yeah, yeah, you’re laughing because it’s funny, right? But the Greek word means a cheerfulness that comes through involuntary laughter, not the chuckle that’s polite, right? Oh, that’s so funny. Right? But we all have that friend who we just love being around them. Because they get us to belly laugh. They get us to laugh until we cry. That power which is meant to be, what the church is all about, the inside jokes and that joy that comes from laughter, not at someone’s expense, but your own expense, that’s some of the best laughter, right? And when you really can laugh about those things, I’m just telling you something, it’s hilarious. And what he’s saying is not someone who gives like, well, I have to, or I should, or, you know, blah, blah, blah, yeah. But where there’s this sense of, oh my gosh, I can’t believe what God’s given to me. I can’t believe what he did for me. I can’t believe I ran from him, and he ran to me. I brought shame to his name, but he has won me back through his death. It’s hilarious that he would allow me to be a part of that. It’s hilarious. I mean, if you help me rescue one of my kids, you saved a child of mine that was drowning, what would my response be? Not some grudging gift card to Applebee’s. It would be hilarious that I would get to do anything for you because of what you gave back to me that was valuable to me. When we give, why do we clap as a church? Why have we chosen a posture of unashamedly talking about how important these things are? Because we can’t believe we were given our lives back. And we know we could never pay it back. But we will pay it forward. And pay it forward we must. Because fatted calves are expensive. Rings, they don’t pay for themselves. Royal robes and seats at banquets and sandals for the feet, these things cost. Every person entering into the waters of baptism, every one of the tens upon tens of thousands of incarcerated individuals who will hear the preaching this weekend, every single person by the million who will hear a little clip, short form encouragement, from God’s word as we as a ministry are committed to being the hands and feet of Jesus, inviting the world to the banqueting table of the King, saying, make yourselves at home. It doesn’t matter where you’ve done. It doesn’t matter. Come on, are you hungry? Come on, do you like peach pie? That’s fed. Fatted calves, they’re not cheap. They’re not. Doing what we’re doing, the ministry, all of the things, and the campuses and the reach and everything God’s doing, it’s not cheap. It’s expensive. And I was thinking this week about how… I don’t know why I’m yelling. It took me a second to catch up with my tone. And I was thinking about how funny it was, when I first moved to Montana, and people began to say something to me that no one ever said to me living in California. And that was, you want to go in on a cow? Do you want to go with me on a side of beef? Do you want to go in with me on half a cow? It’s this thing out here. I like it. I like it. I like it. Let’s go in together on a cow. You want to go in with me on a fatted calf? Come on, who wants to go in with me on a fatted, I can’t pay for the whole thing myself. I can’t do everything. But we can all do something. And God loves it when there’s a spirit of generosity with what’s in our hands. There’s nothing you have entrusted to me that I’m not willing to see be a part of it. And I don’t want to just give my leftovers. I want to give my best. 1963, one of my favorite rides at Disneyland opened up. Tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, Tiki Room, anybody ever been in the Tiki Room? Anybody? No, you’re like, I’m going to Space Mountain. No, Tiki Room’s where it’s at, man. Tiki Room was the first ride in Disneyland to have audio-animatronics. It would show up later, Jungle Cruise. It would show up later, Pirates of the Caribbean. It would show up later. Here’s the deep cut, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. But it was the first to have any creatures that could move and talk. And what you would hear would match what you would see. It was also the first ride at Disneyland to have air conditioning. It’s one of the great things about it to this present day. You’re super hot? Go get some Dole Whip. Sit in there, air-conditioned. Listen to some birds sing. It’s amazing. Yeah, it’s fantastic, right? Why did it have air conditioning? Because of the audio-animatronics. 1963, computers filled up warehouses. And there was an underground chamber full of the giant computers it took to make the little birds sing. And so they had to introduce air conditioning as a necessity to keep the computers for from overheating. And it was also one of the handful of rides in the park that Walt Disney personally worked on. And he was a notorious perfectionist. So he’d cast a vision, and his imagineers would have to make it work. So he’s got this idea for a restaurant. It’s going to be sponsored by United Airlines. Because Hawaii had just become a state. And United Airlines had daily service to Hawaii. And so they got behind it as a natural extension of this Caribbean lifestyle, this Polynesian lifestyle, rather, and this idea of tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room, right? And so they got behind. Now it’s sponsored by Dole, the pineapples. And to this present day, it has a sponsor. Because originally, he couldn’t afford all the rides. And so he had to get sponsors to help pay for them as they would open. So the team is there. And they are bringing the prototype birds. If you go into the Tiki Room, you’re going to be underwhelmed. But promise me, DM me and tell me you went because it’s awesome, OK? You’re going to see these birds just singing a song to you. There’s a French bird. There’s a German bird. There’s a Spanish bird. It’s total cancellable now. We’re appropriating culture because these birds speak these accents, and stuff. Oh, it’s very bad. But the bird… Levi is quiet. You haven’t been canceled this month. So you’re working on it, though. OK, so the crazy thing is, when he saw them, he said, not good enough. Now, the birds were amazing. They had blazed a trail technology-wise to make these birds sing, dance, move, ruffle their feathers, the whole deal. And even their eyes would move back and forth as they would sing these songs. He said, not good enough. The imagineers are like, we… we… what… you… ah. He said, the birds need to breathe. I couldn’t help but notice, during the whole song, they never breathed in and out. Can you make their chests rise and fall as they breathe, so that they can… and here’s the direct quote from one of the imagineers. He said, Walt, 1% out of people maybe will notice this. But if we make them breathe or don’t make them breathe, 99% will never know, what difference does it make? People aren’t going to understand, and this is too much perfection. And Walt’s response back is legendary. He said, you’re right. People might not notice the birds breathing, but you can feel perfection. You can feel perfection. And that’s why Disneyland’s better than Knott’s Berry Farm. And cleaner, too. Just unnecessary burns right here on a Sunday, that most people are not getting in our churches around Montana. But let me say this to you. I throw Montana jokes out. I throw California jokes out. It’s what it is. All right, so we might not notice, but God feels perfection. God feels excellence. It might seem to other people, even, we’re very generous people. But David said it well. I will not give to God that which costs me nothing. And I think all of us should have that desire in our hearts. I want to give God my best, not my leftovers. Because God can feel that, too. And I love this. Just let’s just throw it up. “Whatever you do, Disney said, do it well. Do it so well, that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again”. This is just good advice. Some of you didn’t have parents telling you this stuff. “And they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do”. What a great thought, amen? I think of that verse that says, everything you do, do it all in the name of Jesus. It should inform not just what we do in the church, but out in the world, at our jobs as well. Fourthly, what does Satan fear most? All hands on deck. All hands on deck. The enemy loves it when, if you do get saved and squeak by, that you would stay selfish your whole life serving God by not serving God. And tragically, in the church, many people are saved, but not serving. They’ve been given everything, but aren’t giving their all and using their natural, God-given talents to be that hand and feet of Jesus. What a sad thing that is, when Ephesians 4:7 says, but to each one of the worship team and campus pastors and church staff. Nope. “But to each one of us was grace given according to the measure of Christ’s gift”. You are gifted. You are called. You are equipped. You have been given tools to build the house to be served, to be used as a brick built up to be a house for God. And the church will always have something missing when you’re not using your gift, using your story, using what you’ve been given, to make it better for more people to be reached. And then when you use those gifts on team, to use them heart and soul and not just going through the motions. So the gift that you have been given is meant to be explored and figured out through prayer and under leadership and watched, grown, where you can be handled more and more responsibility, more and more opportunity. It would be the goal with time. But then, like I said, when you leave the church, you’re still the church. Because this isn’t the church. You’re the church. We’re the church. So we use our gifts here. And then with that same spirit of excellence, that same spirit of integrity, that same spirit of supernatural hospitality, we go into the world. We scatter into our various areas of responsibility. We go to our job. We punch in at the school, at the hospital, at the real estate agent, at our job framing. And we do so, saying, I’m doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I’m going to do so with such a spirit of excellence, that people are going to want to know what’s different about me because they see my light, and they want to glorify my Father, who’s in heaven. Titus 2:10… team, come on out here. We’re close to done. “Not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity”. Pause right there, your attention, please. What’s going on here in Titus 2:10? He’s talking to some slaves who asked him a question. And they said, hey, we’re slaves. We’re saved now. What should we do at our job being a slave in the Roman Empire? He said, all right, here’s what you do. Don’t pilfer. Never steal anything on the job site. Always have good fidelity. Do exactly what’s asked of you at work, “that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior in all things”. Do you see what he’s doing? He’s giving you permission to do everything you do with your hands, you do with your body, you do with your skills, you do with your education, you do in any sphere of influence you touch, to adorn the doctrine of God, to actually enhance the glow of the gospel, is what he’s saying. The NIV says, “Make the teaching about God attractive”. Another version says, “Add some luster and shine to the truth of who Jesus is”. This is what it means to be an ambassador. Paul said in 2 Corinthians, “Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God”. The goal was, Paul was saying, if people see you, your master or anybody else seeing you, the way you go to work each day in your job, and these were slaves, that they somehow connect the dots eventually to how good God is, just watching the gospel according to you. I heard this interview with the CEO of Coca-Cola. And he was asked something about how he thinks about it. And he said, well, my thought process on being a part of this team at Coca-Cola is I’m a brand ambassador. I’m an ambassador for the brand. A brand is only a promise you’ve made, but not kept yet. And my job, our job as a team, is to make sure that promise is true. We’re trying to keep a promise in a brand. And then he quoted the predecessor, a man named Don Keough, who was at one point the Coca-Cola president, and he said… by the way, he was the one who introduced the new Coke. That didn’t go so good, right? So that was a brand not… But mistakes are made. I love this question, though. He said, “I always want the answer to this question to be YES when I’m driving home each day. Did I polish the Coke brand just a little bit today”? What a challenging, thought-provoking question, that that man would drive home from work asking about sugar water with bubbles in it. But can we, if we are a part of an even bigger brand, the brand of Jesus, part of his house, can we as drive home from work, from school, from anything we do, from everything we do, say, did I adorn the doctrine of God? Or did I just go through the motions? Satan hates it when we’re willing without understanding, hilarious in generosity, have an all hands on deck, all of us using our gifts, all of us using our different assignments all around, and the attention focuses on Jesus supremely. This is what Satan fears most. Now, there’s this statement in culture. I’m going to close with this. And it’s something people say. If the job they’re doing or the place they work or the restaurant they are at is not providing the level of hospitality maybe a customer is hoping for, and it’s become a buzzword in our day. We’ll just say, like, this ain’t the Ritz. What do you think this is, the Ritz? This ain’t the Ritz. And that’s that mentality of dumbing down and diminishing the quotient of what we’re doing because we’re not at maybe what we could or would aspire to be at. There’s this freedom, though, in Christ for us to have that Ritz-level quality in anything we do, everything we do, doing it unto Jesus, knowing nothing is too small to be used by him. And what can happen where there’s that spirit of ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen? Which is the famous creed of those who work at the Ritz-Carlton. Well, let me close with this story, and we’ll see. A couple walked into the bar at the Ritz-Carlton, Marina Del Rey, California. They were wearing aloha Hawaiian shirts, even though it was a blustery, cold California day, gray in the sky, drizzly, not enjoyable. Bar was empty. No one wanted to be there. But they walk in wearing these bright, obnoxious Hawaiian shirts, sit down at the bar. Bartender’s a woman named Fran. Fran approaches the couple and begins quickly to, socially smart, figure out, what’s the deal with this couple? And why are they wearing these shirts? And they grimly toast their Mai Tais, which they ordered, by saying, we’re on our Hawaiian honeymoon. They were supposed to be at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, on west Maui. They had been planning for it for years. But just before they got married, her husband was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a very, very, very grim prognosis with very meager chances for survival, even given the best treatment. And so they said, we pivoted so we could get treatment here in Los Angeles. And we booked a room here at this Ritz to make do with what life has handed to us. Fran made herself scarce, but holding back tears, ran to the front desk as quick as she could and informed her general manager of what was happening, at which point, they went into full-blown Ritz-Carlton “do something crazy” mode. They call it wow moments. They’re all trained to look for any wow moment they can find. You can’t find it really directly on a PNL. In fact, it might be even be waste on a PNL. But this is where they, all hands on deck to make something special happen. And what that meant was going into the prop closet for corporate events, where people, at some point, had had a corporate-themed luau-type event. And they found anything they could and everything they could that looked Hawaiian, and they rushed it up to this couple’s room, where they decorated it in every bit, the obnoxious Hawaiian aloha of their shirts and Mai Tais. They scavenged through the drawer of the front desk check-in and found a Kapalua Ritz-Carlton key card someone had left behind, and they coded it to their room. The general manager put on an aloha shirt. And after their check was presented, he said, it’s been paid for in full by the hotel. And he then offered to them this Kapalua key card and said, here’s the new key card to your room. And when they went up to the room, they found an Igloo cooler full of beach sand with a sign in it that had their name and then said their Private Hawaiian Vacation Getaway. And for the next three days, every single person who worked for the hotel greeted them with aloha and did everything they could to make them feel like they were very much in the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room. Why does that make us feel the way it does? Because this is what God has called us to. Let’s work at Ritz-Carlton? Maybe, maybe to blaze a trail of something even greater than the Ritz-Carlton, in Jesus’ name, but wow moments. Because this is the kingdom of the fatted calf, and there’s a seat for you in my Father’s house. Is anybody thankful for it? And so, God, we are grateful. And we ask for that spirit to rest on all of us of excellence and imagination and creativity and integrity, that we would do what you called us all to do. We’d show up at work, show up at that daycare, show up at that hospital, show up in that board room. We’re not real estate agents or builders building houses. We’re about homes and people and lives and family. That’s going to be noticed. We’re going to have great opportunity to point people to you when that’s our lives. If you would just say, man, I’m in on that. I’m in on that vision. Could I just ask you to raise a hand up? You say, I’m in on that. And if it means you begin serving, if it means you begin giving, if it means you get into a group, if it means you just take a step of faith to show up and actually try at work and not phone it in, I don’t know what God’s doing in your heart. But by raising your hand all across our church, you’re saying, “I hear the Holy Spirit blowing, and I’m in. I welcome the wind”. Thank you, Lord. You can put your hands down. And I want to invite now anybody who’s never yet said yes to Jesus, to take that important step of coming home. Let’s not be that young brother out in the world looking for satisfaction and sin. And let’s not be that older brother thinking we don’t need it. Let’s come into the house, humble ourselves and receive what our Father has given to us at the cost of the cross of Jesus. If that’s you I’m describing, and you want heaven to come touch your heart, for God to make it his home, I’m going to pray with you. I want you to pray it out loud after me. God will hear you. He’ll come into your heart. I made this decision when I was a freshman in high school. I had gone to church my whole life, but I was empty because it was kind of a religious duty. And then I got pulled into all kinds of sinful things, pornography and drugs and drinking. And I was miserable. But I knew too much about God to be happy in the world, but I had too much of the world to be happy with God. And there on that day, I was invited to come in and sit down and be a son, to receive Jesus. It’s changed that day and every day since. And that’s what God wants for you, a relationship with Jesus, your sins forgiven, your future is secure. And if that’s you I’m describing, and you would say, “I want that”, I’m going to pray with you. I’m going to ask our church family to pray with you. Say this out loud to God and mean it in your heart: Dear Lord, I know that I’m a sinner. I’m lost. I’m alone. And I need you. I can’t save myself, but I believe you can. Please come into my heart. Make it your home. Thank you for new life. I give you mine, in Jesus’ name. www.freshlifechurch.org

"Here are 7 Early Warning Signs of a Hardened Heart: 1. You don’t really celebrate, and you don’t really cry. A hard heart is a flat heart. Not much gets in. Joy doesn’t. Sadness doesn’t. While you don’t want to be unstable or imbalanced, it’s normal and healthy to experience the ups and downs of life and leadership. 2. You fake your emotions. Truthfully, we’ve all done this in seasons. And sometimes you need to. When you’re the leader, you ‘have’ to lead in the public eye, and sometimes that means smiling when you’re not happy, showing empathy when you don’t feel it. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not a lie nor is it inauthentic if it only happens once in a while. When that happens occasionally, you’re simply being a leader, not a liar. But when faking your emotions become a pattern, it’s a sign something is deeply wrong. And that kind of faking can’t last if you want to lead and live well. If you fake your emotions enough times, your leadership will stop resonating with the people you lead. Why? You’ve stopped becoming an authentic leader. And authenticity is a negotiable leadership quality, especially in our culture. 3. You say “I don’t care” a lot. Maybe this is more personal than universal, but a sure sign my heart is in trouble is when I hear myself saying “I don’t care” repeatedly. If someone’s upset, I say I don’t care. If someone disappoints me, I say I don’t care. If something doesn’t work out the way I hoped, I say I don’t care. If my actions are going to hurt someone, I say I don’t care. To me, this is a huge warning sign that there’s a problem, because I should care. Even if I can’t change the outcome, I should care. If you really don’t care about the people around you, eventually they’ll stop caring about you. 4. So much of what’s supposed to be meaningful feels mechanical. Another sure sign of a hard heart is that you feel like a robot. What’s supposed to be meaningful has become mechanical. You’re doing your job. You’re getting things done, but it’s just mechanical. From your personal friendships to your family to work, the feeling’s gone. 5. Passion is hard to come by. For anything. Your heart and your passion level are deeply connected. Sometimes you’ll try to rekindle your passion when what you really need to do is go deeper, and fix your heart. 6. You no longer believe the best about people. You know you’re in danger when you meet someone for the first time and you’re thinking about what’s going to go wrong, not what’s going to go right. And the stakes are high when you stop believing the best and assuming the worst. Why? Leaders who stop believing the best about people stop receiving the best from people. 7. You’re growing cynical. Hard-heartedness and cynicism go hand in hand. Cynicism is simply the death of optimism. And it happens slowly over time. If you find yourself growing cynical, how do you battle back? Easy…become curious. Ever notice the cynical are never curious and the curious are never cynical? So How Does It Happen? How does your heart grow hard? Here are a few ways I’ve seen hardness of heart get triggered in me: You see the patterns and forget the people. In my first few years in ministry, all I saw were people. Then I realized people behaved certain ways. Actually, people behave in certain predictable ways. Unchecked, this can lead to cynicism when you realize that the people who say they want to change (and at first, you believe them) don’t. If you become fixated on the patterns of human behavior, not the people beneath them, your heart will grow hard. Patterns are discouraging. People aren’t. You over-protect a broken heart. People promise and don’t deliver. Your hopes were bigger than what happened. You trusted someone and your trust was misplaced. Really, that’s just life. It happens to everyone. But how you respond is so critical. It’s easy to shield yourself from people. It’s easy to stop trusting, stop loving, stop believing. But that would be a mistake. It kills your heart. You stop looking for what’s good in people and situations. Because life has its disappointments, and people are still people even after they become Christians (it’s amazing how that happens), it’s easy to focus on personal and organization shortcomings. If you keep that up, it can be all you focus on. Keep looking for flickers of light. Your job as a leader is to spot the hope in any situation anyway, to find a way when it looks like there’s no way. So keep looking. You accept a harder heart as a new normal. A hardened heart isn’t inevitable, but it does take intentional effort to guard against one. When you feel your heart becoming hard, you need to take action and fight against it. All that said, I’ve also discovered this: if you work at it, your heart can stay supple. When you pick away at the callous, something wonderful God created still beats underneath. And you enter a new season of life wiser, but very much fully alive. 5 Ways To Bring New Life to a Hardened Heart 1. Push past your feelings. Sure, there are seasons where what’s supposed to be meaningful feels mechanical. Do it anyway. Go to work. Kiss your spouse. Hang out with your kids. Read your bible. Pray (even if you feel you’re talking to the ceiling). Just because you don’t feel like it’s real doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Eventually, your emotions will catch up to your obedience. 2. Get some rest. Fatigue and overwork can combine to numb your heart. Sometimes, I find my heart grows hard because I’m not resting. Get eight hours of sleep for a week. Take a day off and do something you love – like going on a hike, exploring a city, or reading a great book. Even God took a Sabbath. If you don’t take the Sabbath, the Sabbath will take you. 3. Don’t over-personalize your failures and successes. My kids remind me all the time that I can take things too personally. They’re right. If you church or organization is in a season of incredible growth, it might not be because you’re so awesome. And if it’s sputtering, it might not be because you’re so incompetent. Actually, a lot of the issues in your church might not have much to do with your church anyway, as I outlined in this post. 4. Decide to trust again. This one is huge. Because most of us are once-bitten, twice-shy, it’s so important to consciously re-engage your heart and trust people again. Someone may have hurt you, but not everyone will. Yes, you will be vulnerable, but trust again. God did. And still does. Jesus’ arms were wide open when he died, despite the pain of the wounds and the scars. 5. Fight isolation. Community is the problem for most of us (it’s hard to get hurt all by yourself). But community is also the solution. You will want to be alone. Don’t. Solitude is used by God. Isolation is used by the enemy. Talk to God. Talk to a friend. Find a mentor. Process privately while leading publicly. And yes, sometimes, go see a counselor. My very first trip to a counselor over ten years ago happened because I realized my heart had gone hard. We were coming out of a very difficult time as a church (we were in transition). His help was providential. And it’s one of the reasons my heart still beats and can still leap and soar today. www.careynieuwhof.com ."

Anxiety disorders are the number one mental health problem of the world; so fear is a very serious issue that we’re dealing with. Fear of anything other than God is mutually exclusive to faith in God. That’s how important it is. Fear is a powerful motivator—for both good and evil. We’re going to culminate this with some real steps you can take to overcome some of the irrational phobias that have developed from childhood. Fear has to have an object. We categorize fear by its object. In order for the fear object to be legitimate, it has to have some power or presence that threatens your inner self. Fear shows up for our protection, but in order for fear to be legitimate, it must be both potent and imminent. All you have to do is take away just one of those attributes, and it no longer functions as a fear object. I f you could have a way to test this, I’m confident that almost any church you would go to in America, the people there have a much greater sense of fear of Satan than they do of God.  If someone walked into see a secular psychologist and said they were struggling with some fear issues and hearing voices, they would automatically be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic—and prescription medicine is more than likely how the psychologist would deal with it. Now the problem with that is understanding what mental health/mental illness is. Most mental health workers define being mentally healthy as being in touch with reality and relatively free of anxiety. Let’s look at that for a moment. In touch with reality . What is reality? Or rather, WHO is reality? The ultimate reality is God; nothing exists apart from Him. And relatively free of anxiety —there are 25 uses of the word “anxiety” in Scripture, 5 of which are positive. The point that’s made is that, if you have an important exam or if your child is late coming home one evening, you should feel a bit of anxiety. You should pray or study or do whatever you need to do; this anxiety prompts you to respond responsibly to whatever crisis you may find yourself in. That’s a God-given thing! Unfortunately any kind of conflict that we have with Satan results in an emotional response of fear— if you don’t know the truth. So how should you understand mental health from a true, Christian perspective? I agree that you should be in touch with reality. If you were a mentally healthy person as a Christian, you would have a true concept of God and a true concept of who you are in Christ. If you knew that God loved you, had forgiven you, was everywhere present, was omnipotent, that you were His child, that you were seated with Christ in the heavenlies, that you have authority to carry out the work that He had, that you have a peace of God guiding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, and your life is characterized by the fruit of the spirit—would you be a mentally healthy person? Absolutely. Christianity is a proponent of mental health—of a mind that is at peace knowing you forgiven, loved, and accepted unconditionally. Now, I don’t want to minimize the fear of Satan because the truth of the matter is that it paralyzes people in fear all around the world, and it has ever since the Fall. At the beginning of creation, God created Adam and Eve to rule over the birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, and the fish of the sea, but when they sinned, they forfeited that. And the devil became the god of this world, a title that Jesus gave him. In the Old Testament, essentially there was only one kingdom. God’s effort at that time to thwart that was to bring prophets to call the people back to God; however, the kingdom of God isn’t really introduced until Christ is on the scene. So the whole world lay in the power of the evil one until Jesus returned. You can’t have two kingdoms side by side operating together . You cannot have two sovereigns ruling in the same sphere at the same time; so that had to be solved. God had told us at that time that Satan was the ruler of this world, “the prince of power of the air.” In setting up for the church-age, Jesus chose the 12 and called them to follow him. For a year they followed Him. Then it comes to a very defining point in Luke 9 where He sends the 12 out on their own. Luke 9:1-2 tells us, “And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” When it comes to kingdom-thinking, there is no bigger issue than authority: who has the right to rule? Satan has been disarmed, yet he still has power and presence— but he is no longer potent! He was defeated at the cross. The church was elevated to be seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and it’s that position that Jesus could say to the church, “Go into all the world and make disciples.” But you can’t give the Great Commission without the previous verse, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples… ( Matthew 28:18-19 ). You can’t delegate responsibility without authority. The power is ours too as stated Ephesians 1 ; He prays that our eyes would be opened and that we would know the power that has been extended toward us who believe. Now that is something that every believer possess. Listen, beloved; this is the answer for every child of God that exists. Being seated with Christ in the heavenlies is not some “pie in the sky” theology, but it is the position that we have in Christ that guarantees that we have authority—not over each other—but over the kingdom of darkness. Satan is the father of lies. The essential battle where spiritual warfare takes place is in our minds . People are paying attention to deceiving spirits. People are seeing things in their rooms that are frightening them; people are hearing voices. Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:1 , “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” Psychologists and psychiatrists call this a chemical imbalance. But how could a chemical produce a personality and a thought? How can our neurotransmitters randomly fire to create a thought you are opposed to thinking? Do you have a natural explanation for that? There isn’t one. You may narcotize the voices and quiet them down with medications, but now the patient’s ability to think and reason has gone out the window with it. Take away the medicine, and the voices are back. So you haven’t solved anything! In my experience, I have sat with hundreds and hundreds of people who are hearing voices and struggling with their thoughts to help them submit to God, resist the devil, go through our Steps to Freedom , and they walk home free. The best way to see the effectiveness is when I ask them to close their eyes and think about if it is quiet in their mind. This is where our the battle is; this is where the fear is eminating from—our minds! There isn’t a monster in this room with arms and longs; the devil doesn’t have any physical bodies around. If you know the truth , it will set you free. There’s not a verse in the Bible instructing us to fear Satan; we’re to fear God. Omnipresent. Omnipotent. Jesus has instructed us to look at his hands, his side, his feet; he has taken the sting. The devil may be roaring around like a hungry lion, but he is impotent. The only power he has is what we give to him. Sometimes you hear things about spiritual warfare, and a little knowledge may frighten you—but the truth will set you free. I have had my fair share of interesting spiritual attacks, I can assure you. One of the more interesting ones took me a while to understand. Let me first share a passage from Job 4:12-17 , “Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?’” Folks, that is not the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t come to us stealthily; this is a classic illustration of the accuser of the brethren. This kind of attack happens all over the world. I often ask this question at speaking events all over the nation, “How many have been awakened at a precise time at night—like 3 in the morning?” Every time, there is at least a third of the crowd who raises their hand, and I assure them that this is a spiritual attack. If it happens again and again at a precise time, there isn’t a natural explanation for that. The devil will do everything he can to remain under cover, but as soon as he’s exposed then it will go into some type of pretense of power. The whole point of that is to frighten you where fear is now controlling your life rather than faith. Stand your ground! Stand firmly in Christ and don’t be intimidated by that . We have the authority to do God’s will. Every believer can either walk by the Spirit or walk by the flesh. I can give you information, but if you’re looking for transformation, you need an encounter with God. I don’t want to minimize anything—we’re up against the world, the flesh, and the devil; there is a lot of opposition to being a fruit-bearing Christian. And the more fruit-bearing you do, the more opposition you may even experience, but you can’t let that stop you. The more dependent upon God you become, the more peace you will have in your life. This is the eternal battle—the whole Bible is between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, and we’re in that battle whether you like it or not! You can’t passively do it. You can’t put on the armor of God passively, and when you’re putting on the armor of God, you’re putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our provision and protection; that’s our sanctuary—our spiritual position in Christ. This is our victory! And the devil doesn’t want you to know that. As soon as you realize who you are in Christ and the position that you have in Christ, the battle essentially is won; it’s already been won by Christ! There is power in knowing who you are in Christ and having the authority to do His will. This should be Christianity 101, and it is almost like new teaching in the church today. This is so critically important. The truth will set you free, but you can’t have partial truths. You have to have the whole truth. You have to know who God is and know who you are. www.ficm.org .

Matthew 13:1-17 Finding our backstory Have you ever heard the term “backstory” in a writing class or in literature? Do you know what it means? A backstory answers the question, what is a character taking from their past into their present or even future lives? Backstories are an important literary tool used in storytelling to explain and give insight to the current behavior of the protagonist in a story, woven through the present day is a past event that is influencing the ongoing story. One great example of an author weaving a creative backstory into his writing style is the young adult book Holes, by Louis Sachar. This is the introduction written on the back cover of the paperback edition of Holes. “Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.   It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize that Camp Green Lake isn’t what it seems. Are the boys digging holes because the warden is looking for something? But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? It’s up to Stanley to dig up the truth.” Like Stanley, each of us has a backstory. Issues from our past, generational curses or even traumas that are influencing our current life. In today’s passage Jesus is going to explain why he teaches in parables and his reasons are going to highlight the importance of identifying and understanding the power of our own backstory. Let’s look at Matthew 13:9-17 .   9  Let anyone who has ears listen.” 10  Then the disciples came up and asked him, “Why are you speaking to them in parables?” 11  He answered, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them.  12  For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  13  That is why I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand.  14  Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You will listen and listen, but never understand; but never perceive. 15  For this people’s heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back—and I would heal them. 16  “Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear.  17  For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear the things you hear but didn’t hear them. CSB Why did you think Jesus taught in parables? Jesus’ recognized that many in the crowds that had come out to hear him teach had grown callous hearts toward God. To be spiritually callous is to be made hard, insensitive, and indifferent to God. Under what conditions might we desire change? We all like change when we are driving the metamorphous. For example, when we are building a new house that we will move into we are excited about the new changes that are coming to our lives, but when being fired from our job change is extremely painful. Using the metaphors of spiritual ears and eyes, Jesus is going to go back and forth to illustrate this normal resistance to change. It is easy to misread the beginning of today’s passage. Notice in verses 13:12 Jesus says, “For whoever has more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” In verses 11-12 Jesus is showing us that when we harden our heart toward God we will experience a self-imposed spiritual famine where we cannot hear God speak, and we cannot not recognizing his activity ( Amos 8:11 ). Plus in today’s passage we will learn that resisting change will not deliver us from the oppression of our own backstory. To be delivered of our backstory we need to grow listening ears. In Matthew 13:9 Jesus says, “Let anyone who has ears listen.” How many times does this phase appear in the Bible? By my count it is over 21 times. It is found 3 times in the book of Matthew (11:15; 13:9,43), 3 times in Mark (4:9, 23; 7:16), 2 times in Luke (8:8; 14:35), 7 times in the book of Revelations (2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22), 1 in the book of Deuteronomy (29:4), 1 in Jeremiah (25:4), and 4 times in the book of Ezekiel (3:10; 12:2; 40:44; 44:5). I think this statement, “Let anyone who has ears listen” is an important caution. Matthew goes on to quote Isaiah 6:9-10 . “For this people’s hearts have grown callous.” Callouses form as a protective response to repeated friction or pressure on the skin, causing it to thicken or harden. Jesus is not talking about remedial learners in this lesson, he is referring to a willfulness on the part of his listeners to ignore God. This spiritual resistance has caused a callus heart. Isaiah says their ears are hard of hearing and they have shut their eyes. Learning to hear God speak is more than just studying our Bibles. God is not interested in the size of our head knowledge, instead he wants us to progress toward a deep heart knowledge where the word of God now lives in us. Memorizing biblical facts might lead to that, but it could also lead to deadly spiritual pride. Knowledge puffs up, even spiritual knowledge. When we are teachable we desire to hear God speak. This is profoundly different than biblical knowledge because we are actually longing for God to initiate his change in our lives. Many in the crowd were just curious, but curiosity won’t deliver us from our backstory.   To be delivered of our backstory we need to see where God is at work. We need spiritual ears to hear God speak, but we also need to open our spiritual eyes to see where God is at work. Recognizing where God’s presence is manifest is critical if we want to be delivered of our back story. God is everywhere, but do we have the eyes to see and recognize the activity of God? Why would God want to show us where he is working? Where God is moving is the place we need to move too. It is the place where his Holy Spirit is active. It is a place where miracles are taking place. It is a place where his peace and comfort are realized. We are to watch for the activity of God and when we find it we are to unite with him in that holy place. To be delivered of our back story we need to let God heal us. We can’t stay where we are and link up with God. God has a plan to advance his kingdom here on earth. He is always moving, but, he is gentle. He will not force his healing on us. He values our willing cooperation too much to make us mere robots. With that said we need to recognize that only God knows the path that will bring us the most healing. How might keeping our eyes and ears open to God facilitate our healing? Unless God shows us we won’t even understand the danger of our backstory, and we certainly won’t seek deliverance. For true healing to take place we are going to need a God size, heart revelation, and that will only happen when we can hear God speak and recognize his presence. Healing comes from God alone, but we decide if we want to keep our hearts hard. Nobody can believe for us. Jesus closes today’s passage by saying many generations of righteous people had longed to see the Messiah in the flesh ( Matthew 13:17 ). But sadly, the crowd who was listening in person were mostly just curious. They wanted to witness a circus show, not transformation. To become callus toward God means we have become deaf to his voice, and blind to his activity. My husband Gary knew me like no one else has ever known me. It was easy for him to speak truth into my life without offending me because he had convinced me that he loved me. One time Gary and I were talking about a ministry invitation I had received to serve on a committee. Gary said, “Jan, I don’t think God has given you the gift of committees.” And, he was right. When I try to serve on a committee I am frustrated, the other people I serve with are frustrated, and it just doesn’t work. Nobody gets blessed when try to organize anything. Gary’s insights were said with extreme gentleness, and he was never trying to control me. Instead, he was always helping me identify where God was blessing my life. When I teach the Bible it is completely different then when I try serving on a committee. When I use my spiritual gift of teaching I experience the anointing of God. This doesn’t mean I always perfectly use my teaching gift. God loves us more than Gary ever loved me. When God speaks to us he is wants to bless us. When he shows us where he is active he wants us to come too. Mercy, grace, and healing are found in the presence of the Living God.  Why would God want to show us our backstory?

I’ve heard it many times as a pastor. It’s said with weariness and hurt, or bitterness and anger, or confusion and longing. It can mean at least four things. “It hurts too much to keep forgiving him for repeated sins.” “Can’t I just overlook her sin against me?” “He hurt me so deeply that he doesn’t deserve forgiveness.” “Why am I still hurting over an offense when I said I forgave her?” What does God’s Word have to say about each of these situations? 1. ‘It hurts too much to keep forgiving him for repeated sins.’ First, let’s be clear: forgiveness and reconciliation are different. You can’t have reconciliation without forgiveness. Reconciliation requires repentance, a changed pattern of living, and the rebuilding of trust in addition to forgiveness. If reconciliation is like a bridge, forgiveness is like the footing of the structure on either side of the river. Forgiveness may be able to happen without repentance ( Mark 11:25 ), but reconciliation cannot. The bridge of reconciliation is constructed by a changed pattern of living (from the wrongdoer) and the allowance for rebuilt trust (from the victim). We can forgive without being reconciled—the footing can exist without the bridge. Just as the construction of the footing precedes the building of the bridge, forgiveness precedes reconciliation. Forgiveness is releasing the wrongdoer from what he owes you and opening the door for trust to be rebuilt. It always hurts; it always costs something dear. We must fully release to God the justice owed us. But forgiveness doesn’t mean instant reconciliation. Forgiveness always hurts; it always costs something dear.   The wrongdoer being unwilling or unable to change can create deeper wounds. Such persistent wounds might mean reconciliation needs to be halted. Perhaps a protective boundary needs to be put in place or a tie needs to be cut. Be brave in seeking professional counsel. We may need to allow more time for the offender to prove trustworthy through a transparent and tangibly changed life. We also must acknowledge that forgiveness doesn’t eliminate the legitimacy—or in some cases, necessity—of pursuing legal justice against a perpetrator. Nevertheless, forgiveness  hurts . If your heart is overwhelmed, it may be because you’re trying to reconcile when God is first asking you to forgive. 2. ‘Can’t I just overlook her sin against me?’ Yes, you may certainly overlook an offense committed against you. The Bible says it’s our “glory to overlook an offense” ( Prov. 19:11 ). The one who “covers an offense seeks love” (17:9). Peter tells us that as hearts overflow with the love of Christ, “love covers a multitude of sins” ( 1 Pet. 4:8 ). We should be careful about our motives though. To truly overlook an offense, you must forgive the individual and not hold it against her or let it hinder the relationship. In addition, you must determine that overlooking the offense is in the offender’s best interest. We might be able to truly overlook the offense but still determine that loving confrontation is best for  her . Beware of overlooking an offense because of fear rather than love. 3. ‘He hurt me so deeply that he doesn’t deserve forgiveness.’ You’re entirely right; none of us deserves forgiveness. The world tries to navigate forgiveness by minimizing sin, but even the smallest sin is egregious if we view it as God does. “The wages of sin is death” ( Rom. 6:23 )—there’s no sin that doesn’t deserve eternal damnation. There’s no sin that doesn’t exile us from Eden. The answer isn’t to deny, excuse, or minimize the sin committed against us. It’s to discover the deep well of God’s forgiveness for us. This is the whole point of Christ’s parable about the unforgiving servant ( Matt. 18:23–35 ). An important detail is that the second servant owes the wicked servant no small amount. A hundred denarii is equivalent to four months’ wages for the common laborer—more than $10,000 today. Releasing someone from a $10,000 loan is a big deal. Jesus doesn’t diminish the harm done to us and the cost of forgiving that debt. How, then, can we forgive? Only when we consider how much God has forgiven us. The king in the parable represents God, of course. Ten thousand talents (roughly $7 billion today) is impossible to repay. Even if you earned a six-figure salary, it would take you 1,000 lifetimes to pay it off. Jesus isn’t exaggerating for effect; the cost of our forgiveness is nothing less than the death of the holy, perfect, incarnate Son of God. Christ died for us that we might live with God—and this gift is free for us. As Paul concludes  Romans 6:23 , “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We don’t forgive because sins committed against us are manageable or diminished but because we’ve experienced the extravagant mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. 4. ‘Why am I still hurting over an offense when I said I forgave her?’ We’re told to “forgive and forget.” Isn’t that what God does? No. While God has mercifully removed our transgressions “as far as the east is from the west” ( Ps. 103:12 ), he doesn’t lose omniscience when it comes to our sin. He doesn’t forget our sin—he chooses not to remember. He treats us as though we haven’t sinned and are as righteous as Christ himself. The incarnate and ascended Son of God still bears the scars of the cross in heaven. They’re healed, yet they remain. How, then, can we forgive? Only when we consider how much God has forgiven us.   Neither are we expected to  forget  sins committed against us. To make excuses or pretend as though the sin didn’t happen is folly. When serious sins are committed against us, we often don’t fully comprehend the depth of the harm. It’s not unusual to forgive someone only to later realize more forgiveness is required. Forgiveness is both a decision and a process. If someone gossips about you, for example, you might initially realize your need to forgive her for misrepresenting you—only to later realize you need to forgive her a second time for the way it’s negatively affected others’ views of you. It’s normal to feel the sting of sin against you in a fresh way as each layer of consequence is revealed. It might take years to heal from the trauma, and even when we’re healed, we may still (like Christ) bear the scars of others’ sins against us. Bearing scars doesn’t necessarily mean you haven’t forgiven. Difficult and Painful It’s a difficult and painful question, but the Bible graciously answers it. To forgive is, ultimately, to release control of the offender into the hands of a just and merciful Judge for perfect vindication, and perhaps retribution ( Gen. 18:25 ;  Rom. 12:19–20 ). To forgive is to trust our Healer that he’ll make all things right and salve the wounds inflicted on us. But unforgiveness allows us to be hurt over and over again—once by the initial offense and constantly thereafter as we hold on to it. It’s a good thing the One to whom we turn when struggling to forgive has already forgiven  us  and paid the cost to repair the ways we’ve wounded him. Thanks be to God for his inexhaustible forgiveness.

We don’t have to be confused about signs of the times. The prophet Daniel outlines the kingdoms of the world in his vision of the multi-metallic man and the seventy “sevens” prophecy. Christ teaches that all human governments stand on delicate foundations. Holy living is the best preparation for Christ’s return. Daniel 12:4: “But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.” The prophecies do seem to be opening up for us to see and understand. And of course, knowledge is doubling every year or so; as result, I’m getting rather excited, too. As you well know, the book of Daniel provides an overview of world events from the days of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon all the way to Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection and subsequent millennial reign. Daniel forms the framework for the book of Revelation and for the understanding of biblical prophecy. Daniel’s overview begins with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream vision in Daniel 2. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a huge multi-metallic man with a golden head, chest and arms of bronze, belly and thighs of brass, and feet and toes made out of iron mixed with clay. He then saw a mountain coming out of the sky which hit the man on the toes and feet. The mountain crushed the man into powder, and the mountain grew to fill the earth. Daniel explained to Nebuchadnezzar that the different metals represented different kingdoms. Babylon was gold; Media Persia was silver; Greece was bronze; and Rome was iron. The iron mixed with clay represented a future conglomeration of loosely federated governments united around one man whom Daniel identifies as the antichrist. The nations were in chronological order from top to bottom. We see here the devolution of human governments. The value of these kingdoms begins with gold and ends with iron. The specific gravity follows as well. Also, notice that the nations increase in power over time. Babylon was a terrible foe; however, its wickedness and power were nothing to match the wickedness, strength and power of the Roman Empire. I suppose that the lesson here is that all governments degenerate time. As explained in the book of Revelation, the 10 toes represent 10 nations, occupying the area of the old Roman Empire. These nations will come together in the last days in an attempt to destroy Israel and take over the world. The nations don’t get along very well just as iron doesn’t mix well with clay. Revelation describes these nations, along with several others, that will all be led in a loose coalition by the antichrist. The mountain which destroyed the multi-metallic man was a picture of the resurrected of Jesus Christ coming at his Second Coming to destroy the wickedness of the Gentile nations on earth. The mountain which grew to fill the earth is a picture of the millennial reign of Christ on earth. Daniel’s 70 “sevens’” prophecy encompasses the chronological framework for the history of the Jews from now until eternity. Again, the book of Revelation fits into this framework. It’s really impossible to understand what’s going on in Revelation without understanding the book of Daniel. Daniel’s generalized overview occurs in Daniel chapter 9. Daniel was reading the book of Jeremiah when he realized that the 70 years of Jewish Babylon captivity was coming to an end. Daniel wondered what would happen next! Along with asking God to tell him what came next Israel, he spent the next two or three minutes confessing the sins of Israel and pleading God’s forgiveness for those sins. Gabriel arrived and led him know that the minute Daniel started his prayer he, Gabriel, was dispatched from heaven to come to Daniel and give him the answer. (I wonder if it takes two or three minutes to go from heaven to earth?) Gabriel shared that God has another program for Israel when the 70 years were concluded. This plan is for 490 years. As you read the verses below you will see how the book of Revelation fits into this passage. Daniel 9:24 Gives Us An Overview. Daniel 9:25-27 Fills In The Details. Daniel 9:24 is the overview: Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.” Daniel 9:25 -27 gives the details: “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven. In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” Incidentally, this passage looks 560 years into the future to predict the very day when Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, April 6, 30 A.D. In Daniel 9:24 we learn three facts regarding God’s plan for Israel. First, God’s Program For Israel Extends For 70 “Sevens” (70X7=490 Sevens). “Seven” is the Hebrew word “Heptad.” This is a generic word which can mean seven of anything. Like our word, “Dozen” which can mean twelve of virtually anything: twelve bananas, or twelve pencils. The context helps us to know 12 what. One “heptad” can be seven days, or seven bananas or seven years. In this passage what we are talking about years. One “Seven” equals 7 years. (70 X 7 years = 490 years.) Second, This Program Applies To Israel. “Your people and your holy city.” Third, This Program Will Continue Until Christ Establishes His Messianic Kingdom. Gabriel shared six characteristics of the Messianic Kingdom of Christ’s l000-year reign on earth. *To finish transgression: refers to Israel’s national transgression of rejecting the Messiah. At the Second Coming, transgression will be ended because they will accept Him as Savior. *To put an end to sin: the national sin of Israel will end. *To atone for wickedness: refers to the reconciliation for all in the Cross of Christ. At the Second Coming Jew and Gentile alike will recognize and believe in the atoning work of Christ. *To bring in everlasting righteousness: Christ’s Kingdom is set up on earth for a millennium. *To seal up vision and prophecy: After 70th week all prophetic announcement and visions will be confirmed and fulfilled. *To anoint t he Most Holy: refers to the Millennial Temple which will function during that time. God reassured Daniel that He still has a plan for Israel. After 490 years Israel will be restored to their land and will prosper in a glorious future. The first sixty-nine “sevens” (483 years) (Daniel 9:25) began at the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. This decree is described in Nehemiah 1:1 and 2:5-8. Historically, the “20th year of Artaxerxes” was 444 B.C.. Using the Jewish calendar of 360 days per year and the fact that that prophecies began on first day of month, we know that this period began on March 4, 444 B.C. No question as to when the period began. The 69 “sevens” are broken down into two phases: One seven and sixty-two “sevens.”. Seven “sevens” tells of the time during which the temple was rebuilt. It took 49 years. Ezra and Nehemiah, both helped in the rebuilding, they spoke often of the troubled times occurring during the rebuilding.. The 69 “sevens” concludes when the Anointed One, the Ruler comes.” From 444 B.C. until the coming of Christ on Palm Sunday is 483 years or 69 “sevens.” 483 prophetic years (360 days adjusted to 365.25 days =5.25 days difference between the Jewish calendar and our present-day calendar. 483X5.25=2535.75 days error or about 6 years and 11 months. Subtract adjustment… and…483 Jewish years from March 4, 444 B.C. to Palm Sunday is April 6, 30 A.D. (See Robert Anderson’s book, “The Coming Prince”) This is one way that Anna and Simeon knew that it was about time for the Messiah to be born so that they could carry out their planned worship of Jesus as a baby. To a believer in Christ, Daniel’s 490 year prophecy is a tremendous confirmation of the Word of God! We live in a day in which the Word of God is under attack on every hand. Many mock it, and thousands ignore it; yet, here is a tremendous confirmation for all of us to see this prophecy fulfilled in absolute detail to the very day. Of course, Israel was blinded to it all. Several things occur between the end of the 69th seven at the beginning of the 70th (Daniel 9:26). First, “the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.” This is one of the clearest testimonies in the Bible of the death of Jesus Christ in prophecy. “Cut off” describes his death. Isaiah 53:8 describes Jesus as “cut off from the land of the living.” Jesus mentioned often that he must go to Jerusalem and die in Matthew 16:21. One of Holman Hunt’s most famous paintings of Jesus hangs in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, is called “The Shadow of Death.” Christ is pictured as a young man in Joseph’s workshop. The sun is setting. Christ stretches out his hands after a hard day’s work. At that moment, the artist catches Jesus’ image. The shadow on the wall shows a man with arms outstretched like He’s dying on a cross. Jesus Christ lived his entire life in the Shadow of the Cross. He came to die on that cross for the sins of Israel and for the sins of the entire world. Only in crucifixion does a person die with outstretched arms. After 69 “sevens” – 483 years, Jesus was “cut off”. Second, Jerusalem Is Destroyed. “The People of the Ruler who will come” refers to the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. More than three million Jews were killed. Masada occurred. When you are in Rome be sure to see the huge arch of Titus standing at the entrance to the Roman forum which commemorates Titus’ his victory over Israel. Seeing the coming Holocaust, Jesus wept for Jerusalem as described in Matthew 23. “The Ruler who is to come” is the Anti-Christ. He’s the little horn of Daniel 7:8 and the Beast of Revelation l3. Third, a time gap occurs after the end of the sixty-ninth “seven” and before the beginning of the seventieth “seven”. At the Triumphant Entry of Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, 30 A.D., God’s prophetic time clock stopped. The hands stand poised at 69, indicating that there is still one seven-year period left. We have no indication giving insight into how long until the 70th “seven” commences. After all, long gaps of forty years occurred between the crucifixion and the destruction. Today we are in the gap, waiting for the last seven years to commence. You can read more about the gap in Luke 4:18-21 and as Christ quoted from Isaiah 61:12 and Hosea 3:4-5. Fourth, The Seventieth “Seven” (Daniel 9:27) Begins When The Anti-Christ Makes A Peace Treaty With The Nation Of Israel For Seven Years. “He” is “The Ruler of People Who Will Come”. The Romans came in 70 A.D. The Anti-Christ will be descended from them. “Many” refers to the Jews and the nation of Israel. Samantha, Daniel sketches the outline of 70th seven; Jesus roughs in the picture with the Olivet Discourse; John fills in details with Book of Revelation. This is why we’re not baffled or surprised by what we see in Europe and the Middle East.. I believe that God is preparing to restart the clock. The teams are lined up and the ball is about to be snapped. Amazingly, Israel has never been assimilated into another nation. In 1948 Jews came home from all over the world. Sociologically, this has never happened with any people. When’s the last time you saw a Babylonian walking around? They’re all gone. But not the Jews. We’re told elsewhere that the Jews will accept the Peace Treaty with the Anti-Christ who rules Europe because they are fearful of the threat of the “King of the North.” When a Bible student sees Israel aligned with the West, and not the North or South or East, he or she is not surprised! This is simply a sign of the times. The teams are lining up. We may one day witness the Anti-Christ taking control of a ten nation confederacy in Europe by subduing three nations. Incidentally, the Jews mistake the Anti-Christ for their coming Messiah and the beginning of peace for the initiation of the Millennium. Notice that the Rapture does not restart God’s prophetic clock. Really, no one knows exactly when the rapture may occur. The Rapture could come at any moment. In the middle of the 70th “seven” (3 l/2 years, 42 months, l260 days) Satan falls from Heaven and indwells the antichrist (Revelation 12:912; 13:4). Then, the antichrist Breaks The Peace Treaty And Does Two Things: 1. He Forbids The Offering Of Sacrifices In The Temple (Daniel 9:27. This Indicates that Israel will have a Temple during this time. 2, He Sets Up The Abomination Of Desolation On The Altar In The Holy Place In The Temple. The Abomination of Desolation is mentioned by Christ in Matthew 24:15-16. The Abomination of Desolation as described in the Old Testament refers to anything which desecrates the Temple of God. Three and a half years of Great Tribulation now began as the Anti-Christ tries to wipe the Jews off of the face of the earth. The Abomination of Desolation is a talking, resurrected, image of the antichrist with which the antichrist forces folks to worship him as God or face death (Revelation13). Jesus said that this is a sign for the godly to flee. The antichrist will now launch the greatest wave of Anti-Semitism that the world has ever seen. As the time of great tribulation comes to an end, Jesus returns with the Armies of Heaven and defeats the antichrist (Revelation 19). The Messianic Kingdom begins and the six characteristics of Daniel 9:24 will occur. Baffled? Never, thanks to Daniel 9. Today, we see the rise of Israel as a state; its alignment with the West; its possession of Jerusalem; it’s plans to rebuild the Temple, soon to be deployed Iranian nuclear missiles; the beginnings of worldwide anti-Semitism; all of which are preparing the way for the Beast. Watch the rise of the European Union. We see it all as God preparing the scene for His program with Israel. We don’t look for 70th seven. We look for our deliverance (1 Thessalonians 1:10). We look for our blessed hope (Titus 2:13). Here is a good way to think about the Second Coming: “We plan as though Jesus weren’t coming for 1,000 years, but we live as if He were coming in the next 10 minutes.” Israel’s immediate future is desperate, but she will repent and turn to God, and apply the blood of Christ, and have a glorious future with Jesus Christ. By the way, the same future is available to all who apply the blood of Christ to themselves. Sermon Library #: S-1744

NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH Straight From The Heart: The Homing Instinct Mark Batterson A few months ago, I was speaking to a group of guys, about 500 men in the room and I asked the question, how many of you were intentionally discipled by your dad? Three hands went up. Houston, we have a problem. That is .06 percent. We have biological fathers who have never learned what it means to be a spiritual father and then we wonder why marriages and families are falling apart. But we have a bigger issue. We have men who have never learned what it means to be a man of God. And that is a strange way to begin a message on Mother’s Day! But I believe that one of the greatest gifts a woman can give to a man is to be a woman of God. And I believe that one of the greatest gifts a man can give to a woman is to be a man of God. This week, we begin a series called Straight From the Heart. I just feel like doing that. Here’s the deal. What we want to do over the next five weeks, and these will be very different messages is we want to somehow take something that is in here, in our hearts, and try our best to put it into words. If you said, Pastor Mark, what is the deepest desire of your heart, I have a very short and simple answer, I want to be famous in my home. Sure, I want to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and I want to love God heart, soul, mind and strength. I want to hear God say well done good and faithful servant. Those are biblical baselines. But what I really want is I want someday to be famous in my home. And I have a simple definition of success. It is when those who know you best respect you most. And that is my wife and my children. You need to know, I love pastoring. I love writing. Those are callings. They are not insignificant but they are not my highest calling. I have a higher calling and that is to be a husband to my wife and to be a father to my children. And I have perfected both of them! Ha! I don’t know that I’ve ever felt more like a hypocrite. I just put that out there. There is hardly a day that goes by that you don’t feel like a failure if you are married, right? And as a father, how many times have I messed up? Pray for my children! But I know the bull’s eye, I know what I’m aiming for. I want to be famous in my home. So I want to talk about it this Mother’s Day weekend. Let me say this, I realize that half of our congregation is single and I know that there are many people who are married who don’t have children. And I know that there are some people that are married who don’t have children that can’t have children and this is a difficult weekend. And then you’ve got everything in between. And while my comments might be directed towards men this weekend, they are for women. And even thought I might speak to marriage and parenting, I believe this is for everybody. If you are not a parent, I bet you were a child. So if you stick with me, I there will be a payoff at the end. Turn to the last book of the Old Testament, the last chapter and then the last verse of the last chapter of the last book. I’m making a point right here. This is the last word. This is significant. Malachi 4:6 and we’ll get there in just a moment. Prior to the First World War, a pair of English ornithologists named Matthews and Lockley were fascinating with the homing device in birds. They took a pair of birds called shearwaters from their nest on the island off the coast of Whales and they released them from various places around the world to see if they could navigate their way back home. One of those birds was carried by aircraft to Venice. It was released a tremendous distance from home and by the way, a place where shearwaters do not live. They tagged the bird and released the bird and somehow it found its way home from a place it had never been by a path it had never flown in 341 hours and 10 minutes. Impressive, right? But they didn’t stop there. They took a pair of shearwaters, closed them in a box on a train to London then put them on an airplane to Boston. One of the birds did not survive. The other bird was released from a pier near Boston Harbor. 12 days and 12 hours later, that bird, who had been tagged number AX6587, was back home in its nest. Ornithologists are still mystified by this homing instinct. They will put magnets on bird’s heads and the birds still find their way home. This is crazy stuff! What in the world? Are we not fearfully and wonderfully made? Not just humans but birds. It is the inherent ability of certain animals to navigate to a birthplace or a breeding place no matter where they are in the world. It is an instinct to go home. I think there is a homing instinct within us, deep within the soul to go home. In 1670, a French philosopher Blaze Paschal, called it the God-shaped hole. It is this homing instinct to know and be in relationship with our Creator. And I think it is this instinct that kicked in when the prodigal son had wandered far from home and had squandered his inheritance. He was actually in a pigpen. That is hitting rock bottom for a kosher Jew. This is the bottom of the barrel but there is a moment where he has a fleeting thought, a fleeting feeling, I’m not sure exactly what it is but I think there is this moment where he remembers home and remembers his father. And there is this homing instinct. But the question is, would my father take me back after I wished him dead and took the inheritance? Well, I’ve got some good news this weekend. If you hear nothing else, I hope you hear this. There is a heavenly Father with arms wide open watching and waiting for the moment for you to turn back to Him. He loves you more than you can imagine. So it says he comes to his senses and says I will set out and go back. It is this fatherly instinct that I have and if I feel it this deeply, imagine how much the heavenly Father feels toward you. Now in the same sense, I think we have a homing instinct for our heavenly Father and I think we have a homing instinct for our earthly father. I think we have a homing instinct for our family or origin even if it was an incredibly dysfunctional family of origin. I think there is something within the human heart that desires to be parented. We might say we don’t’ want to be and there might even be moments when we don’t enjoy discipline for example, but I think there is a deep longing to be loved and parented. And when things aren’t right with your family of origin, and I dare say that might be most of us, and every family is a little dysfunctional right? Because you are in it! But when things aren’t quite right, something feels wrong. And you can medicate it or ignore it or try to avoid it but you can’t really escape it. Robert Bly called it a father wound. Richard Rohr calls it father hunger. If you had a dad who wasn’t there or a dad who was abusive and you wish he wasn’t there, I think it creates this father shaped hole in your heart, a father void if you will, and the first thing I want to say is that I’m so sorry. I was blessed with a wonderful dad so sometimes I have a hard time fully understanding that/ But I know that can be an incredibly painful thing and right now some of you might have difficulty listening to this but I appreciate you trying to listen to this. I believe that there is a heavenly Father who wants to fill that void. But here’s what I’m getting at, my desire as an earthly father is to do my best to at least give my kids an occasional glimpse of how wonderful the heavenly Father is. I will fall short. I don’t do it every day but every once in a while, I want there to be moments when my kids get a glimpse of who God is because of their earthly father. And that brings us to the last book, the last chapter, the last verse of the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6. See, I will send before you the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. I don’t think it’s a half turn, I think it is a full turn. The word ‘turn’ literally means to restore, to repair, to reconcile. Here is the reality. There are some parents here who have a relationship with a child that needs to be restored. I don’t know who is at fault and I don’t know what happened but there needs to be a reconciliation. And there are some children who need to be restored to their parents, to their fathers. I think my prayer this weekend is that maybe this would be the beginning of a process. I don’t know how this strikes you and maybe you think, ok, why are we so focused on what seems to be a minor chord but I want to push back and suggest that even though this didn’t make Long Story Short, this is huge. It is a major chord. In fact, it is not just the last note in the Old Testament. What I want you to understand is that it is like God hits the sustain pedal on a piano and for four hundred years, this is the only note that plays. And then finally when you get to the New Testament, what is the first note? You could ask 100 theologians and I bet 99 of them wouldn’t even get this. Let me connect the dots. It says in Luke 1:17 He (referring to John the Baptist) will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. Are you picking up what I’m throwing down? This is the last note of the Old Testament and it is the first note of the New Testament and we’ve got three out of 500 dad discipling their kids. We need God to turn our hearts to our children and to turn the hearts of children to their parents. Now, the question is, why does he single out fathers? I don’t know all the reasons and I don’t want to overcomplicate this but I think part of it is that mothers are naturally more in tune and more in touch with their children. I think part of it is oxytocin. It is the hormone that is secreted when a woman goes into labor and gives birth. It is the hormone that is secreted when a woman breastfeeds her baby. It is a chemical bond that is created and I think it is a gift from God. I think part of it too, I know I’m on thin ice talking about stuff like this because I’m a man, but I know this, it is one thing to conceive a baby, it is another thing to birth a baby! Conceiving a baby, that is quite pleasurable and easy! Birthing a baby, quite painful and difficult. I think there is something about that pain that is experienced in childbirth that creates another bond between a mother and a child. I think what I’m getting at is I don’t think moms are the problem. Am I saying that is never the case? No. There are crack babies born, mothers who can’t seem to overcome an addiction for the sake of their kids. There are moms who are abusive but I think by and large it is fathers who tend to be more absentee and more abusive. I know that right about now it is feeling heavy this weekend on Mother’s Day. But I don’t think moms are the problem so I’m not sure they are the ultimate solution. I think God calls out and singles out dads to step up and step in and fulfill the highest calling that God has given to us. I think ath God wants to tune our hearts and turn our hearts to our children and when He does that, we will see the kingdom of God come in a way that we never have before. Well, can we have a little fun now? I came across a little piece a few years ago called The Differences Between Men and Woman. You may enjoy this. The average man has four items in his bathroom, a toothbrush, a razor, a bar of soap and a towel from the Holiday Inn. The average number of items in the typical woman’s bathroom is 437. The average man can identify 4 of those items! Man will pay $20 for a $10 item he wants. A woman will pay $10 for a $20 item she doesn’t want. A woman has the last word in any argument, anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument. Women love cats, men say they love cats but when women aren’t looking, men kick cats. What is the difference between women and terrorists? Terrorists negotiate. What is the difference between men and government bonds? Bonds mature. I’m an equal opportunity offender! This is my favorite. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dream. A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house. And if it weren’t true, it would be funny. Alright, here is the reality. God has created us male and female. We live in a culture where I think in some sense gender is perhaps more confused than previous generations and there are some swirling realities. I want to be careful how I talk about this because I know people who are confused about gender and I don’t think it is just something we flippantly talk about. This is a journey for people and we have to love people on that journey. I also believe that God created us male and female for a reason. It is not just a good idea, it was a God idea. So it is not some subject matter to be avoided. It is something to be celebrated. And the significant point is this, I think that men and women reflect the image of God in a unique and wonderful and different way. And it wouldn’t be complete with just one gender. And I think that is significant. Last week I talked about the fact that God is gooder than good. Poor English but good theology, hopefully. Six times, and God saw that it was good. Finally God says it was very good. The first time we come to something that is not good is Genesis 2:18. It is not good for man to be alone. That is another sermon for another weekend but God comes up with a solution to the problem. He makes a helper suitable for him. I think this is one of the most important and most misinterpreted verses in the Bible. So let me go back to the Hebrew and explain what suitable helper means. The word ‘suitable’ in Hebrew means corresponding to. I think the best way to think of it is a jigsaw puzzle. Remember how you have to get those pieces to fit together perfectly? Men and woman are meant to fit together like this. Not better or worse, not inferior and superior, just different. We are different. Would you agree? And I think that is by design. And sometimes that gets confused and we have to wade out way through those cultural definitions and get to a biblical understanding but the good news is, we are supposed to correspond to one another. And then the word ‘helper’ means helper, but here is where it is interesting. I think sometimes this gets interpreted, who is helping who here? Did you know that this word is used of God Himself? He is our ever-present help in times of need. So this isn’t about creating some kind of sliding scale of who is superior or inferior. This is about God saying it is not good for man to be alone. So God created male and female and then comes up with this idea for marriage. I’m going to talk about that in a moment. I want to be clear about this. I think you can be single and absolutely complete and fulfilled. In fact, Paul talks about some of the advantages of being single in I Corinthians 7. And then there are some advantages to being married. But I don’t think this is another one of those sliding scales. I think it is about understanding the season that we are in and celebrating it. So what I want to do this weekend is just issue a little bit of a challenge. It is for men but it is also for women. Number one, husbands love your wives. That is Ephesians 5:25. This is where some of you are thinking ‘go get ‘em pastor.’ Preach it! But this isn’t just for the men, I think this is for everybody. Would you agree that women are not held to a lower standard? Guys, you need to love your wives as Christ loves the church, but women you can get by with less than that. No. Or how about friends, lower standard? No, there is one standard of love and it was set by Jesus Himself. But again, husbands are singled out and called out. I believe that not only is this the greatest gift you can give to your wife, loving your wife as Christ loves the church, it is also the greatest gift you can give to your children. If you can model what it looks like to love someone sacrificially, for better for worse, in sickness and in health, you have modeled something that is more caught than taught. And it is a gift to your children. One of my all-time favorite authors is a guy named A.W. Tozer. Two of his books. Pursuit of God and Knowledge of the Holy are two of my all-time favorites. They so impacted me that I decided to read his biography and I was disappointed. I want to be careful right here because I think all of us make mistakes and we all have regrets and all of us are works in progress and I don’t think what I’m about to share invalidates who he was or what he accomplished for the kingdom. When he died, his wife remarried. And a few years into that second marriage, a friend asked her how she was doing. She said I’ve never been happier in my life and she explained why, and I don’t think she meant any disrespect to her first husband but it was an honest assessment. She said A.W. loved Jesus, Leonard loves me. I remember reading that and thinking to myself, wow, whew. I’m not sure you can do one without the other. Because to really love Christ is to love your spouse. A week ago, I released a book titled Play the Man. It’s a book I’ve wanted to write for eight years but waited for a variety of reasons. Don’t buy a copy, Lora and I are going to give you a copy on Father’s Day weekend. It is a rumor but I have a good source! Let me just say this, on Saturday, June 17th, 9:00-12:00 at the Miracle Theater, I want to spend three hours with guys. It is an open invitation. I want to take about the seven virtues of manhood and I want to talk about how to slay the three-headed dragon that I wrote about in the book. And then there will be a little bonus session. I want to talk about how to disciple your children. A discipleship covenant, a year of discipleship, rite of passage, some of the things that I did as a dad and some of the mistakes I made. I want to encourage you to be there for that three hour session. But let me say this. I outline seven virtues of manhood. There are hundreds virtues but no one could write a book that long. So I chose seven virtues because I like the number seven and by the way, I think these apply to women as well as men. The very first virtue of manhood is tough love. Let me give you a definition. Tough love is carrying a 300 pound cross 650 yards down the Via Dolorosa for some else’s sin. That is tough love. Tough love is loving someone when they least expect it and when they least deserve. A tough guy is not somebody who can blacken an eye or bloody a nose. A tough guy is someone who is willing to be nailed to a cross with seven inch spikes. That is tough love. That is tough as nails. And that is the example that Jesus sets. So when the Bible says husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church, that is a pretty high bar. Let me tell you the difference between lust and love. Lust is focused on what you want. Love is focused on what the other person needs. Foth defined it this way. Love is the accurate estimate and adequate supply of another person’s needs. If I had two minutes to do premarital counseling, here it is: don’t focus on getting your needs met, focus on meeting the needs of your spouse. If you are focused on getting your needs met, you will be perpetually disappointed no matter how amazing your spouse is. But if you focus on meeting the needs of your spouse, it flips the script and it changes the game. I have a theory and my theory is this, you are selfish. And so am I. And the cure of selfishness is something called marriage. Listen, I’m not saying you can’t be single and unselfish. I believe you can. Some of us just need more help because here’s the bottom line, you can be married and selfish at the same time but you can’t be selfish and happily married at the same time. See, marriage is about putting someone else before yourself. And there is something about that process and it is brilliant, isn’t it? God says, hey, here’s what I’m going to do to help you with your selfishness, why don’t you share a bed, share a sink and share a bank account with someone of the opposite sex. Brilliant, right? Now, it doesn’t always completely work and this is where my theory continues, so God gives us children. And sometimes it takes more than one child. The word ‘diaper’ spelled backwards is repaid. This is not a coincidence. God knows that some of you need more diapers to change! The goal of marriage is not happiness. The goal of marriage is holiness. And it is a process that God is working in your life. It is not easy but there is tremendous joy and I believe it is a high calling. Now, I believe we are called to love our wives as Christ loves the church. It is tough love. And then let me share this. I think the highest compliment you can give to a man is to call him a man of God and a close second is to call him a family man. Someone who has their priorities straight and who understands the importance of being a father to their children. So this week, Lora and I went over to Children’s Hospital to visit Chris and Katherine Douglas, our worship pastors here at NCC. They had twins, precious girls, and one of the girls, a couple of days after being born, needed an operation on her heart. As you can imagine scary, fragile, and what a precious little girl. We went into that hospital room and it was wonderful to just see this precious new little life but the thing that struck me as well is that Chris and Katherine are different than they were the last time I saw them. It is the craziest thing in the world. It is like a switch flips and all of a sudden, this instinct takes over and they are a mom and a dad and these babies have only been around days but they would die for those children. I think that is a gift from God. But I think what happens over time is that a heart can harden, a heart can wander, and parenting gets difficult and the next thing you know, your heart is turned in a different direction. So how do we turn our hearts back towards our children? I think it starts with prayer. You will never be a perfect parent but you can be a praying parent. And I believe that it is prayer that turns us into prophets and we begin to shape the destiny of our children. I prayed Luke 2:52 for my children thousands of times, may they grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with man. I want to emphasize this point but let me broaden it. Anybody have anybody in your life that you don’t like? This should be everybody. That person that you don’t like, you don’t love the way your heart feels toward them do you? You almost feel, what do I do? I’ll tell you exactly what to do. Pray for them. As you begin to pray for someone, your heart shifts, something changes. It is interesting, when we walked into the hospital room and met little Keelan for the first time, it didn’t feel like we were meeting for the first time because we have a little prayer circle in our home and her name is in the middle of it and we’ve been praying for her since before she was born because we knew some of the potential complications. So when I walked into that hospital room, I already had a deep love for this little girl because I have been praying for you. You pray for the people you don’t like and God will begin to change your heart and you will actually begin to love that person. The Queen Mary is one of the largest, most famous cruise ships. It is now anchored in Long Beach. It is 181 feet tall, 1,019 feet long and weighs 81,237 tons. Big ship. But do you know how it is turned? With a small rudder. Do you know what is on that small rudder? Any even smaller trim tab. A trim tab is that little apparatus that turns that entire huge ship. Prayer is the trim tab that turns our hearts. You tell me what you are praying for and I will tell you where your heart is. We’ve tried about every parenting methodology on the market and I think they have tremendous value. I would read all of those books again. But here’s the deal, we’ve dared to discipline, tried to raise modern day knights, tried to grow kids God’s way, but it hasn’t always resulted in a new kid by Friday. I put less stock in a methodology and I put more stock in the simple power of prayer because I believe at the end of the day, my prayers for my children will make the difference. I’m going to try to close with this. Our 20th president, James B Garfield only served 200 days before he was assassinated. He was the only ordained minister to serve as president and maybe the only president who didn’t run for president. If you are a Political Science major, you probably know this. 1880 Republican convention, it was in a deadlock after the 35th ballot. Garfield wasn’t even on that ballot. On the 36th ballot, he gets nominated and the next thing you know, he doesn’t want to but he wins the presidency and ends up in the White House. I’m not a political scientist but I have a theory. I think it traces back to a defining decision James Garfield made as a young man. Here is what he said, I mean to make myself a man and if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else. So he made himself a man and America made his president and the rest is history. Now, I don’t think that is a formula for you becoming the next president, per say. But if you want a formula for greatness, I think this is it. You focus on being a man of God, you focus on being a woman of God, and I think everything else is going to take care of itself. When I first moved to DC, it was before NCC even existed, a guy named Dick Foth invited me to lunch in the Senate dining room with Dr. Richard Halverson. I was so out of my league but I will never forget that lunch. One, the bean soup is awesome in the Senate dining room! Two, I was about five feet from Mohammed Ali. He wasn’t at our table but he was at the table right behind me. Pretty awesome! But I have such profound respect for Dr. Halverson. In fact, one of the benedictions that we pronounce at the end of our services, when you leave this place, you don’t leave the presence of God, you take the presence of God with you wherever you go, is a paraphrase of a benediction that he pronounced at Fourth Pres in Bethesda for decades. That is where it comes from. A tip of the cap to Dr. Halverson. Dr. Halverson told a story, it is one of my favorites and I will end with this. It is called the old man you will meet someday. And I think it goes for old women too. He said you will meet an old man someday down the road, 10, 20, 30 years. He is waiting there for you. You will be catching up with him. What kind of old man are you going to meet? That is a rather significant question. He may be a seasoned, soft gracious fellow, a gentleman who has grown old gracefully. He may be bitter, disillusioned, dried up, cynical old buzzard without a good word for anybody. Dr. Halverson said the kind of old man you meet depends entirely on you. Because the old man will be you. He will be the composite of everything you do and say and think today and tomorrow. His heart will be turning out what you’ve been putting in. Every little thought, every deed goes into the making of this old man. He will be exactly what you make him, nothing more, nothing less. It is up to you. You will have no one else to credit or blame. Every day in every way you are becoming more and more like yourself. Live only in terms of what you are getting out of life and the old man gets smaller and drier and harder and crabbier and more self-centered. Open your life to others, think in terms of what you can give to life and the old man grows larger and softer and kinder and greater. A point to remember is that these things don’t always show immediately but they will show sooner than you think. These little things so unimportant now, attitudes and goals and ambitions and desires, they are adding up inside where you can’t see them crystalizing in your heart. It ends by saying character crystalizes. Do you know who I would like to meet someday? An old man who made a lot of mistakes, failed more times than you can count as a husband and father, but understood what he was aiming at. That success is that those who know you best respect you most. Someday I would love to meet a man of God, the old man who is a man of God. I think that is my prayer for us. Let’s pray. Father, thank You. Help us to not just be hearers of your Word but doers of it. God thank You that is in never too late to be who we might have been. Your plans and purposes still prevail. God I pray right now for those who have been a part of a marriage that has failed, that have a family that has issues that seem so irresolvable, God for those who maybe have a longing in their heart to be a parent but that gift has not been given, God there are a lot of people in a lot of tough places and I pray right now that your grace would meet us in those places. Thank You Lord that You are a God who doesn’t look back. In fact, You forgive and forget. You are a God who looks forward, who has plans and purposes, that with arms wide open is ready to embrace us and love us. God I pray for those right now who that homing instinct is so strong in their spirit, they aren’t even sure why they came this weekend and they might not even agree with half of what I said, but there is a deep longing in their heart to know You. God I pray that You would meet them right here, right now I this moment, in Jesus’ name, Amen. Transcribed by: Ministry Transcription At the end of the day, I want to be famous in my home. Success is when those who know you best respect you most. It starts with the last verse in the last chapter in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6 . God wants to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. Preached at National Community Church

IS A PUNCH IN THE FACE GOOD OR BAD? WHY? Why does a good God permit evil in the world that he created? I’d like to suggest that what we sometimes think of as moral evil is, in fact, not moral evil, but falls under a different definition of functional evil. To begin, let’s look at the Bible’s classic passage about evil and suffering in the book of Job. Then we will define four categories of good and evil: Moral Evil, Functional Evil, Moral Good, and Functional Good. READ JOB 1:1-2:10 The story of Job demonstrates that there are four categories of good and evil.  Moral Evil is behavior, thoughts, and feelings that violate God’s law, will, and character. These are behaviors that we always consider to be wrong and can never be right such as the Ten Commandments.  For instance, lying is a moral evil and is never considered a moral good. Adultery is always a moral evil and there is no context in which it can ever be good. The same is true with idol worship, theft, homosexuality, murder, coveting, etc.  In the case of Job, Satan committed a moral evil by trying to destroy him. Job’s wife committed a moral evil by tempting him to curse God. Moral evil is always committed in relationships. Functional Evil is that which occurs in nature or an act of God that can cause harm, death, destruction, trouble, etc. An example of functional evil would be an earthquake that results in material destruction in a city and/or death. Functional evil is not a moral concern. Functional evil is not an attribute of personal behavior. Therefore, functional evil is not considered wrong in a moral sense. God sometimes uses functional evil, but this does not make God morally evil. For instance, God says in Deuteronomy 28:15, “If you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” God pronounced curses, on the natural world and with disease, for disobedience.In addition, God says in Isaiah 45:7, “I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord, who does these things.” Therefore, moral evil and functional evil do not operate in the same sphere.  In Job’s case the natural disasters that befell his animals and children was a functional evil, as was his disease. Remember Job’s words to his wife. “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Job was not referring to moral evil because God cannot commit moral evil. He was referring to functional evil. Functional Good is that in nature or within man’s world that behaves according to its intended design and is considered to be beneficial to nature and/or man and is pleasing in some respect. We get the concept of functional good from Genesis, where God completes each creative act and calls the finished result, “Good” (Genesis 1:10,12,18,21,25,31), meaning that it functions according to his intended design, but is not described in terms of moral good. A sunny day is not a moral good, but is a functional good.  In Job’s case, all of his blessings of wealth and family were functionally good.  Moral Good is that which in the realm of personal behavior is considered to be true, right, selfless, loving, kind, faithful, loyal, such as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  Biblically speaking, these are character traits that reflect the character of God. We are designed to be like God in our character. This is what it means to be made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28; Leviticus 11:44). Moral good is sometimes facilitated by functional good. For instance, a beautiful day outside would be considered a functional good. A father who takes his children to play outside in that beauty is a moral good.  In Job’s case, the sacrifices he made for his children were a moral good. Job ascribing righteousness to God in his troubles was a moral good. Moral good is always committed in relationships. HAVE YOU EVER HAD BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO YOU THAT WORKED OUT FOR THE GOOD? Functional evil can sometimes lead to moral good. Observe: the world is subject to death (functional evil). The death of one thing sustains the life of another through eating (functional good). Life continues and is able to multiply (moral good). Human death follows a similar track.  Man sins (moral evil).  Man is punished with death for sin (functional evil).  Man repents (moral good).  Man dies and goes to heaven (functional good).  Man remains in God’s presence and enjoys him forever (moral good). We sometimes perceive of a functional evil as a moral evil because we don’t perceive God as intervening to prevent its consequences. But God is not obligated by us or by anything outside of himself to eliminate or stop the consequences of functional evil. We do not have the eternal perspective that God has. He sees the end result, which may be the working out of a moral good originating through a functional evil. As for moral evil, moral evil sometimes requires that God act through a functional evil with the end result being a functional good that leads to a moral good. Judah and Israel’s exile is one such example in II Kings 17.  Judah violated the Mosaic Covenant (moral evil).  God punished through exile (functional evil).  In exile God instructs Judah to endure it and prosper (functional good).  This leads Judah to recommit itself to the Mosaic Law and the worship of only one God (moral good). King Manasseh of Judah is a prime example (II Chronicles 33:1-20).  He commits more moral evil than any king in their history (moral evil).  God sends him into exile and prison in Babylon (functional evil).  In exile, Manasseh repents of his sin (moral good) and  God returns him to his kingdom (functional good).  After restoration Manasseh tries to undo all the evil he did earlier (moral good). Functional evil leading to moral good happened in Job’s life. Job’s life is ruined (functional evil) Job justifies himself before God (moral evil) Job repents of his attitude (moral good) God restores Job’s wealth and family (functional good) Have you heard this famous quote from Epicurus?“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” HOW WOULD YOU ANSWER THIS CHALLENGE? WHY DOES A MORALLY GOOD GOD PERMIT MORAL EVIL TO EXIST? The problem of evil is one that theologians have struggled to answer for many centuries.  Why does God wait so long to defeat evil? I believe that God has already done something about evil. In fact, God has done at least six things about evil. 1.) He put the care of the earth and our fellow man under our control.InGenesis 1:28 God said to the first man, Adam, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” In this passage, we learn that God essentially put man in control of the world around him. More importantly, he made man “in his image” (Genesis 1:26). This means that we are to be like God in the things that we think, feel, and do. Man has been made responsible for the world around him and his relationship with other people. Therefore, God is not the one responsible for evil; rather, we are responsible for our evil, and he has charged to us to do something about it. Job was ruling over his animals and family (functional good). 2.) God gave everyone a conscience so that we can choose good or evil. Everyone has a conscience. Some people’s conscience works better than others, but we all have one. We have a basic sense of right and wrong that we are born with, as well as what we learn as we mature into adulthood. Having a conscience means that we are responsible for what we know. InJames 4:17 we read, “To one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” It is not for God to act and remedy evil; it is our task. We must act according to our conscience. When we commit evil (and we all commit evil), our conscience at some level tells us that what we have done, or what we are about to do, is wrong. We are, therefore, capable of recognizing our own evil and stopping it. Job’s conscience pricked him about his children, so he sought their well-being with God by acting in a priestly manner (moral good). 3.) God gave a law and a means through that law for man to judge evil. Remember the Ten Commandments. “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol…You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…Honor your father and mother…You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.You shall not steal.You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:1-17).  Sometimes the conscience is not enough. Especially for those who have trained their conscience to disregard morality. We live in a post-modern culture that does not regard concepts of good and evil as absolutes. It makes us think that good and evil are abstract ideas that have no basis in reality on their own. But this idea is flawed because we not only have a conscience, but we also have law, which is based upon God’s ideas of right and wrong. The Mosaic Law was given so that man could have a baseline outside of himself to govern himself. The Law does not come from man, but it comes from God, demonstrating that good and evil are not simply abstract ideas. They exist apart from man. Job recognized the existence of moral evil and the need for law when he speculated that his children might have cursed God in their hearts. 4.) God gave authorities on earth to carry out the punishment and banishment of evil. Look what the Apostle Paul had to say about what God has provided to keep evil in check.  “There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience” (Romans 13:1-5). We’ve all seen crimes committed of one severity or another. It is a simple truth that if a person desiring to commit a crime thinks that he will get away with it that he may commit himself to committing the crime. But if there is a chance of getting confronted or caught or punished, there is a likely chance he will not commit that crime unless his conscience is so far gone that he is willing to do it anyway.  Man needs authority figures to keep evil in check. If moral evil is not dealt with swiftly and effectively, more evil is the only result. The scripture also tells us this in Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.” God has therefore provided authority figures for the purpose of punishing evil and keeping it at bay. Job was the authority figure for his family. God said Job, “turns away from evil” (1:8).5.) God established teachers to instruct on the differences between good and evil. There are three segments of society that are charged with helping us develop our conscience and learning the difference between right and wrong: the family home, schools, and the church. In ages past, these were the primary institutions that helped people learn the difference between right and wrong. Sadly, in America, this has changed. Families are breaking apart, and parents don’t always instruct their children about these things in an intentional way. Public school systems have rejected the teaching of absolutes as the culture has changed. And many churches have turned liberal and no longer regard the centuries-old concepts from the Bible as worth teaching. Without these three areas of society teaching and training young people about absolutes, the evils of society will only increase. This is not God’s fault. This is our fault. When Job would offer sacrifices for his children, he did so in front of them, consecrating them (1:5). He instructed his family on what to do (moral good).Knowing that we are evil by nature, God decided to act anyway. What did he do? 6.) God sent Jesus Christ to take the punishment for our moral evil. If it were not for Christ, we would have no hope of defeating our own evil. By nature, we are morally evil.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  Also, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” (Romans 7:18-19). Since we are helpless in our condition, we need a solution. God provided that solution through Jesus Christ, who took the legal punishment for our sin on our behalf. “While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). The real issue is not why God has not done something about evil. He has, multiple times. God has assigned that doing something about evil is our responsibility, and he has given us the tools to identify evil, restrain evil, punish evil, and eradicate evil if we will use them. And through Christ, he also took action on our behalf so that we would have the power to choose not to sin, rejecting evil. Application Now that we understand these things, how do we apply them to our lives in a practical way? First, understanding the difference between these functional and moral categories helps us discern what God is doing in our lives. When we experience functional evil like Job did, we can know that God is not being morally evil to us. Something deeper may be going on. We don’t have to blame God as if he is an evil force. He is not. He has the long view. Second, it can strengthen our resolve through trial. Remember what Job said, “Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Job was not referring to moral evil; he was referring to functional evil. Job understood the difference between functional and moral evil. Because he understood this difference he was able to keep faith with God though his trial was great.  Third, we can discern God’s actions on the world stage. For instance, an Arab missionary friend of mine in the Middle East once told me, “If I ever meet someone from ISIS, I will give him a big hug and thank him. I will say to him, ‘ Do you know how easy you have made my job?’” He said this because while ISIS was killing many Christians and those Christians were fleeing war, they were also causing millions of Muslims to reevaluate their faith in Islam with the result that more Muslims were coming to Christ than ever before. Sometimes, the great evil we see around us brings about a good result in the long term. Remember Joseph. His brothers committed a great moral evil by selling him into slavery. But God used it to bring about a great moral good, the saving of many lives. The end result of all of this can be summed up in a single statement. God is not responsible for our evil, we are. So that question is, what will we do about it? www.guywithabible.com.